Jamie Reed is an American anti-transgender activist who wants to eliminate gender affirming healthcare for adolescents and young adults. Reed is also part of the LGB separatist movement, founding the anti-trans organization LGB Courage Coalition in 2023.
Jamie Lynn Smith was born in June 1980. After marrying Joshua David Rickly (born 1982), Jamie began using the name Jamie Lynn Smith-Rickly. During this time, Jamie was apparently using the email [email protected].
In 2009, Jamie Smith-Rickly, Zachary Smith, and Byron Case founded the Midwestern Liberty Foundation, but it was dissolved by the state of Missouri the following year for failure to submit required documents.
The couple had two children and later divorced.
Jamie then married librarian Tiger Reed, who at the time identified as a transgender man. They have Jamie’s two children from the first marriage as well as three foster children. In 2024, after announing a “detransition,” Tiger Reed began using the name Roxxanne Reed.
Reed earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Missouri St. Louis and a master’s degree from Washington University in St. Louis. Reed began working at Washington in 2016.
Anti-trans activism
From 2018 until late 2022, Reed was a case manager at the Washington University Pediatric Transgender Center at St. Louis Childrenâs Hospital.
Reed became increasingly upset that the clinic was not doing more psychological and psychiatric gatekeeping. As with many providers, Washington relied on patients to find a local therapist who would recommend them for treatment to reduce backlogs and improve patient care.
Reed was against prescribing hormone options for minors. Like many other people opposed to youth gender affirming care, Reed considers puberty blockers less problematic than hormones, but opposes those as well. Puberty blockers are a rarely-used short-term option prior to prescribing hormones. Some people opposed to gender affirming care would prefer trans youth to stay on puberty blockers until they are adults, rather than start hormones.
Like many other people opposed to gender affirming care, Reed cites the conservative “Dutch protocol” that used extensive gatekeeping under a nationalized healthcare system.
In an affidavit presented to anti-trans Attorney General Andrew Bailey dated February 7, 2023, Reed stated:
I witnessed staff at the Center provide puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to children without complete informed parental consent and without an appropriate or accurate assessment of the needs of the child. I witnessed children experience shocking injuries from the medication the Center prescribed. And I saw the Center make no attempt or effort to track adverse outcomes of patients after they left the Center.
[…]
One patient came to the Center identifying as a âcommunist, attack helicopter, human, female, maybe non binary.â The child was in very poor mental health and early on reported that they had no idea their gender identity.
[…]
Most children who come into the Center were assigned female at birth. Nearly all of them have serious comorbidities including, autism, ADHD, depression, anxiety, PTSD, trauma histories, OCD, and serious eating disorders.
[…]
last year Dr. [Chris] Lewis and Dr. [Sarah] Garwood told the Missouri legislature, âat no point are surgeries on the table for anyone under 18â and also, âsurgeries are not an option for anyone under 18 years of age.â This was a lie. The Center regularly refers minors for gender transition surgery. The Center routinely gives out the names and contact information of surgeons to those under the age of 18. At least one gender transition surgery was performed by Dr. Allison Snyder-Warwick at St. Louis Childrenâs Hospital in the last few years.
[…]
The Center had two in-house psychologists. They were Dr. Alex Maixner and Dr. Sarah Girresch-Ward as well as several outside therapists.
[…]
Doctors knew that many of our former patients had stopped taking cross-sex hormones and were detransitioning. Doctors did not share this information with parents or children.
[…]
Children come into the clinic using pronouns of inanimate objects like âmushroom,â ârock,â or âhelicopter.â Children come into the clinic saying they want hormones because they do not want to be gay. Children come in changing their identities on a day-to-day basis. Children come in under clear pressure by a parent to identify in a way inconsistent with the childâs actual identity.
[…]
I created a âred flagâ list of children where other staff and I had concerns. The doctors told me I had to stop raising these concerns. I was not allowed to maintain the red flag list after that. During the time I was creating the red flag list, noting my concern that these children were not good candidates for permanent, irreversible medication treatment, the doctors would simply send these children to our in-house therapists. Those therapists would inevitably provide letters to the doctors, and then the doctors would say there canât be any concern over these children because another therapist was fine with prescribing puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones.
[…]
One doctor at the Center, Dr. Chris Lewis, is giving patients a drug called Bicalutamide. I know of at least one patient at the Center who was advised by the renal department to stop taking Bicalutamide because the child was experiencing liver damage. The childâs parent reported this to the Center through the patientâs online self-reporting medical chart (MyChart). The parent said they were not the type to sue, but âthis could be a huge PR problem for you.â
[…]
the Center has prescribed puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones hundreds of times where they should not have.
Particularly upsetting to Reed are young people whose identities are fluid:
Patient was on hormones and had decompensating mental health, outlandish name changes, self-diagnosis of multiple personalities (DID).
[…]
Patient has desisted in male identity to a vague non binary with their own self-diagnosis of autism. Patient has changed their name numerous times and is clearly struggling with thoughts about desistence,
[..]
Patient changed to non-binary identity, then changed preferred name and stated that their identity was shifting day to day.
Reed gave several other vivid anecdotes, including one about a youth sex offender, and others about youths with history of self-harm, sexual trauma, forced cross-dressing, factitious blindness, and “gender identities that were likely the result of social contagion.”
2023 Free Press piece
Two days after the affidavit was signed, Reed repeated these allegations for anti-trans activist Bari Weiss.
“clinics like the one where I worked are creating a whole cohort of kids with atypical genitalsâand most of these teens havenât even had sex yet.”
“Some weeks it felt as though almost our entire caseload was nothing but disturbed young people.”
“Another disturbing aspect of the center was its lack of regard for the rights of parents.”
“In 2019, a new group of people appeared on my radar: desisters and detransitioners.”
“I believe that to ensure the safety of American children, we need a moratorium on the hormonal and surgical treatment of young people with gender dysphoria.”
Reed and the clinicâs nurse, Karen Hamon, kept a private spreadsheet, which they called the âred flag list.â Following a 2021 review that contained criticisms and a 2022 retreat where Reed was allegedly told âGet on board, or get out,â Reed transferred to a different department.
Jamie Reed on what needs to be done: no gender affirming care for people until we figure out how to tell which mice should transition pic.twitter.com/1Go2vJtNTo
Azeen Ghorayshi of the New York Times presented Reed as part of a long-running “cisgender person under siege” series the paper has been running since the early 2000s.
Ghorayshi mentioned the following people:
Jamie Reed, former case manager at a youth gender clinic at Washington University in St. Louis
Bari Weiss, anti-trans activist who first published Reed’s allegations
Andrew Bailey, Missouri’s anti-trans Attorney General
Colleen Schrappen, reporter at St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Annelise Hanshaw, reporter at Missouri Independent
Andrew D. Martin, Washington University in St. Louis Chancellor
Reporter Evan Urquhart wrote, “unlike other stories covering these allegations, the Times downplays the falsehoods and seeks to make a case that despite Reedâs lies thereâs something to be taken seriously in her attacks on a highly-regarded, University-linked clinic serving transgender youth.”
Lawsuits
In 2024 a subpoena was issued to Reed in the matter of Noe v. Parson (Missouri case # 23AC-CC04530). In it, Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, Inc. and ACLU of Missouri Foundation requested communication between Reed and Karen Hamon, as well as any communication with Missouri officials and families at Washington University Pediatric Transgender Center at St. Louis Childrenâs Hospital.
The subpoena also requested “All communications, including any documents exchanged, concerning Gender-Affirming Care involving media or between you and any media outlet or any member of the media,” as well as specifically requesting communications with Jesse Singal. Those requests were later removed.
The subpoena also requested any communication with the following organizations:
Lovelace, Eric (September 30, 2024). St. Louis gender clinic whistleblower testifies in Noe v. Parson.KOMU https://www.komu.com/news/midmissourinews/st-louis-gender-clinic-whistleblower-testifies-in-noe-v-parson/article_2f612e3c-7f53-11ef-ad63-abba11ecb77e.html
Dana Beyer is an American physician, political candidate, and transgender rights activist. Beyer was involved in protests of the transphobic 2003 book The Man Who Would Be Queen.
Background
Dana Beyer was born February 9, 1952 and grew up in New York City. Beyer earned a bachelor’s degree from Cornell University in 1974 and a medical degree from University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in 1978. Beyer worked as an eye surgeon before going into activism and politics.
Philanthropic work includes Gender Rights Maryland and Equality Maryland.
Milton Thomas “Milt” Edgerton, Jr. was an American plastic surgeon who served our community. Edgerton is widely considered one of the most important American plastic surgeons of the 20th century.
Background
Edgerton was born in Atlanta on July 14, 1921 and earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Emory University in 1941. Edgerton earned a medical degree from Johns Hopkins University in 1944. Following a surgical residency, Edgerton joined the United States Army and operated on injured World War II veterans.
Edgerton joined the Johns Hopkins faculty in 1951 and got tenure in 1962. In 1970 Edgerton was recruited to the University of Virginia to found the Department of Plastic Surgery, working and teaching there until retiring in 1994.
Edgerton had many students and colleagues who served our community as well, including Howard W. Jones, Jr. and John Gale Kenney. Edgerton was author of four books and over 500 scientific papers on plastic surgery. As shown in the selected bibliography below, Edgerton’s articles when read from earliest to latest read like an unfolding of the history of our community.
Edgerton died at age 96 on March 17, 2018. The Milton T. Edgerton, M.D. Professorship in Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery at Johns Hopkins is named in Edgerton’s honor.
This paper reviews the senior author’s long-term experience with the surgical-psychiatric treatment of 100 aesthetic surgery patients with significant psychological disturbances. Patients with psychological disturbances of a magnitude generally considered an “absolute contraindication” for surgery were operated on and later assessed to determine the psychological impact of surgery. Patient follow-up averaged 6.2 years (maximum follow-up 25.7 years). Of the 87 patients who underwent operation (7 patients were refused surgery and 6 voluntarily deferred surgery), 82.8 percent had a positive psychological outcome, 13.8 percent experienced “minimal” improvement from surgery, and 3.4 percent were negatively affected by surgery. There were no lawsuits, suicides, or psychotic decompensations. Patients with severe psychological disturbances frequently benefited from combined surgical-psychiatric treatment designed to address the patient’s profound sense of deformity. This study suggests that plastic surgeons are “passing up” a significant number of patients who may be helped by combined surgical-psychological intervention. Comment in: * Plast Reconstr Surg. 1992 Aug;90(2):333-5.* Plast Reconstr Surg. 1992 Jun;89(6):1173-5.
This article describes plastic surgery patients who sought symmetrical recontouring of the width of the face and skull. The basic demographic and personality characteristics of these facial width deformity (FWD) patients and the surgical procedures performed on them are discussed. Details of the surgical and psychological management of three representative cases are given. Speculative conclusions regarding the general characteristics of the FWD population are offered. Suggestions are proposed for a combined surgical-medical psychotherapeutic collaboration in managing these patients.Comment in: * Aesthetic Plast Surg. 1990 Fall;14(4):299-300.
The evaluation and treatment of individuals with gender identity problems has resulted in an interesting and productive collaboration between several specialties of medicine. In particular, the psychiatrist and surgeon have joined hands in the management of these fascinating patients who feel they are trapped in the wrong body and insist upon correcting this cruel mistake of nature by undergoing sex reassignment surgery. Over the last two decades, some 40 centers have emerged in which interdisciplinary teams cooperate in the evaluation and treatment of these gender dysphoric patients. The model for this collaboration began at The Johns Hopkins Hospital, where the Gender Identity Clinic began its operation in 1965 (Edgerton, 1983; Pauly, 1983). This “gender identity movement” has brought together such unlikely collaborators as surgeons, endocrinologists, psychologists, psychiatrists, gynecologists, and research specialists into a mutually rewarding arena. This paper deals with the background and modern era of research into gender identity disorders and their evaluation and treatment. Finally, some data are presented on the outcome of sex reassignment surgery. This interdisciplinary collaboration has resulted in the birth of a new medical subspecialty, which deals with the study of gender identification and its disorders.
The increasing use of surgery for sex reassignment in the treatment of transsexualism is described. The author’s early experience over a twenty-year period with the Gender Identity teams at The Johns Hopkins University and The University of Virginia is summarized. Many of the reasons for slow acceptance of this type of surgery by many members of the medical profession are analyzed. The satisfactory subjective results described by patients who have received sex reassignment continue to exceed the results obtained by other methods. The author concludes that further study of surgical treatment is justified, but that it should be limited to established multidisciplinary teams working in academic settings. Physicians are urged to withhold judgment on the role of surgery in gender disorders until they have had significant personal experience with these desperate and complex patients.
Transsexualism is a poorly understood, uncommon, and controversial entity of recent interest to the lay public and medical profession. Important features of the condition are discussed, surgical procedures for genital conversion in male transsexuals are compared, and our experience at the University of Virginia where 53 patients have been treated surgically is presented. All patients have made satisfactory postoperative psychosocial adjustment despite a surgical complication rate approaching 50 per cent. It is concluded that alternative (better) surgical procedures for male transsexuals should be explored.
A 49-year-old male-to-female transsexual was administered voice therapy following surgery. Tape recordings were made of her speech prior to and each week during therapy. Selected sentences from these reocrdings were analyzed. Results indicate that changes in both fundamental frequency and perceptual judgments of femininity were statistically significant and supportive to the client. The voice of the client was still discernible from that of a female speaker, although less so than before therapy. It is suggested that a composite treatment program combined with laryngeal modification through surgical intervention may be necessary.
Turner, Edlich & Edgerton, 1978 Dept. of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Plastic Surgery, University of Virginia Medical Center, Charlottville, VA, USA In structure and representation this publication is closely related to the one of Edgerton & Meyer (1973), that is, it is no follow-up study with reliable data. Related are mostly surgical techniques for MFTs and surgical complications. Under historical viewpoints it is an interesting statement that Edgerton was already in 1963 the director of the Johns Hopkins Gender Identity Clinic in Baltimore, MD, while everywhere else the founding of this institution is generally dated two years later. Also it is interesting that a psychologist is given a key role or a veto right to the indication to surgery. For the rest, the necessity for a successful one-year-long “Real-Life-Test” as it was already in Edgerton & Meyer (1973), the experimental surgical breast enlargement is recommended as a step if the patient and treatment provider are insecure regarding the stability of the female identity of the patient. In how far the statement: “The only justification for the ongoing evaluation of surgery as a definite treatment entity is that patients with this condition have proved resistant to psychotherapy and drug therapy” (p. 121) is a general postulate or if the corresponding possibility has been tested with those who underwent surgery is not to be discerned by the publication. It is reported about 53 gender reassignment surgeries of MFTs that Edgerton made after changing from Baltimore to Virginia. Forty seven females came to the follow-up study in the first year after surgery. Globally it is said that all were subjectively happy and self-secure and socially better adjusted. “Psychological testing has substantiated these subjective claims” (p. 128). Suicide attempts after surgery or desires to role re-reversal were not observed. Eighteen females had gotten married and six had adopted children. In the series of the first 20 surgically treated, 14 females required corrective surgery; in the series of the second 20, only eight. The most frequent complication was the stenosis of the vagina. Injuries of the urethra or rectum with corresponding fistulae did not occur.
Morgan RF, Morgan EA (2019). Milton T Edgerton, MD: A Pioneer of Surgery of the Hand. Journal of Craniofacial Surgery: March/April 2019 – Volume 30 – Issue 2 – p 303â305 https://doi.org/10.1097/SCS.0000000000005063
Resources
Archival contact information:
University of Virginia Medical Center, Gender Identity Clinic, P. O. Box 376 Charlottesville, VA 22908 USA
Phone: (434) 924-5068
Thomas Steensma is a Dutch psychologist who researches gender diverse youth. Steensma’s research and clinical guidelines are frequently cited by anti-transgender extremists who reject affirmative models of care for young people seeking trans health services.
Steensma is also popular with anti-transgender activists for reporting high rates of “desistance” and “detransition.” Steensma co-authored a 2013 longitudinal study tracking 127 adolescents. approximately 37% continued with “gender dysphoria” (which they call âpersistersâ), while 63% did not (âdesistersâ) by age 15â16 .
Background
Thomas D. Steensma, works at the Department of Medical Psychology / Center of Expertise on Gender Dysphoria, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Steensma’s research is focused on people of all ages with gender incongruence. Steensma’s primary projects focus on treatment evaluation, psychosexual development and (gender) identity development (including non-binary gender identities). Steensma studied social and clinical psychology, and is trained as a child and adolescent health psychologist.
“Desistance” research
In a 2013 paper, Steensma and co-authors stated that 63% of adolescents included in the study “desisted”:
Between 2000 and 2008, 225 children (144 boys, 81 girls) were consecutively referred to the clinic. From this sample, 127 adolescents were selected who were 15 years of age or older during the 4-year period of follow-up between 2008 and 2012. Of these adolescents, 47 adolescents (37%, 23 boys, 24 girls) were identified as persisters.
Because this is one of the highest “desistance” rates reported, anti-trans activists frequently cite this study. Critics have discussed methodological issues, particularly how to count people lost to follow-up / non-responders.
Press coverage
In 2018 KQED reported:
In Amsterdam, clinicians at the Center of Expertise on Gender Dysphoria are much more cautious about recommending social transitions because of the statistics on desistance. Thomas Steensma, a researcher and clinician at the center, acknowledges these studies probably included some kids who would not be diagnosed with gender dysphoria today. Nevertheless, despite the problems with the way they classified children, “the only evidence I have from studies and reports in the literature … is that not all transgender children will persist in their transgender identity,” Steensma said. ‘Why are we asking a child to conform to something that is not them because society hasn’t done its learning yet?’
In 2013, Steensma co-authored an oft-cited study that examined 127 adolescents, all of whom had displayed various levels of gender dysphoria as children. The researchers found that 80 of the children had desisted by the ages of 15 and 16. That works out to 63 percent of kids who basically stopped being transgender — a lower rate than in previous studies, but still a majority.
Some clinicians criticize this study, however, on methodological grounds, because the researchers defined anyone who did not return to their clinic as desisting. Fifty-two of the children classified as desistors or their parents did send back questionnaires showing the subjects’ present lack of gender dysphoria. But 28 neither responded nor could be tracked down.
van Dijken, J. B., Steensma, T. D., Wensing-Kruger, S. A., den Heijer, M., & Dreijerink, K. M. A. (2023). Tailored Gender-Affirming Hormone Treatment in Nonbinary Transgender Individuals: A Retrospective Study in a Referral Center Cohort. Transgender Health, 8(3), 220â225. https://doi.org/10.1089/trgh.2021.0032
van der Loos, M. A. T. C., Klink, D. T., Hannema, S. E., Bruinsma, S., Steensma, T. D., Kreukels, B. P. C., Cohen-Kettenis, P. T., de Vries, A. L. C., den Heijer, M., & Wiepjes, C. M. (2023). Children and adolescents in the Amsterdam Cohort of Gender Dysphoria: trends in diagnostic- and treatment trajectories during the first 20 years of the Dutch Protocol. The Journal of Sexual Medicine, 20(3), 398â409. https://doi.org/10.1093/jsxmed/qdac029
Pang, K. C., Hoq, M., & Steensma, T. D. (2022). Negative Media Coverage as a Barrier to Accessing Care for Transgender Children and Adolescents. JAMA Network Open, 5(2), e2138623. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.38623
Pang, K. C., de Graaf, N. M., Chew, D., Hoq, M., Keith, D. R., Carmichael, P., & Steensma, T. D. (2020). Association of Media Coverage of Transgender and Gender Diverse Issues With Rates of Referral of Transgender Children and Adolescents to Specialist Gender Clinics in the UK and Australia. JAMA Network Open, 3(7), e2011161. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.11161
Indremo, M., Jodensvi, A. C., Arinell, H., Isaksson, J., & Papadopoulos, F. C. (2022). Association of Media Coverage on Transgender Health With Referrals to Child and Adolescent Gender Identity Clinics in Sweden. JAMA Network Open, 5(2), e2146531. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.46531
Chong, L. S. H., Kerklaan, J., Clarke, S., Kohn, M., Baumgart, A., Guha, C., Tunnicliffe, D. J., Hanson, C. S., Craig, J. C., & Tong, A. (2021). Experiences and Perspectives of Transgender Youths in Accessing Health Care. JAMA Pediatrics, 175(11), 1159. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapediatrics.2021.2061
Pham, A., Morgan, A. R., Kerman, H., Albertson, K., Crouch, J. M., Inwards-Breland, D. J., Ahrens, K. R., & Salehi, P. (2020). How Are Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Youth Affected by the News? A Qualitative Study. Journal of Adolescent Health, 66(4), 478â483. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2019.11.304
Hughto, J. M. W., Pletta, D., Gordon, L., Cahill, S., Mimiaga, M. J., & Reisner, S. L. (2021). Negative Transgender-Related Media Messages Are Associated with Adverse Mental Health Outcomes in a Multistate Study of Transgender Adults. LGBT Health, 8(1), 32â41. https://doi.org/10.1089/lgbt.2020.0279
Bungener, S. L., Post, L., Berends, I., Steensma, T. D., de Vries ALC, & Popma, A. (2022). Talking About Sexuality with Youth: A Taboo in Psychiatry? The Journal of Sexual Medicine, 19(3), 421â429. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsxm.2022.01.001
Van Mello, N., De Nie, I., Asseler, J., Arnoldussen, M., Steensma, T., Den Heijer, M., de Vries ALC, & Huirne, J. (2022). P-506âReflecting on the Importance of Family Building and Fertility Preservation: Transgender Peopleâs Experiences with Starting Gender-affirming Treatment as Adolescent. Human Reproduction, 37(Supplement_1). https://doi.org/10.1093/humrep/deac107.469
Arnoldussen, M., van der Miesen, A. I. R., Elzinga, W. S., Alberse, A.-M. E., Popma, A., Steensma, T. D., de Vries ALC(2022). Self-Perception of Transgender Adolescents After Gender-Affirming Treatment: A Follow-Up Study into Young Adulthood. LGBT Health, 9(4), 238â246. https://doi.org/10.1089/lgbt.2020.0494
de Rooij, F. P. W., van der Sluis, W. B., Ronkes, B. L., Steensma, T. D., Al-Tamimi, M., van Moorselaar, R. J. A., Bouman, M.-B., & Pigot, G. L. S. (2022). MP20-09âComparison of clinical outcomes after phalloplasty with versus without urethral lengthening in transgender men. Journal of Urology, 207(Supplement 5). https://doi.org/10.1097/ju.0000000000002553.09
van der Vaart, L. R., Verveen, A., Bos, H. M., van Rooij, F. B., & Steensma, T. D. (2022). Differences in self-perception and social gender status in children with gender incongruence. Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 27(4), 1077â1090. https://doi.org/10.1177/13591045221099394
de Rooij, F. P. W., van der Sluis, W. B., Ronkes, B. L., Steensma, T. D., Al-Tamimi, M., van Moorselaar, R. J. A., Bouman, M.-B., & Pigot, G. L. S. (2022). Comparison of surgical outcomes and urinary functioning after phalloplasty with versus without urethral lengthening in transgender men. International Journal of Transgender Health, 24(4), 487â498. https://doi.org/10.1080/26895269.2022.2110548
van der Sluis, W. B., Bruin, R. J. M. de, Steensma, T. D., & Bouman, M.-B. (2021). Gender-affirmation surgery and bariatric surgery in transgender individuals in The Netherlands: Considerations, surgical techniques and outcomes. International Journal of Transgender Health, 23(3), 355â361. https://doi.org/10.1080/26895269.2021.1890302
de Graaf, N. M., Huisman, B., Cohen-Kettenis, P. T., Twist, J., Hage, K., Carmichael, P., Kreukels, B. P. C., & Steensma, T. D. (2021). Psychological Functioning in Non-binary Identifying Adolescents and Adults. Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy, 47(8), 773â784. https://doi.org/10.1080/0092623x.2021.1950087
van der Sluis, W. B., de Nie, I., Steensma, T. D., van Mello, N. M., Lissenberg-Witte, B. I., & Bouman, M.-B. (2021). Surgical and demographic trends in genital gender-affirming surgery in transgender women: 40 years of experience in Amsterdam. British Journal of Surgery, 109(1), 8â11. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjs/znab213
Kennedy, E., Lane, C., Stynes, H., Ranieri, V., Spinner, L., Carmichael, P., Omar, R., Vickerstaff, V., Hunter, R., Senior, R., Butler, G., Baron-Cohen, S., de Graaf, N., Steensma, T. D., de Vries ALC, Young, B., & King, M. (2021). Longitudinal Outcomes of Gender Identity in Children (LOGIC): study protocol for a retrospective analysis of the characteristics and outcomes of children referred to specialist gender services in the UK and the Netherlands. BMJ Open, 11(11), e054895. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-054895
Verveen, A., Kreukels, B. P., de Graaf, N. M., & Steensma, T. D. (2021). Body image in children with gender incongruence. Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 26(3), 839â854. https://doi.org/10.1177/13591045211000797
MJA Verbeek, MA Hommes, TD Steensma, AER Bos, J van Lankveld (2021). Transgender specific problem situations experienced during transition: Development of a Transgender Coping Questionnaire part 1. 4th EPATH Hybrid Conference: Reconnecting and Redefining Transgender Healthcare 2021https://epath.eu/past-conferences/conference-2021/
Castellini G, Ristori J, Steensma T (2021). Psychopathology in adult transgender people. European Psychiatry. 2021;64(S1):S47-S47. https://doi.org/10.1192/j.eurpsy.2021.151
de Vries ALC, Beek, T. F., Dhondt, K., de Vet, H. C. W., Cohen-Kettenis, P. T., Steensma, T. D., & Kreukels, B. P. C. (2021). Reliability and Clinical Utility of Gender Identity-Related Diagnoses: Comparisons Between the ICD-11, ICD-10, DSM-IV, and DSM-5. LGBT Health, 8(2), 133â142. https://doi.org/10.1089/lgbt.2020.0272
Spizzirri, G., EufrĂĄsio, R., Lima, M.C.P. et al. (2021). Proportion of people identified as transgender and non-binary gender in Brazil. Sci Rep11, 2240 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-81411-4
Claahsen – van der Grinten, H., Verhaak, C., Steensma, T., Middelberg, T., Roeffen, J., & Klink, D. (2020). Gender incongruence and gender dysphoria in childhood and adolescenceâcurrent insights in diagnostics, management, and follow-up. European Journal of Pediatrics, 180(5), 1349â1357. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00431-020-03906-y
Bungener, Sara. L., de Vries ALC, Popma, A., & Steensma, T. D. (2020). Sexual Experiences of Young Transgender Persons During and After Gender-Affirmative Treatment. Pediatrics, 146(6), e20191411. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2019-1411
de Graaf, N. M., Steensma, T. D., Carmichael, P., VanderLaan, D. P., Aitken, M., Cohen-Kettenis, P. T., de Vries ALC, Kreukels, B. P. C., Wasserman, L., Wood, H., Zucker KJ (2020). Suicidality in clinic-referred transgender adolescents. European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 31(1), 67â83. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-020-01663-9
Steensma TD, Wensing-Kruger SA, Klink D (2017). How Should Physicians Help Gender-Transitioning Adolescents Consider Potential Iatrogenic Harms of Hormone Therapy? (2017). AMA Journal of Ethics, 19(8), 762â770. https://doi.org/10.1001/journalofethics.2017.19.8.ecas3-1708
de Vries ALC, Steensma, T.D., Cohen-Kettenis, P.T., VanderLaan DP, Zucker KJ (2016). Poor peer relations predict parent- and self-reported behavioral and emotional problems of adolescents with gender dysphoria: a cross-national, cross-clinic comparative analysis. Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry25, 579â588 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-015-0764-7
Steensma TD, McGuire JK, Kreukels BPC, Beekman AJ, Cohen-Kettenis P.T (2013). Factors Associated With Desistence and Persistence of Childhood Gender Dysphoria: A Quantitative Follow-Up Study. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry (Vol. 52, Issue 6, pp. 582â590). Elsevier BV. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaac.2013.03.016
Temple Newhook, J., Pyne, J., Winters, K., Feder, S., Holmes, C., Tosh, J., Sinnott, M.-L., Jamieson, A., & Pickett, S. (2018). A critical commentary on follow-up studies and âdesistanceâ theories about transgender and gender-nonconforming children. International Journal of Transgenderism, 19(2), 212â224. https://doi.org/10.1080/15532739.2018.1456390
Zucker KJ (2018). The myth of persistence: Response to âA critical commentary on follow-up studies and âdesistanceâ theories about transgender and gender non-conforming childrenâ by Temple Newhook et al. (2018). International Journal of Transgenderism, 19(2), 231â245. https://doi.org/10.1080/15532739.2018.1468293
Steensma, T. D., Biemond, R., de Boer, F., Cohen-Kettenes PT (2011). Desisting and persisting gender dysphoria after childhood: A qualitative follow-up study. Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 16(4), 499â516. https://doi.org/10.1177/1359104510378303
Pedagogische en Onderwijswetenschappen (UvA) with Henny Bos and Thomas Steensma (Apr 14, 2021). Gender – Preventieve Jeugdhulp en Opvoeding. [Gender – Preventive Youth Care and Education] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jU5JweVHLeU
Kimberly is cohost of the conservative podcast Transparency. Kimberly frequently testifies against gender affirming care for minors and promotes academic work that is frequently characterized as anti-trans.
Kimberly is especially interested in promoting disease models of gender diversity, including “gender dysphoria,” “autogynephilia,” and “autoandrophilia.” Kimberly has occasionally expressed interest in a personal “detransition,” or making additional gender changes.
Background
Aaron Kimberly was reportedly born in 1973. In a self-reported biography, Kimberly makes the following claims:
“at age 19 I had surgery to remove a grapefruit-sized cyst from one of my ovaries”
following a biopsy was reportedly diagnosed with “Ovotesticular Disorder of Sex Development (DSD)”
Kimberly earned a bachelor’s degree from Nova Scotia College of Art and Design
in 2006 saw a documentary on mainstream TV about âtrans kidsâ that led to a trans identification
began medical transition that year at age 33
in 2008 became a registered nurse/BScN wtih a specialty in Psychiatric Nursing
worked in the mental health department at St Paulâs Hospital in Vancouver, Canada, for 10 years
In 2017 moved to Kelowna, Canada, to help launch a multidisciplinary youth clinic and do intake assessments
consulted with the Provincial Health Services Authority (PHSA)’s Trans Care BC
during this consulting, “I started to become confused and concerned about the current state of trans healthcare”
“I was removed from the clinical mentorship mailing list, I was accused of using the listserv for anti-trans activism, our clinic was boycotted, and I was moved to another program”
was registered in British Columbia as a Practising RN from 2008 until that registration was canceled on April 1, 2023
Kimberly then enrolled in the Women’s and Gender Studies graduate program at University of Alberta.
Conservative activism
Kimberly began engaging in conservative activism in 2021 after being alarmed about how the clinic where Kimberly worked was treating trans and gender diverse youth. Kimberly explained to anti-trans activist Pamela Paul:
In 2021, Aaron Kimberly, a 50-year-old trans man and registered nurse, left the clinic in British Columbia where his job focused on the intake and assessment of gender-dysphoric youth. Kimberly received a comprehensive screening when he embarked on his own successful transition at age 33, which resolved the gender dysphoria he experienced from an early age.
But when the gender-affirming model was introduced at his clinic, he was instructed to support the initiation of hormone treatment for incoming patients regardless of whether they had complex mental problems, experiences with trauma or were otherwise âseverely unwell,â Kimberly said. When he referred patients for further mental health care rather than immediate hormone treatment, he said he was accused of what they called gatekeeping and had to change jobs.
In a profile provided to this site in June 2025, Kimberly stated:
My major influences are second wave lesbian feminism and early queer theory. In the early days (1990s), lesbians like Butler and Halberstam conceptualized the FTM experience as a form of female masculinity (eg. Halberstamâs book Female Masculinity, in which she included FTM as under the banner of lesbian masculinities). Thatâs still a view I hold, in my self-conception. My current work focuses on applications of radical feminism to transmen, looking for ways, throught a sex-realist perspective, at quality of life measures and the nature of our oppression as masculinized/male passing females.
2024 Stone Butch Disco collaboration
Stone Butch Disco is a Substack newsletter described as “q butch-femme lesbian feminist project: nerd comedy, experiential insights, & alt-academic analysis.”
In September 2024 members of the collective began collaborating on podcast episodes with Kimberly. By November, they announced a split in a since-deleted post:
Aaron repetitively focused conversation onto specific women that Aaron felt slighted by. Due to Rachel and Akivaâs personal histories in abusive relationships, they entertained conversation around uniquely butch vulnerabilities to abuse for a few weeks, culminating in an unreleased 6th podcast episode in which Aaronâs relationships with these women were discussed under the false premise that they were targeting Aaron. It became clear from conversations on and off the recording that Aaronâs treatment of women and especially feminine women was of serious concern. Despite the fact that Rachel requested that Aaron not post the 6th episode anywhere, including on Aaronâs personal channels, Aaron posted it to personal YouTube and Facebook accounts, and used pieces of the audio to harass women via direct message.We were lied to, manipulated, and used. Following these revelations, we removed Aaron from the Stone Butch Disco team.
Kimberly said via email in June 2025 that the announcement was removed “after legal action” because it contained false statements and defamation. Kimberly also stated “my lawyers have evidence that the Statements by both parties are false and defamatory.” This site has requested that evidence for inclusion here. Kimberly provided the following statement:
They fabricated a conspiracy that I only made friends with a couple of butch lesbians for the purpose of lying and manipulating them to harass women. No, I did not. When I left the courage coalition, I made new friendships outside that circle and we generated many ideas for projects that I was excited about, such as an archive about butch lesbians. I built the website. We were ready to launch it. Because I saw them as friends I confided in them some of what I had felt and was processing in regards to interactions I had with certain women. I needed someone to talk to because I was confused by aspects of what had occurred. I couldnât talk to anyone in the network about it. Meanwhile, those women were plotting behind my back and finding ways to sabotage me in the dark
and taking disrespectful shots at me online to hint they were doing so. They shared private text messages, emails and secretly recorded conversations. They publicly accused me of having mental illness I donât have and for doing things I didnât do. I feel played by these women. I expect people to come honest. I fully own that I overstepped some boundaries but I was also misjudged and mistreated. They did psychological harm and when I spoke my truth in defence, they weaponized that against me too.
The mistake we (Stone Butch Disco) made is trying to engage those other women in a conversation via the podcast. Instead of engaging up front, they contacted the Stone Butch Disco and manipulated them into thinking Iâd lied and manipulated them. No. I did not. There was no underhanded scheme going on, on my part, and I was severed from new friendships. I found myself caught in a trap of manipulation, and had to manipulate my way out of it. Iâm not normally a manipulative person, at all. Iâm blunt to a fault and despise head games. Iâve withdrawn myself entirely from the entire network to get my own head straight and stand in my own truth. Iâm focussing on transmen and our needs. Iâm not interested in playing dirty games.
My work is based on respectful conversations about ideas and needs. My ideas are not ones everyone agrees with, but people should not be threatened, intimidated, or coerced, simply for having different views, which arenât motivated by hate.
I push back on all hateful activity. People are allowed to hate me. They are not allowed to hurt me just because they have feelings about what I believe.
And I mean you too Andrea. There are more constructive ways to negotiate needs and deal with fears, than tearing people down. Iâm not playing this game. Both sides are playing dirty. Someone has to stay in the lane of having peaceful and honest conversations for problem solving. If you believe Iâm harming you in some way, then letâs have a conversation. Because your way isnât working. It just drives more hate.
Since youâve publicized where Iâm enrolled in an MA program, Iâm sure you expect that everyone, both TERFs and the trans-queer community will hate me. What theyâll all find, is that Iâm reasonable and easy to engage in respectful and honest conversations across multiple lines of disagreement. And I will expect to be treated with fairness and dignity in return. I will work hard and do well in academia to think things through with care.
I want to build and mend bridges with human beings on any side of the issue, and I will always preserve myself as a human being who has faults and strengths. My door is always open for honest people who arenât trying to hurt anyone. Iâm not afraid to kick the asses of trespassers (metaphorically speaking). I intend to live in peace.
If you publish any of this, you must post all of it in whole and exactly how Iâve stated it.
2024 MIT event
According to anti-trans philosopher Holly Lawford-Smith, Kimberly has exhibited concerning behavior after the two met in 2024 at a debate also attended by anti-trans activists Alex Byrne and Alice Dreger. On February 3, 2025, Lawford-Smith posted:
On the 17th of April 2024, Alex Byrne & I took part in a debate at MIT. Our opponents were Aaron Kimberly and Alice Dreger. Alex and Alice took opposite sides on the question of whether sex is biological and binary, and Aaron and I took opposite sides on the question of whether gender identity should replace sex in social policy. Aaron & I had some friendly communications in the lead-up to the debate, much of which were me making suggestions as to a topic that we could disagree about productively. We met up for a couple of hours on the afternoon of the debate. At the time, Aaron was associated with the LGBT Courage Coalition, and I was occasionally doing freelance interviews for the LGB Alliance Australia. I figured it would be good to establish some kind of link between the two organizations.
Since April 2024 or so, I have been dealing with inappropriate and unwanted behaviour by Aaron Kimberly. This includes him repeatedly sending emails to my work address (after I had blocked him on Twitter); contacting my friends and colleagues about me; attempting to organize an in-person event to take place on my campus, at which I would be a speaker, without my permission or input; mischaracterizing our brief interaction to mutual acquaintances; publishing a full podcast episode mischaracterizing our interaction; posting three separate Substack articles about me (one sharing personal information about me and embedding deleted video content that I own the copyright to); sending huge volumes of messages to other people about me; and, most recently, contacting my employer. This has all been the aftermath of Aaron making several romantic advances toward me, which I rejected. To say heâs taken rejection badly would appear to be an understatement.
On February 22, 2025, Kimberly posted a lengthy response addressing many of Lawford-Smith’s claims and assertions about their interactions.
Staff (November 25, 2024). Ending our relationship with Aaron Kimberly. Stone Butch Disco https://stonebutchdisco.substack.com/p/ending-our-relationship-with-aaron [deleted]
The Lesbian Project Podcast (May 24, 2024). Episode 28 FREE – a chat with Aaron Kimberly; plus the music of Chappell Roan, and bars (again). [unavailable]
The Just Checking In Podcast with Freddie Cocker (August 8, 2021). JCIP #90 –Â Aaron Kimberly. https://soundcloud.com/venthelpuk/jcip-90-aaron-kimberly
Azeen Ghorayshi is an American writer and anti-transgender activist who has written about transgender healthcare for youth and other trans topics in several publications. Ghorayshi is a key historical figure in the oppression of trans and gender diverse youth.
Ghorayshi is the point person laundering anti-transgender extremism into the New York Times, similar to Times health reporter Jane Brody, whose anti-trans coverage in the 1970s helped get adult care shut down as “experimental” by the end of that decade.
Ghorayshi believes that affirmative models of care for trans and gender diverse youth are an unfolding medical scandal, echoing Times colleagues and contributors in the late 1970s who helped set the trans rights movement back for 25 years. The real medical scandal is that trans and gender diverse youth have never been able to receive appropriate care, and Ghorayshi’s reporting is a major factor in making this care unavailable to hundreds of thousands of minors.
Each year, thousands of American cisgender youth receive gender-affirming treatments like surgeries for unwanted breast tissue, but Ghorayshi is focused exclusively on banning the same procedures for transgender youth.
Ghorayshi’s anti-trans views are colored by disease models of gender identity, particularly psychopathology models. Ghorayshi is a strong proponent of gatekeeping trans healthcare via psychology and psychiatry, especially for minors.
Background
Azeen M. Ghorayshi was born in October 1988 and earned an undergraduate degree in biology from University of California, Berkeley in 2010. While there, Ghorayshi interned in UC Berkeley’s notoriously conservative and transphobic psychology department and in the neurobiology department. Ghorayshi then earned a master’s degree in science communication from Imperial College London.
Ghorayshi began writing as an Editorial Fellow at Mother Jones, then worked at the weekly East Bay Express in the Bay Area. Ghorayshi freelanced from 2013 to 2015, placing stories in New Scientist, The Guardian, Newsweek, Wired UK, and other outlets.
Ghorayshi co-founded Method Quarterly, a publication about science with Christina Agapakis. Other personnel included:
Ellie Harmon (editor in 2014)
Rose Eveleth (editor – presence scrubbed from site)
Ghorayshi joined BuzzFeed in 2015 as a science reporter, rising to science editor prior to departing.
Ghorayshi joined the New York Times in 2021, brought in by former Buzzfeed colleague Virginia Hughes.
Shortly after expressing this love, Ghorayshi presented Dreger as a “liberal” academic instead of an inaugural member of the intellectual dark web, a gateway to the far right. In a “both sides” piece about trans healthcare for youth, Ghorayshi also presented transphobic psychologist J. Michael Bailey and geneticist Eric Vilain as objective or centrist scientists in the middle of the non-affirming coalition, and the transphobic American College of Pediatricians as “religious conservatives.” Ghorayshi also uncritically presented Jesse Singal’s false version of why Kenneth Zucker was fired (Zucker’s practices were outlawed in 2015 under Bill 77), and showcases Debra Soh’s claim that the affirmative model of care “reinforces outdated stereotypes.” Ghorayshi then cites a conservative Breitbart piece that quotes Zucker, summarizing their view that affirmative care is a dangerous new fad in parenting.
New York Times transgender articles
In the New York Times, Ghorayshi also published “cisgender person under siege” profiles featuring hospital CEO John Warner, surgeon Sidhbh Gallagher, and gender affirming healthcare critic Jamie Reed.
The Warner piece was about the closure of Genecis Childrenâs Medical Center in Dallas following abortion clinic protest tactics targeting practitioners and leaders. Ghorayshi had described Genecis in the 2016 BuzzFeed piece.
The Gallagher piece was favorably shared by many fascist, gender critical, and cis journalist accounts, including white nationalist Richard Spencer and Daily Wire writer Christina Buttons, as well as gender critical activists Katie Herzog, Jesse Singal, Kenneth Zucker, Cathy Brennan, Julia Mason, and Helen Lewis. It was also shared by a number of Ghorayshi’s current and former colleagues, including Virginia Hughes, Cliff Levy, Christina Jewett, Jessica Silver-Greenberg, Ken Bensinger, Oliver Whang, Dan Saltzstein, Judy Rudin, Paul McLeod, Kadia Goba, Josh Barro, Ellie Hall, Derek Robertson, Alison Griffiths, Kinnon Ross MacKinnon, Tina S. Fondeles, Benjamin Goggin, Yeganeh Torbati, Steven Meiers, Jessica Garrison, Mark Yarm, Shannon Palus, Megan Twohey, and Michael Marshall.
“Low-quality evidence”
Ghorayshi wrote a piece about the American Academy of Pediatrics that prominently featured their critics, including anti-trans activist Julia Mason of the hate group Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine. Ghorayshi also parrots the “low-quality evidence” claim put forth by anti-trans activists, based on a scale devised by Gordon Guyatt. Federal judge Sarah E. Geraghty rejected these claims in a 2023 Georgia case where anti-trans activists Paul Hruz, Michael Laidlaw, and James Cantor testified against Yale University professor of pediatrics Meredithe McNamara:
The undisputed record shows that clinical medical decision-making, including in pediatric or adolescent medicine, often is not guided by evidence that would qualify as âhigh qualityâ on the scales used by Defendantsâ experts. 30 (Doc. 70-1, McNamara Decl. ¶¶ 23â28; Tr. 74:11â75:1 (McNamara Testimony); Tr. 133:614 (Hruz Testimony).) In fact, the record shows that less than 15 percent of medical treatments are supported by âhigh-quality evidence,â or in other words that 85 percent of evidence that guides clinical care, across all areas of medicine, would be classified as âlow-qualityâ under the scale used by Defendantsâ experts. (Doc. 70-1, McNamara Decl. ¶ 25; Tr. 74:11â75:1.) Defendants do not refute Dr. McNamaraâs testimony on this point, and indeed they âconcedeâ that âlow-qualityâ evidence âcan be considered.â 31
Geraghty also noted the obvious biases of Hruz, Laidlaw and Cantor:
Defendantsâ expertsâ insistence on a very high threshold of evidence in the context of claims about hormone therapyâs safety and benefits, and on the other hand their tolerance of a much lower threshold of evidence for claims about its risks, the likelihood of desistance and/or regret, and their notions about the ideological bias of a medical establishment that largely disagrees with them. That is cause for some concern about the weight to be assigned to their views, although the Court does not doubt that those they express are genuinely held.
(âDr. [Paul] Hruz fended and parried questions and generally testified as a deeply biased advocate, not as an expert sharing relevant evidence-based information and opinions. I do not credit his testimony.â); Eknes-Tucker v. Marshall, 603 F. Supp. 3d 1131, 1142â43 (M.D. Ala. 2022) (explaining that the court gave Dr. James Cantorâs âtestimony regarding the treatment of gender dysphoria in minors very little weightâ); C. P. by & through Pritchard v. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois, No. 3:20-CV-06145-RJB, 2022 WL 17092846, at *4 (W.D. Wash. Nov. 21, 2022) (noting that it was a âclose questionâ as to whether Dr. Michael Laidlaw was qualified to testify about the medical necessity of gender-affirming care because he has treated only two patients with gender dysphoria and has done no original research on gender identity).
Ghorayshi also wrote an article centered on Jamie Reed, an activist who supports “a national moratorium on the medicalization of kids.” Reed is represented by anti-trans lawyer Vernadette Broyles, who has stated the transgender rights movement poses an “existential threat to our culture.”
Urquhart, Evan (September 3, 2023). âYou Betrayed Us, Azeenâ: A story on the allegations of former St. Louis gender clinic staffer Jamie Reed left parents who spoke with NYT reporter Azeen Ghorayshi crushed. Assigned https://www.assignedmedia.org/breaking-news/you-betrayed-us-azeen-parents-of-trans-youth-reeling-after-speaking-to-the-nyt
Sapir Leor (August 25, 2023). A Slow Trek Back to Truth?City Journal https://www.city-journal.org/article/a-slow-trek-back-to-truth
Clark-Callender, Rebecca (August 11, 2023). How the Times Covers Trans Rights. On the Media https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm/segments/what-we-missed-how-press-covers-trans-rights-on-the-media
Ghorayshi, Azeen (April 18, 2024). Scotland Pauses Gender Medications for Minors.New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/18/health/scotland-pauses-hormones-puberty-blockers-transgender.html
Ghorayshi, Azeen (April 20, 2022). When Texas Went After Transgender Care, Part 1. New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/20/podcasts/the-daily/transgender-teenagers-clinic-texas.html
Ghorayshi, Azeen (November 2015). Conversations With Anne Fausto-Sterling.Method Quarterly http://www.methodquarterly.com/2015/11/conversations-with-anne-fausto-sterling/
Note: In 2025, this site phased out AI illustrations after artist feedback. The previous illustration is here.
Caitlyn Jenner is an American media personality and Olympic gold medalist. Upon coming out as transgender in 2015, Jenner became the most famous transgender person alive. Jenner’s conservative views frequently cause tension with more progressive trans community members.
Background
Caitlyn Marie Jenner was born on October 28, 1949 in Mount Kisco, New York. Jenner attended high school in Sleepy Hollow, New York and Newtown, Connecticut. Jenner earned a bachelor’s degree from Graceland College in 1973. While there, Jenner played football until an injury forced a switch to decathlon. Jenner placed 10th in decathlon at the 1972 Summer Olympics. After that, Jenner dominated the event through the 1976 Summer Olympics. That gold medal and world record made Jenner a national hero.
Jenner secured many endorsement deals and began appearing in film and television regularly for the next 30 years. In 2007 Jenner’s family starred in the hit reality series Keeping Up with the Kardashians.
Jenner has been married three times and has six children and four stepchildren. Jenner was married to Kris Kardashian from 1991 to 2015. In 2015, as transition rumors swirled, Jenner was involved in a fatal car crash. Jenner and trans entrepreneur Sophia Hutchins met in 2015 and have a close friendship.
As a transgender public figure
Jenner’s coming out as trans caused a media frenzy, including appearances on magazine covers and many interviews in print and television. Jenner starred in the reality series I Am Cait with “friends” Jennifer Finney Boylan, Candis Cayne, Zackary Drucker, Chandi Moore, Jen Richards, Mimi Marks, and Kate Bornstein. Jenner also made a cameo on Transparent and continued appearing in film and television. Jenner was named one of 25 Glamour Women of the Year and received other recognitions, including the 2016 Time 100. In 2017 Jenner published a memoir, The Secrets of My Life, and had facial feminization surgery and bottom surgery.
Jenner made a number of controversial comments after coming out, such as joking that the hardest part about being a woman “is figuring out what to wear.” The glib sexist comments combined with the media attention led to a backlash among many conservatives and anti-transgender activists.
Jenner has continued to take conservative positions and make controversial comments about LGBT issues that have led to backlash from the community. Ellen Degeneres pressed Jenner about opposing gay marriage. Jenner’s comments about transgender athletes became a major talking point in 2021 during an unsuccessful run for California governor. In 2022 Jenner joined Fox News as an on-air contributor. In 2023 Jenner founded the Fairness First PAC “to keep boys out of women’s sports.”
The previous version of this site had occasional essays and news posts between 2003 and 2014. This is an archive of those notes, shown in reverse chronological order.
Items in bold have been ported to this site. Other links go to archive.org for now.
I wrote a few essays in 2003, outlining philosophical and theoretical issues that have an effect on our community and beyond. They were intended to correct misunderstandings which arise in the course of debates.
This addresses accusations that I am “anti-science” and gives an overview of some ethical issues raised by first-wave sexologists like Bailey-Blanchard-Lawrence.
A reply to a post from Kendra Blewitt regarding my comments about those who identify as “autogynephiles.”
Scott Leibowitz is an American pediatric psychiatrist best known for working with gender diverse youth and with anti-trans journalists.
Like many psychologists and psychiatrists who get paid to do them, Leibowitz promotes “comprehensive psychological assessments,” a form of gatekeeping used for over a century to delay or deny medical transition options for trans and gender diverse people.
Leibowitz is a key source for journalists who feel it has become too easy for adolescents and young adults to get hormones and surgery, covering trans healthcare like an unfolding medical scandal. Leibowitz participated in numerous articles about the ex-transgender movement, most notably pieces by anti-trans activists Jesse Singal in The Atlantic and Emily Bazelon in the New York Times. Those pieces have been cited in proposed legislation banning trans healthcare.
Leibowitz believes that science, medicine, and journalism can somehow be separated from politics. In 2024, despite Leibowitz’s objections, Ohio passed HB 68 banning the care that Leibowitz offers in that state.
Background
Scott Farrell Leibowitz was born on May 20, 1978 in Smithtown, New York. Leibowitz earned a bachelorâs degree from Cornell University and a medical degree from the Tel Aviv University Sackler School of Medicine New York State/American Program. Leibowitz completed residencies at the Zucker Hillside Hospital in Queens and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine’s Long Island Jewish Health System. Leibowitz then did a Fellowship at the children’s gender clinic at Boston Childrenâs Hospital with colleague Laura Edwards-Leeper. In 2013 Leibowitz took a similar position at the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Childrenâs Hospital in Chicago. In 2015 Leibowitz was recruited to Nationwide Childrenâs in Columbus, Ohio.
2018 Atlantic article
Leibowitz was quoted throughout a 2018 Atlantic article by Jesse Singal on the ex-transgender movement. Similar to the ex-gay movement, the people who promote the medicalized concepts of “desistance” and “detransition” believe that interest in gender transition is a disease that can resolve on its own or through medical intervention. Proponents of these loaded terms make several assumptions that are not value-neutral and therefore not scientific.
[Laura] Edwards-Leeper is hoping to promote a concept of affirming care that takes into account the developmental nuances that so often come up in her clinical work. In this effort, she is joined by Scott Leibowitz, a psychiatrist who treats children and adolescents. He is the medical director of behavioral health for the THRIVE program at Nationwide Childrenâs Hospital, in Columbus. Leibowitz has a long history of working with and supporting TGNC youthâhe served as an expert witness for the Department of Justice in 2016, when President Barack Obamaâs administration challenged state-level âbathroom billsâ that sought to prevent trans people from using the public bathroom associated with their gender identity. Edwards-Leeper and Leibowitz met at Boston Childrenâs, where Leibowitz did his psychiatry fellowship, and the two have been close friends and collaborators ever since.
While itâs understandable, for historical reasons, why some people associate comprehensive psychological assessments with denial of access to care, that isnât how Leibowitz and Edwards-Leeper view their approach. Yes, they want to discern whether a patient actually has gender dysphoria. But comprehensive assessments and ongoing mental-health work are also means of ensuring that transitioningâwhich can be a physically and emotionally taxing process for adolescents even under the best of circumstancesâgoes smoothly.
[…]
Scottâs assessment process centered mostly on the basic readiness questions Edwards-Leeper and Leibowitz are convinced should be asked of any young person considering hormones.
[…]
But progressive-minded parents can sometimes be a problem for their kids as well. Several of the clinicians I spoke with, including Nate Sharon, Laura Edwards-Leeper, and Scott Leibowitz, recounted new patientsâ arriving at their clinics, their parents having already developed detailed plans for them to transition. âIâve actually had patients with parents pressuring me to recommend their kids start hormones,â Sharon said.
[…]
Leibowitz noted that a relationship with a caring therapist may itself be an important prophylactic against suicidal ideation for TGNC youth: âOften for the first time having a medical or mental-health professional tell them that they are going to take them seriously and really listen to them and hear their story often helps them feel better than theyâve ever felt.â
[…]
âWould you rather have a live daughter or a dead son?â is a common response to such questions. âThis type of narrative takes an already fearful parent and makes them even more afraid, which is hardly the type of mind-set one would want a parent to be in when making a complex lifelong decision for their adolescent,â Leibowitz said.
Johanna Olson-Kennedy, a physician who specializes in pediatric and adolescent medicine at Childrenâs Hospital Los Angeles and who is the medical director of the Center for Transyouth Health and Development, is one of the most sought-out voices on these issues, and has significant differences with Edwards-Leeper and Leibowitz. In âMental Health Disparities Among Transgender Youth: Rethinking the Role of Professionals,â a 2016 JAMAPediatrics article, she wrote that âestablishing a therapeutic relationship entails honesty and a sense of safety that can be compromised if young people believe that what they need and deserve (potentially blockers, hormones, or surgery) can be denied them according to the information they provide to the therapist.â
[…]
Perhaps a first step is to recognize detransitioners and desisters as being on the same âsideâ as happily transitioned trans people. Members of each of these groups have experienced gender dysphoria at some point, and all have a right to compassionate, comprehensive care, whether or not that includes hormones or surgery. âThe detransitioner is probably just as scarred by the system as the transitioner who didnât have access to transition,â Leibowitz told me. The best way to build a system that fails fewer people is to acknowledge the staggering complexity of gender dysphoriaâand to acknowledge just how early we are in the process of understanding it.
The story is about the editing of the WPATH Standards of Care 8 chapter on youth.
Leibowitz, [Annelou] de Vries and their co-authors held their ground on assessments. The final version of their chapter said that because of the limited long-term research, treatment without a comprehensive diagnostic assessment âhas no empirical support and therefore carries the risk that the decision to start gender-affirming medical interventions may not be in the long-term best interest of the young person at that time.â
[from original version] In his Atlantic story, Singal also justified his skepticism of letting kids transition by relying heavily on two care providers, Scott Leibowitz and Laura Edwards-Leeper, who believe in the desistance myth, and whom Singal has cited in the past. Despite the fact that their views are shared by few other experts, Singal has suggested in the past that their theory is mainstream.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article referenced child and adolescent psychiatrist Scott Leibowitz and his colleague Laura Edwards-Leeper in a context that misrepresented their work. It has been updated to remove reference to them.
Singal, Jesse (July 2018). When a child says she’s trans. The Atlantic https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/07/when-a-child-says-shes-trans/561749/
Simons LK, Leibowitz SF, Hidalgo MA (2014). Understanding gender variance in children and adolescents. Pediatr Ann. 2014 Jun;43(6):e126-31. https://doi.org/10.3928/00904481-20140522-07
Edwards-Leeper L, Leibowitz SF, Sangganjanavanich VF (2016). Affirmative practice with transgender and gender nonconforming youth: Expanding the model. Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity 3(2):165-172 https://doi.org/10.1037/sgd0000167
Calzo JP, Melchiono M, Richmond TK, Leibowitz SF, Argenal RL, Goncalves A, Pitts S, Gooding HC, Burke P (2017). Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Adolescent Health: An Interprofessional Case Discussion. MedEdPORTAL. 2017 Aug 9;13:10615. https://doi.org/10.15766/mep_2374-8265.10615
Janssen A, Scott Leibowitz SF, eds. (2018). Affirmative Mental Health Care for Transgender and Gender Diverse Youth: A Clinical Guide. ISBN 9783319783079
The research term for this is desistance. This has become a rather controversial discussion because the studies themselves vary in the populations they included and how they handled the children that were lost to follow up.
Strang JF, Powers MD, Knauss M, Sibarium E, Leibowitz SF, Kenworthy L, Sadikova E, Wyss S, Willing L, Caplan R, Pervez N, Nowak J, Gohari D, Gomez-Lobo V, Call D, Anthony LG (2018). “They Thought It Was an Obsession”: Trajectories and Perspectives of Autistic Transgender and Gender-Diverse Adolescents. J Autism Dev Disord. 2018 Dec;48(12):4039-4055. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-018-3723-6
Strang JF, Janssen A, Tishelman A, Leibowitz SF, Kenworthy L, McGuire JK, Edwards-Leeper L, Mazefsky CA, Rofey D, Bascom J, Caplan R, Gomez-Lobo V, Berg D, Zaks Z, Wallace GL, Wimms H, Pine-Twaddell E, Shumer D, Register-Brown K, Sadikova E, Anthony LG (2018). Revisiting the Link: Evidence of the Rates of Autism in Studies of Gender Diverse Individuals. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2018 Nov;57(11):885-887. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaac.2018.04.023
Leibowitz SF, Lantos JD (2019). Affirming, Balanced, and Comprehensive Care for Transgender Teenagers. Pediatrics. June 2019, 143 (6) e20190995 https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2019-0995
Exhibit 37: Expert Declaration of Scott F. Leibowitz, MD. United States of America v. State of North Carolina, et al. (2017). No. 1:16-cv-00425 [PDF] https://www.aclu.org/sites/default/files/field_document/de_076-37_-_leibowitz_decl_iso_mot_for_pi_us_07-06-2016.pdf
Leibowitz SF, Telingator C (2012). Assessing gender identity concerns in children and adolescents: evaluation, treatments, and outcomes. Curr Psychiatry Rep. 2012 Apr;14(2):111-20. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11920-012-0259-x
Leibowitz SF, Norman Spack (2011). The development of a gender identity psychosocial clinic: treatment issues, logistical considerations, interdisciplinary cooperation, and future initiatives. Child Adolesc Psychiatr Clin N Am. 2011 Oct;20(4):701-24. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chc.2011.07.004
Stoddard J, Leibowitz SF, Ton H, Snowdon S (2011). Improving medical education about gender-variant youth and transgender adolescents. Child Adolesc Psychiatr Clin N Am. 2011 Oct;20(4):779-91. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chc.2011.07.008
Note: In 2025, this site phased out AI illustrations after artist feedback. The previous illustration is here.
Laura Edwards-Leeper is a conservative American psychologist best known for working with gender diverse youth. Edwards-Leeper has become a favored source for journalists promoting the ex-transgender movement and a leading voice in a faction of therapists who have “concerns” that affirmative models of care for trans youth do not have enough gatekeeping. Edwards-Leeper believes trans people and their families should pay someone like her before getting access to medical transition options.
Background
Laura Ann Edwards-Leeper was born on January 18, 1975. Edwards-Leeper earned a bachelor’s degree from Lewis & Clark College in 1997, then attended Bowling Green State University, earning a graduate certificate in 2003 and a doctorate in 2004. Edwards-Leeper did internships through Montana State University, Bozeman at Crow/Northern Cheyenne Hospital and through Cambridge Health Alliance/Harvard Medical School.
Edwards-Leeper is married to Todd Steven Edwards-Leeper (born 1973).
Transgender youth
Edwards-Leeper worked closely with endocrinologist Norman Spack at Boston Children’s Hospital. Spack is an innovator in offering medical options to gender diverse youth, founding the Gender Management Service (GeMS) there in 2007. Edwards-Leeper and Spack co-authored several articles through 2012, when Edwards-Leeper left GeMs for a similar role at Seattle Children’s Hospital. After a year, Edwards-Leeper went into private practice.
After 2012, Edwards-Leeper began publishing on the correlation between neurodiversity and gender diversity.
2018 Atlantic article
Edwards-Leeper was quoted throughout a 2018 Atlantic article by Jesse Singal on the ex-transgender movement. Similar to the ex-gay movement, the people who promote the medicalized concepts of âdesistanceâ and âdetransitionâ believe that being trans is a disease that can resolve on it own or through medical intervention. Proponents of these loaded terms make several assumptions that are not value-neutral and therefore not scientific.
Singal presents Edwards-Leeper and fellow clinicians Erica Anderson and Dianne Berg as therapists who have “concerns” that more affirming care for minors may lead to negative transition outcomes. Edwards-Leeper’s assessment methods had led to a controversial reputation, Critics reportedly “nearly threw things” at Edwards-Leeper at conferences:
Those conference troubles signaled to Edwards-Leeper that her field had shifted in ways she found discomfiting. At one conference a few years ago, she recalled, a co-panelist who was a well-respected clinician in her field said that Edwards-Leeperâs comprehensive assessments required kids to âjump through more fiery hoopsâ and were âretraumatizing.â This prompted a standing ovation from the audience, mostly families of TGNC young people. During another panel discussion, at the same conference with the same clinician, but this time geared toward fellow clinicians, the same thing happened: more claims that assessments were traumatizing, more raucous applause.
Edwards-Leeper isnât alone in worrying that the field is straying from its own established best practices. âUnder the motivation to be supportive and to be affirming and to be nonstigmatizing, I think the pendulum has swung so far that now weâre maybe not looking as critically at the issues as we should be,â the National Center for Gender Spectrum Healthâs Dianne Berg told me. Erica Anderson, the UCSF clinician, expressed similar concerns: âSome of the stories weâve heard about detransitioning, I fear, are related to people who hastily embarked on medical interventions and decided that they werenât for them, and didnât thoroughly vet their decision either by themselves or with professional people who could help them.â
Singal (2018)
Via Jenny Cyphers, an activist in the ex-trans movement:
Two of the most important aspects of my familyâs experience that are not adequately addressed in the Atlantic article, are: 1) my daughter was given a clinical diagnosis of gender dysphoria, so she was just as âtruly transâ as the next kid, and 2) it was my insistence that my child wait to medically transition, not her therapistâs. My teenâs therapist, Laura Edwards-Leeper, listened to me and agreed. We were lucky. While there are some cautious, thoughtful providers, the current situation in the US is that there is also no oversight. The most vocal professionals are firmly in the affirmation camp which believes, without any long-term data to validate, that withholding hormonal interventions is tantamount to abuse.
2021 60 Minutes segment
Edwards-Leeper appeared on a 60 Minutes segment about the ex-transgender movement and was presented as a practitioner of “comprehensive assessment” in a way that suggested some colleagues were not doing this. When CBS’s Lesley Stahl asked about “this whole area of accepting what young people are saying too readily,” Edwards-Leeper said:
Yes, everyone is very scared to speak up because we’re afraid of not being seen as affirming or supportive of these young people or doing something to hurt the trans community. But even some of the providers are trans themselves and share these concerns.
This is a reference to conservative trans therapist Erica Anderson, who also appeared in the segment.
2021 Washington Post op-ed
Edwards-Leeper again joined fellow conservative clinician Erica Anderson to denounce what they consider insufficient gatekeeping in healthcare for trans and gender diverse youth.
In response, DC-area parents Rachel Cornwell and Liz Matthews wrote:
As parents of transgender youths, we are deeply concerned by Laura Edwards-Leeper and Erica Andersonâs Nov. 28 Outlook essay, âThe mental health establishment is failing trans kids.â Though we agree with their conclusion that improvements in care for gender-diverse youths are needed, their alarmist concerns about insufficient psychological evaluations for gender-affirming care are unfounded and sensationalized.
The writers based their opinion on anecdotal experiences and even admitted that âproviders and their behavior havenât been closely studied.â They pointed to a single study of an extremely small number of people who have detransitioned to support their argument in favor of delaying or even denying gender-affirming medical care to gender-diverse youths. They recklessly conflate safe, reversible medical interventions such as hormone blockers with more permanent gender-confirmation treatments such as surgeries, which are typically not performed on minors in the United States. And they dangerously play down the risk of suicide that can result from denying gender-affirming care.
Thousands of trans youths are now thriving because of gender-affirming care. Thankfully, our children are among that number because of the intervention of mental health providers and physicians, as well as the support of our communities. Trans kids need all the support they can get because they live in a world that too often denies and degrades them. That is why itâs such a shame that the authors would increase barriers to accessing gender-affirming care, rather than expand access for all who need it.
Clinician AJ Eckert, who was identified in the piece, wrote:
The essay misrepresented gender-affirming care, which is nuanced, complex and comprehensive. The writers mischaracterized transgender youths and pushed a damaging pseudoscientific narrative that serves to further limit health care for an already underserved, marginalized and vulnerable population. The writers leaned on the World Professional Association for Transgender Healthâs standards of care but failed to note that the standards acknowledge the damaging and irreversible consequences of an incongruent puberty, reject the stereotype of trans psychopathology and include harm-reduction strategies.
Contrary to the anti-trans arguments spread throughout mass media and repeated by the writers, research shows that detransition and regret are rare, trans youth suicide rates are alarmingly high, and trans children supported in their identities have better mental health outcomes. One of their most egregious lies was that those opposed to gender-affirming care are being silenced. This article was proof that isnât true.
Trans children deserve love, support and thoughtful medical care as much as cisgender children do. Pieces such as this are responsible for the closure of gender clinics, anti-trans sentiment and the spate of laws and regulations targeting trans youths.
Strang JF, McClellan LS, Raaijmakers D, Caplan R, Klomp SE, Reutter M, Lai MC, Song M, Gratton FV, Dale LK, Schutte A, de Vries ALC, Gardiner F, Edwards-Leeper L, Minnaard AL, Eleveld NL, Corbin E, Purkis Y, Lawson W, Kim DY, van Wieringen IM, RodrĂguez-RoldĂĄn VM, Harris MC, Wilks MF, Abraham G, Balleur-van Rijn A, Brown LXZ, Forshaw A, Wilks GB, Griffin AD, Graham EK, Krause S, Pervez N, Bok IA, Song A, Fischbach AL, van der Miesen AIR (2023). The Gender-Diversity and Autism Questionnaire: A Community-Developed Clinical, Research, and Self-Advocacy Tool for Autistic Transgender and Gender-Diverse Young Adults. Autism Adulthood. 2023 Jun 1;5(2):175-190. https://doi.org/10.1089/aut.2023.0002
Coleman E, Radix AE, Bouman WP, Brown GR, de Vries ALC, Deutsch MB, Ettner R, Fraser L, Goodman M, Green J, Hancock AB, Johnson TW, Karasic DH, Knudson GA, Leibowitz SF, Meyer-Bahlburg HFL, Monstrey SJ, Motmans J, Nahata L, Nieder TO, Reisner SL, Richards C, Schechter LS, Tangpricha V, Tishelman AC, Van Trotsenburg MAA, Winter S, Ducheny K, Adams NJ, AdriĂĄn TM, Allen LR, Azul D, Bagga H, BaĆar K, Bathory DS, Belinky JJ, Berg DR, Berli JU, Bluebond-Langner RO, Bouman MB, Bowers ML, Brassard PJ, Byrne J, CapitĂĄn L, Cargill CJ, Carswell JM, Chang SC, Chelvakumar G, Corneil T, Dalke KB, De Cuypere G, de Vries E, Den Heijer M, Devor AH, Dhejne C, D’Marco A, Edmiston EK, Edwards-Leeper L, Ehrbar R, Ehrensaft D, Eisfeld J, Elaut E, Erickson-Schroth L, Feldman JL, Fisher AD, Garcia MM, Gijs L, Green SE, Hall BP, Hardy TLD, Irwig MS, Jacobs LA, Janssen AC, Johnson K, Klink DT, Kreukels BPC, Kuper LE, Kvach EJ, Malouf MA, Massey R, Mazur T, McLachlan C, Morrison SD, Mosser SW, Neira PM, Nygren U, Oates JM, Obedin-Maliver J, Pagkalos G, Patton J, Phanuphak N, Rachlin K, Reed T, Rider GN, Ristori J, Robbins-Cherry S, Roberts SA, Rodriguez-Wallberg KA, Rosenthal SM, Sabir K, Safer JD, Scheim A⊠(2022). Standards of Care for the Health of Transgender and Gender Diverse People, Version 8. Int J Transgend Health. 2022 Sep 6;23(Suppl 1):S1-S259. https://doi.org/10.1080/26895269.2022.2100644
Spivey LA, Edwards-Leeper L (2019). Future Directions in Affirmative Psychological Interventions with Transgender Children and Adolescents. J Clin Child Adolesc Psychol. 2019 Mar-Apr;48(2):343-356. https://doi.org/10.1080/15374416.2018.1534207
Strang JF, Janssen A, Tishelman A, Leibowitz SF, Kenworthy L, McGuire JK, Edwards-Leeper L, Mazefsky CA, Rofey D, Bascom J, Caplan R, Gomez-Lobo V, Berg D, Zaks Z, Wallace GL, Wimms H, Pine-Twaddell E, Shumer D, Register-Brown K, Sadikova E, Anthony LG (2018). Revisiting the Link: Evidence of the Rates of Autism in Studies of Gender Diverse Individuals. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2018 Nov;57(11):885-887. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaac.2018.04.023
Chen D, Edwards-Leeper L, Stancin T, Tishelman A. Advancing the Practice of Pediatric Psychology with Transgender Youth: State of the Science (2018), Ongoing Controversies, and Future Directions. Clin Pract Pediatr Psychol. 2018 Mar;6(1):73-83. https://doi.org/10.1037/cpp0000229
Strang JF, Meagher H, Kenworthy L, de Vries ALC, Menvielle E, Leibowitz S, Janssen A, Cohen-Kettenis P, Shumer DE, Edwards-Leeper L, Pleak RR, Spack N, Karasic DH, Schreier H, Balleur A, Tishelman A, Ehrensaft D, Rodnan L, Kuschner ES, Mandel F, Caretto A, Lewis HC, Anthony LG (2018). Initial Clinical Guidelines for Co-Occurring Autism Spectrum Disorder and Gender Dysphoria or Incongruence in Adolescents. J Clin Child Adolesc Psychol. 2018 Jan-Feb;47(1):105-115. https://doi.org/10.1080/15374416.2016.1228462
Shumer DE, Reisner SL, Edwards-Leeper L, Tishelman A (2016). Evaluation of Asperger Syndrome in Youth Presenting to a Gender Dysphoria Clinic. LGBT Health. 2016 Oct;3(5):387-90. https://doi.org/10.1089/lgbt.2015.0070
Tishelman AC, Kaufman R, Edwards-Leeper L, Mandel FH, Shumer DE, Spack NP (2015). Serving Transgender Youth: Challenges, Dilemmas and Clinical Examples. Prof Psychol Res Pr. 2015;46(1):37-45. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0037490
Tishelman AC, Kaufman R, Edwards-Leeper L, Mandel FH, Shumer DE, Spack NP (2015). Reply to comment on “Serving Transgender Youth: Challenges, Dilemmas, and Clinical Examples” by Tishelman et al. (2015). Prof Psychol Res Pr. 2015 Aug;46(4):307. https://doi.org/10.1037/pro0000029
Children and adolescents with gender identity disorder referred to a pediatric medical center. Spack NP, Edwards-Leeper L, Feldman HA, Leibowitz S, Mandel F, Diamond DA, Vance SR. Pediatrics. 2012 Mar;129(3):418-25. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2011-0907
Edwards-Leeper L, Spack NP (2012). Psychological evaluation and medical treatment of transgender youth in an interdisciplinary âGender Management Serviceâ (GeMS) in a major pediatric center. Journal of Homosexuality, 59 (3), 321-336. https://doi.org/10.1080/00918369.2012.653302
Spack NP, Edwards-Leeper L, Feldman HA, Leibowitz S, Mandel F, Diamond DA, Vance SR (2012). Children and adolescents with gender identity disorder referred to a pediatric medical center. Pediatrics, 129 (3), 418-425. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2011-0907
Edwards-Leeper L, Spack NP (2012). Psychological Evaluation and Medical Treatment of Transgender Youth in an Interdisciplinary âGender Management Serviceâ (GeMS) in a Major Pediatric Center. Journal of Homosexuality 59(3):321-36. https://doi.org/10.1080/00918369.2012.653302
Spack NP, Edwards-Leeper L (2011). Medical treatment of the transgender adolescent. In Fisher M, Alderman E, Kreipe R, Rosenfeld W (Eds). Textbook of Adolescent Health Care. American Academy of Pediatrics, ISBN 9781581102697
Edwards-Leeper L, Spack NP (2011). Gender identity disorder. In Augustyn M, Zuckerman B, Caronna EB (Eds.), The Zuckerman Parker Handbook of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics for Primary Care (3rd ed., pp. 229-233). Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. ISBN 978-1608319145
