Informed Dissent

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