On This Episode

PAS 2026 met in Boston at the end of April. On Sunday, a panel of four researchers and clinicians presented findings on pediatric gender medicine to 106 attendees. Before the session began, the PAS Program Chair informed the audience that every clinician approached to serve as a counterpoint speaker had declined to participate. The panel’s CME accreditation had been flagged for review before a single slide was examined. A concurrent LGBTQ+ pediatric health session the previous day operated without any of those conditions.

Lauren Leggieri, Jamie Reed, and Cori Cohn discuss the conference and what it revealed about how academic pediatric medicine handles dissent.

Jamie is also joined by Dr. Julia Mason and Dr. Patrick Hunter — both of whom were in the audience that day — for brief reflections on what they witnessed firsthand.

People You’ll Hear About

Dr. Daniel Rauch — PAS 2026 Program Chair. Professor of Pediatrics at Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine, and the physician responsible for overseeing the scientific program of the entire conference.

E. Kale Edmiston — A researcher who, at the start of the session, implied to the room that she was an author of a chapter of the WPATH Standards of Care 8. Scott Leibowitz, co-chair of the adolescent chapter, has publicly disputed that claim on the record. Kale identifies as a gay man.

Dr. Riittakerttu Kaltiala — Psychiatrist and professor at Tampere University in Finland. Her systematic reviews of the evidence on pediatric gender medicine informed Finland’s decision to restrict those interventions in minors.

Dr. Anna Hutchinson — Clinical psychologist who worked at the Gender Identity Development Service at the Tavistock Clinic in the United Kingdom prior to its closure, and has since spoken publicly about clinical concerns she observed there.

Dr. Moti Gorin — Bioethicist and associate professor of philosophy at Colorado State University. His published work examines how informed consent and ethical standards have been applied in the field of pediatric gender medicine. Panel chair.

Dr. Steven Montante — Plastic surgeon in private practice in Richmond, Virginia, and a co-author of the first peer-reviewed systematic review of gender-transition mastectomies performed on minors.

Further Reading

PAS 2026: The Panel They Tried to Silence — LGB Courage Coalition

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