ST. LOUIS — The whistleblower accusing a local transgender clinic of treating its young patients poorly has insisted that she is not politically or ideologically motivated. Yet, the timing of her disclosures and her choice of attorneys are raising questions from transgender rights activists and parents.
The whistleblower, Jamie Reed, 42, of south ºüÀêÊÓƵ County was a caseworker at the from 2018 and 2022. She has described herself as a queer woman married to a trans man and “politically left of Bernie Sanders,†the U.S. senator from Vermont.
Reed is being represented by Georgia attorney Vernadette Broyles, founder of the , which calls gender identity an “artificial social construct†and an ideology that is threatening children’s well-being.
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“Children are being led to believe a powerful untruth about their bodies — that they could be ‘born in the wrong body,’†the campaign’s website states.
Broyles has tried several cases to overturn transgender policies in schools, including a case filed over two years ago involving a 13-year-old Tallahassee child of the contentious, so-called “Don’t Say Gay†bill in Florida.
Ernie Trakas, an attorney and Republican member of the ºüÀêÊÓƵ County Council, also is representing Reed with the Child and Parental Rights Campaign.
Neither Broyles nor Trakas — a conservative stalwart in local politics — would say how long Trakas has worked with the campaign. Broyles called the question “irrelevant,†but said Trakas has worked on several of the group’s cases “for some time.â€
The two also declined to say how Reed came to retain them, saying it would violate attorney-client privilege.
Reed did not respond to requests for comment. But Broyles, reached by phone late Wednesday, said she doesn’t understand why some find it hard to believe that Reed decided to work with lawyers who appreciate her concerns.
“Ms. Reed was looking for competent representation that she knew would competently and zealously protect her and represent her,†Broyles said. “She was in a very precarious situation with the kind of information she had and wanted to do the right thing by it.â€
Reed’s allegations were published Feb. 9 as a first-person narrative, without rebuttal, in the online publication The Free Press with the headline: “I Thought I was Saving Trans Kids. Now I am Blowing the Whistle.â€
Jamie Reed is a progressive. She is a queer woman married to a transman. She has devoted her career to the vulnerable.
— Bari Weiss (@bariweiss)
Which is why she joined the Transgender Center at ºüÀêÊÓƵ Children's Hospital four years ago.
Today she is blowing the whistle.
Reed alleged that puberty blockers and hormone therapies were too freely given to children and teens, some of whom suffered with mental illness or other issues; and that parents were not told about the medications’ risks, lied to and coerced into continuing treatment.
A group with an agenda
Rabbi Daniel Bogard of ºüÀêÊÓƵ Central Reform Congregation, a parent of a transgender son who has traveled to Jefferson City to testify against legislation limiting gender-affirming medical care for youth, called Reed’s allegations specious.
“This is incredibly ideologically-oriented,†Bogard said. “Her attorneys are involved nationally in targeting trans kids and their parents and trying to deny their existence.â€
During a conference hosted in 2020 by the Eagle Forum, a conservative interest group founded by the late Phyllis Schlafly, titled “The Transgender Threat To Kids and Our Culture†in which she called rules such as transgender bathroom policies “tools of indoctrination†that are part of a movement involving “censorship and state power.â€
She is listed as a , a conservative Christian legal advocacy group that has claimed a “homosexual agenda†will destroy Christianity and society, , which classifies ADF as a hate group.
At the center of her lawsuits are school resource guides that are meant to guide staff in how to support LGBTQ students. The guides often tell school employees not to “out†students who have not yet told their parents about their sexual or gender orientation out of concern for students’ safety. Broyles argues that curtails parental rights.
Broyles’ Child and Parental Rights Campaign for $3 and $5 on its website to “fill in the information gap†on how school personnel can respond to the “transgender phenomenon.â€
“School officials are increasingly undermining parental rights by assuming the right to promote gender ideology and affirm children in a false identity. … And public libraries are hosting drag queens (through “drag queen story hourâ€) to promote this agenda to young children,†.
Not only did Broyles’ case in Tallahassee help lead to the passage of Florida’s law last year, Broyles also that her group helped Florida Republicans shape the legislation, which bans instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity for students up to third grade and only if “developmentally appropriate†in other grades.
The passage led to several similar bills filed this year across the nation, including Missouri.
Broyles said the Child and Parental Rights Campaign is nonpartisan. “We focus solely on protecting children’s health,†she said, “and that includes protecting the sexual health and functioning as they develop and grow in their bodies; and defending parental rights to be able to raise and protect their children.â€
Major medical organizations, such as the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Endocrine Society, endorse puberty blockers and hormone treatments as . They say the mental health ramifications of not addressing the needs of such patients, , put them in peril.
Researcher and transgender rights activist Erin Reed, 34, who helps across the U.S., maintains providing gender-affirming care and writes about transgender health and legal issues in with tens of thousands of subscribers.
She said Broyles’ group is one of the first organizations to get support for bans on gender-affirming care for trans youths and that she often appears alongside conservative organizations like , which supports prohibiting classroom instruction for young children on gender and sexuality issues.
“To say that she is very active in this circuit would be an understatement,†Erin Reed said. “She is one of the main players.â€
Erin Reed contends Jamie Reed’s allegations have several red flags in addition to her working with Broyles, including how she refers transgender boys and girls by their assigned sex at birth.
“The groups that she is working with, Vernadette Broyles; and the way that she presents her case; the way she even talks about transgender people — the way that she misgenders every single one that she talks about in her article — does not paint of picture of an individual with no ideological motivation and lack of bias,†Erin Reed said.
Multiple investigations
Two weeks before her article was published, Jamie Reed took her concerns and documents to Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey.
“He is a Republican. I am a progressive. But the safety of the children should not be a matter for our culture wars,†Reed wrote.
Reed described trying to bring up her complaints internally but suddenly receiving poor performance reviews.
She was inspired to go public with her allegations, she said, after reading a quote in which U.S. Assistant Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine insisted that no American children were receiving drugs for gender dysphoria who shouldn’t be.
they are shocked by Jamie Reed’s allegations and are investigating.
Broyles called Jamie Reed one of the most courageous people she’s met. “I have talked to many parents who are dealing with this issue and really struggling with it; and she is extraordinary because of her willingness and ability to put aside partisan consideration to focus on one thing, the well-being of our future, our children.â€
As soon as Jamie Reed’s article was published, Bailey announced he was launching an investigation into the center. He immediately made public . Republican U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley announced an investigation as well.
Since then, her allegations have been used by Missouri Republican lawmakers to bolster arguments in favor of legislation to prohibit gender-affirming care, which have this legislative session in Missouri and across the country.
On Wednesday, , Protecting Our Kids from Child Abuse Act, which would allow anyone harmed by gender-transition as minors to sue the providers and any clinic, hospital or university affiliated with the providers. The legislation would also prohibit federal funding to any pediatric gender clinic or its affiliates.
Along with Jamie Reed’s choice of attorneys, Bogard and Erin Reed question the timing of her allegations — just as numerous transgender bills are being heard by state lawmakers.
“There is clear coordination that is happening. That is entirely obvious,†Bogard said. “They have decided this is good politics for them, that attacking trans kids and their families are good politics for them.â€
Erin Reed noted how Jamie Reed’s allegations came about two weeks after a Jan. 24 Missouri legislative hearing on several LGBTQ-related bills, including three bills to criminalize hormone therapies for transgender children.
The hearing lasted eight hours and involved emotional testimony by several transgender teens and their parents against the bills.
“It was one of the most powerful hearings I’ve ever watched … I honestly thought that the Missouri bill was going to die in flames after that,†Erin Reed said. “The fact that this story drops literally days after that hearing for gender-affirming care bans that went so poorly for the people that were on the anti-trans side … I don’t think it was a coincidence.â€
On Thursday, House committee members moved legislation forward that would limit gender-affirming care for minors on an 8-5 vote, with Rep. Tony Lovasco, R-O’Fallon, voting present and Rep. Renee Reuter, R-Imperial, joining the committee’s four Democrats in opposition.
Originally posted at 6:30 a.m. Friday, Feb. 17.