The Left should take this as a warning.
In an op-ed in “The Free Press,” Jamie Reed, a queer woman with a trans husband, explains her deep regret and guilt after treating transgender children with life-changing drugs and procedures. Her piece is titled, “I Thought I Was Saving Trans Kids. Now I blow the whistle,” should serve as a wake-up call to the left that thinks gender-affirming practices are harmless.
Reid worked as a case manager at the Washington University Transgender Center at St. Louis Children’s Hospital. He claimed that the center’s “working hypothesis” was that the sooner you treat children’s gender dysphoria with life-changing measures, the better. Reid’s specific role at the clinic was patient intake and supervision, and during her four years of employment at the center she saw nearly 1,000 demented children.
After seeing children leave with “life-changing consequences — including infertility,” Reid quit. “I could no longer participate in what was happening there. By the time I left, I was convinced that the way the American medical system was treating these patients was contrary to our promise to ‘do no harm’. Instead, we are permanently harming the vulnerable patients in our care,” he said.
Reid claimed her testimony put her at personal and professional risk but noted that what was happening to the children was “morally and medically horrific” and “much more important” than her “comfort”.
Despite the caveats, Reed acknowledged that young teenagers are not capable of understanding the lifelong effects and problems that can arise from these treatments, further fueling his skepticism.
Reid exposed many of the horrors that go on in such clinics, including the “lack of formal protocols for treatment.” The Center has literally prescribed a cancer drug as a puberty blocker for boys who want to be girls. Reid also said that children will hear about others getting gender surgery or drugs and fall into social contagion for doing so. When he or other employees raised questions or had doubts, they risked being labeled a “transphobe.”
He also noted that many patients were on the autism spectrum or claimed to have other disorders such as Tourette syndrome, tic disorder or multiple personality, all of which he said they did not.
It just shows how these kids were and are obviously confused and in poor mental health. It doesn’t scream “I’m ready for permanent, life-changing surgery and treatment” to me. Still, all patients needed was a letter of support from a therapist they had to see once or twice to get a prescription for hormones. Reed noted that in Missouri, only one consenting parent is required to proceed with treatment, and the center “always took the affirmative parent’s side.”
He encountered a situation where a mother convinced her daughter that she was trans when the child’s father protested, going to court in a custody battle after the woman turned 11. A doctor at the center sided with the mother and so did the court.
At the end of the op-ed, Reed points out that this is not a political issue. This should not be a divisive issue. It has to do with the safety of our children and should not result in a culture war.