World First Investigative Podcast Series – Desexing Society

I’m not a mother. I don’t have any friends or relatives caught up in the gender identity epidemic. You might wonder why I spent the last year producing an 8-part investigative podcast series on gender affirming “healthcare”. Many reasons. 

The story of how the gender affirming model came to Australia hasn’t been told before. At least not like this. Having followed the issues for the last four years, I wasn’t interested in doing a “both sides” exploration. Australian media is already saturated with propaganda celebrating this medical scandal. We’ve heard enough from the genderists. The horrors of gender affirming “healthcare” needed to be explained, step by step, to the unsuspecting general public.

Despite its Australian focus, the podcast has much relevance internationally. Judith Hunter’s story will be familiar to many PITT readers. Her daughter came to believe she was trans just a few months before her eighteenth birthday. Despite a three-year history of poor mental health, medical professionals affirmed her new gender identity – without consulting Judith – and referred her daughter to an endocrinologist. Upon turning 18, she moved out of home, cut contact with her family and started on testosterone.

“We were vilified by the doctors, told what terrible parents we were for not going along with it… mum and dad suddenly became the enemy and so, therefore our family just fell apart.” 

~Judith Hunter, Episode 1 – Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria

Similarly, Courtney Coulson’s story of how she was exposed to transgender beliefs on social media and then came to believe she was trans, is a tale repeated all over the anglosphere.

“A lot of detransitioners who were on Tumblr say the same thing. We started out in our own little fandoms, whether that be anime or Steven Universe or Superwholock and then little by little, that trans rhetoric creeps in there. So it is very cult like.”

~Courtney Coulson, Episode 7 – Detransition

The history of the early Dutch experiments with puberty blockers also has global relevance. Through narration and clips from my interview with Dr. Michael Biggs, we bring to life parts of his 2022 research paper, The Dutch Protocol for Juvenile Transsexuals: Origins and Evidence. The shockingly flawed methodology underpinning the early research is revealed. The awful reality that this is a new and terrifying iteration of gay conversion therapy becomes apparent. But that’s not even the worst part of those early Dutch experiments…

“The most horrifying thing is that one of the children dies, and so you start out with a cohort of 70 and you end up with one child dying.”

~Dr Michael Biggs, Episode 2 – The Dutch Protocol

How such a poorly evidenced treatment model ever gained a foothold in Australian children’s hospitals is baffling. Until you meet Dr. Michelle Telfer.

“Because of her influence and the influence of that clinic, the influence of its treatment guidelines, the gender affirming model elsewhere in Australia was either introduced or promoted.”

~Bernard Lane, Episode 2 – The Dutch Protocol

Dr. Michelle Telfer was appointed head of Melbourne’s Royal Children’s Hospital (RCH) Gender Service in 2012. In 2018 she and three other clinicians from RCH released the Australian Standards of Care and treatment guidelines for trans and gender diverse children and adolescents. That document created the illusion that there was consensus among health professionals that gender affirming “care” was the best way to treat gender dysphoria. 

Melbourne became the epicentre of the youth gender identity crisis in Australia. The RCH Standards of Care were introduced elsewhere – Brisbane, Perth, Hobart, Newcastle (New South Wales) and Adelaide. Referrals skyrocketed. We don’t know the sex ratio of these new referrals because Australian gender clinics have released limited data and only when forced to do so via Freedom of Information requests. But those of us following this tragedy won’t need any convincing that ROGD girls are the new cohort.

I see my younger self in the ROGD girls, and I want desperately to protect them from making a terrible, permanent mistake. I could’ve easily been steered down the medical pathway. I went through a “not like other girls” phase that included rejecting the hypersexualised beauty standards expected of women. I even shaved my head when I was 18. Had I been taught since kindergarten that gender non-conformity means you’re transgender, I’m sure I would’ve believed it. 

Bewildered parents whose child has just announced they’re trans will gain a lot from listening to Desexing Society. Parents facing accusations of “transphobia” from misguided friends and relatives might be able to convince them otherwise by sharing the series with them. I sincerely hope my contribution will help change minds and play a part in reversing gender affirming “healthcare.”

Stassja Frei
Writer & producer, Desexing Society

Learn more at https://desexingsociety.com/

Thank you to Parents with Inconvenient Truths about Trans (PITT) for the opportunity to write for your publication.