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Simon LeVay is a British-born neuroscientist who has served on the faculties of Harvard Medical School and the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. He achieved international fame with a 1991 Science paper that reported on a difference in the structure of the hypothalamus between gay and straight men, a study that helped trigger an avalanche of new biological research into sexual orientation. Since retiring from laboratory science, LeVay has authored or co-authored 12 books, including Gay, Straight, and the Reason Why, the textbook Discovering Human Sexuality, and the historical novel The Donation of Constantine. His earlier books include The Sexual Brain and Queer Science: The Use and Abuse of Research Into Homosexuality (MIT Press, 1996). He has appeared on numerous TV and radio shows, including The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. April 13 Provost’s Lecture with Simon LeVay - SBU News +3 Referenced in this episode * Simon LeVay, Gay, Straight, and the Reason Why: The Science of Sexual Orientation (2011) * Simon LeVay, The Sexual Brain (1993) * “Gay scientist draws criticism over remarks on trans kids,” Bay Area Reporter (2016): https://www.ebar.com/story/246901/redirect 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

Jamie, Lauren, and Cori talk with evolutionary biologist and Manhattan Institute fellow Colin Wright about a new HHS-commissioned study he co-authored, “Where the Clinic Meets the Movement: Does Gender Ideology Arm Left-Wing Authoritarian Psychology?” The survey of 1,208 U.S. adults found that agreement with mainstream “gender-affirming” clinical guidance (APA, WPATH, AAP) correlates strongly with left-wing authoritarianism — and independently predicts justification of political violence, even controlling for political identity. We’re still waiting on NPR’s story on the report. Our opponents are well-funded. We aren’t. Everything we do depends on the support of people just like you. If this work has value to you, please become a paid subscriber or make a donation today. Your support keeps this movement alive. Visit our website⁠ to help fund the reporting, advocacy, legislative testimony, educational outreach, and community-building efforts that make the LGB Courage Coalition a leading national voice for evidence-based care and homosexual rights. Paid subscriptions and donations are what make all of this possible. To support our work or submit a tip, visit the LGB Courage Coalition website. 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

Jamie Reed sits down with two leaders from Themis Resource Fund to discuss the organization’s work connecting detransitioners with attorneys willing to take their cases, the funding and logistical challenges of building litigation against gender-medicine providers, and what it takes to pursue accountability through the courts. Named after the Greek goddess of justice, Themis has become a central piece of infrastructure for detransitioners seeking legal recourse — this conversation covers how the organization operates, the obstacles it runs into working within the legal system, and what’s ahead for the growing wave of detransitioner litigation. Guests: Kathleen Dooley — Kathleen is a recovering attorney with more than 30 years of experience practicing civil litigation primarily in the defense arena. She is currently serving as Board Member and Secretary of Themis Resource Fund. Her interest in the subject of trans-identifying youth and the ideological capture behind it came as a result of her observation of her children’s friends declaring a trans identity. As an attorney, she recognized the potential for lawsuits against the medical and therapeutic professions and the need for funding to give the lawsuits liftoff. Finally, Kathleen has been a lifelong Democrat, albeit a disillusioned and disenfranchised one at the moment, so don’t even try to paint her as a rightwing nut job. Lynn Chadwick first experiences of parent advocacy were during her years working as a neonatal intensive care nurse. After her two oldest adult children announced trans identities and medicalized, she started a parent group which today consists of about 500 parents. She founded Themis Resource Fund in 2023. If you find this podcast important, please like, subscribe, and share it. This content is free because our mission is to educate the public — and that means making it accessible to anyone who’s curious or needs to hear it. That access depends on your support. If you’re able to donate or become a paid subscriber, we’d be grateful. If you can’t, leaving a review, subscribing for free, and sharing the show all help just as much. 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

Our final episode addressing public libraries and gender ideology takes us into an organization that was created “In April of 2023, a small group of librarians from various regions across the country initiated virtual discussions regarding the potential establishment of a new professional library organization. Their motivations stemmed from a perceived shift in the library profession towards what they viewed as divisive social activism.” We were joined by guest Caleb H. May, a founding member of the Association of Library Professionals (ALP). He has served as 1st Vice President, President, and Immediate Past President of ALP and is currently serving as Treasurer. He served the first decade of his career as a director of public libraries in Kansas and Kentucky and is currently the Director of Library Services at Manhattan Christian College in Manhattan, Kansas. He is also the author of “Reviving Library Neutrality in an Age of Activism,” an article published on the U.S. Dept. of Education Homeroom Blog in December 2025. In this episode we also discuss the Fifth Circuit’s ruling in Little v. Llano County — which the Supreme Court declined to review, letting stand a decision giving government officials final say over public library collections in Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi — and a recent rule coming out of Alabama regarding transgender materials in that state’s public libraries. Find out more about ALP here. We have merch! Check out our mugs, tote bags and shirts here. Thanks for listening to 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

Welcome to part two of our Library Series. If you missed part 1, it aired last week. Part 1 was about the books themselves. This week we are joined by a guest: John Chrastka is co-founder and executive director of EveryLibrary, the national political action committee for libraries, and the EveryLibrary Institute, a public policy and tax policy think tank for libraries. Since 2012, EveryLibrary has supported public libraries in numerous funding negotiations, political challenges, and over 165 election cycles, winning over $2.8 billion in stable tax dollars for libraries. The EveryLibrary Institute supports funding-focused research and training for library leaders, as well as outreach to the public about librarians. If you appreciate this show please like, subscribe, and share. Comments below — we read every week. We have merch available here! 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

We’re kicking off a three-part series — Overdue: Libraries and the Gender Ideology Reckoning — looking at how gender ideology moved into America’s public libraries, and what it will take to move it back out. Part 1 is about the books themselves. Part 2 goes to the boardroom. Part 3 is about what you can actually do about it. This week, we start where the story starts: the shelf. Guest: James LaRue James LaRue is the former director of the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom and a longtime voice on collection development, censorship, and the politics of what gets shelved — and what doesn’t. We talk about how children’s collections became a battleground, who’s really deciding what your library carries, and what “intellectual freedom” has come to mean in practice versus in principle. LaRue is the retired director of the Garfield County (Colorado) Public Library District. Author of "The New Inquisition: Understanding and Managing Intellectual Freedom Challenges," (2007) and “On Censorship: A Public Librarian Examines Cancel Culture in the US,” (2023) LaRue was director of the Freedom to Read Foundation, and ALA's Office for Intellectual Freedom from January 2016 to November 2018. In This Episode: * How collection development policy actually works — and where it’s been quietly rewritten * The gap between “anti-censorship” rhetoric and the reality of what’s being curated * What parents and patrons don’t know about how a book ends up on — or off — the shelf Coming Up:Next week — Part 2: The Board, with EveryLibrary’s John Chrastka, on governance, trustees, and how policy gets made (or blocked) behind the scenes. Please like, subscriber and share. We also have merch! 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

This week: Trojan horses, teal handguns, and a stand-your-ground laws in Wyoming. Jamie Reed, Cori Cohn, and Lauren Leggieri are back together again, with two stories that have absolutely nothing to do with each other, except that both involve someone pretending to be someone they are not. First up: Christopher Nolan finally releases his $250 million, IMAX-shot, five-years-in-the-making Odyssey — and somewhere between Zendaya as Athena and Travis Scott as a bard, Ellen Page shows up as Sinon, a character who isn’t even in the actual Odyssey. Then: a story out of Laramie, Wyoming, that the Times seems almost uncomfortable having written, and photographing. A trans identified man named Rihanna Kelver packs a teal handgun for road trips, gets into with three men, draws a gun — and ends up facing 15 years. In one of the most gun-friendly states in the country. We break down what actually happened, what the law says, and what the coverage gets right and wrong. Like, subscribe, and share this episode — and check out our merch! 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

This week, Jamie sits down with Cynthia Dill — a Maine civil rights attorney, former Democratic state legislator, and 2012 U.S. Senate candidate — to talk about the case that’s put her at odds with her own party. Dill represented the House and Senate districts covering Cape Elizabeth, South Portland, and part of Scarborough during six years in the Maine Legislature. She ran statewide against Angus King and Charlie Summers in 2012, then moved into media: political columns, commentary on Maine Public, and eventually her own podcast and outlet, Cyndicate Media. Now she’s litigating Mountain v. Liberty — a lawsuit filed on behalf of female inmates at the Maine Correctional Center in Windham against MDOC Commissioner Randall Liberty and Warden Ben Beal, alleging retaliation against women who objected to being housed with male inmates. The case has drawn Department of Justice attention and put Dill, a lifelong Democrat, in the position of arguing against her own party’s corrections leadership. Jamie talks with Dill about the case itself, what it’s cost her politically, whether she still calls herself a Democrat, and what conversations with sitting legislators in Augusta actually sound like behind closed doors. You can find Cynthia on X. You can support our show and find our merch here! 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

Informed Dissent — Show Notes, Week of August 1, 2026 In this episode: LeAnne and Cori hold down the fort while Jamie and Lauren are on vacation, covering the Sophie Cunningham/WNBA firestorm, cracks in Democratic Party unity across two swing-state races, and new data on pediatric gender diagnoses in Oregon. Sophie Cunningham & the WNBA rallies * Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham (a Missouri native — Rock Bridge High School, University of Missouri, most decorated player in program history) sparked national controversy with ESPN comments about protecting girls in locker rooms and sport from biological males. * Seattle incident: Two teenage fans holding pro-Cunningham signs at the Fever-Storm game were allegedly confronted by Storm co-owner Celeste Keaton. The WNBA suspended Keaton for five home games and issued an undisclosed fine. * Portland rally (Fri, July 31): Kara Dansky and many others to rally outside the Fever-Fire game. * Minneapolis rally (Sun, Aug 2): Jennifer Sey, founder of XX-XY Athletics, will rally outside Target Center ahead of the Fever-Lynx game. * Full remaining Indiana Fever schedule linked here. Coming up * Next week: the Mountain v. Liberty case on housing biological males in Maine women’s prisons, with attorney Cynthia Dill. * Starting in August: our full series on libraries. Find our merch here. 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

James Esses — psychotherapist, former criminal barrister, founder of Just Therapy, co-founder of Thoughtful Therapists, founder/coordinator of the Declaration for Biological Reality, Honorary Fellow at the Centre for Heterodox Social Science, University of Buckingham. Jamie, Lauren, and Cori are joined by James Esses ahead of the July 26th High Court judicial review of the PATHWAYS puberty blocker trial. James — alongside Keira Bell and the Bayswater Support Group — is a claimant in the case challenging the Health Research Authority and MHRA’s decision to approve the trial. This conversation covers the trial’s history, the regulatory reversal that let it proceed, and what’s legally at stake this weekend for the children already enrolled. PATHWAYS Trial: - 2024:UK bans puberty blockers for pediatric gender dysphoria outside of clinical research, following the Cass Review. - PATHWAYS approved as the sanctioned research exception — a King’s College London / South London and Maudsley NHS Trust study of GnRH analogues in patients under 16, commissioned by NHS England and the National Institute for Health and Care Research. - February 11, 2026: MHRA writes to trial sponsors raising safety concerns. - February 23, 2026: Health Secretary Wes Streeting confirms to Parliament that the trial has been paused. - Early 2026: Bell, Bayswater Support Group, and Esses file for judicial review against the HRA and MHRA, arguing the regulators failed to properly weigh foreseeable risk to cognition, bone density, and fertility against anticipated benefit. - June 2026: MHRA approves a modified protocol — minimum age requirement, updated patient information — clearing PATHWAYS to proceed, subject to the outcome of the judicial review. - Recruitment date: Originally set for August 1, 2026, pending the court’s decision. - July 26, 2026: High Court hears the judicial review. Further Reading: - Sex Matters coverage of the trial pause and judicial review - Transgender Trend on the modified protocol - The Free Press on the trial’s approval to enroll 11-year-olds - James Esses’s Substack and Just Therapy directory 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

This week on Informed Dissent, Jamie Reed sits down with Maya Forstater to talk conversion therapy law, the puberty blocker trial, and Amnesty International. About Maya Forstater Maya Forstater is Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of Sex Matters. She became a public figure after losing her job at the Center for Global Development over her tweets on sex and gender — the resulting employment tribunal case established that ordinary beliefs about the two sexes are protected under the Equality Act 2010’s characteristic of belief. Before co-founding Sex Matters, she spent two decades as a researcher, writer, and advisor to think tanks and cross-sector initiatives on international tax policy, climate finance, and human rights in supply chains, and helped found both the Let Toys Be Toys campaign and the Ethical Trading Initiative. 🎧 Like, subscribe, and share if this episode hits home. 🛍️ Grab LGB Courage Coalition merch at 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

Closing out Pride month, Cori Cohn and Lauren Leggieri sit down with pseudonymous writer Jack of Shadows — a cancelled public health professional, gay man, and contributor to our Substack — for a real conversation from inside the LGB about what happens when trans and queer politics collide with gay life. The conversation centers on “Odd Girls Out: Trans-Identified Women in Gay Male Spaces (Part 3: The White Knight and the Wallflower),” the final piece in Jack’s three-part series. Drawing on a firsthand account from a gay men’s retreat, Jack argues that gay male affinity spaces are built on shared orientation — and that well-meaning efforts to include trans-identified women in those spaces, however kindly intended, don’t resolve the underlying mismatch so much as paper over it. It’s a meditation on chivalry, honesty, and what’s lost when spaces built around one thing are asked to become something else. We’ll also touch on his earlier piece, “How a Private Conversation about Gender Got Me Fired from My Dream Job” — our most-read piece to date — about the professional cost of dissent in public health. * * If you liked this episode, like, subscribe, and share Informed Dissent — it genuinely helps more people find us. And check out our merch, available now, if you want to rep the show. Got a story from inside our community that isn’t getting told? Send it to us through lgbcourage.org. Know someone we should be talking to? Send that our way too. 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

On today’s episode, Jamie Reed moderates a roundtable discussing the Supreme Court’s ruling in West Virginia v. B.P.J. and Little v. Hecox. At the table: Cori Cohn — co-host of Informed Dissent, who has testified in many states on this exact issue. Kara Dansky — attorney and author of The Abolition of Sex and The Reckoning: How the Democrats and the Left Betrayed Women and Girls. She’s a former ACLU senior counsel on criminal justice policy, a former president of the U.S. chapter of Women’s Declaration International, and a former board member of the Women’s Liberation Front. She describes herself as a lifelong Democrat. Kim Jones — co-founder of the Independent Council on Women’s Sports, or ICONS, the organization funding litigation against the NCAA over transgender eligibility policy. She’s a former All-American tennis player at Stanford; she got involved after watching young women compete against Lia Thomas in 2022. Leyland Streiff — co-founder and lead organizer of Maine Girl Dads, and principal officer of the Protect Girls Sports in Maine ballot committee. A father of three who relocated his family to Maine after decades in the New York area, he led the citizen-initiative signature drive that gathered more than 76,000 signatures. Decided 6-3. Majority opinion by Justice Kavanaugh, joined by Roberts, Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch, and Barrett. The majority held that neither Title IX nor the Equal Protection Clause prevents states from reserving girls’ and women’s school sports for biological females. Thomas and Gorsuch each wrote separate concurrences. Justice Sotomayor wrote an opinion concurring in part and dissenting in part, joined by Kagan and Jackson; Jackson also wrote a separate opinion concurring in part and dissenting in part. Notably, all nine justices agreed the states hadn’t violated Title IX — the three liberals only dissented on the Equal Protection question, arguing the case should have gone back to a lower court to develop the factual record on competitive advantage. Chief Justice John Roberts Male · Age 71 · Appointed by President George W. Bush (R), 2005 * Obergefell v. Hodges (2015) — Dissented from the majority’s recognition of a constitutional right to same-sex marriage, arguing the decision should have been left to the democratic process rather than decided by the Court. * Bostock v. Clayton County (2020) — Joined Justice Gorsuch’s majority opinion holding that Title VII’s ban on sex discrimination in employment extends to discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. * United States v. Skrmetti (2025) — Authored the majority opinion upholding Tennessee’s ban on certain gender-affirming medical treatments for minors, applying rational-basis review. * This ruling — Joined Kavanaugh’s majority opinion. Justice Clarence Thomas Male · Age 78 · Appointed by President George H.W. Bush (R), 1991 * Obergefell — Dissented, joined Scalia’s and wrote his own dissent arguing the majority’s reasoning had no basis in the Constitution’s text or history. * Bostock — Dissented, joining Alito’s opinion arguing the majority rewrote the statute rather than interpreting it. * Skrmetti — Joined the majority. * This ruling — Wrote a concurrence arguing biological sex is an immutable characteristic and that a man does not have a legal right to compete against women based on gender identity. Justice Samuel Alito Male · Age 76 · Appointed by President George W. Bush (R), 2006 * Obergefell — Dissented, warning the ruling would be used to brand traditional marriage views as bigotry. * Bostock — Wrote the primary dissent (joined by Thomas), arguing the majority’s textualism was a pretext for judicially imposed policy change that only Congress had authority to make. * Skrmetti — Joined the majority. * This ruling — Joined the majority. Justice Sonia Sotomayor Female · Age 72 · Appointed by President Barack Obama (D), 2009 * Obergefell — Joined the majority recognizing a right to same-sex marriage. * Bostock — Joined the majority extending Title VII protections. * Skrmetti — Dissented from the majority upholding Tennessee’s minor gender-care ban. * This ruling — Wrote the lead dissent, arguing the majority resolved factual questions about competitive advantage that should have gone to a lower court first, and read a summary of her dissent aloud from the bench — a signal of unusually strong disagreement. Justice Elena Kagan Female · Age 66 · Appointed by President Barack Obama (D), 2010 * Obergefell — Joined the majority. * Bostock — Joined the majority. * Skrmetti — Dissented. * This ruling — Joined Sotomayor’s dissent. Justice Neil Gorsuch Male · Age 58 · Appointed by President Donald Trump (R), 2017 * Bostock — Authored the majority opinion himself, reasoning as a textualist that firing someone for being gay or transgender necessarily involves treating them differently because of sex — one of the most consequential LGBT-rights opinions ever written by a conservative justice. * Skrmetti — Joined the majority. * This ruling — Joined the majority and wrote his own concurrence. * (Gorsuch was not yet on the Court for Obergefell in 2015.) Justice Brett Kavanaugh Male · Age 61 · Appointed by President Donald Trump (R), 2018 * Bostock — Dissented, arguing the Court overstepped its role and that any expansion of Title VII protections should come from Congress. * Skrmetti — Joined the majority. * This ruling — Authored the majority opinion, framing it as declining to require “an overhaul of women’s and girls’ sports throughout America,” while stating that transgender girls and women who want to play sports deserve “respect” and should not be “ostracized or vilified.” * (Kavanaugh was not yet on the Court for Obergefell.) Justice Amy Coney Barrett Female · Age 54 · Appointed by President Donald Trump (R), 2020 * Skrmetti — Joined the majority. * This ruling — Joined the majority. * (Barrett joined the Court in 2020, after both Obergefell and Bostock.) Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson Female · Age 55 · Appointed by President Joe Biden (D), 2022 * Skrmetti — Dissented. * This ruling — Joined Sotomayor’s dissent and additionally wrote her own separate opinion concurring in part and dissenting in part. * (Jackson joined the Court in 2022, after both Obergefell and Bostock.) Shop our Merch Store: We have mugs, t-shirts, and tote bags for sale! 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

In This Episode We open with Lauren and Cori on Pride, the Endocrine Society’s annual conference, and the question nobody wants to answer: who is welcomed at Pride anymore? Then Jamie sits down with Dr. Leonard Sax — physician, psychologist, and author — to pull apart one of the most consequential statistical fabrications in the gender medicine literature: the claim that 1.7% of human births are intersex, and how a thought experiment published in a general-interest magazine became the foundation of medical and legal policy for a generation. We now have MERCH available for you! Part One: Lauren and Cori Pride, the Endocrine Society, and What’s Gay Anymore First things first: Cori turns 51, and Lauren watched Madonna’s free concert from home — and has thoughts. They compare it to Golden Girls, and honestly, can we get more gay? (We cannot.) Cori also discusses this photo from Indianapolis Pride. Which brings them to the question of the hour: who is Pride for anymore? And while they’re at it — who is the Endocrine Society’s conference in Chicago for? Lauren and Cori look at what both events say about where gay men and lesbians fit in institutions that increasingly can’t define the words “man” and “woman.” Part Two: Jamie with Dr. Leonard Sax Intersex, Anne Fausto-Sterling, and How a Magazine Essay Became Medical Canon Dr. Leonard Sax is a physician and psychologist, the founder of the National Association for Single Sex Public Education, and the author of Why Gender Matters, Boys Adrift, and Girls on the Edge. He is also the author of the 2002 Journal of Sex Research paper “How Common Is Intersex? A Response to Anne Fausto-Sterling” — one of the most important and consistently ignored correctives in the medical literature. Jamie and Dr. Sax walk through the full arc of the intersex prevalence claim: where it came from, how it traveled, and why it matters. The origin: In 1993, Anne Fausto-Sterling published “The Five Sexes” in The Sciences, a general-interest magazine — explicitly a thought experiment proposing five sex categories rather than two. Her own definition of intersex was specific: chromosomal sex inconsistent with phenotypic sex, or ambiguous genitalia. The inflation: By 2000, Fausto-Sterling’s co-authored paper “How Sexually Dimorphic Are We?” (Blackless et al.) arrived at 1.7% of human births as intersex. The number spread fast — journalists, academics, clinicians, policymakers. Most didn’t look at what she was actually counting. The rebuttal: Sax’s 2002 paper showed the 1.7% figure included conditions with no relationship to Fausto-Sterling’s own definition — people who are unambiguously male or female. The biggest single contributor was late-onset congenital adrenal hyperplasia (LOCAH), accounting for 1.5 of the 1.7 percentage points. Strip out the conditions that aren’t intersex by any coherent definition, and the true prevalence is approximately 0.018% — nearly 100 times lower. Why it matters: The number has been used to argue that biological sex is not dimorphic and that binary sex categories are scientifically indefensible. It has appeared in legal briefs, medical society statements, and clinical guidelines. It is not supported by the evidence. Jamie and Dr. Sax also discuss what intersex conditions actually are, what good clinical care looks like, and why conflating DSD with gender identity harms the people and families who deserve honest medicine. Resources * Leonard Sax, “How Common Is Intersex? A Response to Anne Fausto-Sterling,” Journal of Sex Research, Vol. 39, No. 3 (August 2002): 174–178 * Blackless et al. (Fausto-Sterling), “How Sexually Dimorphic Are We? Review and Synthesis,” American Journal of Human Biology 12 (2000): 151–166 * Anne Fausto-Sterling, “The Five Sexes,” The Sciences (March/April 1993) * Leonard Sax, Why Gender Matters — leonardsax.com Informed Dissent is produced by LGB Courage Coalition. Find us on Substack, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify. If this work matters to you, please like, subscribe, and rate us wherever you listen — it makes a real difference. And consider supporting us at lgbcc.org. WE have MERCH! 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

Episode Summary In Part Two of our conversation with Dr. Kenneth Zucker, we continue exploring what decades of clinical research actually shows about gender dysphoria in children and adolescents — and what gets lost when ideology replaces evidence. Dr. Zucker is a certified psychologist based in Toronto, Editor-in-Chief of Archives of Sexual Behavior, and one of the most cited researchers in this field. If you missed Part One, start there — this conversation builds on it. Topics Covered * ROGD as a distinct clinical phenomenon: what the evidence does and doesn’t show * The shift in sex ratios among clinic-referred adolescents and what it signals * Desistance, persistence, and why longitudinal data matters * Is there a “true” transgender? Dr. Zucker makes the case for a genuine gender dysphoria diagnosis — and what distinguishes it from the current wave of adolescent presentations From Dr. Zucker’s Research Dr. Zucker has a new paper under review asking the core question directly: Is “rapid-onset” gender dysphoria in adolescence a new clinical phenomenon? The manuscript was submitted for publication in January 2026. You can track his work and find the paper when it publishes at his research page: 🔗 kenzuckerphd.com/research His full CV is also available there as a PDF for listeners who want the complete publication record. Earlier relevant work: * “Adolescents with Gender Dysphoria: Reflections on Some Contemporary Clinical and Research Issues” — Archives of Sexual Behavior, 2019 * “The Myth of Persistence” — International Journal of Transgenderism, 2018 Coming Up Next Week 🎙️ Pride Discussion — Lauren and Cori sit down to talk about Lauren trip to Chicago for the Endocrine Conference and her visit to a Pride Festival. 🎙️ Interview: Dr. Leonard Sax — Author, physician, and researcher. Dr. Sax joins Jamie to discuss intersex conditions, how prevalence claims get distorted, and what accurate terminology actually requires. 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