Informed Dissent

What the ASPS position statement on pediatric gender surgery actually says — and what it means. A listener’s guide to our episode for March 21 2026; names, the history, and what’s at stake.

On February 3, 2026, the American Society of Plastic Surgeons issued a nine-page position statement recommending that surgeons delay all gender-related surgery — breast/chest, genital, and facial — until a patient is at least 19 years old. It was the first statement of its kind from a major American medical association, and the reverberations were immediate.

This is a significant moment. Not because it ends the debate, but because it marks the first formal fracture in the wall of institutional consensus that has, for the better part of a decade, treated surgical intervention in minors as settled, evidence-based, and beyond reproach. It was not settled. It was not evidence-based. And the ASPS has now said so on the record.

This episode of Informed Dissent features our interview with Dr. Scot Glasberg — a past president of the ASPS and a central figure in the multi-year deliberation that led to this statement. His name, and several others, will come up throughout the conversation. This piece is your guide to who these people are, what their relationships are to each other, and why the internal story of how this statement came to exist is as important as the statement itself.

The Organization and Its Reach

The ASPS is not a minor player. It represents more than 11,000 physician members and over 90 percent of board-certified plastic surgeons practicing in the United States and Canada. Crucially, plastic surgeons are the primary specialty performing mastectomies on minors with gender dysphoria — approximately 1,000 or more annually in recent years, by conservative estimates.

When the ASPS speaks on this issue, it is speaking as the guild whose members have been performing these procedures. That is what makes this statement different from outside criticism. These are the surgeons.

What the Statement Actually Says

The coverage has focused on the age cutoff — 19 — but the statement goes considerably further. The ASPS doesn’t just recommend delay. It raises foundational questions about the entire treatment pathway.

The statement is unambiguous: it characterizes the research supporting gender-related interventions in minors as “low quality/low certainty.” It draws on the 2024 Cass Review commissioned by NHS England, several European systematic reviews, and the HHS report Treatment for Pediatric Gender Dysphoria: Review of Evidence and Best Practices, published in 2025. The statement finds “insufficient evidence demonstrating a favorable risk-benefit ratio for the pathway of gender-related endocrine and surgical interventions in children and adolescents.”

Not just surgical interventions. The full pathway — endocrine and surgical — fails the evidence test.

The statement also addresses the natural history of gender dysphoria directly: among children, the vast majority show resolution without medical intervention. Among adolescents, existing evidence suggests most will desist as well. This directly challenges the clinical framing that has driven urgent intervention — the idea that the trajectory of a child’s gender identity is fixed and must be medically affirmed. The ASPS also explicitly rejects the “suicide narrative” — the claim that withholding or delaying these interventions is equivalent to causing a child’s death. The statement treats crisis-based justifications for irreversible procedures as a reason for greater caution, not less.

On informed consent, the statement is clear: plastic surgeons cannot treat a prior referral letter, a mental health clearance, or a prior medical intervention as a proxy for surgical indication. Each surgeon bears independent professional responsibility to assess the risk-benefit profile — and to communicate uncertainty honestly.

Before the Statement: The Cass Review Panel That Never Happened

To understand why this statement exists, you have to go back to the fall of 2024.

Dr. Scot Glasberg, then president of the Plastic Surgery Foundation — the ASPS’s research wing — had organized a panel at the ASPS annual meeting titled “Translating Evidence into Best Practices: A Gender Medicine and Surgery Paradigm.” Dr. Hilary Cass, author of the landmark 2024 independent review of gender identity services for children commissioned by NHS England, had been invited to present.

Before the meeting, a group of ASPS members — including gender surgery practitioners and leaders of gender-affirming surgery programs, among them Dr. Blair Peters — sent a letter to the ASPS board. Their demand: arrange virtual attendance for members who would be at the WPATH conference in Lisbon, Portugal, held simultaneously.

The ASPS board met the demands. And then pulled the panel anyway. Every other gender-related session at the annual meeting proceeded as scheduled. The Cass panel was the only one removed. Glasberg sent the notice describing it as “postponed.”

The Gender Surgery Task Force was established in May 2025, in part as a response to this episode. Its stated mandate was not to issue guidance, but to seek “areas of emerging consensus” among clinicians with differing perspectives.

What no one outside the ASPS initially knew: several members of that task force held simultaneous leadership positions at WPATH — the organization whose standards of care the Cass Review had found to “lack developmental rigour.”

The Gender Surgery Task Force’s response to the ASPS statement would become a flashpoint of controversy.

The Internal Fracture

When the ASPS board released its position statement on February 3, 2026, it did not go through the task force. The board acted independently. The task force — including its WPATH-affiliated members — found out when everyone else did.

Seven task force members sent an open letter to the ASPS board demanding transparency about the statement’s authorship and development. The letter was spearheaded by Dr. Jens Berli and subsequently posted publicly on LinkedIn by Dr. Scott Leibowitz — a move that created additional friction within the task force, with at least one member seeking to withdraw his signature.

The open letter did not dispute the evidentiary findings. It focused on process. But the identities of its signatories — which include WPATH’s current president, president-elect, and a board member — tell their own story about who had a stake in the task force’s approach and why the board chose to circumvent it.

The Malpractice Context

The same week the ASPS statement was released, a former patient named Fox Varian was awarded $2 million in a malpractice judgment in New York state after undergoing a double mastectomy as a minor and subsequently detransitioning. It was the first detransitioner lawsuit in the United States to reach a jury verdict.

The attorney who represented her, Adam Deutsch, said publicly that the ASPS statement validated his theory of the case: that a surgeon cannot simply defer to a mental health referral when assessing whether an irreversible procedure is appropriate for an adolescent. At least 27 other detransitioner lawsuits are currently pending.

The liability calculus for surgeons in this space has changed.

What Other Medical Organizations Said

The response from other major medical bodies was revealing in its awkwardness. The AMA told reporters it agreed that surgical interventions for minors should be generally deferred to adulthood — but framed this as a clarification of its existing position, not a response to ASPS. The American Academy of Pediatrics said it “does not include a blanket recommendation for surgery for minors” — language that carefully elides what its own guidelines say about supporting surgical interventions for minors on a case-by-case, individualized basis.

These organizations have staked significant credibility on a position the evidence no longer supports. The ASPS has now made that visible.

Who’s Who: A Listener’s Guide

Several names come up throughout this episode. Here is a brief guide to who they are and how they connect to this story.

Dr. Scot Glasberg

Past President, ASPS | President, Plastic Surgery Foundation | Co-chair, ASPS Gender Surgery Task Force

Private practice, Manhattan | Informed Dissent guest, this episode

Glasberg convened the Hilary Cass panel at the 2024 ASPS annual meeting that was pulled under pressure from WPATH-aligned members. He was central to the multi-year evidence deliberation inside ASPS that preceded the February 2026 position statement, though he was not involved in the board’s final drafting. He has spoken publicly about the evidentiary basis for the age-19 threshold and the statement’s independence from political pressure.

Dr. Hilary Cass

Author, the Cass Review (2024)

NHS England — Independent Review of Gender Identity Services for Children and Young People

Dr. Cass led the most comprehensive independent review of pediatric gender medicine to date, commissioned by NHS England. Her 2024 final report found the evidence base for hormonal and surgical interventions in minors to be “remarkably weak” and found that existing clinical guidelines — including WPATH’s — lacked developmental rigour. She was invited to present at the 2024 ASPS annual meeting and was disinvited when the panel was pulled. The ASPS position statement cites her review approvingly by name.

Dr. Loren Schechter

President-Elect, WPATH | Member, ASPS Gender Surgery Task Force | Open Letter Signatory

Medical Director, Gender Affirmation Surgery Program, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago

One of the highest-volume gender surgery practitioners in the U.S. — approximately 100–150 procedures annually. An ASPS member, signatory of the task force open letter, and WPATH’s incoming president. Part of the group that pressured the ASPS board regarding the Cass Review panel in 2024. After the February 2026 statement, he told reporters “the answer is somewhere in the middle.” In the Fox Varian malpractice trial he testified that surgery is not a mechanism to prevent suicide — a position that contradicts sworn statements he gave in a 2022 Florida case involving a minor.

Dr. Scott Leibowitz

Board Member, WPATH | Member, ASPS Gender Surgery Task Force | Open Letter Signatory

Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist

A child and adolescent psychiatrist and WPATH board member who served on the ASPS Gender Surgery Task Force. He was among the seven signatories of the open letter to the ASPS board — and was the member who posted the letter publicly on LinkedIn, an action that created friction within the task force itself. On LinkedIn, he argued that the ASPS statement “ignored the reality that a young person’s maturity to make a decision can differ across ages” and that low-certainty evidence is a reason for guardrails, not restriction. His dual role — WPATH board member and ASPS task force member — is central to understanding the conflict of interest embedded in the task force’s composition.

Dr. Asa Radix

President, WPATH | Open Letter Signatory

World Professional Association for Transgender Health

Current WPATH president and a signatory of the open letter sent by the ASPS task force to the ASPS board. WPATH is the organization whose Standards of Care have served as the primary clinical guidance framework for gender-affirming care globally — and whose guidelines the Cass Review, the HHS report, and now the ASPS have all declined to endorse as trustworthy for implementation.

Dr. Jens Berli

Head, Division of Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery, OHSU | Open Letter Author | ASPS Task Force Member

Oregon Health & Science University, Portland

Swiss-trained, Johns Hopkins-residency plastic surgeon who joined OHSU’s Transgender Health Program in 2016. He specializes in phalloplasty and gender-affirming facial surgery. Metadata from the task force open letter — and confirmation from a fellow task force member — identify Berli as the letter’s primary author. He and Blair Peters are colleagues at OHSU and frequent research collaborators. He is a WPATH member and follows WPATH surgical guidelines.

Dr. Blair Peters

Vice Chair, ASPS Gender Surgery Committee | ASPS Member

Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU)

Peters, who describes himself as a “Queer surgeon,” is one of the ASPS members who sent the letter demanding virtual attendance accommodations before the 2024 annual meeting — the action that preceded the removal of the Cass Review panel. He is Vice Chair of the ASPS gender surgery committee, with Dr. Melissa Poh as Chair. He has been publicly critical of the ASPS position statement, posting on Threads in the days following its release. He is a frequent research collaborator with Dr. Berli at OHSU.

Dr. Melissa Poh

Chair, ASPS Gender Surgery Committee | ASPS Member

Kaiser Permanente West Los Angeles Medical Center, Los Angeles

Board-certified plastic surgeon and head of the transgender surgery program at Kaiser Permanente LA, performing the full spectrum of gender-affirming procedures. She is Chair of the ASPS gender surgery committee — with Blair Peters as her Vice Chair — making them the two most senior ASPS members in formal governance oversight of gender surgery. She has published extensively about gender-affirming surgical techniques. She may be on the ASPS Gender Surgery Task Force, but that is unconfirmed in published reporting.

Dr. Rachel Bluebond-Langner

Plastic Surgeon, Gender-Affirming Surgery | ASPS Member

Laura and Isaac Perlmutter Professor of Reconstructive Plastic Surgery, NYU Langone, New York

One of the country’s leading gender-affirming plastic surgeons, based at NYU Langone where she and her team perform over 800 gender-affirming procedures annually. Bluebond-Langner is a Johns Hopkins-trained reconstructive surgeon and pioneer of robotic peritoneal flap vaginoplasty. She has a longstanding research collaboration with Dr. Berli — including a joint commentary on the mastectomy systematic review that the ASPS position statement cites as foundational evidence. A WPATH member who follows WPATH guidelines. Her connection to the task force or open letter has not been confirmed in published reporting. NYU Langone has been at the center of its own controversy: on February 17, 2026 — two weeks after the ASPS position statement — the hospital shut down its Transgender Youth Health Program entirely, citing the Trump administration’s threats to withdraw Medicare and Medicaid funding from hospitals providing gender-affirming care to minors. The closure triggered protests outside the hospital, demands from 73 New York legislators that the decision be reversed, and a directive from the New York Attorney General ordering the program reinstated within 10 days. It is not yet known how the closure affects Bluebond-Langner’s adult surgical practice.

References & Further Reading

ASPS Position Statement (February 3, 2026): Gender Surgery for Children and Adolescents

HHS Evidence Review: Treatment for Pediatric Gender Dysphoria: Review of Evidence and Best Practices

SEGM Analysis: The American Society of Plastic Surgeons Rejects Adolescent Gender Surgery

Broadview News (Lisa Selin Davis): Medical Groups Are Censoring the Cass Review — The 2024 reporting on the Cass panel cancellation.

Broadview News (Lisa Selin Davis): Understanding the ASPS Position Statement with Dr. Scot Glasberg

Ben Ryan / Substack: Tensions Flare Within Plastic Surgery Group Over New Policy — The definitive account of the task force open letter and internal fracture.

Gender Clinic News (Bernard Lane): Consensus Shatters — Notes Schechter’s contradictory testimony across two legal cases.

City Journal (Leor Sapir): It’s Official: No Consensus Among Medical Groups on ‘Gender-Affirming Care’ for Minors

STAT News: American Society of Plastic Surgeons Endorses Delaying Gender-Affirming Surgeries Until 19

NBC News: Plastic Surgeons Group Calls for Delaying Gender-Affirming Surgery Until Age 19

Thanks for reading Informed Dissent! This post is public so feel free to share it.

This week on Informed Dissent, Lauren Leggieri, Cori Cohn, and Jamie Reed break down a week that managed to be both absurd and consequential — sometimes at the same time.

The first is a new paper out of the Amsterdam clinic — the team that invented the Dutch Protocol and launched a generation of pediatric gender medicine worldwide. De Rooy, Dekkers, Steensma, Popma, Kreukels, and de Vries looked at 1,470 adolescents referred to their clinic between 2009 and 2019. Eighteen percent did not pursue medical treatment. The most common reasons: no gender dysphoria diagnosis, or mental health and identity development problems that made treatment infeasible. The kids who didn’t pursue treatment had more psychological problems — not fewer. The paper’s own conclusion calls for “comprehensive diagnostic exploratory trajectories” before any medical intervention.

The second is Brandon Robinson, a man who identifies as nonbinary, holds a seven-figure federal grant, and recently went viral for arguing that sexual identity labels — including “gay” and “lesbian” — harm transgender people and should be abolished.

We also want to say thank you to our guests this week, Jen Sey and Kim Jones, who joined Lauren and Cori for a conversation that is well worth your time.

If this show matters to you, please like, subscribe, comment, and share. Every share puts this conversation in front of someone who needs to hear it — and that’s exactly the point.

Thanks for listening to Informed Dissent! This post is public so feel free to share it.

Links:

* De Rooy et al. (2026) — “Characteristics of Dutch Gender Clinic-Referred Adolescents Who Did Not Pursue Gender-Affirming Medical Treatment,” Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy: https://doi.org/10.1080/0092623X.2026.2641805

* Brandon Robinson, Trans Pleasure: On Gender Liberation and Sexual Freedom — UCR profile: https://news.ucr.edu/articles/2026/03/06/scholar-makes-case-moving-beyond-sexual-labels

* Jen Sey / XX-XY Athletics:

https://www.xx-xyathletics.com

* Kim Jones / ICONS (Independent Council on Women’s Sports):

https://iconswomen.com

* UN Commission on the Status of Women — CSW70 official record: https://press.un.org/en/2026/wom2249.doc.htm

* LGB Courage Coalition on Substack:

This week, Jamie and Lauren are joined by three guests pushing back against ideological capture in law, psychology, and education. Cori will be back next week.

🏛️ SCOTUS: Mirabelli v. Bonta

The Supreme Court issued an emergency order vacating the Ninth Circuit’s stay of a district court injunction — protecting parents from California’s gender-identity nondisclosure policies in schools. Justice Barrett’s concurrence noted the Ninth Circuit had demonstrably misconstrued the Court’s recent holding in Mahmoud v. Taylor. A major win for parental rights.

Cert Watch A decision on whether to grant cert in Littlejohn has been postponed. Foote v. Ludlow School Committee remains pending — a decision could come soon.

Recommended Reading “The Emergency Docket’s Critics Have It Backwards” — Stephanie Barclay, SCOTUSblog (March 6, 2026) 🔗 Read it here

Guests

Laura Powell — Mother, attorney, investigator, and founder of Californians for Good Governance, a nonpartisan organization advocating for civil liberties and government accountability. Her work has earned national media coverage, been cited in federal investigations, and contributed to the repeal of an unconstitutional state law. She recently testified before Congress on violations of parents’ rights in California schools. 🔗 X: @LauraPowellEsq | @CA4Governance

Kevin Waldman — Classical liberal, gay man, clinical researcher, mental health professional, and founder of psychFORM Research Lab, which conducts independent research into human development free from ideological bias. psychFORM has established IRB approval for a five-university study surveying approximately 2,500 undergraduates on professorial influence and Western cultural perspectives. psychFORM.com | X: @KevWaldman | Substack

Ben Appel — Author of Cis White Gay: The Making of a Gender Heretic (Bombardier, 2025), a memoir tracing his journey from a Christian covenant community to LGBT activism to Columbia University — where he encountered a new kind of orthodoxy. His recent piece in The Atlantic, “In Defense of Effeminate Boys,” is out now. benappelwrites.com| X: @benappel | Substack

Informed Dissent is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

If you find this show valuable, please like, share, and subscribe.

Stay informed and ready to dissent.

Informed Dissent

February 28, 2026

This week on Informed Dissent, Cori, Jamie, and Lauren break down Jesse Singal’s recent opinion piece in the New York Times and review some of the comments furiously written in the short window available.

We also discuss what is happening in the state of Kansas regarding the implementation of the new sex-based driver’s license law.

This Week’s Guest

Dan Zaksheske is a reporter at OutKick and has covered trans-identified athletes in women’s sports for about 2.5 years. He has appeared on Fox News and FoxNews.com, and his reporting has been cited in congressional correspondence to the U.S. Secretary of Defense. He has traveled across the country to tell the stories of girls affected when males enter women’s sports and spaces, reporting on the rules and policy shifts shaping competition and what they mean for fairness, safety, and opportunity for women and girls.

🔗 Read Dan’s work at OutKick:https://www.outkick.com/person/z/dan-zaksheske

📺 Subscribe to his YouTube channel:https://www.youtube.com/@UncontrolledNarrativewithDanZ

Please like, subscribe, comment, and share.

Our free weekly content happens because of the volunteers at the LGB Courage Coalition and from the support of listeners like you!

Tarot card decks and fan mail can be sent to:

LGB Courage Coalition PO Box 150114 St Louis MO 63151

Stay informed and ready to dissent.

This week on Informed Dissent, Jamie, Lauren, and Cori step into the breach — with guest Jennifer Sey.

Jennifer Sey

Jennifer Sey is an American author, filmmaker, business executive, and retired National Champion gymnast.

She was the 1986 U.S. Women’s National Champion and 7x National Team member. She was the first gymnast to speak out about the abuses in the sport in her 2008 memoir, Chalked Up.

Sey went on to produce the 2020 Emmy-award winning documentary film, Athlete A on Netflix, exposing the crimes of Larry Nassar and the abuse of athletes rampant in the Olympic movement.

Sey began working at Levi Strauss & Co. in 1999, rising to Chief Marketing Officer and then Brand President.

In 2020, she was the only C-suite executive to speak out against covid lockdowns and school closures.

She is now the founder and CEO of her own clothing brand, XX-XY Athletics – the only athletic brand to stand up for women’s sports and female athletes.

https://xx-xyathletics.com

🔎 Stories Discussed

🇬🇧 UK Pauses PATHWAYS Puberty Blocker Trial

The UK government has paused the PATHWAYS clinical trial into puberty blockers for minors after regulators raised safety concerns.

Read more:👉 https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/feb/20/uk-clinical-trial-into-puberty-blockers-paused-after-medicines-regulator-raises-concerns

⚖️ AAP & Endocrine Society Sue the FTC

The American Academy of Pediatrics and the Endocrine Society have filed suit against the U.S. Federal Trade Commission over investigations related to gender-affirming care guidance.

Read the Reuters coverage:👉 https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/pediatricians-group-sues-over-us-ftc-launching-gender-affirming-care-probe-2026-02-17/

If you value these conversations, please subscribe for free, like this episode, and share it with others who care about evidence, ethics, and open dialogue. Your support helps us continue this work and grow the conversation.

And as always, stay informed and ready to dissent.

Informed Dissent — Week of February 14, 2026

With Jamie Reed, Lauren Leggieri, and Cori CohnGuest: Dr. Patrick Hunter

This week on Informed Dissent, Jamie, Lauren, and Cori go back to the Detransitioner lawsuit trying to parse a standard of care when the whole field went off the rails. They discuss weekly headlines and are then joined by Dr. Patrick Hunter for a wide-ranging conversation on pediatric care, standards of practice, and medical ethics.

From Helen Lewis’s piece : “that she’d had her breasts removed at 16, only 11 months after first identifying as male. She had also been diagnosed with autism and had struggled with an eating disorder and anxiety.”

Ben Ryan’s coverage American Society Plastic Surgeons: New York Sun

Ben Ryan’s coverage American Society Plastic Surgeons: Hazard Ratio Substack

Guest Interview — Dr. Patrick Hunter

This week’s guest is Dr. Patrick Hunter, who joins the show for a detailed conversation about clinical practice, pediatric care, and evolving standards in youth gender medicine. You can follow Dr. Hunter on X @PatrickHunterMD

The discussion covers:

* Dr. Hunter’s professional background and clinical experience

* The role of pediatricians and primary care providers in evaluating distress in children

* Why a cautious, slow-moving approach has historically been standard in pediatric medicine

* The importance of careful assessment, watchful waiting, and risk–benefit evaluation when treating minors

* How physicians navigate standards of care amid changing evidence, institutional guidance, and public pressure

* The ethical responsibilities of clinicians working with children, including questions of informed consent, risk, and medical decision-making for minors

* The tension between urgency, patient distress, and the duty to avoid harm in pediatric care

The conversation also introduces key ethical questions surrounding pediatric medicine and clinical responsibility. Because of the importance and complexity of these issues, Dr. Hunter will return to Informed Dissent for a future episode focused specifically on medical ethics and standards of care.

Please like, subscribe, and share to help more listeners find these conversations.

Informed Dissent is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Informed Dissent — Show Notes

This week, Lauren, Jamie, and Cori break down a cascade of developments that unfolded in rapid succession: a New York jury malpractice verdict and major medical organizations reversing course on youth gender surgeries.

We also take a brief look at patient-facing spaces like Reddit to see whether families are already reporting canceled or delayed surgeries, noting that while anecdotal, these discussions often surface institutional shifts before they appear in official statements.

https://www.reddit.com/r/TopSurgery/comments/1qw9l00/comment/o3nyajn/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

Taken together, the legal, medical, and cultural signals suggest a consensus once treated as untouchable is now beginning to fracture.

Joining us this week is Gabe Walters, an attorney with the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE). We discuss the DIAG case, the free speech and civil liberties issues it raises.

We also touch on FIRE’s recent victory defending a Washington State professor investigated for parodying a university land acknowledgment.

Thanks for reading Informed Dissent! This post is public so feel free to share it.

Relevant links:

* FIRE (Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression):

https://www.thefire.org/

* DIAG v. Alexi Giannoulias (case page): https://www.thefire.org/cases/democrats-informed-approach-gender-v-alexi-giannoulias/

* FIRE victory in the University of Washington land acknowledgment case:https://www.thefire.org/news/victory-court-vindicates-professor-investigated-parodying-universitys-land-acknowledgment/

If you appreciate this episode, please like, subscribe, and share—and stay informed, and ready to dissent.

This week on Informed Dissent, Jamie, Lauren, and Cori reflect on a week of unexpected moments — travel, testimony, and the decision to speak up when staying quiet would have been easier.

Our deep dive includes a behind-the-scenes conversation about recent legislative hearings and welcoming new voices into the movement.

We’re joined by Dr. Karla Solheim, a board-certified OB/GYN living and practicing in Northeast Iowa. Dr. Solheim is married to her wife of 12 years, and together they are raising three children. She began writing to support and empower other OB/GYNs practicing in rural settings, before turning her attention to the growing influence of gender medicine.

In this episode, Dr. Solheim speaks about professional integrity, medical accountability, and what happens when clinicians decide to speak honestly — even when they hadn’t planned to.

You can read Dr. Solheim’s writing on Substack here:

If you appreciate this podcast, please like, share, and subscribe. These conversations matter, and they only grow when people pass them on.

Stay informed — and stay ready to dissent.

Informed Dissent is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Informed Dissent — January 17, 2026

News of the Week & Deep Dive

This week’s episode moves from state-level political turmoil to Supreme Court oral arguments, with a few unexpected cultural and intellectual detours along the way.

Segment One — New Jersey at a Crossroads

We open with the unfolding conflict inside New Jersey’s political and advocacy landscape, where a proposed “gender health care shield law” failed to pass before the close of the legislative session. That story, and the broader institutional turmoil at Garden State Equality, set the stage for a deeper conversation about how organizations respond to internal contradiction, external pressure, and reputational risk.

Along the way, we take a few side roads:

* What a zombie apocalypse in World War Z can teach us about cascading institutional failure.

* Why Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring still matters when thinking about how societies respond to environmental and systemic risk.

* Chris Argyris’ Overcoming Organizational Defenses and how organizations protect themselves from information they do not want to hear.

* A brief discussion of Jennifer Bilek’s reporting on networked advocacy influence in the gender policy space.

If you want the full written breakdown of the New Jersey story, we covered it here:

Segment Two — Supreme Court Sports Cases

In the second half, returning guest Glenna Goldis lawyer and author of Bad Facts

joins us for legal analysis of the two cases argued this week at the U.S. Supreme Court:

* Little v. Hecox (Idaho)

* West Virginia v. B.P.J.

We unpack the constitutional questions before the Court, Title IX implications, standards of review, and what oral argument signals about where the justices may be headed. We also discuss how these cases fit into the wider national strategy around sex-based protections in law and sport.

Closing Reflections

As always, we wrap by reflecting on the growing community around this show, the people showing up in real life at hearings and rallies, and the many listeners quietly processing complex family and cultural conflicts alongside us each week.

If you enjoyed this episode, please like, subscribe, and share Informed Dissent. Independent media only works when listeners help build the audience and the impact.

And as always — stay informed, and stay ready to dissent.

This week on Informed Dissent we tackle the New York Times, men in women’s sports, Trans News Network, and the 37th Annual GLAAD Media Award nominees.

We also discuss shoe sizes (is a women’s 11½ an outlier?), the independent media nominees all being either trans, queer, or aligned with that side of the movement, and why Jamie can’t pronoun Brad Polumbo’s name.

In our second segment we were joined by guest Ben Appel.

Ben Appel is the author of Cis White Gay: The Making of a Gender Heretic. He’s written for the Wall Street Journal, the New York Post, Newsweek, UnHerd, and many other publications.

Links:

Cis White Gay:

https://www.amazon.com/Cis-White-Gay-Making-Heretic-ebook/dp/B0FJ2PVZCP

X: https://x.com/benappel

Substack:

Website:

https://www.benappelwrites.com/

Like, subscribe, share, and comment.

Independent media only works if we share it and support it—and since we’ll probably never win a GLAAD Award, tell us in the comments who you think should be nominated for an independent media award.

As always, stay informed and ready to dissent.