meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
The Unspeakeasy With Meghan Daum

"We Feel Like We're In The Wild West:" Parents of Gender-Questioning Kids Ask Their Own Questions

The Unspeakeasy With Meghan Daum

Meghan Daum

Society & Culture

4.7855 Ratings

🗓️ 6 October 2021

⏱️ 81 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Part two of Gender Nuance, a three-part series for the week of October 4, 2021 In part two of this week's three-part "Gender Nuance" series, Dr. Laura Edwards-Leeper returns to answer questions from "Jolene and Marie," two pseudonymous moms of gender-dysphoric kids who were originally interviewed on The Unspeakable last July. Dr. Edwards-Leeper, who talked alone with Meghan in part one of this series, speaks about what is involved in a comprehensive assessment of a young person seeking medicalized treatment for gender dysphoria, how such dysphoria can exist independently of being transgender, and how and why an ideological rift has emerged within her field and, in her view, shut down crucial and lifesaving dialogue within the medical establishment. She also explains how the cohort of patients who are over eighteen but younger than mid-twenties can be especially vulnerable to the inadequacies of a system that often does not coordinate psychological care with medical intervention. Guest Bio: Dr. Edwards-Leeper is an Associate Professor in the School of Graduate Psychology at Pacific University in Hillsboro, Oregon. She also works with clients through her private practice in Beaverton, Oregon. Dr. Edwards-Leeper was a member of the American Psychological Association Task Force that developed practice guidelines for working with transgender individuals. She is currently the Chair of the Child and Adolescent Committee for the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) and is involved in the WPATH Standards of Care (SOC) 8 revision. She is an ally to the LGBTQ community and is considered an international expert in this field.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

As far as I know, there are no studies that say that if you do not, that if we don't

0:07.5

start these kids immediately on hormones when they say they want them, that they're going

0:11.5

to commit suicide.

0:13.2

So that is misguided.

0:16.2

There are a lot of studies that show that these youth are at high risk of suicide, you know, and there's a lot

0:22.9

of studies that show that they're not understood.

0:24.7

And when they're not supported by their parents, that can lead to worse mental health outcomes.

0:29.8

But it's not always clear what support means.

0:32.4

Like, the support is not always operationalized as providing medical intervention.

0:38.5

You know, in fact, that's not, I don't know that it really ever is.

0:40.6

It's more just, you know, supporting the kid with their mental health, supporting them and like trying to understand their gender, you know, supporting them maybe in using the right name and pronouns that the kid's wanting.

0:51.5

But in terms of like needing to intervene medically to prevent

0:56.2

suicide and doing it quickly, I know of no studies that have shown that. So I have a real

1:03.7

problem with that also. Now, that being said, I will say that I have worked with young people

1:09.5

where I am very concerned about the risk of suicide

1:13.4

if we don't move more quickly.

1:16.2

And so there are some cases where, you know, but it's all individual.

1:20.4

You know, like if, you know, after a comprehensive assessment and all of that, you know,

1:24.8

if it seems like, you know, things are really going to go downhill

1:28.5

if we don't move forward, then that may end up being what we feel like we have to do. But

1:34.3

to do that, to make that kind of decision without an assessment to really understand all

1:40.0

the pieces, I think is problematic.

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Meghan Daum, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Meghan Daum and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.