The Daily Signal - 'RETALIATION:' Whistleblower Who Exposed Transgender 'Medicine' Targeted by FBI, Lost Her Job

Episode Date: July 13, 2025

Vanessa Sivadge lost her job at a Texas hospital and faced questioning from the FBI after speaking out about experimental transgender "treatments" on children. She told "The Daily Signal Podcast" how her faith motivated her to speak out and why she feared no one else shared her concerns, despite the fact that so-called "gender-affirming care" violated not just her faith but her medical ethics, as well. Subscribe to The Tony Kinnett Cast: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-tony-kinnett-cast/id1714879044⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Keep Up With The Daily Signal Sign up for our email newsletters:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://www.dailysignal.com/email⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠     Subscribe to our other shows:  The Signal Sitdown: https://megaphone.link/THEDAILYSIGNAL2026390376   Problematic Women:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://www.dailysignal.com/problematic-women⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠  Victor Davis Hanson: https://megaphone.link/THEDAILYSIGNAL9809784327   Follow The Daily Signal:  X:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://x.com/intent/user?screen_name=DailySignal Instagram:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://www.instagram.com/thedailysignal/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠  Facebook:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://www.facebook.com/TheDailySignalNews/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠  Truth Social:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://truthsocial.com/@DailySignal⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠  YouTube:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://www.youtube.com/dailysignal?sub_confirmation=1    Subscribe on your favorite podcast platform and never miss an episode. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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We'd love to talk. Business. But the left and gender activist claim that when you declare that you are something, you are it. That when you speak something into existence, when you claim that you are the opposite sex, and of course you are not, that it becomes true. Well, that's not true. The only one who can do that is God, right? And so we see the consequences of that as a society when we've put human, fallible human beings on the throne of our lives. This is Tyler O'Neill, senior editor at The Daily Signal. I'm honored to be joined by Vanessa

Sivage, who is the founder of Protect Texas Children and a whistleblower who, you know, exposed your career by speaking out against the horrific treatments, so-called, that they call gender affirming care. That's right. Vanessa, it's really great to have you. Yeah, thank you for having me. So I just want to jump right in. You, You decided to speak out on this issue, and it led to many different consequences. That's right. What motivated you and why is this such a scandal in your eyes? Yeah.

Well, thank you for the invitation. I'm honored to be here. I love Heritage. I love what they do. I love their mission. And I actually lived in D.C. I was an intern at the Family Research Council just down the street a couple years ago. And so it was exposed to just the work that you do here at Heritage.

and so I'm a big fan. So it's really fun to be back. But I live and work in Houston. I'm a registered nurse. I've been a nurse for 10 years. I've had the privilege of working with children for 10 years as a pediatric nurse in particular and never imagined the sequence of events that would lead me here today. Never in my wildest dreams could I have written the story that God has written.

but several years ago in 2018, I accepted a position at the largest children's hospital in America in Houston. The Texas Medical Center is the largest in the world, as you may know, and parents come from all corners of the globe for their children to be treated and to be seen by the best of the best. And so when I accepted this position at Texas Children's, you know, it was a tremendous honor. and I thought I would be working there until I retired. Yeah, I learned and worked with some of the best nurses and doctors in the world. And it was a job that I really, I deeply loved.

But a couple of years later, in 2021, I accepted a different position within the hospital in a multi-specialty clinic. And this is where multiple different specialties were housed under one roof. including the gender clinic, which fell under the endocrine clinic, right? And didn't know this when I accepted the job. But very soon after I started working in this role, I started seeing how the gender clinic was seeing patients regularly, at least once a week, at my workplace. And, you know, these children were coming in with severe distress about their bodies.

They were confused about their identity. And the doctor, you know, I always say it's a very intimidating thing for any parent who's walking down this road. Any well-meaning parent who loves their child deeply wants only the best for them. And when a doctor in a white lab coat comes into the room and says, if you do not affirm your child's identity, they will commit suicide or harm themselves. That's a devastating thing for any parent to hear that this is their only option. moving forward, that this path is the only medically accepted option. And so I watched as children would come into the clinic week in and week out and slowly begin to erase themselves.

And, you know, girls would start to develop a deeper voice and masculine features on their face and hair throughout their body. And likewise with the boys, they just became more feminine as the weeks went on and I was, you know, I worked in this clinic, but, you know, my job was, I had, I was involved in many different clinics. So this is not, this is not my only role. But I remember in particular, one week the, the doctor saying the transgender patients asked me to do teaching inside of a patient's room, which was not uncommon. Nurses do a lot of teaching in the hospital. And so what I didn't realize was that this patient that I went inside the room of,

and taught him, the doctor had asked me to teach him how to administer an intramuscular injection in his arm. And what I didn't realize was that this boy, about 15 or 16 years old, was going to inject estrogen to himself on a weekly basis to affirm the false identity that he had adopted. And when I realized that, that was a devastating realization that I had enabled and empowered him to erase himself. And that not only went against my nursing ethics, my personal beliefs, but also my faith in Christ, my belief that Genesis 1 matters, that he made the male and female, and that were beautifully made in the image of God with a purpose, and that the enemy is out to seek, kill, and destroy what God has made good. And so, you know, I was at a crossroads. I didn't know what to do, but I felt so alone. I felt like I was the only one in this hospital system that believed what I believed.

And I was so overwhelmed and felt so outnumbered, right? But then a couple of months later, I read an article by an anonymous whistleblower, somewhere within the hospital that had come forward with the same concerns I had. Someone within the hospital had had the courage to step forward and to put his career, his livelihood at risk, and to expose that the hospital was doing all this in secret, that the public and parents had no idea. And I knew in that moment that I had to speak out to. So I became the second anonymous whistleblower right after Dr. Aiton Haim,

who has since then gone public, but at the time he was anonymous, and affirmed the reality and the truth that children were being harmed in the gender clinic. And two months later, the FBI showed up at my door. Yeah. So can you walk us through all the ways that you, you know, were retaliation, against your job, the FBI. What did that feel like and what happened? Yeah. Well, you know, that was supposed to be the end of my story. I was an anonymous whistleblower. No one knew my identity, my name. And that was supposed to be the end, right? I was content to go back to work. Texas passed SB 14 a few days later. And so these treatments were then, you know, made illegal all over Texas under the age of 18. And so that was a victory. And I just thought, hey, this is the end of. of the story. And then a couple months later, under the Biden-Harris Department of Justice, two federal agents knocked on my door on a Monday night. They said that they were there to speak to me

about issues at my work and said, essentially informed me that I was a person of interest in an investigation targeting a leaker who had violated HIPAA confidentiality laws by releasing patient information to the public. Of course, they were referring to Dr. Heim, but they were lying to me because Dr. Heim's anonymous testimony contained carefully redacted information, which was, of course, not illegal, so I knew they were lying to me. And they were ultimately trying to coerce me into helping and aiding their investigation. They said that I was in danger. They said that my safety in my career were at risk, that they couldn't help me unless I helped them. making it sound like they were my friends, right, that they were there to help me when in reality

they were there to turn me and to use me to expose Dr. Heim's identity to the world. And so that's really, that was really the turning point in our story. And my story was having to put our faith in God and having, I had to reckon with the fact that, you know, my obedience to God was the only thing that, you know, he asked of me and that he would ultimately he would protect me from the outcome, which whatever that was. I wasn't sure there were, there were a lot of unknowns at the time. We didn't know what would happen. And so, you know, one of the verses that were, that was especially meaningful was in Ephesians where it says to take no part in the worthless deeds of evil and darkness, but expose them for everything exposed by the light becomes visible. And so I took

that very literally. And a few months later, in June of 2024, just a little over a year ago, I decided to go public with my name and my identity to reveal that the hospital was illegally billing Texas Medicaid for the cross-sex hormones and the puberty blockers they were prescribing to vulnerable children. This has been illegal in Texas for almost the last 10 years. Our Texas Medicaid policy is very clear. And yet the hospital had secretly hidden this program from the public and now was using taxpayer dollars to fund their gender clinic. And I knew once I realized that that this was being billed to the taxpayer that I had to come forward and bring that to light. And so your employer retaliated against you or so you claim and you lost your job.

Yeah, that was in June of 2024, two months later in August of last year. I was. fired from Texas Children's Hospital for blowing the whistle. And I do believe it was retaliation. They violated numerous laws when they terminated my employment. And thankfully, the Trump administration agrees because a couple months ago in April of 2025, they announced investigation into Texas Children's Hospital for wrongfully terminating my employment. And this is under the leadership of Secretary Kennedy and HHS. And so this is a huge win. for me and for people like me, honestly, people all over who were retaliated against. And now what we've seen is the Trump administration is incentivizing medical professionals to

come forward with knowledge. They've opened a whistleblower portal where average everyday medical professionals can submit a tip about the harms that they're seeing in their workplace. And the Department of Justice has made numerous statements that they're investigating these these claims. And so it's been an incredible in just 12 months the change that we've seen from the from the Biden Department of Justice going after pro-life people, going after whistleblowers, going after people just standing up and doing what's right and going after them and prosecuting them and intimidating them to now the Trump administration saying, no, actually we want you to come

forward. We want you to submit it to protect children. It's just night and day. When you talk about the Biden DOJ, the Biden FBI, you know, you also spent time at the Family Research Council, which was targeted for a mass shooting in 2012 because the Southern Poverty Law Center put them on a hate map with Klan chapters. And then last administration, the FBI used that same hate map to target radical traditional Catholics. And, you know, I've been reporting documents showing how many times the FBI used that same hate map to target radical traditional Catholics. how many times the FBI worked with the SPLC brought them in. I mean, Margaret Wong, the president of the SPLC, bragged that the Biden Department of Justice was asking them to advise on domestic terrorism. So, yeah, I mean, night and day doesn't seem quite to capture it all. But how, what do you think about all of that and how, do you think that that was at all connected to

the decision to go after you and to go after Haim. Yeah, you know, it's hugely vindicating because the Trump administration is on the side of truth and common sense. Sunlight is the best disinfectant. And we're seeing now that the Trump administration is is on the side of truth. They're on the side of people who come forward with the truth. And yeah, I mean, I remember exactly what you said. There was a pro-life father of seven who had a SWAT team show up at his house at five in the morning. They dragged him away for praying next to an abortion facility. And in front of his seven children at five in the morning, like he was a terrorist.

You know, they labeled concerned parents at school board meetings, domestic terrorists. We have a long list of examples, really sad and horrifying examples of how. the Biden-Harris Department of Justice was weaponized against conservative Christian or Catholic people. But I'm so very thankful for the change that we've seen with the Trump administration. And, you know, talking about your faith and how it influences your views on this, I almost, when I see the gender ideology, I almost think it's a false gospel or, you know, people use the term Gnostic, Gnostic. which is an ancient Christian heresy that essentially believed the body was evil and the spirit is good. And you have to affirm the spirit and who cares about the body. And I almost

sense echoes of those ideas here. How do you see it? Do you see it as a spiritual battle? Yes. Oh, my goodness. Yes. You know, it's really interesting when we, when human beings put themselves on the pedestal of their lives, chaos and confusion follows. The only one who can speak something into existence by declaring it is God himself. But the left and gender activist claim that when you declare that you are something, you are it, that when you speak something into existence, when you claim that you are the opposite sex, and of course you are not, that it becomes true. Well, that's not true.

The only one who can do that is God, right? And so we see the consequences of that as a society when we've put human, fallible human beings on the throne of our lives, right? We see the consequences that follow from that. And yeah, I'm just, yeah. You talked about RFK and the sea change that's happened at HHS. I wonder in your experience as a nurse, did you see many of the problems? problems that he also talks about with, you know, child obesity and then, of course, the gender issue, like how many problems is our health system almost, you know, I don't want to say that

they are encouraging, but allowing and failing to combat? I think we're closer today. We've taken significant steps in the right direction to treat underlying root cause issues. As a nurse, I've seen so many really sad health diagnoses and just conditions that people come in with, that your heart breaks for them and for the suffering they're going through. But at the end of the day, not all, but many things that people, health issues that people are grappling with today have a, are directly related to the choices and the lifestyle that they live, the diet, the exercise, the lifestyle that they choose to live. That is a very controversial thing to say, but I think now

more than ever, people in the Maha movement, thanks to RFK and people in his, you know, under his leadership, have started to kind of bring, bring, bring, bring, bring, bring, bring, that, how do you say that, kind of bring that to light. And so, yeah, I'm hugely supportive of what he's trying to do in treating the underlying root cause of a lot of chronic diseases that we're seeing in this country. You talked about the group think. When you mentioned, and this really stood out to me, you felt like you were alone, like you were the only person who had even doubts about these experimental interventions on kids. Why do you think there is sort of this, you know, culture of fear, maybe like, top-down, forcing this ideology,

and how many, you know, other medical professionals who are just there to serve people do you think are holding themselves back and silent when they should speak out? You know, it's a very difficult thing. There's a lot of risks that I'm very compassionate for other medical professionals who are working in a hostile environment that are facing this decision, whether they should expose something, whether they should come forward, whether they should risk their career and their livelihood and their 401K. And I went through all that whole process of the security and risking that and your financial stability. Those are very heavy decisions.

But when I saw how children were being exploited, were being manipulated, were being lied to, and ultimately harmed, I could not stay silent any longer. I had to come forward in accordance with my beliefs in Christ, in accordance with my medical ethics. I just couldn't, knowing what you know, it's impossible not to say something. And so I think ultimately it's my faith in Christ that gave me that confidence and that assurance that no matter what happens, that he will never leave us, he will never forsake us. and that ultimately the outcome is in his hands. And so I can trust the future to his hands. Yeah, that's very inspiring.

Do you, yeah, talk about protect Texas children and what led you to start this. What does the organization do? Yes. Well, thankfully, the story didn't end there. I was fired in August of 24. and a couple of months later, I had the tremendous privilege to launch an organization called Protecting Texas Children. Our mission is to safeguard the innocence of every child by affirming biological truth. And so my work is really dedicated towards ensuring that children grow up,

happy, healthy, and whole in one piece in order to secure a bright future for them. And we do this with a biblical foundation. We're very biblically based. and I work a lot in Austin in our state capital. This past year we were in session for the last five months of this year. And so I spent a lot of time working with legislators and encouraging them to promote legislation and promote policies that will result in the mental, emotional, physical protection of children. And so I'm very, very grateful to be a part of this effort. I think we've taken a lot of really wonderful steps in Texas to ensure that patients are more protected today than ever before and children in particular.

And so I'm very grateful to be a part of that. How do you think we inoculate or, you know, I almost, I think the kids are going to learn that this ideology exists at some point. And one of the things I'm concerned about as a parent is my children learning this too early so that it confuses them about gender. And so, and God forbid they want to go down this path. But I'm also thinking, like, we grow up in such an interconnected world. Like, where is that balance? How do you see those issues? Yeah. I always recommend parents, recommended parents like a number of really amazing resources. But first, I'd say, you know, the issue, the topic of social media and what children can access online is a big, big deal. It matters what they see and what they're exposed to online. You know, in our mission statement is securing the innocence of every child. And so that starts from the very earliest stages.

when they walk into their school library and when they see the inappropriate pornographic books that are available to them. So we're right now in the middle of an effort to expose that in the state of Texas. It, you know, when we talk about social transitioning, how children, before they even step in the door of a gender clinic, the cult of affirmation that they encounter in schools where they have teachers and coaches and, you know, fellow classmates that will refer to them by their, preferred pronouns. They'll call them whatever they want, right? And so this culture of affirmation that a lot of times happens behind the parents back. Parents have no idea this is going on in school. And by the time they find out, it's not too late, but maybe it's very far down that path. In fact, right now in Houston, we have two parents, Terry and Sarah Osborne, who are suing H-I-S-D,

Houston ISD because in their daughter's high school, she was socially transitioned for two years without their knowledge. And so they're suing the school district, as they should, because they have proof and evidence that teachers were going behind their back. They were affirming their daughter's identity. And this is something that our governor, Greg Abbott, has been very vocal and clear on. In fact, he's supported their decision to sue HISD. So the social social Transitioning piece for us is very important. We want to even stop the child from walking in the gender clinic at all. And they only walk through the gender clinic after they've been affirmed and affirmed socially at school, in the home, whatever it is. So that's a big issue for us right now,

the social transitioning piece. It's, I heard one, actually it was a former member of W. Path, who later turned against that organization saying that it's a powerful psychotherapeutic intervention just doing the social transitioning. So yeah, I mean, what legislation, I feel like I could talk to you forever and I probably shouldn't hold you up too long. But what specific battles, I mean, I don't know if you're a 501 C3 so you can endorse specific legislation or if you C3 and C4. Okay. Yes. Yeah. So you're familiar. Yep. When it comes to like, I tend to think of Texas as a state. that's generally good.

But there are a lot of weak spots. I know the Republicans there can be not very aggressive in pursuing conservative stances. So where are the fault lines, you know, explain for a national audience why you can't just take it for granted that Texas is a safe place. Wow. Unfortunately. I could talk about this for a long time. You know, I was very, am still, very new to the world.

of politics and Texas politics. And so I, like many people and you assumed that when I walked into this Texas state capital in Austin, that this is an overwhelming Republican majority, that we see the same. You know, our views are the same on a number of issues. Like, we're like-minded. We're on the same team. And many Republicans and our true conservatives, many of them are, and I want to give them credit. But what I was not prepared for is the, the, the, truly just the rhinos, like the Uniparty, the ones who are not truly principled, you know, representatives, the ones who, if it's convenient for them, they will vote with a conservative majority. And I was not prepared for that. And I think that's what a lot of people

don't see and don't understand about the state of Texas as people see Texas as this massive red state. And we're great. There's a lot of good things in a number of ways about the state of Texas, but I think it's, I think there's a lot of, let me, let me word this carefully. It's still a real battleground. Yeah, it's, I think we had a really, we had a good legislative session this year, but so much more could have been done. So much opportunities were missed to pass to pass truly conservative legislation that slipped through the cracks by Republican lawmakers slipped through the cracks.

And it was very intentional. And I saw that firsthand. And so I think that's what people need to understand is the importance of the grassroots movement in calling your legislator in sending them an email and hounding them with, you know, please vote for that. You know, just the advocacy of the grassroots movement is so good at. That's so invaluable. Well, thank you again so much, Vanessa.

Is there anything else we didn't cover that you'd like to add and where can people follow you? Yeah. Just follow us at protecting texistchildren.com. We're on Facebook and all the socials, so please follow along. Thanks again. Thank you. Subscribe to get the news. The legacy media won't tell you and only the daily signal can bring to you.