Informed Dissent

LGB Courage Coalition

You Have Permission to Question, Scrutinize, Push Back, and Dissent! Jamie Reed, Cori Cohn, and Lauren Leggieri report on their adventures and misadventures trying to explain and mitigate the gender culture wars. We will publish most weeks, focusing some on the news and some on important topics from social transition to lawsuits to what the heck the word “gender” means. informeddissentpodcast.substack.com

  1. Turban and Karasic at the APA: The Full Audio

    8 HR AGO

    Turban and Karasic at the APA: The Full Audio

    INFORMED DISSENT — Special Edition Monday, May 19, 2026 About This Episode This episode contains audio recorded inside Session 1193 at the 2026 American Psychiatric Association Annual Meeting in San Francisco, held Saturday, May 16, 2026. The session was a Continuing Medical Education offering titled Transgender Care: Update on Evidence Base and Clinical Practice of Primary Care Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Adult Psychiatry. It ran from 8:30 to 10:00 AM Pacific Time in Room 201 of the Moscone Center. CME credit was available to attending psychiatrists. The session was chaired by Dr. Dan Karasic and presented by Dr. Jack Turban. We received the audio, verified its authenticity, and are releasing it in full. The only alterations made were to audio quality. A PDF of Dr. Karasic’s slide deck is available below. Audio note: Dr. Karasic’s presentation opens with embedded video clips, including a clip of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and a clip of Dr. Karasic in a news segment. The audio quality on those clips is limited by recording conditions and is harder to hear than the rest of the session. It improves once those clips have played. The Conference The American Psychiatric Association Annual Meeting is the largest gathering of psychiatrists in the United States. The 2026 meeting took place May 16–19 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. CME sessions at the meeting offer accredited continuing education credit to licensed psychiatrists and other mental health providers. The Presenters Dr. Dan Karasic, MD is Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry at UCSF. He received his MD from Yale University and trained at the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute. He is the lead author of the Mental Health chapter of the WPATH Standards of Care, Version 8, and serves as Chair of the APA Workgroup on Gender Dysphoria. He is a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association. In May 2023, audio from a presentation Karasic delivered at the San Francisco Trans Health Summit, titled “Managing Patients with Co-Occurring Mental Health Diagnoses,” was published by The Post Millennial and subsequently released in full by the Transparency podcast (Gender Dysphoria Alliance). In that presentation, Karasic addressed the treatment of verbally impaired autistic patients and discussed drawing as a mode of communicating gender identity. The remarks generated significant public attention. In Saturday’s session, Dr. Karasic returned to that controversy directly, including a screenshot of a tweet about it in his slide deck. (2023 audio sources: Mia Ashton, The Post Millennial, May 10, 2023; “Special Series – National Transgender Health Summit – Ep. 2 – Dr. Karasic,” Transparency, Gender Dysphoria Alliance, June 4, 2023 — Apple Podcasts / Spotify ) Dr. Jack Turban, MD, MHS is an Assistant Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Health Policy at UCSF and Founding Director of the UCSF Gender Psychiatry Program. He trained at Harvard (BA, neurobiology), completed his psychiatry residency at McLean Hospital/Harvard Medical School, and his child and adolescent psychiatry fellowship at Stanford. He is the author of Free to Be: Understanding Kids & Gender Identity (Simon & Schuster, 2024). His research on pediatric gender medicine has been cited in legislative debates and federal court proceedings. He has served as a paid expert witness for the ACLU in legal challenges to state restrictions on pediatric gender medicine. Coming Soon: We will release audio from Transgender Psychiatrists Speak: Reflections From Training, Patient Care and Professional Practice, chaired by Dr. Jack Drescher also from the APA Conference. Stay Informed and Ready to Dissent. lgbcourage.org This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit informeddissentpodcast.substack.com/subscribe

    1hr 33min

  2. 2 DAYS AGO

    Sex, Law, and the Last Best Place

    Montana has passed some of the most clearly sex-realist legislation in the country — and its courts are using one of the most expansive state constitutions in the country to block it. This week, Jamie sits down with Derek Oestericher, Chief Legal Counsel and Director of Government Affairs at the Montana Family Foundation, for a deep dive into three active cases that will shape not just Montana law, but the national conversation about what “sex” means as a legal category. The episode opens with Jamie’s breakdown of the legal landscape: SB 458, which defined “sex” throughout Montana’s statutes as biological sex determined at birth; the Kalarchik case challenging the state’s birth certificate and driver’s license policies; the Cross case, in which a 2023 pediatric gender medicine ban has been enjoined; and the Perkins bathroom case, currently enjoined at the trial court level. Jamie explains why these cases are still very much alive despite the preliminary injunctions — and why the distinction between a ruling on an injunction and a ruling on the merits is one the public almost always gets wrong. Then Derek Oestericher takes us inside the litigation: what Montana’s equal protection clause actually says, why it differs from the Fourteenth Amendment, how a right to privacy is being invoked to challenge a law protecting minors from medical intervention, and what a meaningful legal win looks like at each level of the courts. Guest Derek Oestericher is Chief Legal Counsel and Director of Government Affairs at the Montana Family Foundation, where he has been working on all three of Montana’s active sex-definition cases from the inside. He is among the most informed legal voices on Montana’s constitutional landscape as it applies to sex-based law. Resources * Montana SB 458 (2023) — Montana’s statutory definition of sex * Kalarchik v. State of Montana — Montana Supreme Court ruling on the preliminary injunction * Justice Rice’s dissent in Kalarchik * Cross v. State of Montana — pediatric gender medicine ban litigation * Perkins v. State of Montana — bathroom law litigation * Montana Family Foundation — montanafamily.org If this episode was useful to you, please share it with someone who needs to hear it. Like, subscribe, and leave us a review wherever you listen — it’s one of the most direct ways you can support the work we’re doing. This show exists because you show up for it. Stay Informed and Ready to Dissent. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit informeddissentpodcast.substack.com/subscribe

    47 min

  3. 9 MAY

    Gay Bedfellows

    About this episode Lauren Leggieri, Jamie Reed and Cori Cohn interview Ben Kawaller. Ben Kawaller is a journalist, playwright, and gay man whose writing and video reporting have appeared in the New York Post, Racket News, The Times UK, and The Free Press, where he hosted the sociopolitical interview series Ben Meets America. He’s a Harvard sociology graduate based in New York and a former Blocked and Reported contributor. His new three-part investigative podcast series — Strange Bedfellows: When LGB Met T, produced under Longview Investigations’ Reflector feed — is one of the most thorough attempts yet to document how a gay civil rights movement became something else. Episode 1 traces the arc from social outcasts to the most successful civil rights story of the 20th century. Episode 2 examines the arrival of the Q — and what it changed. Episode 3 follows the thread into the National Sex Education Standards, where the philosophical underpinnings of gender ideology are most visible and most consequential. The series includes an extraordinary moment: Herndon Graddick, former president of GLAAD, says on the record that he believes pediatric medicalization of minors was a mistake. Former GLAAD president. On the record. We had a lot to discuss. We also had a specific accountability question to raise — one that involves Lauren directly. Her testimony, her voice, and her words appear in the series. Her name and her organization do not. We asked Ben about that. Strange Bedfellows is publicly available at no cost through the Longview/Reflector feed. Links Strange Bedfellows: When LGB Met T — Longview/Reflector Part I: When LGB Met T — Part II: The Q — Part III: Backlash — Lauren Leggieri’s testimony — Missouri House Emerging Issues Committee, January 20, 2026 — If you found this conversation valuable, please like, subscribe, and share. Tell a friend. Tell your mom. And as always — stay informed and ready to dissent. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit informeddissentpodcast.substack.com/subscribe

    1hr 26min
  4. Speak at Your Own Risk

    2 MAY

    Speak at Your Own Risk

    On This Episode PAS 2026 met in Boston at the end of April. On Sunday, a panel of four researchers and clinicians presented findings on pediatric gender medicine to 106 attendees. Before the session began, the PAS Program Chair informed the audience that every clinician approached to serve as a counterpoint speaker had declined to participate. The panel’s CME accreditation had been flagged for review before a single slide was examined. A concurrent LGBTQ+ pediatric health session the previous day operated without any of those conditions. Lauren Leggieri, Jamie Reed, and Cori Cohn discuss the conference and what it revealed about how academic pediatric medicine handles dissent. Jamie is also joined by Dr. Julia Mason and Dr. Patrick Hunter — both of whom were in the audience that day — for brief reflections on what they witnessed firsthand. People You’ll Hear About Dr. Daniel Rauch — PAS 2026 Program Chair. Professor of Pediatrics at Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine, and the physician responsible for overseeing the scientific program of the entire conference. E. Kale Edmiston — A researcher who, at the start of the session, implied to the room that she was an author of a chapter of the WPATH Standards of Care 8. Scott Leibowitz, co-chair of the adolescent chapter, has publicly disputed that claim on the record. Kale identifies as a gay man. Dr. Riittakerttu Kaltiala — Psychiatrist and professor at Tampere University in Finland. Her systematic reviews of the evidence on pediatric gender medicine informed Finland’s decision to restrict those interventions in minors. Dr. Anna Hutchinson — Clinical psychologist who worked at the Gender Identity Development Service at the Tavistock Clinic in the United Kingdom prior to its closure, and has since spoken publicly about clinical concerns she observed there. Dr. Moti Gorin — Bioethicist and associate professor of philosophy at Colorado State University. His published work examines how informed consent and ethical standards have been applied in the field of pediatric gender medicine. Panel chair. Dr. Steven Montante — Plastic surgeon in private practice in Richmond, Virginia, and a co-author of the first peer-reviewed systematic review of gender-transition mastectomies performed on minors. Further Reading PAS 2026: The Panel They Tried to Silence — LGB Courage Coalition If this episode made you think, share it with someone who needs to hear it. Leave a comment, leave a rating, and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. The work we do depends on people like you helping us reach a wider audience. Stay informed and ready to dissent. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit informeddissentpodcast.substack.com/subscribe

    1hr 33min
  5. SPLC as the Gender Ideology Enforcer

    25 APR

    SPLC as the Gender Ideology Enforcer

    This week Lauren Leggieri, Cori Cohn, and Jamie Reed have a lot to get through — and we mean a lot. So take a page from the old NPR Saturday playbook: make something, drive somewhere, tend your garden, and let this one unspool over a few days. We brought three guests, and every one of them earned their seat at the table. We open with the New York Times story about a man who identifies as transgender and abducted his child to Cuba — and what that story reveals about how sex, parental rights, and media framing collide in ways that should concern everyone who would simple like reading a news story to not need a decoder ring. Then we get into the big one: the Southern Poverty Law Center. We’ve been watching the SPLC’s reach into the gender medicine debate for a while now, and this week we dig into just how deep that overlap goes — and what it means when a fundraising machine gets to decide who counts as a hate group. Which brings us to our guests. Elspeth Cypher, Colin Wright, and Jaimee Michell have each been on the receiving end of an SPLC designation or smear — and each of them has a different story about what that costs. Their accounts together paint a picture that’s harder to dismiss than any single data point. You can find Elspeth at the Women’s Liberation Front on X @ebclaw, at her Substack Before Justice Was Blind at substack.com/@ebclaw, and on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/in/elspeth-cypher-106623301. Jaimee Michell is the Founder, President & CEO of Gays Against Groomers. Find her on X @thegaywhostrayd and the organization at gaysagainstgroomers.com. Colin Wright is an evolutionary biologist and Fellow at the Manhattan Institute. Find him on X @SwipeWright and at his Substack Reality’s Last Stand at substack.com/@colinwright. Like, Subscribe, and Share this Podcast. Stay informed. And stay ready to dissent. Thanks for reading Informed Dissent! This post is public so feel free to share it. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit informeddissentpodcast.substack.com/subscribe

    2hr 1min
  6. What Utah Buried and Finland Found

    18 APR

    What Utah Buried and Finland Found

    This week on Informed Dissent, Jamie Reed, Cori Cohn, and Lauren Leggieri are joined by guest Dr. Julia Mason to discuss the landmark Finnish cohort study on psychiatric outcomes in gender-referred youth and SEGM's methodological appraisal of the Utah evidence review. Dr. Mason is a board-certified pediatrician, Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics, and founding board member of the Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine. She has spent years raising concerns about the evidence base underpinning pediatric gender medicine from inside her own profession — including co-authoring peer-reviewed challenges to the Dutch studies in the Journal of Sex and Marital Therapy and introducing multiple resolutions at the AAP Annual Leadership Forum demanding the academy reevaluate its position on pediatric gender transition. The Finnish Study Ruuska, S.-M., Tuisku, K., Holttinen, T., & Kaltiala, R. (2026). Psychiatric Morbidity Among Adolescents and Young Adults Who Contacted Specialised Gender Identity Services in Finland in 1996–2019: A Register Study. Acta Paediatrica. 🔗 https://doi.org/10.1111/apa.70533 This is the landmark Finnish national cohort study tracking 2,083 gender-referred adolescents against 16,643 matched population controls for up to 25 years. It is the largest and most methodologically rigorous outcomes study in this field to date. Among adolescents who underwent medical gender reassignment, rates of severe psychiatric illness rose more than sixfold in the years that followed. For a detailed breakdown of what the study found and what happened when it was published, read our two-part series on the LGB Courage Coalition Substack: 🔗 Part I — What the Study Found: 🔗 Part II — What Happened Next: The SEGM Methodological Appraisal of the Utah Review Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine. (2026). The “Utah Review” of Hormonal Treatments for Gender-Dysphoric Minors: A Methodological Appraisal. 🔗 https://segm.org/utah-evidence-review-analysis The Utah Legislature commissioned an independent evidence review of hormonal interventions for gender-dysphoric minors. The resulting 1,051-page document concluded puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones were safe and effective. SEGM’s appraisal found the review excluded the most rigorous international systematic reviews, failed to conduct an evidence synthesis, and was produced by a team with undisclosed conflicts of interest including direct ties to the clinic under evaluation. When standard quality-assessment tools were applied, the result was the lowest possible rating: high risk of bias, critically low confidence. For our own analysis of the Utah Review and what it tells us about how this evidence gets manufactured, read: 🔗 Paid subscribers to the Informed Dissent Substack receive a full detailed breakdown of the week’s stories delivered straight to their inbox every week. Questions, comments, and suggestions welcome in the Substack comment section or at lgbcouragecoalition@gmail.com. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit informeddissentpodcast.substack.com/subscribe

    1hr 12min

  7. 11 APR

    Colorado at the Crossroads

    This week on Informed Dissent, Jamie Reed and Lauren Leggieri are joined first by LGB CC Head Writer LeAnne Owen for a behind-the-scenes conversation about substantive writing, the stories driving this movement, and LeAnne’s belief that the work we are doing now will serve as the historical primary source documents for tomorrow. Then we are joined by two guests from Colorado — Erin Lee and Dr. Travis Morrell — to discuss Colorado politics, ballot initiatives, and how to reach people who aren’t yet paying attention. Further reading: Republicans and Citizen Initiatives — The New York Times Erin Lee Erin Lee is a mom of three from Colorado, a speaker, writer, Founder of Stop Gender Ideology, and Executive Director of Protect Kids Colorado. After her 12-year-old daughter was convinced she was born in the wrong body in a secret gender & sexuality club at school, she helped her desist and filed the first federal secret school transition lawsuit to reach SCOTUS. Her story can be watched for free at ArtClubMovie.com. Links: Protect Kids Colorado Art Club Movie Socials: X PAGE FACEBOOK INSTAGRAM Dr. Travis Morrell Dr. Travis Morrell is a dad, husband, doctor, and lifelong learner with broad experience in medicine and medical leadership. He is published in multiple top medical journals and in popular media. Dr. Morrell is a Senior Fellow at Do No Harm Medicine and Chair of Colorado Principled Physician, grassroots doctors demanding reality-based medicine and Classical Liberal values. Find him on X @MorrellMDmph X @MorrellMDmph Coloradodoctors.org Thanks for reading Informed Dissent! This post is public so feel free to share it. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit informeddissentpodcast.substack.com/subscribe

    1hr 42min

  8. 4 APR

    Clean like Methadone Clean

    This week Jamie Reed, Lauren Leggieri, and Cori Cohn are joined by Kevin Kellar — a trial lawyer with thirty years of experience handling large-loss tort cases and litigation of all types, all over the country. Kevin specializes in dropping into cases as trial approaches, and he consults and advises on medicalized gender care litigation nationally. He is drawn to this work by his sympathy for the victims of gender ideology, and by the parable of the Good Samaritan. We also check in on Cori’s X addiction — the treatment is ongoing, he needs a sponsor, please apply within — and we discuss parenting through the lens of cinema, including the modern classics Period Panda and Drama Llama. We also think more people should follow us down rabbit holes. Consider this your invitation. This week’s deep dive: Kellan Baker — health policy researcher, lead author of WPATH’s flagship systematic review, and current Senior Advisor for Health Policy at the Movement Advancement Project. We look at who she is, what she has published, and what she has said when she believed she was speaking only to allies. Journalist Ben Ryan is continuing to release internal WPATH conference videos — and Baker appears in that record. This is the background you need. Further Reading: Ben Ryan’s “Hazard Ratio” — ongoing reporting on the WPATH Alabama discovery videos: benryan.substack.com If this episode was useful to you, please like, subscribe, and share. It is completely free — it costs you nothing — and every subscriber pushes our numbers up and makes us harder to ignore. Tell someone who needs to hear it. Informed Dissent is produced by the LGB Courage Coalition. Stay informed and stay ready to dissent. Informed Dissent is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit informeddissentpodcast.substack.com/subscribe

    2h 16m
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About

You Have Permission to Question, Scrutinize, Push Back, and Dissent! Jamie Reed, Cori Cohn, and Lauren Leggieri report on their adventures and misadventures trying to explain and mitigate the gender culture wars. We will publish most weeks, focusing some on the news and some on important topics from social transition to lawsuits to what the heck the word “gender” means. informeddissentpodcast.substack.com

Information

  • Creator
    LGB Courage Coalition
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2026
  • Episodes
    70
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Informed Dissent Podcast
  • Show Website
    Informed Dissent

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