The New York Times (NYT) on Wednesday confirmed whistleblower Jamie Reed’s account of gender transitions at the Washington University Transgender Center at St. Louis Children’s Hospital.
Reed, who identifies as “a queer woman” and is married to a transgender person, detailed in February how in one case, a mother of an 11-year-old “tomboy” brought her daughter in to the St. Louis Children’s Hospital transgender clinic. When the girl’s father allegedly objected to his daughter’s transition, a judge sided with the mother after a hospital worker testified against him, Reed wrote.
“Given the secrecy and lack of rigorous standards that characterize youth gender transition across the country, 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 wrote in her February whistleblower report.
Reed’s allegations about cursory standards of care at the transgender clinic prompted an investigation into the center by Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, who said Feb. 9 that his office was “thoroughly investigating to make sure children are not harmed by individuals who may be more concerned with a radical social agenda than the health of children.”
The NYT interviewed dozens of patients, parents, former employees and medical professionals for its report on the St. Louis transgender clinic, as well as examined hundreds of pages of documents shared with the outlet by Reed. (RELATED: ‘Nonbinary Femme’ Performs Caricature Of Womanhood In New Ad For Company Named After Hardworking Housewife)
“Some of Ms. Reed’s claims could not be confirmed, and at least one included factual inaccuracies,” the NYT found. “But others were corroborated, offering a rare glimpse into one of the 100 or so clinics in the United States that have been at the center of an intensifying fight over transgender rights.”
Hey @chrislhayes: today @nytimes confirmed @JamieWhistle‘s account. Very happy to gift you a subscription to @TheFP. https://t.co/Nrjs3GJpcv
— Bari Weiss (@bariweiss) August 23, 2023
A spike in demand for cross-sex hormones at the St. Louis gender clinic was more than the two psychologists at the clinic could handle alone in 2022, according to the NYT. As a result, the clinic reportedly hired outside psychologists with little to no experience in transgender medicine. Multiple teenagers sought cross-sex hormones at the clinic everyday, but few were receiving therapy, according to the outlet. Doctors would prescribe hormones to patients, including adolescents, “whose medical histories raised red flags.”
“Some of these patients [with red flags] later stopped identifying as transgender, and received little to no support from the clinic after doing so,” the NYT reported.
Multiple parents and patients did report positive outcomes from treatment they received at the St. Louis gender clinic, according to the NYT. Patients said they were offered paperwork identifying the risks and irreversible effects associated with certain medical treatments, such as cross-sex hormones.
But other patients interviewed by the NYT reported a lack of communication when they contacted the hospital to have the effects of their transgender hormones or surgery reversed. One patient emailed to get a referral for a voice coach to fix her altered voice from cross-sex hormones, noting she also wanted an autism screening, something she had mentioned “before at appointments and over email, but it did not seem to go anywhere.” Another patient contacted the clinic twice about having her mastectomy reversed, and received no reply, according to the outlet. The NYT did not release the names of either patient.
In May, MSNBC host Chris Hayes said other outlets had “found no corroboration for the very disconcerting and specific allegations in the first report,” referring to Reed’s whistleblower report.
“Many people approvingly cited the first report and I’m kinda wondering at what point we can draw some conclusions about this entire episode. I guess it’s possible that there’s been a huge cover-up of flagrant and systemic deception and mistreatment at the clinic but at this point I think it’s pretty unlikely that’s the case?” Hayes continued.
Substack author Erin Reed said the allegations Jamie Reed made were “being pushed by the worst of the worst anti-trans voices on the internet.”
NYT contributor Benjamin Ryan, as well as NBC News, also echoed claims Reed’s allegations were “unsubstantiated.”
Parents of patients at the clinic interviewed by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch defended the clinic, but in so doing corroborated many of Reed’s allegations. Some told the outlet their children had anxiety, autism, and/or borderline personality disorder and other serious mental health conditions when they were diagnosed with gender dysphoria. Another parent said that the clinic had often mentioned that their daughter was at risk for suicide if not offered transgender medical interventions, something the parent viewed as a scare tactic.
Washington University in St. Louis told the NYT “it would not address specific allegations because of patient privacy, and that ‘physicians and staff have treated patients according to the existing standard of care.'”