Informed Dissent

On September 23, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on protecting women’s sports. Former Stanford goalkeeper and professional soccer player Carly Smolak testified alongside Kim Jones of ICONS and attorney William Bock. When it came time for questions, not a single Democratic senator stayed in the room to ask her anything.We think her story deserves to be heard in full. This episode opens with Carly’s testimony, then turns to a conversation with Jamie Reed and Cori Cohn.Carly won four national championships in Australian rules football as a player and coach. In 2023, a man joined her former women’s team. He turned out to be a registered sex offender convicted of abusing multiple children. The club quietly removed him without ever telling the women he had shared hotel rooms with, and the national governing body said there was nothing it could do.Carly also talks about growing up a gender-nonconforming girl in Oregon, why she’s almost certain she would have been pushed toward transition as a kid today, and what it was like to watch the Bay Area butch lesbian community she knew nearly disappear.Bio:Carly Smolak was a goalkeeper for the Stanford University women’s soccer team, and former professional soccer player for the Women’s United Soccer Association. She was also a decorated Australian Football player in the United States Australian Football League, winning four national championships as a player and coach. She recently testified in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee regarding the male convicted child sex offender that joined her former women’s Australian Rules Football team. She has been a lesbian long enough to watch Birkenstocks go in and out of style at least three times, and would much rather be surfing or tending to her garden than arguing about what a woman is.To the girls of the Camas High School cross country team in Washington: we see you, and we stand with you. Washington voters decide on Initiative 638 on November 3. You’ll find LGB Courage Coalition’s action alert here: Thanks for supporting 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

Killed by the In-Laws, Meta’s Body Dysmorphia Reckoning, The Last Ditch This week Jamie Reed and Lauren Leggieri take on two stories that you want more details on. Segment 1: The killing of Jonathan McKinseyJonathan McKinsey, 40, director of engineering for New York Times Games, was shot dead on September 26 in a Dublin, California, park parking lot. Her in-laws, both 77, are charged with murder with a lying-in-wait special circumstance. Behind it was a bitter custody fight, with dueling restraining orders and abuse allegations on both sides. We also dig into McKinsey’s backstory: a female transition in 2010, before the youth gender boom, and a 2011 Texas marriage. Segment 2: Meta’s settlement and the body dysmorphia verdictMeta settled with a bipartisan coalition of attorneys general from nearly every state. The deal is $17.1 billion, about $18 billion counting Texas’s separate agreement. It comes with new defaults for teens: a two-hour daily cap, a nighttime block, and a ban on cosmetic-surgery filters. We walk through the California jury verdict that found Instagram and YouTube contributed to a young woman’s body dysmorphia. We explain why parents’ Facebook feeds are full of law firm ads, and what families of trans-identified teens with co-occurring depression, eating disorders, or self-harm should know before calling one. And we ask the obvious question: if platforms can drive teen distress about the body, why is distress about sex characteristics off-limits?Thanks for listening to Informed Dissent! This post is public so feel free to share it.SourcesMcKinsey case* New York Times, “California Couple Charged With Murder in Shooting of Son-in-Law” (Karlamangla and Qin, Sept. 30, 2026) Meta settlement* New York Attorney General: https://ag.ny.gov/press-release/2026/attorney-general-james-secures-171-billion-and-groundbreaking-reforms-meta* Connecticut Attorney General: https://portal.ct.gov/ag/press-releases/2026-press-releases/settlement-with-meta* Colorado Attorney General: https://coag.gov/press-releases/weiser-announces-historic-settlement-with-meta/Further reading* SF Chronicle on the case and the 2011 Texas marriage: https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/man-shot-killed-dublin-in-laws-suspects-22451686.php* KTVU on the divorce and restraining orders: https://www.ktvu.com/news/dublin-shooting-nyt-engineer-jonathan-mckinsey-divorce-battle* ABC7 on the charges: https://abc7news.com/story/new-york-times-engineer-jonathan-mckinsey-california-couple-accused-killing-son-law-public-park-charged-murder/19892829/* CBS News on the K.G.M. verdict: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/meta-youtube-social-media-addiction-lawsuit-verdict/* Missouri Lawyers Media on Meta pulling plaintiff-recruiting ads: https://molawyersmedia.com/2026/04/10/meta-pulls-ads-recruiting-plaintiffs-social-media-addiction-lawsuits/ 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

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

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

Informed Dissent — Show Notes, Week of August 1, 2026In 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

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

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 RobertsMale · 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 ThomasMale · 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 AlitoMale · 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 SotomayorFemale · 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 KaganFemale · 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 GorsuchMale · 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 KavanaughMale · 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 BarrettFemale · 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 JacksonFemale · 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

Episode SummaryIn 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 presentationsFrom Dr. Zucker’s ResearchDr. 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/researchHis 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, 2018Coming 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

In This EpisodeJamie Reed and Cori Cohn open the episode with analysis of the May 21 Senate HELP Committee hearing, Protecting Our Children: Exposing the Dangers of Irreversible Gender Transition Procedures on Minors, then turn to a new think tank brief counseling trans advocates to accept defeat on youth medical transition. Jamie closes the episode with her recorded conversation with Dr. Kenneth Zucker — one of the most consequential and contested figures in the history of gender medicine.PART ONE: The Senate HELP Committee Hearing Jamie Reed and Cori CohnOn May 21, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee convened a full committee hearing on pediatric gender transition procedures. Jamie and Cori break down who testified, what was said, and what the hearing reveals about where this debate is headed at the federal level.Witnesses:* Dr. Kurt Miceli, MD, MBA — Chief Medical Officer, Do No Harm* Chloe Cole— Detransitioner and Ambassador, Do No Harm * Shannon Minter — Legal Director, National Center for LGBTQ Rights. Minter appeared on Andrew Sullivan’s Dishcast in August 2025 for a debate-style conversation on pediatric gender medicine — worth a listen for background on where he stands and how he argues. Shannon Minter On Trans Life And Politics — The Dishcast with Andrew SullivanAs a backdrop to their analysis, Jamie and Cori turn to a newly released brief from the Searchlight Institute — The Path Forward for Transgender Rights, authored by Mara Keisling, founder of the National Center for Transgender Equality. Drawing on extensive polling, the brief advises Democratic policymakers to abandon the fight on sports and pediatric medicine and focus on non-discrimination protections for adults. When the movement’s own research infrastructure is counseling retreat, it reframes what was at stake in that hearing room.Links:* Full hearing: Senate HELP Committee, May 21, 2026* The Path Forward for Transgender Rights — Searchlight InstitutePART TWO: Jamie Reed Interviews Dr. Kenneth ZuckerDr. Kenneth Zucker is a psychologist and sexologist who served for decades as head of the Gender Identity Service at Toronto’s Centre for Addiction and Mental Health — until his clinic was shut down following an advocacy campaign in 2015. He is among the most published researchers in the world on gender dysphoria in children and adolescents, and his work on desistance — the finding that a significant majority of gender-dysphoric youth, if not socially transitioned, grow up to be gay or lesbian — has been central to debates about pediatric medical transition. If you don’t know his name, start with Jesse Singal’s longer reporting on his work and the circumstances of his clinic’s closure.In this conversation, Jamie sits down with Zucker to discuss his new paper, co-authored with Michael Bailey: “Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment of Gender Dysphoria in Youth: Opportunities, Challenges, and Responsibilities”— a direct clinical argument that psychological treatment of gender dysphoria in youth is not only permissible but arguably obligatory, and a challenge to a field that has largely foreclosed that conversation.Links:* Zucker & Bailey paper — Current Opinion in Psychology* LGB CC review of the paper: “A Clarion Call to Therapists”About Informed DissentInformed Dissent is the podcast of the LGB Courage Coalition. Hosted by Jamie Reed, Lauren Leggieri, and Cori Cohn.Website: lgbcouragecoalition.org Substack: lgbcouragecoalition.substack.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

Informed DissentThis Week’s EpisodeMaine is a blue state — Democratic governor, Democratic legislature, transgender sanctuary state. And yet Protect Girls Sports in Maine gathered more than 70,000 signatures to put a sex-based sports and spaces question on the November ballot — nearly all of them from volunteers. This week, as this episode airs, the effort is in crisis: yesterday, Maine’s Chief Deputy Secretary of State issued a recommended decision to invalidate the initiative entirely, finding more than 12,000 additional signatures invalid and leaving the campaign roughly 500 signatures short of the threshold. Protect Girls Sports in Maine’s deadline to file objections is today. The Secretary of State — a Democrat who is also running for governor — is expected to issue a final ruling by May 26. Here and here is coverage from Maine. In California, the race to replace Nancy Pelosi in the 11th Congressional District is ten days from its June 2 primary. Pelosi made her choice four days ago: she endorsed Supervisor Connie Chan — not Scott Wiener, the California State Senator who has spent years as the chief architect of the state’s transgender sanctuary laws, its policy of housing male-bodied incarcerated people in women’s prisons, and an expanding series of bills restricting therapeutic alternatives for gender-dysphoric youth. Running against Wiener is Marie Hurabiell — the one candidate in the race who has said publicly that she objects to biological males accessing women’s spaces and sports based on self-identification.This week, Lauren Leggieri, Jamie Reed and Cori Cohn speak to both. Here are the Democrats that voted in support of H.R. 2616, the "Stopping Indoctrination and Protecting Kids Act," which passed the House on May 19 by a 217-198 vote: Vicente Gonzalez (TX-15) https://gonzalez.house.gov/contact/officesHenry Cuellar (TX-28) https://cuellar.house.gov/contact/Don Davis (NC-1) https://dondavis.house.gov/contactCleo Fields (LA-6) https://fields.house.gov/contactLaura Gillen (NY-4) https://gillen.house.gov/contactMarcy Kaptur (OH-9) https://kaptur.house.gov/contact/officesMarie Gluesenkamp Perez (WA-3) https://gluesenkampperez.house.gov/contactEugene Vindman (VA-7) https://vindman.house.gov/contact/GuestsLeyland StreiffPrincipal Officer, Protect Girls Sports in Maine | Leader, Maine Girl DadsLeyland Streiff is the Principal Officer of the Protect Girls Sports in Maine ballot referendum and leader of Maine Girl Dads — a coalition of 8,000+ fathers from across the political spectrum fighting to protect the sex-based rights of their daughters. He is a dad of three and husband to an amazing wife. Before recently retiring to focus full-time on raising his three kids while leading Maine Girl Dads in his spare time, he had a long, storied career as a marketing executive working with famous brands at famous ad agencies, before becoming a partner at the world’s largest professional services firm, where he led their U.S. ad agency business for many years.In February 2026, his coalition submitted more than 79,000 signatures to the Maine Secretary of State — well above the roughly 67,682 required. The Secretary of State certified more than 71,000 as valid. Then opponents challenged thousands more. A May 12 hearing was held. Yesterday, the Chief Deputy Secretary of State issued a recommended decision to invalidate the initiative entirely — finding more than 12,000 additional signatures invalid and leaving the campaign approximately 500 short. Protect Girls Sports in Maine is filing its objections today. A final decision is expected by May 26.Follow Maine Girl Dads: @mainegirldads on X, Instagram, and Facebook MaineGirlDads.comMarie HurabiellCandidate, California’s 11th Congressional District (June 2, 2026 Primary)Marie Hurabiell is a San Francisco native, attorney, and community activist running for the congressional seat being vacated by House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi. A Georgetown graduate with a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, she founded ConnectedSF, a citywide organization focused on pragmatic solutions and public safety. She was appointed by President Trump to the Presidio Trust Board of Directors. She was a registered Republican until 2022.In a race dominated by California State Senator Scott Wiener — the primary author of California’s transgender sanctuary laws, the legislation allowing male-bodied incarcerated people into women’s prisons, and an expanding series of bills restricting therapeutic alternatives for gender-dysphoric youth — Hurabiell has been the one candidate willing to say publicly that she objects to biological males accessing women’s spaces and sports based on self-identification alone. She declined to sign a transgender rights proclamation. She has been called homophobic by the San Francisco political establishment for criticizing Wiener’s record. She joins us ten days before voters decide.Follow Marie Hurabiell: @MHurabiell on X MarieHurabiell.comThanks for reading Informed Dissent! This post is public so feel free to share it.Informed Dissent is produced by the LGB Courage Coalition. If this show matters to you, please subscribe, share it, and put it in front of someone who needs to hear it.Until next week — 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 — Special EditionMonday, May 19, 2026 About This EpisodeThis 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 ConferenceThe 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 PresentersDr. 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

About this episodeLauren 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.LinksStrange Bedfellows: When LGB Met T — Longview/ReflectorPart 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