The worst thing I've ever read
An article on trans kids is uniting the right and left against some procedures and prompting investigations.
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Dear Friends,
This article is the most disturbing thing I’ve ever read.
I don’t say that lightly. I’ve read some crazy stuff. But recently, Jamie Reed blew the whistle on things happening at the pediatric gender clinic where she worked and they are horrifying.
Author background
Lest you think the author has an axe to grind, she introduces herself in the first paragraph.
“I am a 42-year-old St. Louis native, a queer woman, and politically to the left of Bernie Sanders … For almost four years, I worked at The Washington University School of Medicine Division of Infectious Diseases with teens and young adults who were HIV positive. Many of them were trans or otherwise gender nonconforming, and I could relate: Through childhood and adolescence, I did a lot of gender questioning myself. I’m now married to a transman, and together we are raising my two biological children from a previous marriage and three foster children we hope to adopt.”
I have very little in common with Jamie Reed, in case you were wondering. But if a queer woman married to a transman has issues with the pediatric gender clinic where she worked, we’d better listen.
The allegations
Jamie says that in her job as a case manager at The Washington University Transgender Center at St. Louis Children's Hospital, children were quickly transitioned with very little counseling or guidance.
“Soon after my arrival at the Transgender Center, I was struck by the lack of formal protocols for treatment. The center’s physician co-directors were essentially the sole authority.”
She says that, traditionally, the few gender cases that used to be treated were boys, usually very young, who wanted to present themselves as girls. In 2015, the cases began to shift.
“…across the Western world, there began to be a dramatic increase in a new population: Teenage girls, many with no previous history of gender distress, suddenly declared they were transgender and demanded immediate treatment with testosterone. I certainly saw this at the center.”
The girls usually had other issues as well, including depression, anxiety, eating disorders, ADHD, or autism. They would also announce they had other disorders that there was no evidence they had.
Although the girls had all the signs of following a social contagion in transitioning, doctors allowed them to do it with very little questioning. They needed a therapist’s letter (a therapist the clinic referred them to, who signed a letter pre-written by the clinic), and that was it.
The repercussions
Jamie explained the repercussions of gender transitioning. Often, female patients were prescribed testosterone, which gives them a deeper voice, facial hair, and other masculine traits. The hormones can also make the girls infertile. Although minors can’t make life-changing decisions about many things, these girls were allowed to decide whether to be sterile before they were fully grown up.
Patients didn’t understand the impact the hormones would have on their genitals, either. She writes, “… clinics like the one where I worked are creating a whole cohort of kids with atypical genitals—and most of these teens haven’t even had sex yet.”
Patients also underwent surgeries to remove breasts, and at least one patient Jamie recounted asked later for them to be put back.
There are a number of other side effects and stories that Jamie tells in her essay, and to truly understand the scope of the problem, you’ll want to read it.
Under investigation
Since Jamie’s essay was published, Sen. Josh Hawley announced an investigation.
Missouri’s Attorney General has also launched an investigation based on her writing.
Washington University says they are “alarmed by the allegations reported in the article published by The Free Press” and are doing their own investigation as well.
As Free Press writer Nellie Bowles noted Friday,
“When they do find those facts, I hope they don’t ignore them. As for the legacy press, I can’t wait to read about this in two years.”
Sounds about right.
— Ken
Are we living in the “Twilight Zone” Right is wrong and wrong is right. Maybe it’s all just a Big Distraction tying up Congress with this while the drug companies in lock step with China continue to destroy our country. STOPPNow the opiate epidemic
Good article. Just like with COVID-19, it's important to frame this as a public health issue, not another front in the culture wars. There's a new study by the CDC showing alarming rates of sadness and suicidal ideation among teens -- especially girls and those who consider themselves gay or bisexual. Making these kids feel like pawns in a political game isn't going to help.