Jamie Reed, the former case manager who touched off a national controversy over a St. Louis youth gender clinic, has filed a lawsuit against Washington University, alleging the school harassed her and pushed her out after she raised concerns about patient care. The suit includes whistleblower-retaliation claims and allegations that the university failed to provide required COBRA notice.
According to STLtoday, Reed filed a lawsuit against Washington University.
Reed worked as a case manager at the Washington University Transgender Center, which operated out of St. Louis Children's Hospital, from 2018 to 2022, according to the Missouri Independent. The center, which opened in 2018, treated people identifying as transgender, gender nonconforming, nonbinary or genderqueer, with one arm serving adults and a location at the children's hospital serving kids and adolescents, per the station's report.
The Allegations That Sparked a National Fight
Reed alleged that the clinic gave children puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones after just two one-hour visits, instead of mental health treatment, according to the Missouri Independent. She also alleged the center regularly referred minors for gender-transition surgery, contrary to what doctors publicly claimed, and that it provided substandard care to children and teens overall, per the same account.
Reed said she left the clinic in November 2022 because she could no longer participate in what was happening there, and on February 7, 2023, she submitted a sworn affidavit to the Missouri attorney general's office laying out her concerns about possible ethical and legal violations at the center. Her public allegations soon drew the attention of state and federal officials: U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley and Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey both announced investigations into her claims in 2023, as STLtoday reported at the time.
Reed's claims also helped fuel a broader legislative push: according to the Kansas City Star, her allegations fed into a major effort by Republican lawmakers to pass restrictions on gender-affirming care for minors, legislation that Gov. Mike Parson signed into law in June 2023. Missouri's SAFE Act bans health care providers from providing gender-transition surgeries, cross-sex hormones or puberty-blocking drugs to minors.
Washington University's Internal Review Called Allegations Unsubstantiated
Washington University conducted its own internal review and, in an April 21, 2023, summary of conclusions, said the allegations of substandard care causing adverse outcomes at the center were unsubstantiated. The university said physicians and staff followed appropriate policies and procedures and treated patients according to accepted standards of care, and it reported identifying no patients who had adverse physical reactions caused by medications prescribed by center providers.
The university's review stated that 1,165 patients had sought care at the center since June 2018, accounting for roughly 6,000 visits, with 531 patients receiving cross-sex hormones, 67 prescribed puberty blockers but not hormones, and 567 receiving neither medication. Reed has said her own records, covering February 1, 2020, through May 1, 2022, showed 1,138 patients seen at the center with 613 receiving medication.
Washington University also said it would require specific written parental consent before prescribing gender-affirming medications, along with custody agreements before an initial visit for patients under 18. The university stated that center providers had not referred patients under 18 for gender-affirming surgery since adopting a policy against such referrals in late 2018, though it reported that six chest surgeries for adolescents transitioning to male had been performed by Washington University physicians since 2018 following referrals from other providers or patient-initiated self-referrals.
Reed Says She Was Never Interviewed, Disputes the Findings
Reed has disputed the university's conclusions and said she was never interviewed by the university during its inquiry, according to the Missouri Independent, which reported that she stood by her original allegations even after the internal investigation closed the book on them. NBC News reported that the eight-week internal investigation concluded her allegations were unsubstantiated, while also detailing the consent-procedure changes the university said it was making.
Reed's lawsuit follows her departure from Washington University after she raised concerns about patient care.
Reed's Account of the Clinic's Status
Reed said the Washington University Transgender Center had closed in July 2024, though WashU continued to provide some care and did not confirm that the center was closing. Dr. Christopher Lewis, who had worked there, left to practice in another state.
Her objections to practices at the center, first raised publicly in 2023, remain central to the retaliation claims she is pressing in court.
Missouri's whistleblower-retaliation framework is built around a state statute formally titled the Whistleblower's Protection Act, according to the Missouri Revisor of Statutes.
