We do not know if, when, or how the lemming-like rush to propagate the experimental and non-evidence based practice of pediatric sex trait modification will be brought to heel. But if the United States eventually follows the lead of the Social Democratic nations of northern Europe toward reason and reality — acknowledging that the practice never had a strong evidence base to support it before it was drastically scaled up in response to activist pressure across American institutions — it will be in no small part thanks to the efforts of the woman pictured above.
Mason has for five years been virtually alone in doing what we would expect every conscientious medical practitioner to do in the face of a bizarre social contagion — of girls with no prior history of nonconformity suddenly declaring themselves to be “really” “boys” after prolonged exposure to transgender influencers and online communities — that sought her out unbidden in the waiting room of her pediatric office in a suburb of Portland, Oregon. She began asking questions. She exercised her critical faculties. She followed the trail of evidence to where it led — unearthing along the way a medical scandal of shocking proportions. And she seamlessly transformed herself from a workaday pediatrician to an activist within the gates of the institution that bears more direct responsibility than any other single entity for the lemming-like rush to propagate pediatric sex trait modification within American medicine, the American Academy of Pediatrics.
I caught up with Mason three weeks ago in the aftermath of a sudden development that may (or may not) demonstrate that this important American institution can pull itself off the precipice upon which it has placed itself: the AAP in early August announced both that it was reaffirming a position it had taken in 2018, in support of pediatric gender medicine, while also undertaking a “comprehensive evidence review” of the science of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and gender affirming surgeries in minors. The decision marks a victory for Mason who for several years running had been subject to irregular parliamentary maneuvers intended to keep resolutions she had authored calling on the AAP to undertake a comprehensive review of the evidence concerning the science of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and gender affirming surgeries in minors. We spoke about the prospects of the AAP undertaking this process with integrity and whether and how the ongoing institutional cascade around this practice will be brought to heel.
"Amongst people where I've been in the same room with them, or in the same room with their parents the only really bad outcomes have been children who were being affirmed."