UofL professor's views on gender dysphoria led to firing

When seeking the best for others gets you fired

Louisville doctor takes a stand for free speech—and for vulnerable children

When a doctor loses his career for discussing which treatment plan might serve particular patients best, there’s something very wrong. But that’s exactly the state of things in American medicine, where a well-respected leader in his field can lose his career in the blink of an eye, all for expressing his scientifically grounded reservations about current trends in treating gender dysphoria in children…

Dr. Allan M. Josephson spearheaded the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychology at the University of Louisville for almost 15 years. Under Dr. Josephson, the division went from barely staying afloat to a nationally renowned program. Then in 2017, Dr. Josephson appeared as part of a panel discussion at the Heritage Foundation, where he shared some of his views, developed over 35 years of working as a psychiatrist, on how to best care for children experiencing gender dysphoria.

Dr. Josephson encouraged medical professionals to understand and treat underlying psychological issues in children experiencing gender dysphoria instead of rushing to prescribe puberty-blocking drugs and cross-sex hormones—life-altering interventions that do not address underlying sources of distress.

Following the lecture, Dr. Josephson was demoted, harassed, and later fired.

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Litigation begun in 2017 continues today. Latest brief

Meet Dr. Josephson.

Local providers

Kentucky has many transgender resources including a web map listing transgender medical surgery providers. Topsurgery.net also lists KY surgeons who provide Female-to-Male (FTM) operations. What is FTM surgery?

A listing for Transgender Equality documents for name change, drivers license and more is here. The University of Louisville has Transgender Care as part of its Division of Endocrinology, Metabolism and Diabetes.

Attack ad claim denied with unfounded refutation

An August 2023 article by Joe Sonka in the Courier-Journal says that Cameron’s ‘attack ad’ claim that Gov. Beshear “even supports allowing school employees to secretly help children change genders, without telling their parents” —is misleading.

“Chris Hartman, the executive director of the Fairness Campaign who also lobbied heavily against SB 150 in Frankfort, also said they did not lobby legislators on the section of the bill banning gender reassignment surgeries for kids, as ‘that wasn't within the standards of practice, the best care recommendations, and to our knowledge wasn't happening in Kentucky.’” …

“Andy Beshear has always opposed gender reassignment surgeries for minors — which do not happen in Kentucky," Alex Floyd, Beshear’s campaign spokesman, said last month.

Sonka’s article notes that Republicans stand by their accusations against Beshear.

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