The remarkable courage of whistleblowers exposing trans-medical crimes

By Brandon Showalter, Opinion writer and social commentator Friday, July 12, 2024

There’s a stirring moment in the 2011 movie "The Help" (based on Kathryn Stockett’s beloved novel) when Aibileen Clark, a Black maid breathtakingly portrayed by Viola Davis, senses God convicting her to act courageously. 

Sitting in church in the 1963 Jim Crow South, her pastor preaches from Exodus 4:10 when Moses tells God that he was not up to the task of confronting Pharaoh because he is slow of speech and tongue. But courage is about overcoming fear despite the weakness of our flesh, the pastor continues, expounding on that verse. Aibileen then decides that she must accept an invitation she had previously declined to collaborate with Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan, a white protagonist in The Help, in writing a book from the perspective of the oft-mistreated Black maids who work for the elite, prejudiced white families in Jackson, Mississippi. She knew she had to help tell the ugly truth no matter the cost.

Then, as now, speaking uncomfortable truths and putting one’s life and livelihood at risk is never pleasant. Challenging the culturally popular spirit-of-the-age idols is especially hard. Scripture commands us to give honor to whom it is due, and there are four notable people that history will honor because of their courage. I’m speaking specifically of the healthcare workers who have blown the whistle on trans-medical atrocities currently being carried out on children and vulnerable young people nationwide. 

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Jamie Reed, clinical researcher, whistleblower at Washington University-St Louis

On the morning of February 9, 2023, I awoke to the news of a clinical researcher at Washington University of St Louis’ Transgender Center who decided to tell the grisly, unvarnished truth about what actually goes on in these sordid settings. A friend who has been resisting gender ideology in the trenches for years messaged me with Jamie Reed’s eye-popping testimony in The Free Press along with the following message: “Here we go.” 

At long last, a true insider was telling the world about the “medically appalling” atrocities we all knew were happening but that she had seen first-hand and how parents whose children were put on puberty blockers were systematically manipulated and strongarmed. 

Reed’s account was truly riveting as she described mentally ill young people being drugged, parents undermined, and the hostile work culture she encountered as soon as she started to express alarm about the ghastly harm she was seeing. 

Ever since, Reed has continued to be among the most bold truth-tellers in this space. In fact, none other than a sitting U.S. senator told me he thinks Reed is “the bravest woman in the country.” I’m inclined to agree.

Dr. Eithan Haim, whistleblower surgeon at Texas Children’s Hospital

Anyone who has worked in this space for any length of time will tell you that one of the first things you realize about trans activists and their allies in medical institutions is how sneaky, stealthy, and deceitful they are. If they had been open about their goals and plans they never would have been able to gain as much cultural traction as they did; they accomplished much in the shadows. They are also incredibly brazen and do not take ‘no’ for an answer even when confronted and when laws are passed.

Such was the realization Dr. Eithan Haim had when he came forward after Texas legislators said ‘no’ to trans-ing children via a bill restricting so-called “gender-affirming care” for minors. Texas Children’s Hospital claimed that as a result of the liability risks in light of the legal developments in the state over the issue, they were ending the transgender program at the hospital. But the opposite was true. Speaking anonymously at first, Dr. Haim told Christopher Rufo in May 2023 that the hospital was continuing it in a stealthy manner. Among the atrocities still being carried out were surgical procedures to implant hormone blockers in children’s arms, some of whom were as young as 11. 

Even though he redacted the identities of the young patients being harmed, Dr. Haim is now being targeted by the federal government, leveling charges against him for allegedly exposing private information. The feds are now threatening this man with potentially 10 years in prison on what amounts to a technicality while doctors are chemically castrating children. What is encouraging though is that the general public has rallied behind the 34-year-old surgeon, raising over $1 million in funds via a crowdfunder for his legal defense expenses. 

Vanessa Sivadge, nurse at Texas Children’s Hospital

According to nurse Vanessa Sivadge, it was because of the conviction of the Holy Spirit that she, too, knew she could not stay silent about the medical scandal that is trans-ing children. As she told Allie Beth Stuckey in a July 2 Relatable podcast interview, this was something that she came to understand as one of the “good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” referencing Ephesians 2:10. 

Although she did not know Dr. Haim at the time, it was her testimony that corroborated what he exposed. FBI agents showed up at Sivadge’s home, and tried to intimidate her into cooperating with them. Sivadge also revealed how doctors fraudulently miscategorized the treatments in order to do these procedures as a legal workaround given the ban that Texas Medicaid had instituted on such practices. 

Tamara Pietzke, therapist in Washington State 

Arguably, the people most responsible for this scandal, even more than the doctors who are administering the drugs and performing the surgeries, are psychological professionals. The mental health professionals – psychologists, therapists, social workers, and counselors – should never have allowed such recklessness to prevail. They are among the most ideologically captured professions and they flung the gates wide open for these medical crimes. 

Tamara Pietzke, a clinical social worker in Washington state, was unwilling to compromise her integrity and detailed her story in The Free Press in February about how her fellow therapists in her sphere were driven by gender ideology, not the health of their clients. 

“I am terrified of speaking out, but that fear pales in comparison to my strong belief that we can no longer medicalize youth and cause them potentially irreversible harm,” she wrote movingly.

Her account explained the plight of three deeply troubled, mentally ill patients who were being fast-tracked into this madness and how her colleagues cruelly antagonized her as bigoted and transphobic for merely asking questions and urging caution. 

To each whistleblower who could have kept quiet but pushed past the fear, you may not yet see the full picture, but your willingness to step forward has spared the lives of many. 

The Apostle Paul writes in Romans 13 about the importance of submitting to authorities in civil government, servants of God who give their full time to governing. The best theologians who have wrangled with this passage admit that its application can be complicated given what the governments across time and culture have looked like and have done to people. Even so, Paul’s words urging “that it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also because of conscience” remain an important principle as is his charge to pay their taxes and to give everyone what they are owed: “if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor.”

I know I find it personally difficult to give revenue, respect, and honor to such morally inverted people who are, unfortunately, our governing authorities today, particularly in light of how they are aiding and abetting this atrocious medical scandal. 

These whistleblowers, in my view, are the ones who deserve all three.