After months of reckless gaslighting, the national media is backpedaling and finally exonerating Jamie Reed, the whistleblower who exposed the sloppy, rushed treatment of children suffering gender dysphoria. It’s too little, too late.
Reed, a self-described gay woman who is married to a transgender man, for nearly four years managed cases at a gender dysphoria clinic at St. Louis Children’s Hospital.
The national media slammed Reed after she bravely came forward in February in a Free Press essay exposing the mistreatment and botched handling of children with gender dysphoria, including children who regretted getting surgeries or hormone injections.
Reed told of a child with schizophrenia who stopped their meds while receiving hormonal injections, which is extremely dangerous, according to physicians.
Reed also reported a 17-year-old girl’s birth canal allegedly being ripping open during sex, unaware that taking testosterone (as part of a female-to-male transition) would cause her to bleed extensively.
Despite Reed’s horrifying report, taken seriously by Missouri lawmakers and resulting in needed legislative changes, the national media turned a blind eye.
MSNBC anchor Chris Hayes wrote a lengthy thread on Twitter, now called X, excoriating Reed, claiming “multiple other outlets have conducted dozens and dozens of interviews with parents, employees, and patients and found no corroboration.”
New York magazine ran an early March article slamming Reed’s claims and highlighting negative articles from the St. Louis Post Dispatch and the Missouri Independent.
It’s only now some six months later that The New York Times does the responsible thing and actually verifies the horrific claims that Reed exposed.
The Times noted that even secular Europe is backing away from minor medical transgenderism due to reported health dangers.
But don’t expect the Times to be too fair.
Even though the article is among its reporting pages, it editorializes and labels as “draconian” the commonsense moves by lawmakers in more than 20 states to ban or severely restrict gender treatments for minors.
Free Press founder Bari Weiss rightfully called out Hayes for his irresponsibility, noting the Times largely confirmed Reed’s account.
This woke approach to gender dysphoria is hurting lives.
The media gave scant attention when last year, the FDA slapped a warning on puberty blockers because several minors on the drugs experienced tumor-like masses in the brain, including visual disturbances, headache or vomiting, swelling of the optic nerve, increased blood pressure, and eye paralysis.
Hayes and his compatriots omit reporting that the UK National Health Service lists the following potential side effects of cross-sex hormones: blood clots, gallstones, weight gain, acne, abnormal levels of fat in the blood, elevated liver enzymes, and hair loss.
In their rush to condemn Reed, national reporting also left out the risks of reassignment surgery, including surgical complications and infections.
Americans deserve the truth, but we’re holding our breath to sort out the next pack of lies.
Carrie Sheffield is a senior policy analyst at Independent Women’s Voice.
