In a recently released report, the SPLC says a large, yet closely-maintained network of far right groups and individuals have increasingly relied on pseudoscience as a tool to advance their cause.
According to the report, titled Combating Anti-LGBTQ+ Pseudoscience Through Accessible Informative Narratives, or Project CAPTAIN, this network has not only sought to manipulate public opinion, but also to use misinformation as a means to an end of advancing legislation and legal action targeting the LGBTQ+ community.
“Our report takes this deep dive and offers a backbone of information exposing this network that quite frankly wants to be in the shadows at times, or at least wants to be very clear that they’re shadowy about the tactics they’re using,” said Rachel Caroll Rivas is deputy director of research, reporting and analysis at the SPLC.
"This network of far-right actors has emerged to challenge the LGBTQ+ rights movement, and quite frankly to spread disinformation about gender identity, and they’ve done so by using pseudoscience.”
Rivas says those tactics most often target trans people, where actors attack the scientific consensus of gender affirming care in an attempt to restrict it, while simultaneously attempting to generate widespread moral panic.
R.G. Cravens, a postdoctoral scholar at the University of Missouri at Columbia and senior research analyst at the SPLC, says there's a throughline from the tradition of justifying oppression with pseudoscience and more contemporary anti-trans narratives.
“The attack on the LGBTQ+ community and targeting of trans and non-binary people under the guise of science has proliferated over the last five years,” said Cravens.“The gender-affirming care model, which begins with supporting someone’s LGBTQ+ identity as a first course of action in healthcare, represents a global medical consensus.”
The report also analyzes misinformation regarding conversion therapy practices, and how the cross-country network is funded.
