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CV NEWS FEED // Talk show host, author, and retired clinical psychologist Phil McGraw (popularly known as Dr. Phil) blasted the practice of subjecting children to so-called “gender-affirming care” during a recent appearance on “The Joe Rogan Experience.”
In a clip of the Tuesday podcast episode posted to X, McGraw criticized the medical establishment’s widespread use of euphemisms to refer to the “transgender” procedures they promote.
“It’s interesting they choose words like ‘gender-affirming care,’” he noted. “That’s interesting that they call it that, but really what they’re talking about is hormonal therapy or sex-reassignment surgery on children.”
“[T]he American Medical Association [AMA], the American Academy of Pediatrics [AAP] … all the major medical associations have signed off on this, Joe,” he told host Joe Rogan.
McGraw added that he has never in his life “seen those organizations sign off on anything with less information as to whether or not it does long-term harm.”
“When I ask about that, then they immediately label you as ‘transphobic,’” the talk show host said.
“I thought that the deal was ‘first, do no harm,’” McGraw stressed, citing a common version of the Hippocratic Oath which has been taken by medical professionals for centuries.
McGraw also pointed out that many European countries have restricted “transgender” procedures on minors.
“We cannot say in good conscience if this ‘does no harm,’” he stressed. “Because it does harm.”
McGraw also addressed a common talking point used by activists to justify subjecting children to such procedures.
Their claimed reason is “it stops this drive for suicide,” he said, adding: “It doesn’t fix that.”
“It doesn’t fix all the comorbid issues that come along with feeling like they’re in the wrong body,” the psychologist said.
Rogan agreed with McGraw’s assertion that medical organizations are giving into “pressure” to support medically “transitioning” children.
“Another phrase they’re using now is ‘life-saving gender-affirming care,’” Rogan said. “They like to smash them all together like that.”
“This is a wild thing,” Rogan said, referring to a Canadian lawmaker’s recent claim that there’s “no such thing as parental rights.”
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Rogan stressed.
“But America’s not far behind,” McGraw replied.
He recounted that he has spoken to many pro-“trans” teachers who told him that “they have a duty to the children” to keep their so-called “gender identities” a secret from their parents. “That if the child is not ready to talk to their parents about this, that it’s okay for them to keep a secret.”
“This is either a psychological phenomenon or a medical phenomenon,” the psychologist pointed out. “And the teachers are not trained in either psychology or medicine.”
“They’re not any more trained to deal with that than they are to take out the kid’s spleen in the homeroom,” he said. “How are they qualified to deal with that?”
McGraw also made the case that these teachers are teaching children to lie to their parents: “It’s teaching deception and interfering between the child’s relationship with their parents.”
Rogan chimed in: “You can talk kids into almost anything. You can talk them into believing in Santa Claus.”
“You can easily convince [kids] one way or another that they’re anything,” Rogan argued. “That they’re ‘queer,’ that they’re ‘trans.’”
Catholic philosopher Jay W. Richards, PhD, weighed in on the exchange between McGraw and Rogan on X.
“This part of the madness is going to collapse faster than most people think,” Richards wrote. “The fight against the broader ideology is the work of a generation. The fight against the sterilization of kids will not be.”
Richards is a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, where he serves as the director of the DeVos Center for Life, Religion, and Family.
