Show Notes
INFORMED DISSENT — Special Edition Monday, May 19, 2026 About This Episode This episode contains audio recorded inside Session 1193 at the 2026 American Psychiatric Association Annual Meeting in San Francisco, held Saturday, May 16, 2026. The session was a Continuing Medical Education offering titled Transgender Care: Update on Evidence Base and Clinical Practice of Primary Care Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Adult Psychiatry. It ran from 8:30 to 10:00 AM Pacific Time in Room 201 of the Moscone Center. CME credit was available to attending psychiatrists. The session was chaired by Dr. Dan Karasic and presented by Dr. Jack Turban. We received the audio, verified its authenticity, and are releasing it in full. The only alterations made were to audio quality. A PDF of Dr. Karasic’s slide deck is available below. Audio note: Dr. Karasic’s presentation opens with embedded video clips, including a clip of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and a clip of Dr. Karasic in a news segment. The audio quality on those clips is limited by recording conditions and is harder to hear than the rest of the session. It improves once those clips have played.
The Conference The American Psychiatric Association Annual Meeting is the largest gathering of psychiatrists in the United States. The 2026 meeting took place May 16–19 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. CME sessions at the meeting offer accredited continuing education credit to licensed psychiatrists and other mental health providers. The Presenters Dr. Dan Karasic, MD is Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry at UCSF. He received his MD from Yale University and trained at the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute. He is the lead author of the Mental Health chapter of the WPATH Standards of Care, Version 8, and serves as Chair of the APA Workgroup on Gender Dysphoria. He is a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association. In May 2023, audio from a presentation Karasic delivered at the San Francisco Trans Health Summit, titled “Managing Patients with Co-Occurring Mental Health Diagnoses,” was published by The Post Millennial and subsequently released in full by the Transparency podcast (Gender Dysphoria Alliance). In that presentation, Karasic addressed the treatment of verbally impaired autistic patients and discussed drawing as a mode of communicating gender identity. The remarks generated significant public attention. In Saturday’s session, Dr. Karasic returned to that controversy directly, including a screenshot of a tweet about it in his slide deck. (2023 audio sources: Mia Ashton, The Post Millennial, May 10, 2023; “Special Series – National Transgender Health Summit – Ep. 2 – Dr. Karasic,” Transparency, Gender Dysphoria Alliance, June 4, 2023 — Apple Podcasts / Spotify ) Dr. Jack Turban, MD, MHS is an Assistant Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Health Policy at UCSF and Founding Director of the UCSF Gender Psychiatry Program. He trained at Harvard (BA, neurobiology), completed his psychiatry residency at McLean Hospital/Harvard Medical School, and his child and adolescent psychiatry fellowship at Stanford. He is the author of Free to Be: Understanding Kids & Gender Identity (Simon & Schuster, 2024). His research on pediatric gender medicine has been cited in legislative debates and federal court proceedings. He has served as a paid expert witness for the ACLU in legal challenges to state restrictions on pediatric gender medicine.
Coming Soon: We will release audio from Transgender Psychiatrists Speak: Reflections From Training, Patient Care and Professional Practice, chaired by Dr. Jack Drescher also from the APA Conference. Stay Informed and Ready to Dissent. lgbcourage.org
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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 +3 Referenced 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