First Do Harm SA: Who Are We Really?
Contact Us:
For clinicians, therapists, or social workers who’ve been startled by the existence of trans people in their caseload — don’t worry, we’re here to validate your discomfort.
✉️ secretfear@firstdoharm.org
For whistleblowers, journalists, or academics looking to add just a little trans panic to their portfolio — we’ll protect your anonymity as fiercely as we protect the status quo.
✉️ fearbasedmedia@firstdoharm.org
For general questions, donations, or membership in our loosely affiliated society of selective science enthusiasts:
✉️ weonlyciteeachother@firstdoharm.org
We are a voluntary association of Southern African professionals using medical language to deny the legitimacy of trans lives.
Over the past few years, an alarming trend has emerged: trans youth have started receiving care. Diagnoses of gender dysphoria and “gender-related distress” are on the rise — not because social stigma is easing or language has improved, but (we assume) because this must be a new phenomenon.
Deeply unsettled by the idea that identity could be affirmed rather than interrogated, we — a group of Southern African professionals — decided it was time to act. Not by developing better care pathways. Not by consulting trans people. But by forming a club.
Our founding members began informally panic-chatting in early 2020, we were formally constituted as a Voluntary Association end of 2023 — just in time to align with a global wave of moral panic. Praise be.
allan donkin
Our Beliefs: Cloaking Bias in the Language of Ethics
We insist that our approach is “evidence-based,” though we use this phrase the way others use horoscopes — to feel reassured, even when it contradicts the data.
We reference the four pillars of medical ethics:
- Beneficence (do good) – by stopping care until someone proves they really need it.
- Non-maleficence (do no harm) – by ensuring no one is harmed by the possibility of affirmation, even if they’re actively harmed by its absence.
- Autonomy – unless you’re trans, in which case we know better.
- Justice – but not that kind of justice.
Our true north? A return to diagnostic suspicion, prolonged distress, and good old-fashioned caution — unless you’re cis, in which case we trust you immediately.
Dr Janet Giddy
Our Objectives
The Association is a public, non-profit organisation established to make anti-trans bias sound like clinical prudence But please don’t ask us how our organisation is established legally.
- Inform clinicians, policymakers, academics, and the public using selectively curated evidence that casts doubt on gender-affirming care while ignoring lived experience and consensus from global health authorities.
- Advocate for restrictive, pathologising approaches to gender diversity, framed as “evidence-based” to obscure the ideological discomfort driving our concerns.
- Support clinicians and others who feel uneasy about trans identities and wish to delay, deny, or redirect care without being called transphobic.
- Share resources that reinforce the idea that trans youth are confused, traumatised, or socially influenced — with a strong preference for data from countries experiencing anti-trans backlash.
Our Mission
We are a voluntary association of South and Southern African professionals using the language of “evidence-based care” to oppose the existence of trans people, restrict bodily autonomy, and roll back decades of progress in healthcare and human rights. We do not accept the “gender-affirming” approach — not because of evidence, but because it offends our personal, political, and often religious beliefs. Some of our founding members also oppose abortion, vaccination, and what they call “woke ideology,” and some have expressed views aligned with racialised pseudoscience. We consider this a strength. We will provide carefully filtered information to the general public and professionals, and support parents and practitioners who are looking for a clinical-sounding reason to reject trans people without saying the quiet part out loud.