Yesterday, I broke the news in The New York Sun that since 2018, Boston Children’s Hospital has had a policy in its pediatric gender clinic of only allocating two hours for psychologists to assess gender dysphoric kids and determine whether to refer them to an endocrinologist for gender-transition treatment. (I encourage you to read the article and to share my tweet thread about it.) In this podcast, I provide sound clips from the testimony of leaders at this gender clinic who spoke about these policies at an ongoing civil trial in Boston.
I think the public will find remarkable, to say the least, the manner in which these mental-health professionals discuss how they care for these vulnerable children. Whereas many skeptics and critics will no doubt be shocked by Boston Children’s policies, considering them indicative of a presumed problem in which troubled children are rushed onto these life-altering medications, they are likely to be further stunned by how sanguine and matter-of-fact these leaders at the hospital are about discussing doing so.
Here are various studies, articles and videos to which I refer in the podcast:
Click here for my article in The New York Sun about the Cass Review.
Dr. Robert Garofalo of Lurie Children’s in Chicago discusses how he deals with parental anxieties about their gender-dysphoric kids in a video clip you can see by clicking here.
Here’s the full Dr. Garofalo video interview:
Click here for Jack Turban and Diane Ehrensaft’s paper on how to do an assessment of a gender-dysphoric child.
I am an independent journalist, specializing in science and health care coverage. I contribute to The New York Times, The Guardian, NBC News and The New York Sun. I have also written for the Washington Post, The Atlantic and The Nation. Follow me on Twitter: @benryanwriter. Visit my website: benryan.net
“I thought it was appropriate." Hear Testimony From Boston Children’s On Why They Slashed to 2 Hours the Assessments For Kids Seeking Gender-Transition Treatment