I want to thank you deeply for your courageous and clear-eyed investigative work on the medicalization of gender, particularly as it relates to children and vulnerable young adults. Your recent appearance on Beyond Gender was nothing short of outstanding.
Drawing a line from the opioid epidemic to pediatric gender medicine was not only perceptive but long overdue. The public needs to understand how profit incentives—driven by pharmaceutical giants and protected by institutional silence—are creating patients for life, often at the expense of the most vulnerable. Your legal and historical framing of informed consent, and your insistence on truth even in the face of professional resistance, exemplify journalism at its finest.
I’m a physician assistant and registered nurse, and I’ve watched with growing alarm as this ideology has taken hold in medicine, with devastating consequences for patients and for the integrity of our profession. In fact, I have lost my 23-year-old son to this madness. You are giving voice to many of us who have tried—often unsuccessfully—to raise alarms from within. That your work is met with resistance by mainstream outlets is a testament to how vital—and how threatening—the truth you uncover truly is.
Please keep going. You have allies in medicine, ethics, and science who are deeply grateful for your persistence, your intellect, and your integrity.
Thank you very much for the good words of support. And thank you for sharing your personal experience, both as a mother and as a medical professional. I am glad to count you as an ally
As a mother, a gay woman, and a former educator of LGBT medicine at the University of Washington, I am writing to share what happened to my son—and to our family—because of so-called “gender-affirming care.”
I stepped down from my teaching role in 2016 because I could no longer ethically support what I was seeing. Clinically, things had changed. No longer was I seeing the rare, midlife male-to-female transitioner. Suddenly, confused adolescents were showing up in my exam rooms—four in one week, at one point. It was impossible to ignore the shift.
Six years ago, my son Shawn “came out” as trans while attending Gonzaga Prep, a private Catholic high school in Spokane, Washington. His announcement was so wildly out of character that I laughed at first. But I quickly discovered the school had already socially transitioned him behind my back. They gave him Planned Parenthood literature. I was denied access to his therapy sessions because he was 17. I sent cease-and-desist letters to the school and the counselors. I even went to the bishop. Ultimately, I pulled him out his senior year.
At home, I was sleeping on the couch, afraid for his safety. Police came to my door more than once for wellness checks. I’m a professional, hardworking woman—but none of that mattered. Shawn ran away for weeks, supported by trans-identified peers and their parents, until he came back—disillusioned by their drug use, which he rejected. He was cutting and suicidal, behaviors that appeared almost overnight, though he’d had OCD tendencies and anxiety as a child.
I raised both of my children mostly alone while putting myself through nursing school. I earned a full scholarship to the University of Washington. Both of my kids are bright, sensitive, and capable. I’ve fought for them every step of the way.
In the early days, I leaned on the quiet wisdom of people that entered my life for short snippets like Lisa Marchiano, Dr. Lisa Littman, Sasha Ayad, and Dr. Ken Zucker, who offered me a consult. But the fight took its toll. My 12-year relationship with my former partner ended under the strain.
For four years in college, Shawn seemed to desist. But shortly before my wedding—after two decades unmarried (in December 2024), I finally found my wife, Jess—he reemerged, visibly altered by estrogen, with developed breast tissue. At my wedding, he demanded apologies—for pulling him out of high school, for not affirming him, for trying to "protect" him. I was pulled right back into the vortex, questioning my own sanity.
We are now estranged. I haven’t spoken to him in months. It more than breaks my heart.
Shawn has autosomal recessive polycystic kidney disease, a rare genetic condition that will eventually require a transplant. Every physician treating him knows this. Yet no one has raised concerns about the liver toxicity and the involvement of the liver in ARPKD, hypertension, or renal risks posed by estrogen therapy. Where is the Hippocratic oath?
How are vulnerable patients like my son not being protected?
Thank you for your courageous reporting. I hope you continue to expose what so many of us are living through in silence. It's devastating.
That’s so infuriating and tragic. You showed great integrity in stepping down from your position at the University of Washington when you observed the growing trend.
It’s truly mind blowing that medical doctors are constantly harming kids like your son. How painful and unfair it’s been for you. Please take good care of yourself.
Wow, nothing that wasn’t covered here, another sobering interview attesting to the current state of things. I’m reminded of a comment that was made many years ago, during a panel interview (I think she was a psychiatric nurse who’d worked for 35 years or so with kids/teens) who when asked at the end what she would like to see happen in the future, said “for it to become boring..”. And I couldn’t agree more. If that were to happen it would go away quickly. Unfortunately it is not that easy for the many reasons you touch on. And, like you say, most people think 'why do you care so much?’ As a parent who has pretty much lost her whole family to this, there’s nothing more important so I’m biased. But even if it were just one & for the sake of humanity I couldn’t turn a blind eye. I too think ‘this is IT, this is the book, the podcast, the documentary, the article, the Supreme Court ruling, the Court case’. But the pushback continues, still don’t feel heard!
So I’m wondering in all your efforts if the Economist has ever rejected a piece from you…coming at it from a legal/follow the money angle?
Also curious (Stella, since you have had an audience at the White House!) what you think of RFK Jr’s advisors, Calley & Casey Means..read an article today on J Bileks Substack. Seems their father wrote a book for kids about gender & sexual identity, not sure if this is good or bad. His MAHA HHS report is being slaughtered today, sigh.
And finally, since we are talking about journalism & the spread of information, we can’t ignore AI!! It is the ‘go to’ for quick & easy info, especially among young people. Makes ‘googling’ something seem archaic. Everyone’s using ChatGPT. I’ve only ever used Grok & I can tell you it needs to be taught. I have ‘conversations’ with it because it uses preferred pronouns of so called non binary people which I think is biased & also cites WPATH, the APA, Endocrine Society etc etc as credible sources who we all know that you Mia, have exposed. I feed it studies & it revises its responses to then give more sides to the debate.
I have no respect for anyone who embraces this practice. It’s plain wrong, quite simply because it does harm. It doesn’t work. Thanks for all the work you do
It's important to note that the views expressed in Grady Means's book are his own and do not necessarily reflect the perspectives of his children. Casey Means, for instance, has publicly stated her opposition to medical interventions for minors experiencing gender dysphoria, such as puberty blockers and surgeries. She has emphasized her stance against the "transing of children," distinguishing her views from those that might be inferred from her father's publication.
I wish we could clone the Posners. Gerald was kind enough to come on my podcast when it had about 8 listeners (I've since doubled that number!), and I came away thinking the same thing I'm thinking now: if he would just allow himself to be monomaniacally obsessed with this one issue like the rest of us, it might end a lot sooner!
Ah, Jenny, it would be easy for me to be totally consumed by this one issue. All that stops me is that Trisha and I are still paying our bills and mortgage by writing for a living. I'm old school and stubborn and still hope there is a decent publisher willing to take on a real investigative deep dive.
..so I’m assuming Abigail Shrier’s publisher was a ‘no?’ Gosh, so hard. I truly admire your perseverance. Andrew Gold’s podcast? He loves interesting guests, you have so much knowledge! 🙏
The lack of outrage is terrifying. It's what I find so difficult when trying to talk to people about this and they aren't outraged. I've been reading about the recovered memory movement and Satanic Panic and there was a case study of a police officer whose adult child had recovered memories and typically police officers band together to protect their own, but this man's police buddies jumped on the bandwagon of him being guilty and used coercive interviewing techniques to convince him he was guilty. It made me think of how with abortion being outlawed or greatly curtailed in a lot of places in the US, doctors don't push it underground even if the mother's life is in danger (you saw this also in Ireland with the tragic case of Savita Halappanavar). Yet in America in Texas and other places where pediatric gender abuse has been banned it's gone underground as whistleblowers like Eitan Haim have shown. I point this out because I can see people who defend pediatric gender abuse saying that the ends justify the means, yet the ends justify with pediatric gender abuse but not with providing a woman with a nonviable pregnancy who is going septic an abortion? This is not to wade into the abortion debate, this is to illustrate that mainstream doctors who perform abortions are, to my knowledge, complying with the local laws.
I've been trying to work this out and explore if there are other incidents of this deviation from normal behavior with medical scandals. I don't know if it is because with a scandal there is a moral panic and fear of public censure and this ends justify the means thinking that takes over that causes people to act in ways that they usually wouldn't. But I'm trying to figure it out.
Thank you for having me on Beyond Gender. You have been doing the hard work for a long time on exposing this scandal. I hope more of my colleagues in journalism join the effort to report on what is happening, especially with pediatric gender medicine. Thanks Stella, and thanks to Mia as well
What a great interview! Gerald, I hope the NYTimes brings you into their fold. Their reporting needs you. I know they are working on more now ahead of the Skermetti ruling. For context, I am the mom of an 18 year old daughter who has been in this for 4 1/2 years now. We frequently feel like we are just holding on. I just bought PHARMA and will read it and leave it around my house for her to see. Bob Ostertag wrote a book outlining how hormones have been experimented with throughout medical history. You might like it. Stella interviewed him on GWL too.
Gerald Posner is so wonderful. I hope he’ll be able to get a publisher for his book, soon. I’m so looking forward to reading it in a couple of years.
I “cross paths” with Trump on this one issue too. My family of origin is quite horrified about that. I’m counting on Posner’s book to help, many many people like my family, in the near future.
Dear Mr. Posner,
I want to thank you deeply for your courageous and clear-eyed investigative work on the medicalization of gender, particularly as it relates to children and vulnerable young adults. Your recent appearance on Beyond Gender was nothing short of outstanding.
Drawing a line from the opioid epidemic to pediatric gender medicine was not only perceptive but long overdue. The public needs to understand how profit incentives—driven by pharmaceutical giants and protected by institutional silence—are creating patients for life, often at the expense of the most vulnerable. Your legal and historical framing of informed consent, and your insistence on truth even in the face of professional resistance, exemplify journalism at its finest.
I’m a physician assistant and registered nurse, and I’ve watched with growing alarm as this ideology has taken hold in medicine, with devastating consequences for patients and for the integrity of our profession. In fact, I have lost my 23-year-old son to this madness. You are giving voice to many of us who have tried—often unsuccessfully—to raise alarms from within. That your work is met with resistance by mainstream outlets is a testament to how vital—and how threatening—the truth you uncover truly is.
Please keep going. You have allies in medicine, ethics, and science who are deeply grateful for your persistence, your intellect, and your integrity.
With profound respect,
Rachel Ragosta, PA-C
Thank you very much for the good words of support. And thank you for sharing your personal experience, both as a mother and as a medical professional. I am glad to count you as an ally
Best always,
Gerald Posner
As a mother, a gay woman, and a former educator of LGBT medicine at the University of Washington, I am writing to share what happened to my son—and to our family—because of so-called “gender-affirming care.”
I stepped down from my teaching role in 2016 because I could no longer ethically support what I was seeing. Clinically, things had changed. No longer was I seeing the rare, midlife male-to-female transitioner. Suddenly, confused adolescents were showing up in my exam rooms—four in one week, at one point. It was impossible to ignore the shift.
Six years ago, my son Shawn “came out” as trans while attending Gonzaga Prep, a private Catholic high school in Spokane, Washington. His announcement was so wildly out of character that I laughed at first. But I quickly discovered the school had already socially transitioned him behind my back. They gave him Planned Parenthood literature. I was denied access to his therapy sessions because he was 17. I sent cease-and-desist letters to the school and the counselors. I even went to the bishop. Ultimately, I pulled him out his senior year.
At home, I was sleeping on the couch, afraid for his safety. Police came to my door more than once for wellness checks. I’m a professional, hardworking woman—but none of that mattered. Shawn ran away for weeks, supported by trans-identified peers and their parents, until he came back—disillusioned by their drug use, which he rejected. He was cutting and suicidal, behaviors that appeared almost overnight, though he’d had OCD tendencies and anxiety as a child.
I raised both of my children mostly alone while putting myself through nursing school. I earned a full scholarship to the University of Washington. Both of my kids are bright, sensitive, and capable. I’ve fought for them every step of the way.
In the early days, I leaned on the quiet wisdom of people that entered my life for short snippets like Lisa Marchiano, Dr. Lisa Littman, Sasha Ayad, and Dr. Ken Zucker, who offered me a consult. But the fight took its toll. My 12-year relationship with my former partner ended under the strain.
For four years in college, Shawn seemed to desist. But shortly before my wedding—after two decades unmarried (in December 2024), I finally found my wife, Jess—he reemerged, visibly altered by estrogen, with developed breast tissue. At my wedding, he demanded apologies—for pulling him out of high school, for not affirming him, for trying to "protect" him. I was pulled right back into the vortex, questioning my own sanity.
We are now estranged. I haven’t spoken to him in months. It more than breaks my heart.
Shawn has autosomal recessive polycystic kidney disease, a rare genetic condition that will eventually require a transplant. Every physician treating him knows this. Yet no one has raised concerns about the liver toxicity and the involvement of the liver in ARPKD, hypertension, or renal risks posed by estrogen therapy. Where is the Hippocratic oath?
How are vulnerable patients like my son not being protected?
Thank you for your courageous reporting. I hope you continue to expose what so many of us are living through in silence. It's devastating.
This sounds devastating, I’m so sorry.
Thank you, Stella.
That’s so infuriating and tragic. You showed great integrity in stepping down from your position at the University of Washington when you observed the growing trend.
It’s truly mind blowing that medical doctors are constantly harming kids like your son. How painful and unfair it’s been for you. Please take good care of yourself.
Wow, nothing that wasn’t covered here, another sobering interview attesting to the current state of things. I’m reminded of a comment that was made many years ago, during a panel interview (I think she was a psychiatric nurse who’d worked for 35 years or so with kids/teens) who when asked at the end what she would like to see happen in the future, said “for it to become boring..”. And I couldn’t agree more. If that were to happen it would go away quickly. Unfortunately it is not that easy for the many reasons you touch on. And, like you say, most people think 'why do you care so much?’ As a parent who has pretty much lost her whole family to this, there’s nothing more important so I’m biased. But even if it were just one & for the sake of humanity I couldn’t turn a blind eye. I too think ‘this is IT, this is the book, the podcast, the documentary, the article, the Supreme Court ruling, the Court case’. But the pushback continues, still don’t feel heard!
So I’m wondering in all your efforts if the Economist has ever rejected a piece from you…coming at it from a legal/follow the money angle?
Also curious (Stella, since you have had an audience at the White House!) what you think of RFK Jr’s advisors, Calley & Casey Means..read an article today on J Bileks Substack. Seems their father wrote a book for kids about gender & sexual identity, not sure if this is good or bad. His MAHA HHS report is being slaughtered today, sigh.
And finally, since we are talking about journalism & the spread of information, we can’t ignore AI!! It is the ‘go to’ for quick & easy info, especially among young people. Makes ‘googling’ something seem archaic. Everyone’s using ChatGPT. I’ve only ever used Grok & I can tell you it needs to be taught. I have ‘conversations’ with it because it uses preferred pronouns of so called non binary people which I think is biased & also cites WPATH, the APA, Endocrine Society etc etc as credible sources who we all know that you Mia, have exposed. I feed it studies & it revises its responses to then give more sides to the debate.
I have no respect for anyone who embraces this practice. It’s plain wrong, quite simply because it does harm. It doesn’t work. Thanks for all the work you do
It's important to note that the views expressed in Grady Means's book are his own and do not necessarily reflect the perspectives of his children. Casey Means, for instance, has publicly stated her opposition to medical interventions for minors experiencing gender dysphoria, such as puberty blockers and surgeries. She has emphasized her stance against the "transing of children," distinguishing her views from those that might be inferred from her father's publication.
That’s great to hear & I certainly don’t like to condemn people prematurely. Maybe it even helped in forming her opinion
Have not pitched the Economist, but will now - good idea
🤞
I wish we could clone the Posners. Gerald was kind enough to come on my podcast when it had about 8 listeners (I've since doubled that number!), and I came away thinking the same thing I'm thinking now: if he would just allow himself to be monomaniacally obsessed with this one issue like the rest of us, it might end a lot sooner!
Ah, Jenny, it would be easy for me to be totally consumed by this one issue. All that stops me is that Trisha and I are still paying our bills and mortgage by writing for a living. I'm old school and stubborn and still hope there is a decent publisher willing to take on a real investigative deep dive.
..so I’m assuming Abigail Shrier’s publisher was a ‘no?’ Gosh, so hard. I truly admire your perseverance. Andrew Gold’s podcast? He loves interesting guests, you have so much knowledge! 🙏
The lack of outrage is terrifying. It's what I find so difficult when trying to talk to people about this and they aren't outraged. I've been reading about the recovered memory movement and Satanic Panic and there was a case study of a police officer whose adult child had recovered memories and typically police officers band together to protect their own, but this man's police buddies jumped on the bandwagon of him being guilty and used coercive interviewing techniques to convince him he was guilty. It made me think of how with abortion being outlawed or greatly curtailed in a lot of places in the US, doctors don't push it underground even if the mother's life is in danger (you saw this also in Ireland with the tragic case of Savita Halappanavar). Yet in America in Texas and other places where pediatric gender abuse has been banned it's gone underground as whistleblowers like Eitan Haim have shown. I point this out because I can see people who defend pediatric gender abuse saying that the ends justify the means, yet the ends justify with pediatric gender abuse but not with providing a woman with a nonviable pregnancy who is going septic an abortion? This is not to wade into the abortion debate, this is to illustrate that mainstream doctors who perform abortions are, to my knowledge, complying with the local laws.
I've been trying to work this out and explore if there are other incidents of this deviation from normal behavior with medical scandals. I don't know if it is because with a scandal there is a moral panic and fear of public censure and this ends justify the means thinking that takes over that causes people to act in ways that they usually wouldn't. But I'm trying to figure it out.
Thank you Stella, Mia & Gerald for the wonderful work that you’re doing. Much love.
Thank you for having me on Beyond Gender. You have been doing the hard work for a long time on exposing this scandal. I hope more of my colleagues in journalism join the effort to report on what is happening, especially with pediatric gender medicine. Thanks Stella, and thanks to Mia as well
What a great interview! Gerald, I hope the NYTimes brings you into their fold. Their reporting needs you. I know they are working on more now ahead of the Skermetti ruling. For context, I am the mom of an 18 year old daughter who has been in this for 4 1/2 years now. We frequently feel like we are just holding on. I just bought PHARMA and will read it and leave it around my house for her to see. Bob Ostertag wrote a book outlining how hormones have been experimented with throughout medical history. You might like it. Stella interviewed him on GWL too.
I love Bob Ostertag’s book, highly recommend it
I love you, Tigger Stella!!!
lol 😜
Posner is quickly becoming one of my favorite investigative journalists. Can’t wait to read Pharma.
Gerald Posner is so wonderful. I hope he’ll be able to get a publisher for his book, soon. I’m so looking forward to reading it in a couple of years.
I “cross paths” with Trump on this one issue too. My family of origin is quite horrified about that. I’m counting on Posner’s book to help, many many people like my family, in the near future.