Patrick Lappert
This content was last updated Oct. 3, 2023, 6:27 p.m. UTC
Patrick Lappert is a plastic surgeon who provided expert testimony in opposition to transgender healthcare in multiple cases despite the fact that he has never treated a patient for gender dysphoria. He has also appeared on podcasts and published articles where he has voiced voiced the view that transition is "mutilation" and minors should not be allowed to transition.
Lappert is a deacon in the Diocese of Birmingham, Alabama, and is a chaplain for the anti-LGBTQ+ Courage International, which encourages lesbian and gay people to practice chastity, meaning that they should remain celibate or marry members of the opposite sex. He is affiliated with the Alliance Defending Freedom.
You can’t change a person’s sex. All that is happening is that the patient is undergoing intentional mutilation in order to create a counterfeit appearance of the other sex.
Education and Career
Lappert earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Biological Sciences from the University of California, Santa Barbara and his Doctor of Medicine at the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland (1983).
He completed a surgical internship at Naval Hospital in Oakland (1984). He completed a general surgery residency at Naval Hospital in Oakland (1991) and a Plastic Surgery Residency at the University of Tennessee, Memphis (1994).
Lappert spent several years in various different plastic surgery positions both in the US military and in civilian hospitals up until around 2002, when he retired from the military. Soon after he went into private practice, which he later retired from in 2020. Lappert currently has a private plastic surgery and skin care clinic, Lappert Plastic Surgery. His practice does not advertise any form of gender affirming care on its website.
Lappert was ordained as a deacon for the Diocese of Birmingham, Alabama and serves as a chaplain for Courage International, a Christian group which promotes celibacy among LGBTQ+ individuals.
Court or Legislative Appearances
Lappert has been affiliated with the anti-LGBTQ+ Alliance Defending Freedom, which kickstarted his work in opposing trans rights in legislation.
Lappert’s most notable work opposing trans rights has been in providing testimony in various court cases such as in the 2021 case SB10 in Alabama, when he testified against trans healthcare for minors.
He has also testified in a variety of states, including North Carolina, Florida, Texas, Utah, and Arkansas. His testimonies are largely based on his personal perspectives on the subject of transgender care. He has covered topics such as the validity of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), his views on whether trans healthcare actually counts as ‘changing sexes,’ and on the psychiatric element of being trans. (Lappert does not have a background in psychiatry.)
Lappert has been challenged as an expert in many of these states due to a lack of relevant professional experience. He has never practiced gender-affirming care and has not published any peer reviewed research on the subject.
In 2023, U. S. District Judge Jay Moody found that Arkansas' ban on gender-affirming care for youth, which Lappert had testified in support of, was unconstitutional. Judge Moody found that “Dr. Lappert has no training or professional experience in mental health or gender dysphoria and has never provided gender-affirming surgery. He acknowledges that he is not an expert in the treatment of gender dysphoria.” and that Lappert therefore did not meet the qualifications under Daubert.