Mick Hartley

A whistleblower describes the reality of "gender-affirming care" at Texas Children’s Hospital:

Christopher Rufo: Start from the beginning and tell me what you’ve seen.

Whistleblower: I work very closely with this provider, Dr. Richard Roberts. I’ve been in the room with him when he speaks with these patients. I’ve just wanted to see for myself how he speaks to them and how these transgender patients, what they look like with their history, what other underlying medical conditions they have. And it is absolutely astonishing: so many of the charts that I have just perused and read through as I’m doing my work, they have serious mental health issues. They’re autistic. They have previous suicide attempts. They’re depressed. They’re on anxiety medications. They have a disability of some kind. It’s just absolutely wild.

Christopher Rufo: Tell me more about Dr. Roberts, his demeanor and his approach inside the clinic room. Is he addressing those underlying problems or is he just saying “gender-affirming care is the answer to all your problems”?

Whistleblower: He is concerned about his lane, so he is staying in his lane in terms of prescribing estrogen or testosterone. If there’s a patient who comes in who wants an increase in testosterone, for example, he’ll totally do it. He’ll up the dose. I have personally seen letters and referrals that he has made for double mastectomies. He’s written letters to other states referring these kids to get surgery saying that he’s 100 percent on board, because they qualify under the gender-dysphoria criteria and the diagnoses from WPATH [the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, the professional society that sets standards for transgender medicine]. It’s just really sad. They’re looking for affirmation. They’re seeking the validation and approval of the adults that are in their lives. They’re insecure. This is just from my interactions with these patients.

Christopher Rufo: How does the hospital approach these “transgender” minors?

Whistleblower: In our hospitals, they have completely gone full-blown woke and changed people’s sex to whatever they identify as instead of their biological sex. And that’s across the board. They’ve changed the names of the kid to what the kid wants to be referred to as, so you have to dig a little bit to discover, “Oh, this is actually a female who is actually named whatever and not Anthony.”

There is one particular story I want to share. There was a ten-year-old girl—I went into the room with the adolescent gynecology provider—and she was transgender. She wanted to be referred to as her preferred name. We’ll say that her preferred name was “John.” She wanted to be referred to as John. She was with her mom. They were of Hispanic origin. And they were there essentially for period-related issues.

The conversation gets going, and the provider refers to her as him. She says, “John, what is going on? What can I do for you today?” And then the mom replies and accidentally refers to the daughter as a “her.” She says “Well, she is having these kind of issues and this kind of pain.” And then the girl turns around, looks at the mom, and she goes, “I’m a ‘he,’ mom. I’m a ‘he.’”

And I’m watching this exchange. And the girl is this beautiful girl, but she’s dressed like a boy, very masculine, baggy pants, oversized shirt. Then the doctor asks this girl, “How are your periods coming along? Would you like for your periods to go away? Do you feel uncomfortable?” And the girl looks at the doctor and says, “Yeah, can we do that? Yes, I would love that.” And then the provider tells the girl, “It’s totally fine. You don’t have to have a period at all if you don’t want to.” And of course, this is all because she’s trying to transition to be a boy, and she doesn’t want a period.

And the mom had this puzzled look. The mom had some real concerns, and this provider totally shut her down.

Christopher Rufo: How do these children react after being placed on puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones?

Whistleblower: All the interactions I’ve had is that these kids, at first, seem very happy with what’s going on. They’re noticing all these changes in their body. For the girls, they’re getting a lot more hair in different parts of their body. Their voices are changing, getting deeper. They don’t sweat as much. They don’t have much acne. And they seem very satisfied with that and with those changes. Dr. Roberts is extremely encouraging of their transition and will essentially do whatever he can to make sure that they are happy, at least externally happy, because I’m absolutely certain that they’re not internally happy. He’s very accommodating. He does whatever they want. Essentially, there’s no critical analysis of the process.

Christopher Rufo: How fast is the decision made to prescribe puberty blockers to these children? Is it same-day?

Whistleblower: Yes, if they fit the WPATH criteria for gender dysphoria, which is widely available online. And these kids get coached on exactly what to say through Reddit and all these sites. They know exactly the verbiage to use. They just have to establish care with Dr. Roberts, he has a conversation with them, and he essentially starts them on puberty blockers, almost immediately.

Christopher Rufo: Do parents push back against this?

Whistleblower: Usually what happens is, at first, maybe one parent or two, they’ll be confused. They’ll be wondering why. But then when they come to the appointment, and they’re with Dr. Roberts, from what I can tell, what they show is that they’re supportive. I think they’re just scared.

Christopher Rufo: They’re scared of what?

Whistleblower: They’re scared of being reported to Child Protective Services. They’re scared that if they don’t affirm their child, that their kid is going to commit suicide and do self-harm—which is a lie. And they’re intimidated by these doctors that are on the side of their kid and have a lot of power. They could report them and then their child could be taken away from them.

Christopher Rufo: How do you feel observing this?

Whistleblower: I’m absolutely sick to my stomach. Absolutely just devastated. Literally, sometimes I have to go outside and cry, because, I don’t mean to be dramatic, but I truly feel like there is a demonic presence at my workplace. And I’m so 100 percent against this whole ideology and this movement of children just feeling like they were born in the wrong body and then being “affirmed” by adults who want to take advantage of them and make a buck. Transgender medicine is hugely lucrative. It’s like $70,000 to $80,000 dollars per kid if they go through with the whole thing—all the pharmacology drugs, all these companies that are making millions of dollars….[…]

We have a generation of kids with mental health problems. It’s very sad. And we need to treat those problems correctly, not by recommending that they change genders to fix their mental health problem. That’s never worked. It never will work. There’s no proof that it will work anywhere in the literature. So yes, we’re ruining them. They’re going to wake up in ten years and discover that they’re infertile, that they can’t have children, that their sexuality is completely dysfunctional. That they can’t function as a normal human being. And ultimately, I believe that that realization is going to cause them to harm themselves—when they wake up and realize that they’ve already been ruined.