That report released this week by the group Environmental Progress claims widespread abuse and medical malpractice by the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH). According to the EP report, WPATH members have demonstrated a lack of consideration for long-term patient outcomes despite being aware of the debilitating and potentially fatal side effects of gender treatments.
The impetus for "The WPATH Files" was internal communication by WPATH members discussing how to treat people with "gender distress." In the files – which were leaked to the conservative news outlet UnHerd – clinicians discuss how to treat patients though they question if what they're doing is best for the patients. The injuries described in the files include sterilization, loss of sexual function, liver tumors and death.
WPATH guidelines have often been adopted by thousands of doctors worldwide, according to the Family Research Council.
Report could lessen gender-manipulation support
Dr. Quentin Van Meter, a former American College of Pediatricians president, said on Washington Watch Wednesday that the report is "a very large battering ram" that could open floodgates on already crumbling support for gender-manipulation procedures.
"[It hit a] wall that has previously just been falling down brick by brick over the past several years," he stated. "WPATH has been hiding all of the information that they know, and they willingly discussed among themselves their plans for these kids that are clearly experimental and not based on science.
"We have said this in hearings for legislative efforts in a number of states. We've said this in courts where there's a question of parental custody of a parent who wishes not to transition their child. We've brought this up over and over again, only to be essentially shot down and being told that WPATH is the expert in this," Van Meter told show host Tony Perkins.
For many pushing the trans agenda, that rally cry has been "change genders or choose death." Guidance was presented just that plainly to some parents.
Chloe Cole, who began these procedures as a teen in California before deciding to "detransition" back to her biological gender identity, shared her story before Congress and various groups last summer. The medical personnel who supported her gender transition journey put real pressure on her parents to make Cole stay the course.
"They told [my parents] that blood was going to be on their hands, that they were either going to have a dead daughter or a living transgender son," she recalled, "and that they only had those two choices. No other choices were presented to us."
And no possible side effects or other dangers were presented when Cole's parents began discussing a transition with doctors.
Study shoots holes in trans suicide claims
A 25-year study of Finnish youths found that while suicide rates were higher among transgenders, the increase was miniscule – 0.2% compared to non-transgender youths.
More significantly, the study found that while transgender identity appears to be related to elevated suicide risk, the root of that risk is not a medical condition but a social one. The study linked the increased risk with the pressure that comes from not being accepted by peer groups and society in general. In addition, the study recommended treatment for mental disorders in adolescents experiencing gender dysphoria in order to prevent suicide.
Tyler O'Neil, the managing editor of The Daily Signal, said on American Family Radio Wednesday that WPATH's leaked files show the political climate of the transgender movement.
"We're having almost the entire medical establishment pushing this, and they've been infiltrated and they've largely been infiltrated by a great deal of money, and there's a financial interest here. WPATH is really the tip of the spear of this movement, and WPATH has essentially become an activist group masquerading as a health organization," O'Neil told show host Jenna Ellis.
One of the clinicians in the leaked files spoke to the "infancy" of puberty-blocking science.
"If there's a medical – quote-unquote – 'treatment' that's in its infancy, why are we pushing it on people across the country; not just people but teens and younger, kids as young as eight, nine and ten in some cases? Why are we pushing this on them when it hasn't been approved by the FDA for this purpose, and when we've seen now that they know that these have long-term ramifications that cross-sex hormones can lead to liver cancer in teenagers?" O'Neil wondered.
The journalist said the goal for the movement is to advance gender-manipulation procedures at any cost – giving no consideration to treatment for a mental disorder.
"That's quote-unquote 'conversion therapy,'" he said. "They say that it's a serious mental issue, gender dysphoria, but having therapy to address underlying mental issues beneath gender dysphoria is out of the question. The idea that you would try to coach someone through understanding why they want to identify as the opposite sex, and then getting at the root issue of that and solving that, which might resolve the gender dysphoria, that's out of the window."
