NEW: I review Rogers Brubaker’s (@wrbucla) new book Gender Identity: The Career of a Category, in @CityJournal. Brubaker accomplishes a lot in this short and well argued book. 👇

100%. The chain of trust is necessary for the well-functioning of modern medicine. It's why the true scandal here, in my view, is not the existence of doctors like Jack Turban or Johanna Olson-Kennedy. Every profession has its quacks and charlatans, and it would be irrational to assume medicine is immune from these problems, human nature being what it is. What matters are the institutions--especially the epistemic ones--that gatekeep knowledge and correct or deter the "bad apples." The Jason Arday saga is a good example of that. When institutions function properly, they mold human beings; when they are dysfunctional, they serve as platforms for the self-expression or personal ambitions of individuals. (See, e.g., Yuval Levin's A Time to Build). In the case of "gender-affirming care," the dysfunctional institutions are primarily medical journals, medical associations, medical schools, and legacy media (esp. science journalism). The latter is perhaps the most important, because a watchdog for the former. I continue to believe that a single, in-depth, front-page investigative story by the New York Times that actually looks into the history, research, and institutional support for gender medicine would be enough to force a broad and serious reexamination, especially within elite/academic medicine. In the American context in particular, our decentralized and fragmented political and medical systems de-facto delegate a huge amount of professional and epistemic authority to organized medical groups, health systems, insurance companies, and the like. These entities have interests of their own and do not always act in the interest of patients (not that government does either). There are no solutions, only trade-offs.

A whistleblower comes forward in @TheFP Karla Solheim held a leadership position in the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (@acog). After raising concerns internally about ACOG's endorsement of @wpath "standards of care," she was told to be silent or quit. 🧵

NEWS: Burke Law Group has secured a False Claims Act settlement through its lawsuit against Texas Children’s Hospital. Vanessa Sivadge (@V_Sivadge) was the whistleblower-plaintiff in the case, whose proceedings were kept under wraps as is required in such lawsuits. Per @BurkeLawTweets: “Under the terms of the agreement, Texas Children’s will: •Pay $10 million in penalties; •Build and operate a free Detransition Clinic that will deliver full-service care to patients who underwent sex-rejecting “gender-transition” procedures at any hospital or clinic nationwide; •Publicly admit in a written statement that it made false statements to the public about its practices and acknowledge its legal obligations going forward; •Permanently terminate and revoke the privileges of five physicians who carried out the prohibited procedures with an agreement never to re-hire or credential them; •Implement sweeping operational reforms including training healthcare professionals on the dangers and illegality of sex-rejecting “gender transition” treatments or procedures, including training employees on how to blow the whistle if they witness same; •Rewrite its institutional bylaws so that any physician who engages in prohibited sex-rejecting, “gender-transition” procedures on minors automatically forfeits clinical privileges; and •Commit to a permanent prohibition on sex-rejecting, “gender-transition” services at any of its facilities.”

In 2024, Rep. Seth Moulton told the New York Times, “I have two little girls, I don’t want them getting run over on a playing field by a male or formerly male athlete, but as a Democrat I’m supposed to be afraid to say that.” Moulton is now apologizing, and the federal Transgender Bill of Rights he is backing will ensure that, in his own words, male athletes can run over his little girls.

In Oregon, 1 in 65 girls received a transgender-related clinical diagnosis between 2016 and 2023. 1 in 240 girls received hormones. Kids in Oregon were almost 20 times more likely than kids in Mississippi to have a "gender dysphoria" diagnosis. How did this happen?

NEWS: The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear a challenge to a WA law that facilitates runaway minors' access to "gender-affirming" interventions without parental notice or consent. @ishapiro @JKetcham91 (@ManhattanInst) and I submitted a "Brandeis brief" for the case. 👇