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click to enlarge Lexie Miller Ernie Trakas

On February 10, the Washington University Transgender Center at St. Louis Children’s Hospital was rocked with explosive whistleblower allegations of “medically and morally appalling” treatment of young patients.

The allegations were published on a news-commentary website called the Free Press. Jamie Reed, 42, a former case manager at the clinic, wrote that the clinic overlooked patients’ mental-health needs and failed to inform parents and adolescents about side effects of their treatment, among other things.

In an affidavit she had sent two weeks earlier to Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, Reed stated that the center “gave children puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones after just two one-hour visits,” the Missouri Independent reported.

Washington University officials expressed “alarm” at the allegations and promised both to review them and institute new safeguards at the clinic. But they said they would continue the work of the clinic, which “provides health care for transgender and non-binary people in a welcoming, affirming environment.”

To most of us, that’s a wonderful mission. It should be a matter of local pride that Washington University has been willing to risk blowback in serving one of the most endangered populations in the nation.

Data indicates that 82 percent of transgender individuals have considered killing themselves and 40 percent have attempted suicide (with that number highest among transgender youth). The university is on the side of trans affirmation, a point not diminished at all by the emergence of transphobia as the Republican Party’s favorite red-meat instigator for its base.

What followed the publication of one untested commentary was a political luau, as one would expect from Missouri.

Bailey and fellow Republican culture warriors — led by insurrectionist U.S. Senator Josh Hawley — wasted no time pouncing on Reed’s statements as proven fact. Same for Republican state legislators, who nearly trampled one another in their zeal to attack all things LGBTQ.

Adding fuel to the fire, Reed described herself as “a 42-year-old St. Louis native, a queer woman and politically to the left of Bernie Sanders” and said she’s now married to a trans man. And she said she’s a progressive who didn’t mind that Bailey is a Republican because “the safety of children should not be a matter for our culture wars.”

The point about safety is true enough. But it doesn’t begin to prove the validity of Reed’s allegations. Nor does it establish her sweeping conclusion that “we need a moratorium on the hormonal and surgical treatment of young people with gender dysphoria.”

For those of us on the outside looking in, we can only guess whether the case will serve as some landmark moment in rolling back care for trans people. Or whether the story will fade as a set of allegations that turned out not to be provable.

But a couple of clues have appeared, and they don’t bode well for the case against the clinic. We’ve learned the identity of the two attorneys representing Reed and their brazen contempt for trans people is just a little bit suspicious.

One is Vernadette Broyles — of Norcross, Georgia — a woman who has dedicated her life’s work to opposing the rights of trans people. As the St. Louis Post-Dispatch noted, “Broyles is president and general counsel of the Child & Parental Rights Campaign, which says it exists to respond to a ‘radical new ideology’ leading children to believe they could be ‘born in the wrong body.’”

But with no disrespect to her transphobic-ness, Broyles’ presence runs second on the eyebrow meter to the presence as her legal teammate of one St. Louis County Councilman Ernie Trakas.

Trakas is a known commodity, to put it mildly. Since he was inflicted upon the council in 2017 by south county voters, Trakas has served as something of a truth meter on almost every council issue. If he says “wrong,” go with “right.” If he says “yes,” go with “no.”

Reading Ernie isn’t at all complicated.

This is not to suggest Trakas lacks credentials for this assignment. His website describes him as a George Mason University Law School graduate who, “during the last 20 years, represented students, public school districts, colleges, and universities in disability-based discrimination cases in federal courts.”

But for those trying to ascertain whether the lawsuit is as fair-minded as Reed suggests it is while flaunting her progressive credentials, the presence of both Broyles and Trakas shouts out otherwise. Rather loudly.

In 2021, County Executive Sam Page issued an executive order designating about 300 single-stall restrooms in county government buildings as gender neutral. The Republicans on the council opposed it because that’s what Republicans do.

But the only one who was truly worked up was Trakas. His reaction then should offer a glimpse into his mindset now.

“Trakas was vocal in his objection, asserting that Page’s executive order was part of a nationwide initiative ‘designed and intended to erode, compromise and ultimately nullify’ the ‘free exercise of religious beliefs and the values inherent in those beliefs,’”the Post-Dispatch quoted him as saying. “‘To be clear, my objection to these measures is not about preventing anyone from making a lifestyle choice. This is about protecting the free exercise of religious beliefs and the values inherent in those beliefs.’”

I don’t know about you, but when I visit public restrooms, it’s neither to exercise my religious beliefs nor make a lifestyle choice. Maybe that’s just me.

But when you know someone like we’ve come to know Trakas, it’s hard to exclude that knowledge when trying to assess a situation like this one from afar. This is the same discrimination-law expert on behalf of whom we county taxpayers laid out $60,000 to settle a sexual harassment claim by his former assistant.

Trakas always maintained that the claim was false. But the same self-proclaimed taxpayer-fund watchdog — which he says ad nauseam — allowed his colleagues to waste all those precious tax dollars paying off a ransom to a false accuser?

With Trakas and a full-time anti-trans warrior at the legal helm, it’s hard not to remain suspicious of Reed’s lawsuit. To be clear, any issues of whether her whistleblower protections were violated might get resolved without regard to the substance of her allegations. This is not to judge her personal claim.

That said, here’s hoping Washington University sticks with its mission. Pausing its work, as Reed advocates, should not be an option. Nor should ending it altogether, the clear choice of Reed’s newfound attorneys.

This is a sensitive area of medical treatment, and a new one: There might well be refinements and improvements needed in the delivery of services to young people and their families. But the work of the Transgender Center remains a great asset to the community.

Which is more than you can say for Ernie Trakas.

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