I’m new to Glenna Goldis’ work. Glenna is a lawyer in New York City with experience in consumer fraud, family law, government, and civil legal aid. Her substack newsletter, Bad Facts, covers the movement for transgender rights.
I stumbled across a link to Glenna’s newsletter on substack and after reading her long and informative legal analysis of Trump’s executive orders re sex and gender. I subscribed immediately.
Glenna’s latest post is shorter and just as interesting. I have cross-posted it from her substack with kind permission. I have not changed a word, but the sub-heads are mine. Do have a read:
Testimony Reveals Fraud in Washington Gender Clinics:
Bizarre parental affidavits filed in lawsuit against
Trump’s gender medicine order
In February, parents in Washington State filed 38 unnerving reports with Nick Brown, their attorney general. Terrified by a recent executive order from President Donald Trump that cracked down on youth gender medicine, they describe how “affirming” their children improved their mental health. Affirming means treating them as the sex they identify with (including nonbinary), buying them new clothes, and helping them access puberty blockers, hormones, and surgeries. Two of the families are especially distraught because they have three transgender children.
The parents argue that gender medicine is safe and prevents self-harm. Many of their testaments are powerful and sympathetic. But rather than expose Trump’s order as dangerous, they read as evidence that gender doctors are committing fraud.
Hallmarks of a scam
I’m a consumer protection lawyer. Youth gender medicine caught my attention several years ago, when I noticed its practitioners didn’t explain their ideas logically. If maleness is just a construct detached from biology, then what makes a beard masculine? Is there really an “innate” difference between a short-haired lesbian like me and a homosexual female identifying as a man? This matters because testosterone causes incontinence in females, among other medical issues. But I couldn’t find gender doctors engaging tough questions. Instead they told heartwarming stories and accused anyone who doubted them of bigotry. Murky reasoning, reliance on anecdote, and wrath toward skeptics are hallmarks of a scam.
I’m not the only lawyer who is concerned. In September, 21 states launched an investigation into the American Academy of Pediatrics for claiming puberty blockers are “reversible” when in fact they “may interfere with neurocognitive development” and bone health, among other dangers. The states cited a report by England’s National Health Service, known as the Cass Review, which also found no support for the idea that blockers prevent suicide. One of America’s leading gender doctors recently admitted that puberty blockers did not lead to mental health improvements in her own research.
Last year the Alabama Attorney General’s office unearthed internal emails from WPATH (World Professional Association of Transgender Health) that showed youth gender medicine guidelines were not developed based on a review of evidence but rather with the aim of securing insurance coverage and winning civil rights lawsuits.
So the desperate parental reports would have raised alarms in many state attorney general offices. But not in Washington. AG Brown cited them in a lawsuit against Trump and other officials to support the argument that “transgender children will die” without gender medicine. Brown defended the drugs by citing WPATH. He’s been joined by his counterparts in Colorado, Minnesota, and Oregon.
Genitals are not to be sneezed at
The parents – most of whom withhold their full names, citing fear of reprisal from the federal government – appear mis-informed.
JM, a parent of a 13-year old on blockers, claims:
“Though some sources highlight contraindications and dangers associated with puberty blockers, generally this is misinformation. I’ve learned from my own research and from our medical providers that puberty blockers … are perfectly safe for an adolescent such as [my child].”
SS writes of their child, a male placed on puberty blockers at age 11:
“all the medical care that L.S. currently receives is reversible … She also started low-dose estrogen at the age of 13 years, after fertility counseling and preservation.”
Estrogen causes breast growth that is not reversible. And as the parent seems to acknowledge, the blockers-then-estrogen regimen can cause infertility (as well as permanent sexual dysfunction). The techniques used to salvage sperm cells from males that young with blocked puberty are unproven – nevermind the efficacy of “fertility counseling” at that age.
Another parent, MF, believes:
“Blockers and hormone treatment, started during the teenage years, give a transgender person the opportunity, with the exception of their genitals, to look like the gender they feel for the rest of their lives.”
But a person’s sexed appearance is not only dictated by hormones. Genes make males larger than females, with different bone structure such as narrower hips. Plus: genitals are nothing to sneeze at.
Not about “effectiveness”
It seems something is going on here beyond standard medical treatment. One mom refers to her 11-year old as her “spiritual leader.” Another notes that a gender doctor meeting with her 8-year old “wanted to make sure to let our daughter steer the ship in decision-making.”
Preoccupation with gender is common. One parent, AMM, says when their child started identifying as a girl in preschool, “we talked about gender constantly.”
Many of the children identify as nonbinary. AM, the parent of one such 6-year old, says the child “will become dysregulated and shut down when they encounter an adult who does not see them accurately or misgenders them.” Apparently they will need gender medicine in order to make their nonbinary identity obvious to strangers.
SO, the parent of a nonbinary 11-year old, states: “My biggest concern is that my child will be forced into manhood and denied the chance to move gently into androgyny[.]”
Seeing their friends “develop and go through puberty” made one nonbinary child feel “scared,” according to their mother, KCC. So the family followed medical advice to use blockers. “They needed to press pause while they figured everything out.” The child is now 14 and still blocked.
The parents of another blocked nonbinary 14-year old worries that if gender medicine becomes unavailable, “they will lose their joy.” But doesn’t this teenager have to go through puberty sometime?
A Seattle pediatrician, GM, explains the logic behind blockers: to give kids “the time and space to decide which outward gender characteristics are most aligned with their gender identity – i.e., which characteristics they would like to avoid, and which to affirm permanently.”
Parents hearing this from a doctor might assume there’s a science to gender medicine. But there isn’t, as the WPATH imbroglio confirmed. Leading gender clinicians recently argued their work should not be judged based on its “effectiveness” (scare quotes theirs).
GM states that “completed suicides are … a considerable risk” of having gender dysphoria. This doctor doesn’t mention that gender medicine isn’t proven to alleviate it. And the doctor states, misleadingly, “[p]uberty blockers are considered reversable [sic].”
Suing the president is exciting for state AGs. But their bread and butter is consumer protection. If AG Brown gets back to basics, he might realize he has a big case on his hands – and it’s not against Trump.”
I’m deeply grateful to Glenna for allowing me to cross-post her work. Do subscribe to her newsletter or follow her on X. Btw, Glenna founded the Gender-Critical Law Society. If you happen to be an American lawyer or law student, you can sign up to that, here.
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