'Yale Lass School', Cass Review, Meredithe McNamara and BMA (etc)

[Retiredfromthere]

I skimmed the response to the response to the BMA letter which is linked from one of the links in the thread by @fromorbit www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5137843-mumsnet-medics-details-on-how-to-sign-the-pro-sciencecass-letter-to-the-bma and also noted the thread on the new criticism of Cass by @Twawddle

I have a point about the Yale source cited by both of these but did not wish to derail. This is about the work by McNamara et al (aka the 'Yale Law School' response to the Cass review) which the BMA link to as defence of their concerns about Cass and which the 'New anti-Cass Screed' also refers to. Its this one.
https://law.yale.edu/sites/default/files/documents/integrity-project_cass-response.pdf

This 'Yale Law School' response is being cited extensively (it seems to me) as a response to Cass. But as I have pointed our before, you can see from the authors list the first named and main author is Meredithe McNamara (who is from Yale Medical School) and in a long list there is only one Yale Law School author (and only one other Yale academic) and its the last named (which in Academic publications is the one who contributed least). So who is is this Meredithe McNamara? Turns out she is co-founder of the Integrity Project at Yale 'Promoting Sound Science in Child and Adolescent Health Policy' with Prof Anne Alstott (the Yale Law Professor) https://law.yale.edu/centers-workshops/integrity-project/people - which explains why these two names are on the document.

McNamara is shown on this YouTube video from 2022 as testifying in favour of gender affirming care. This is pre-Cass and she cites Stonewall UK 'I submitted to the board an amicus brief from Stonewall UK' as evidencing her claim that there is no special restriction on gender affirming care for adolescents outside the US. (Cass and aftermath will have put a significant crimp in that claim!). She also starts her statement with a disclaimer that her views are her professional judgement and should not be taken as reflecting the official views of her employer (which is Yale).

She is continually asked about whether she would as a clinician practicing gender affirming care refer a patient under 18 for top or bottom surgery. She keeps on saying that in her clinic she has not been asked to do this. She is an Assistant Professor. I am not that familiar with US academic structure but looking this up she will be below the rank of Associate Professor, on a 5 year fixed term contract and about the equivalent of a Lecturer in the UK. Un-tenured. I wonder how much experience with patients she has, how many and over what sort of period? This is not asked.

This is the person who is pitted against Cass as an expert by the BMA and TRA lobby? Not impressed and wonder whether any more is known about their work.
As an aside, she says she cannot hear the questions and this helps her offer answers that at not actual answers to the questions. She was not impressive.

This might be helpful

The Deposition of Meredithe McNamara | City Journal (city-journal.org)

Wow @Cailin66 that is amazing. Thank you.
Please others who are curious read this.
Apparently a disclaimer that this was not the view of Yale was added to the paper 2 weeks after publication. So its NOT a Yale-endorsed document by its own admission.

McNamara has now admitted under oath she has very little clinical experience with gender affirming young people (2 patients if we are counting generously) since 2021 (i.e. while at Yale). Very misleading in her evidence. The most generous interpretation is that she did lots of stuff pre-Yale but not evidence of that and she is young (early career still). Hopefully she will not get any more paid expert witness gigs and if she does the pro-Cass side will be informed as to where to pressure her.

'As it turns out, McNamara admits that she does not perform or provide any of the “gender-affirming care” that is implicated in these state laws. She admitted that she “generally” does not perform diagnoses or assessments for gender dysphoria in minors and has never prescribed puberty blockers for this purpose (though she has prescribed them for other conditions). She has never been appointed as a member of any gender clinic. Since arriving at Yale School of Medicine in 2021, McNamara referred a total of two minors to its pediatric gender clinic. Neither of these patients had undergone medical “transition” as of the time of her deposition; one had not even been seen. McNamara also confessed that she had no idea how patients fared after referral to the Yale gender clinic. She did not know what percentage of patients referred to that clinic end up on a medical pathway or how many ultimately desist or detransition. And she has no firsthand knowledge of how that clinic operates—for instance, she admitted that she has never reviewed the informed-consent documents that are given to parents, so it is hard to see how she could know what kind of information is conveyed to parents as part of the informed-consent process, and whether that information is accurate or comprehensive.'

Has this clip of Meridithe McNamara giving evidence been shared before?

She comes across as rather stupid

She comes across as rather stupid

She really does, and deeply unprofessional.

Goodness but Crenshaw is wonderful. Really got to the point on a property study with McNamara.

Remember this is the level of accuracy that Yale research is held to by peer review. Everyone remember the Branstrom & Pachankis study that was discredited. Pachankis was from Yale.

https://psychiatryonline.org/doi/10.1176/appi.ajp.2020.1778correction

Hope this gets shared far & wide - honestly, if this is the best which can be levelled at Cass (and I’m not surprised if it is), they need to go away and do more work. But perhaps if they did, they’d come to the same balanced, thoughtful set of conclusions as the Cass team.

It’s astonishing how ‘trans allies’ are so willing to send kids who believe they are trans down untested medical pathways which have very detrimental effects on their quality of life. There appears to be little/no consideration as to whether it is really in the best interests of the children they profess to care so much about. That’s the glitter rainbow family for you.

Fascinating and disturbing how unprofessional it all is.

Interesting stuff.

The anti-Cass people ultimately have nothing. Over time their cases are going to get weaker. Because all the evidence is coming out.

Excellent article @Cailin66 thank you.

Agree. The insane TRAs are still doing what insane TRAs do, but increasing numbers of people whose job it is to look at evidence are starting to take this seriously.