Common Ground and Where It Ends

This week Jamie sits down with Michael Pizzullo, LMFT, a licensed marriage and family therapist in West Hollywood and the creator of the YouTube channel Therapy for Gay Men. Michael’s clinical work centers on trauma and addiction among gay men, including chemsex. This summer, after Matthew Vines’s New York Times essay “I’m Gay, Not Queer. It Matters” set off a pile-on, Michael posted that he felt the same way. The reaction he got for a simple statement about how he describes himself included death threats, complaints to his licensing board, and being doxxed. The response he got in private was overwhelmingly supportive.Michael came to us highly recommended: three gay men in our network separately emailed Jamie to say she had to have him on. Find Michael:YouTube: Therapy for Gay MenInstagram, TikTok and Facebook: @michaelpizzullolmftWebsite: michaelpizzullo.comMentioned in this episode:Matthew Vines, “I’m Gay, Not Queer. It Matters,” The New York Times, June 30, 2026: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/30/opinion/queer-gay-rights.htmlSupport the show:Informed Dissent is produced by the LGB Courage Coalition, a registered US nonprofit fully funded by small donations from listeners like you. We work to promote evidence-based medicine, end the medicalization of gender nonconformity, and advocate for LGB rights. If this episode mattered to you, please like, subscribe and pass it along.Got a guest suggestion? Reach us through the contact page at lgbcourage.org, by email at [email protected], or in the Substack comments.Stay informed and ready to dissent. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit informeddissentpodcast.substack.com/subscribe

Election Day is Tuesday, November 3. This week we go state by state, east to west, through the ballot measures voters will decide on girls’ sports, pediatric gender medicine, and parents’ rights. Our guests:* Maine: Leyland Streiff, Maine Girl Dads / Protect Girls Sports* Missouri: Amanda Sanders, Her Health, Her Future (Amendment 3)* Nebraska: Sen. Kathleen Kauth (Initiative 442, Fairness for Girls)* Colorado: Jennifer Sey, XX-XY Athletics (Propositions 134 and 135)* Washington: Brian Heywood, Let’s Go Washington (IL26-638 and IL26-001) Election night: join us live on X. On Tuesday, November 3, we’re co-hosting a Space on X with DIAG Democrats as results come in from Missouri, Nebraska, Colorado, Washington, and Arizona. Follow LGB Courage Coalition so you get notified when we go live.Informed Dissent is produced by the LGB Courage Coalition, a U.S. nonprofit funded entirely by small donations. Like, subscribe, and share. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit informeddissentpodcast.substack.com/subscribe

Independent journalist Andy Ngo joins Jamie Reed, and Cori Cohn to discuss his new book, The Zizians: Inside a Trans Death Cult (Center Street, October 13, 2026). Ngo traces how Jack LaSota, known as “Ziz,” went from a promising engineering career to the Bay Area rationalist scene, and built a group blending rationalism, radical veganism, and trans grievance politics that is now linked to at least eight deaths. We talk about the cult’s recruitment, the families left behind, why Ngo uses legal names and sex-based pronouns throughout, and why no Zizian in custody has yet been convicted.Get the book: Hardcover, ebook, and audiobook here. Follow Andy: Ngo Comment on Substack here. Informed Dissent is produced by the LGB Courage Coalition, a registered US nonprofit fully funded by small donations. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit informeddissentpodcast.substack.com/subscribe

On September 23, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on protecting women’s sports. Former Stanford goalkeeper and professional soccer player Carly Smolak testified alongside Kim Jones of ICONS and attorney William Bock. When it came time for questions, not a single Democratic senator stayed in the room to ask her anything.We think her story deserves to be heard in full. This episode opens with Carly’s testimony, then turns to a conversation with Jamie Reed and Cori Cohn.Carly won four national championships in Australian rules football as a player and coach. In 2023, a man joined her former women’s team. He turned out to be a registered sex offender convicted of abusing multiple children. The club quietly removed him without ever telling the women he had shared hotel rooms with, and the national governing body said there was nothing it could do.Carly also talks about growing up a gender-nonconforming girl in Oregon, why she’s almost certain she would have been pushed toward transition as a kid today, and what it was like to watch the Bay Area butch lesbian community she knew nearly disappear.Bio:Carly Smolak was a goalkeeper for the Stanford University women’s soccer team, and former professional soccer player for the Women’s United Soccer Association. She was also a decorated Australian Football player in the United States Australian Football League, winning four national championships as a player and coach. She recently testified in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee regarding the male convicted child sex offender that joined her former women’s Australian Rules Football team. She has been a lesbian long enough to watch Birkenstocks go in and out of style at least three times, and would much rather be surfing or tending to her garden than arguing about what a woman is.To the girls of the Camas High School cross country team in Washington: we see you, and we stand with you. Washington voters decide on Initiative 638 on November 3. You’ll find LGB Courage Coalition’s action alert here: Thanks for supporting Informed Dissent! This post is public so feel free to share it. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit informeddissentpodcast.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Jamie Reed and Cori Cohn sit down with Mia Hughes to discuss REPATH, Genspect’s new campaign to restore a psychological approach to gender distress. The REPATH campaign can be found here. In 2022, WPATH’s Standards of Care 8 finished a long shift in how gender distress is understood. It used to be treated as a psychological symptom to explore. Now it’s treated as an identity to affirm. Mia explains what “re-psychopathologization” means and what it doesn’t mean. REPATH isn’t about gender nonconforming people, who are not disordered. It’s about the drive toward hormonal and surgical body modification, and whether that drive should be assessed with real care, differential diagnosis, and psychological safeguards.Mia Hughes is a researcher and writer focusing on the history and ethics of gender medicine, psychiatric trends, and the phenomenon of social contagion. She is Director of Policy and Research, the lead on Genspect’s Repath campaign, and Director of Genspect Canada. Mia has contributed extensively to public debate on gender-related healthcare practices and the wider cultural moment in the era of modern trans activism. She is also the author of The WPATH Files, an investigative report based on leaked internal communications from the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, which examines decision-making processes and standards of care within the field. In addition to her research, Mia engages in advocacy and public education, contributing articles and commentary across a range of media platforms. Her work has positioned her as a prominent voice in ongoing discussions about gender medicine, safeguarding, and clinical responsibility.Find Mia : Mia Hughes This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit informeddissentpodcast.substack.com/subscribe

Killed by the In-Laws, Meta’s Body Dysmorphia Reckoning, The Last Ditch This week Jamie Reed and Lauren Leggieri take on two stories that you want more details on. Segment 1: The killing of Jonathan McKinseyJonathan McKinsey, 40, director of engineering for New York Times Games, was shot dead on September 26 in a Dublin, California, park parking lot. Her in-laws, both 77, are charged with murder with a lying-in-wait special circumstance. Behind it was a bitter custody fight, with dueling restraining orders and abuse allegations on both sides. We also dig into McKinsey’s backstory: a female transition in 2010, before the youth gender boom, and a 2011 Texas marriage. Segment 2: Meta’s settlement and the body dysmorphia verdictMeta settled with a bipartisan coalition of attorneys general from nearly every state. The deal is $17.1 billion, about $18 billion counting Texas’s separate agreement. It comes with new defaults for teens: a two-hour daily cap, a nighttime block, and a ban on cosmetic-surgery filters. We walk through the California jury verdict that found Instagram and YouTube contributed to a young woman’s body dysmorphia. We explain why parents’ Facebook feeds are full of law firm ads, and what families of trans-identified teens with co-occurring depression, eating disorders, or self-harm should know before calling one. And we ask the obvious question: if platforms can drive teen distress about the body, why is distress about sex characteristics off-limits?Thanks for listening to Informed Dissent! This post is public so feel free to share it.SourcesMcKinsey case* New York Times, “California Couple Charged With Murder in Shooting of Son-in-Law” (Karlamangla and Qin, Sept. 30, 2026) Meta settlement* New York Attorney General: https://ag.ny.gov/press-release/2026/attorney-general-james-secures-171-billion-and-groundbreaking-reforms-meta* Connecticut Attorney General: https://portal.ct.gov/ag/press-releases/2026-press-releases/settlement-with-meta* Colorado Attorney General: https://coag.gov/press-releases/weiser-announces-historic-settlement-with-meta/Further reading* SF Chronicle on the case and the 2011 Texas marriage: https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/man-shot-killed-dublin-in-laws-suspects-22451686.php* KTVU on the divorce and restraining orders: https://www.ktvu.com/news/dublin-shooting-nyt-engineer-jonathan-mckinsey-divorce-battle* ABC7 on the charges: https://abc7news.com/story/new-york-times-engineer-jonathan-mckinsey-california-couple-accused-killing-son-law-public-park-charged-murder/19892829/* CBS News on the K.G.M. verdict: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/meta-youtube-social-media-addiction-lawsuit-verdict/* Missouri Lawyers Media on Meta pulling plaintiff-recruiting ads: https://molawyersmedia.com/2026/04/10/meta-pulls-ads-recruiting-plaintiffs-social-media-addiction-lawsuits/ This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit informeddissentpodcast.substack.com/subscribe

Simon LeVay is a British-born neuroscientist who has served on the faculties of Harvard Medical School and the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. He achieved international fame with a 1991 Science paper that reported on a difference in the structure of the hypothalamus between gay and straight men, a study that helped trigger an avalanche of new biological research into sexual orientation. Since retiring from laboratory science, LeVay has authored or co-authored 12 books, including Gay, Straight, and the Reason Why, the textbook Discovering Human Sexuality, and the historical novel The Donation of Constantine. His earlier books include The Sexual Brain and Queer Science: The Use and Abuse of Research Into Homosexuality (MIT Press, 1996). He has appeared on numerous TV and radio shows, including The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. April 13 Provost’s Lecture with Simon LeVay - SBU News +3Referenced in this episode* Simon LeVay, Gay, Straight, and the Reason Why: The Science of Sexual Orientation (2011)* Simon LeVay, The Sexual Brain (1993)* “Gay scientist draws criticism over remarks on trans kids,” Bay Area Reporter (2016): https://www.ebar.com/story/246901/redirect This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit informeddissentpodcast.substack.com/subscribe

Jamie, Lauren, and Cori talk with evolutionary biologist and Manhattan Institute fellow Colin Wright about a new HHS-commissioned study he co-authored, “Where the Clinic Meets the Movement: Does Gender Ideology Arm Left-Wing Authoritarian Psychology?” The survey of 1,208 U.S. adults found that agreement with mainstream “gender-affirming” clinical guidance (APA, WPATH, AAP) correlates strongly with left-wing authoritarianism — and independently predicts justification of political violence, even controlling for political identity. We’re still waiting on NPR’s story on the report.Our opponents are well-funded. We aren’t. Everything we do depends on the support of people just like you. If this work has value to you, please become a paid subscriber or make a donation today. Your support keeps this movement alive.Visit our website⁠ to help fund the reporting, advocacy, legislative testimony, educational outreach, and community-building efforts that make the LGB Courage Coalition a leading national voice for evidence-based care and homosexual rights. Paid subscriptions and donations are what make all of this possible.To support our work or submit a tip, visit the LGB Courage Coalition website. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit informeddissentpodcast.substack.com/subscribe

Jamie Reed sits down with two leaders from Themis Resource Fund to discuss the organization’s work connecting detransitioners with attorneys willing to take their cases, the funding and logistical challenges of building litigation against gender-medicine providers, and what it takes to pursue accountability through the courts. Named after the Greek goddess of justice, Themis has become a central piece of infrastructure for detransitioners seeking legal recourse — this conversation covers how the organization operates, the obstacles it runs into working within the legal system, and what’s ahead for the growing wave of detransitioner litigation.Guests:Kathleen Dooley — Kathleen is a recovering attorney with more than 30 years of experience practicing civil litigation primarily in the defense arena. She is currently serving as Board Member and Secretary of Themis Resource Fund. Her interest in the subject of trans-identifying youth and the ideological capture behind it came as a result of her observation of her children’s friends declaring a trans identity. As an attorney, she recognized the potential for lawsuits against the medical and therapeutic professions and the need for funding to give the lawsuits liftoff. Finally, Kathleen has been a lifelong Democrat, albeit a disillusioned and disenfranchised one at the moment, so don’t even try to paint her as a rightwing nut job.Lynn Chadwick first experiences of parent advocacy were during her years working as a neonatal intensive care nurse. After her two oldest adult children announced trans identities and medicalized, she started a parent group which today consists of about 500 parents. She founded Themis Resource Fund in 2023.If you find this podcast important, please like, subscribe, and share it. This content is free because our mission is to educate the public — and that means making it accessible to anyone who’s curious or needs to hear it. That access depends on your support.If you’re able to donate or become a paid subscriber, we’d be grateful. If you can’t, leaving a review, subscribing for free, and sharing the show all help just as much. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit informeddissentpodcast.substack.com/subscribe

Our final episode addressing public libraries and gender ideology takes us into an organization that was created “In April of 2023, a small group of librarians from various regions across the country initiated virtual discussions regarding the potential establishment of a new professional library organization. Their motivations stemmed from a perceived shift in the library profession towards what they viewed as divisive social activism.”We were joined by guest Caleb H. May, a founding member of the Association of Library Professionals (ALP). He has served as 1st Vice President, President, and Immediate Past President of ALP and is currently serving as Treasurer. He served the first decade of his career as a director of public libraries in Kansas and Kentucky and is currently the Director of Library Services at Manhattan Christian College in Manhattan, Kansas. He is also the author of “Reviving Library Neutrality in an Age of Activism,” an article published on the U.S. Dept. of Education Homeroom Blog in December 2025.In this episode we also discuss the Fifth Circuit’s ruling in Little v. Llano County — which the Supreme Court declined to review, letting stand a decision giving government officials final say over public library collections in Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi — and a recent rule coming out of Alabama regarding transgender materials in that state’s public libraries.Find out more about ALP here. We have merch! Check out our mugs, tote bags and shirts here. Thanks for listening to Informed Dissent! This post is public so feel free to share it. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit informeddissentpodcast.substack.com/subscribe