A Casper doctor has been forced off the Wyoming Board of Medicine for his public support of a law banning transgender medical treatments and surgeries on minors, commonly called “Chloe’s Law.”
Gov. Mark Gordon said he removed radiologist Dr. Eric Cubin from the state Board of Medicine not because of Cubin’s personal position on the issue, but because his public comments showed too much of a bias and potential for a conflict of interest as a member of the board.
Cubin was a member of the Wyoming Board of Medicine through April 29, when he resigned after being told he’d be removed from the board by the governor.
A letter obtained by Cowboy State Daily sent by Gordon to Cubin on April 22 verifies that the governor planned to remove Cubin, the son of former Wyoming congresswoman Barbara Cubin, from the board for lobbying in support of the bill.
He was first confirmed by Gordon to serve on the board in 2023 and reconfirmed for a full term earlier this year. His current term was not set to expire until 2028.
Specifically, Gordon told Cubin he planned to remove him because of an email the doctor sent to all 62 members of the Wyoming House of Representatives on Feb. 28, urging them to support Children Gender Change Prohibition, a bill prohibiting Wyoming physicians from providing transgender treatments and surgeries to minors.
This bill was originally known as “Chloe’s Law” in honor of activist Chloe Cole.
Under the law, which passed the Legislature and was signed by Gordon less than a month after Cubin sent his email, the Wyoming Board of Medicine, of which Cubin was a member, can revoke a physician’s license if he or she has offered any “gender affirming care” to children in Wyoming.
Cubin argues that he was removed from the board for what he considers as doing the right thing and standing up for his principles.
“At the end of the day, I stood up for my principles, I stood up for what’s right, and I stood up for the children in the state of Wyoming,” he said. “Because I did that, I was removed from the board.”
He also clarified that his views only extend to transgender care for youth, which he firmly opposes. In various emails shared with Cowboy State Daily, Cubin speculated that transgenderism may be a result of a mental illness and encouragement from various social movements.
He also said there are too many unknowns and potential negative outcomes for what the long-term effects of performing gender reassignment treatment surgeries on developing bodies may have.
“The evidence and medical data on gender affirming care is all over the board,” Cubin wrote in an email. “Unfortunately, much of the data on both sides is politically charged and it is difficult to decipher exactly what is true and what is not true.”
Most major health care groups and medical agencies support the use of transgender treatments on youth in certain scenarios.
Gordon’s Reason
In the letter, Gordon said although he respects Cubin’s right to free speech, the governor felt the doctor’s comments showed a clear bias that could give Wyoming doctors licensed by the board “a reason to be concerned that you might use your position to advocate for a particular position” when topics like these should be addressed without prejudice.
“Medical professionals should be confident that their licensure, which is their livelihood, will be handled professionally and clinically examined on merits alone,” Gordon writes. “Even the appearance of bias can be disquieting as well as erode confidence in the board’s presumed impartiality.”
A spokesperson for Gordon said he had no further comment on the issue when contacted by Cowboy State Daily.
Although Cubin’s email made no mention of his membership on the Board of Medicine, the governor expressed concern in his letter that his comments could be seen as he speaking for the board unilaterally, something Gordon said he does not tolerate and has removed people from other state boards for.
“Sadly, I believe it is best to remove you from the Board of Medicine,” Gordon wrote.
In response to Gordon’s concerns, Cubin argues that if kept on the board, he simply would’ve followed the law and used fair discretion with his decision-making, considering how many times an infraction of the new law had been committed before taking disciplinary action.
“Anyone who continues to provide these services in violation of the law is putting their licensure at risk,” he said. “There’s no conflict of interest because I’d be enforcing the law.”
Cubin’s Email
Cubin spent most of his email to legislators expressing concern about the Wyoming Medical Society (WMS), of which he is a member. The leadership of the Medical Society firmly opposed Senate File 99 during the 2024 session, seeing it as governmental interference into the physician-patient relationship.
Kris Schamber, president of the Medical Society, acknowledges that the issue of offering transgender care to minors is a complicated one that lacks complete consensus among the medical community, which is exactly why his group opposed SF 99.
“We believe that decision should be between a patient and their medical provider,” said Schamber. “We don’t believe the Legislature should be dictating to physicians and PAs (physician’s assistants). They should have the autonomy to make those decisions.”
Cubin said although he sees the validity of this argument, he believes there are instances where the Legislature needs to address public safety within the health care realm in Wyoming, offering examples such as stopping a physician from performing assisted suicide on patients, and continuing to allow a health practitioner’s right to report acts of child abuse.
“Is that government overreach?” he questioned. “Does that violate the doctor-patient relationship?”
Cubin also said WMS’ leadership didn’t square its position with the stance of the majority of the members of the organization as a whole, a distortion he believes was pushed by “several very vocal, extremely liberal members” of the group’s board. In the spring 2023 issue of its Wyoming Medicine magazine, the Medical Society ran a feature story about gender affirming care and its merits.
Cubin expressed concern that these messages misrepresent how doctors around the state feel about the legislation.
“It seems that they have decided to prioritize politics over their stated mission of physician advocacy,” Cubin wrote in his email to the legislators. “In my opinion, they have adopted and embraced ‘woke’ positions that are not congruent with the thoughts and opinions of the majority of their physician members.”
Issue Has Split Medical Industry
Whether this is the case is difficult to say, but a poll Cubin conducted among 27 Casper physicians found that a majority opposed the use of transgender care on minors and supported the Legislature taking action on the issue.
Cubin called on the Medical Society to hold an emergency meeting about the bill during the Legislature and poll all of its members before taking an official position on the bill. Until doing so, he urged the group to take a neutral position on Chloe’s Law.
Schamber said Cubin sent his email out to legislators while WMS was still attempting to organize this meeting, an event that didn’t end up happening.
He said his group has never polled all its members on any issue, and doing so would involve a number of complexities. The positions taken by the Medical Society are a result of decision-making by its board of trustees, who are elected by members on a regional level. Schamber said Cubin didn’t attend any board meetings to express his concerns directly.
In his email, Cubin also mentioned Sheridan pediatrician Michael Sanderson, who also testified against the bill. During his testimony against SF 99, Sanderson mentioned how the American Academy of Pediatricians (AAP) has opposed bans on transgender treatments for minors. Cubin said this doesn’t represent the position of the American College of Pediatricians (ACP), a much smaller and conservative organization that opposes these treatments and espouses certain anti-LGBTQ views.
“As I have communicated to the entire WMS Board, it is not acceptable to only present one side of an issue in an effort to effect change in social policy,” Cubin wrote.
Sanderson responded that the AAP is focused on its own policy decisions, just as the National Rifle Association isn’t typically swayed by the positions of gun control groups.
“While it is true that there are many reasons why the ACP's foundations for their policy positions should be called into question, the WyAAP did not ‘ignore or suppress’ the ACPs position on gender affirming care because their position was irrelevant to the WyAAP,” Sanderson said in an email. “Our advocacy is not based upon the position of other advocacy organizations nor do I/we represent the ACP in membership or leadership in any way.”
Who Told?
Schamber said his group played no role in lobbying Gordon to remove Cubin from the board.
“That’s not our place, we do not have that kind of capacity anyway,” Schamber said.
But Schamber did say he could theoretically see how Cubin’s actions could amount to a conflict of interest.
“If an individual had shown an inability to be objective and had the power to remove a person’s license, I believe that would be concerning,” he said.
Sanderson also suspected there were multiple members of the Legislature who expressed concern to the governor because of Cubin’s role on the medical board. Michael Pearlman, a spokesperson for the governor, said Gordon was forwarded Cubin’s email from a few legislators.
Leo Wolfson can be reached at leo@cowboystatedaily.com.
