Beyond WPATH: Leading Transgender Medical Organization "Fatally Undermined"
Sign the Declaration
A group of “mental health professionals, public health scientists, and allied organizations and individuals” have coordinated a public denunciation of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), citing “grave concerns” about the medical protocols recommended by the organization’s Standards of Care.
Beyond WPATH invites the public to sign on to an open letter declaring that WPATH is no longer fit for purpose and has “discredited itself”.
Explaining that WPATH’s authority has been “fatally undermined”, the declaration cites the group’s refusal to heed research involving drugs euphemistically referred to as “puberty blockers”, and measures that have been taken to restrict their distribution to children.
Several countries, such as Sweden, Finland, and the United Kingdom, have called into question the practice of medically halting a child’s natural development, and medical professionals have highlighted evidence that bone health and brain function are irreparably harmed in the process.
Last month, WPATH published a finalized version of their updated Standards of Care guidelines (SOC8). Recommendations included reducing the age at which children can receive “puberty-blocking” drugs and cross-sex hormones to 9 years old.
WPATH had previously issued specific guidance on age. Hormone treatments were recommended from 14 years old and up, cosmetic mastectomies at 15+, breast augmentation and “facial feminization surgeries” at 16+, and 17+ for surgeries of the reproductive system, like hysterectomies. They had also recommended an age of 18+ for phalloplasties, the surgical creation of a non-functioning penis.
But on September 15th, WPATH abruptly issued a correction removing those specific age guidelines, despite growing criticism and concern over the medicalization of gender non-conforming children.
The new criteria have raised issues of subjectivity, as they appear to open the door for clinicians to halt a child’s puberty, place them on cross-sex hormones, or offer surgeries dependent once they have reached the period of development referred to as Tanner Stage 2, which occurs between 9-11 years of age.
Speaking at a WPATH symposium in September, Amy Tishelman, lead author of the Child chapter in WPATH’s new guidelines, admitted that minimum age recommendations for “gender-affirming” hormones and surgeries were removed so that practitioners could not “be sued because they weren’t following exactly what we said.”
The open letter published by Beyond WPATH also notes that a chapter on medical ethics was quietly pulled, which it said was indicative of “further abdication of ethical responsibility”.
Also referenced was a new chapter on “Eunuch Gender Identity”, which sourced a forum filled with thousands of pornographic fantasies of children being sadistically castrated, medically experimented upon, sex trafficked, and sexually abused by adults, who, in some cases, were portrayed as doctors seeking to halt their puberty.
“WPATH can no longer be viewed as a trustworthy source of clinical guidance in this field. Despite its claim to be a ‘World Professional Association,’ WPATH and its Standards are actually outliers on the international stage, and deaf to the alarms being sounded within the scientific community concerning the use of experimental treatments on children,” reads the declaration.
Despite its litany of grave concerns, the open letter condemning WPATH has neglected a few details which ought to be cause for further scrutiny:
A Lead Chapter Author for Adult Assessment in the Standards of Care Version 8 (SoC v8) revision, who serves on the Executive Board of the European Professional Association for Transgender Health (EPATH), and as Board-Member-at-Large of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), has called for “age play” and “furry” fetishes to be labeled as forms of sexual orientation.
A WPATH member and counselor framed pedophiles as “the most vilified population of folks” who suffer from “judgemental” assumptions of the wider population, and vocalized support for reducing stigma by referring to child sexual abusers as “minor-attracted persons” (MAPs).
Current WPATH President Marci Bowers admitted that the practice of medically halting a child’s pubertal development leads not only to infertility, but to an inability to experience full sexual function. Bowers learned this by experimenting firsthand on children.
Videos of Bowers performing “MTF” surgeries were uploaded as pornography to the Eunuch Archive, the site referenced in the updated WPATH SOC8.
In an episode of “I Am Jazz”, Bowers compared 17-year old Jazz Jennings to a “porn star” while inspecting Jazz’s genitals.
thank you for all your work on this. it is crucial.
Thank you.... As a Biological Psychologist, I find this all very troubling. And, I am not yet sure how to articulate my thoughts so as to encompass both the breadth and destructiveness of this movement.