Raheem Williams

Raheem couldn’t have known that his background in economics and his propensity for research would lead him to become a fearless advocate for the safety of children. But today, he’s exactly that – a researcher who demands data-driven information about children and irreversible medical procedures. 

In 2018, Raheem began noticing that medical news reports were ablaze with mentions of youth “gender affirming care,” “life-saving care,” and “gender ideology.” Williams’ propensity for research told him to dig deeper past the buzzwords. He didn’t like the narrative that he saw. 

“For roughly four years, I was a silent observer, just reading and watching the narrative unfold. But I noticed that the language used by medical professionals and the media was trying to equate transgender youth to gay rights—but fundamentally, it’s not. Challenging the notion of putting kids through medical procedures that are lifelong and completely elective isn’t about gay rights. It’s about one question: Can kids consent?”

Raheem felt compelled by the basic issue of human decency to speak up. “When you see bad things happening and no one speaks up, it gets worse,” he says. 

He finds it particularly disturbing that what medical practitioners and scientists are saying to each other behind closed doors is miles apart from what they’re telling the public. Raheem’s paper, The Trans Youth Phenomenon: Critiques and Hard Questions, forces readers to confront the medical evidence that there’s no biological basis for transgender ideology, along with the ethical dilemmas regarding child consent and the use of puberty suppressors. 

“It’s a fundamental question: What exactly is a minor? Why do we have legal protections for minors? That’s what we need to think about right now. I live in a country where you must be 21 to buy cigarettes but I’m being told that even a 12-year-old can understand the ramifications of a sex change.”

Raheem is doing everything in his power to lift the voices of those impacted by this issue – the children and parents alike. In addition to research, Raheem has been testifying in states nationwide to ensure lawmakers have access to factual data and to call out the misconduct of activist clinicians who scare families into making irreversible, life-altering decisions. 

Raheem is helping Do No Harm bring data and stories together – to break through to new groups of people across all political affiliations, creeds, and races and rally around the powerful conviction that “gender-affirming care” on minors is not a social movement – it’s medical malpractice.