Penna Dexter
Washington state has some of the nation’s most progressive laws regarding teen gender transitions.
This became a problem for Puget Sound therapist Tamara Pietzke. She was employed for six years by MultiCare, one of Washington’s largest hospital systems. In a piece for The Free Press, she expresses her growing concern at being required to “approve all teen gender transitions.”

“I was getting the message from my supervisors that when a young person I was seeing expressed discomfort with their gender—the diagnostic term is gender dysphoria—I should throw out all my training. No matter the patient’s history or other mental health conditions that could be complicating the situation, I was simply to affirm that the patient was transgender, and even approve the start of a medical transition.”

This, she writes, “challenges the very fundamentals of what therapy is supposed to provide.”
Ms. Pietzke goes on to describe three cases that heightened her alarm at this protocol and ultimately resulted in her resignation—a risky move for a single mom of three children under six. Each case involved prior mental health diagnoses, often autism, family dysfunction, and even abuse. One teenaged female patient began identifying as a “wounded male dog.”
In each case, Ms. Pietzke was told she must refer the patient to a gender health clinic to begin hormone treatment which normally continues for life.
When she questioned this, she was accused of “spreading disinformation. She was removed from cases and eventually left her job so she could speak freely. She writes, “Nothing will change unless people like me—who know the risks of medicalizing troubled young people—blow the whistle.”
Last week the American College of Pediatricians released a statement based on its review of over 60 studies of adolescents with gender dysphoria. The authors conclude that these so-called “affirming” interventions destroy healthy bodies but provide no long-term benefit to psychological well-being.
A timely vindication.

Kerby Anderson
A few months ago, I talked about how leftist groups were using a variation of the heckler’s veto. The heckler’s veto occurs when someone who disagrees with a speaker’s message triggers actions or protests to disrupt the event and get the speech cancelled. We have seen this tactic on university campuses primarily used against conservative speakers.
The latest version might be called the heckler’s veto fee. Universities fearing the actions of protesting groups, charge massive security fees to the sponsoring group. Since they cannot pay such outrageous sums, the speech is cancelled.
Now we have what some are calling an assassin’s veto that comes from radical Muslim groups. Perhaps the best know example is Salman Rushdie who was threatened decades ago for publishing The Satanic Verses. He had to go into hiding for decades but was nearly killed 34 years later at a literary festival in upstate New York.
Another would be Ayaan Hirsi Ali who criticized Islam and has faced death threats. Her colleague and filmmaker, Theo van Gogh, was murdered for collaborating on a movie about Islam with her.
More recently Douglas Murray was forced to cancel an event in a London theater. The theater refused to host a pro-Israel program of his because of violent threats against their staff.
Mike Freer has been a member of British parliament for 14 years and represents a part of London where many Jewish people live. He announced he will no longer seek reelection because of violent threats against him and his loved ones.
This is, unfortunately, the world we live in today. We will need courage to speak the truth because many will use harsh and dangerous tactics against those who speak the truth.

Kerby Anderson
Is inflation decreasing? You have probably been hearing, as I have, that inflation is going down. But that is why you should be skeptical when you hear such claims. It would be accurate to say that the rate of inflation is going down, but inflation itself is increasing.
We can all probably remember when the inflation rate peaked at over 9 percent. Now the inflation rate is one-third of that percentage. But that still means that prices are going up based on the consumer price index, which, as I have explained in previous commentaries, isn’t the most accurate measure of inflation.
Here is another way to look at the inflation trend. The annual rate in 2021 was 7 percent, it was 6.5 percent in 2022, and last year it was 3.5 percent. If you run the numbers, that means that average prices have risen 17 percent over the three-year period.
Of course, you don’t need all these numbers to know that inflation is still a reality in your world. I have a friend who tracks rising prices and inflation by recording the cost of bananas. I know of a YouTube producer who often uses the rising price of a Big Mac to illustrate inflation.
There has also been misinformation about the impact of inflation. A few years ago, I began to collect articles telling all of us that inflation is good. I have one article with the title “Inflation is Good for You” and a CNN article with the title “Why Inflation Can Actually be Good for Everyday Americans and Bad for Rich People.” Their argument is that inflation favors debtors. While that is true, any small benefit is offset by rising prices at the gas pump and grocery store.
Once again, we should be skeptical when politicians and the media misinform us about the rate of inflation and its impact on our lives.