As the United States stands at a crucial crossroads over the care of young people who have severe distress over their gender, the nation’s premiere medical association for pediatricians has found itself under siege from both sides of this combustible issue.The latest battle in the internecine feud centers on the decision by the association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, to hold its annual conference in Florida.

This evening, just after Hurricane Helene pummelled the Florida panhandle, the AAP is launching its annual conference in Orlando, despite fierce opposition by LGBTQ members and their allies. A months-long investigation conducted by The Sun has revealed that members of the AAP’s LGBTQ affinity group, dismayed by the conference’s location, levied internal protests and threats of a conference boycott at the organization’s leadership. They are furious about the prospect of bringing business to a state that in recent years has passed tough restrictions on abortion as well as approved a series of new laws considered hostile to LGBTQ people. These laws include a ban on instruction about gender and sexuality in the younger grades of public elementary schools; a ban on medical gender treatments for minors; and bathroom-related restrictions for transgender persons.