Nations Must Provide ‘an Uninterrupted Supply of’ Trans Hormones and Surgeries: WHO Guidelines Drafter

The team drawing up guidelines for how doctors around the world should view transgender injections and surgeries consists of numerous radical transgender activists, an author who popularizes the term “genderf*ck” in a forthcoming book of “academic smut,” and someone who advised the United Nations that countries should provide an “uninterrupted supply of … medical [hormone therapy] and gender-affirmative surgeries for trans people.” Many of the “experts” have no medical expertise, and the majority of those with any medical experience belong to a group that advocates transgender surgeries and medical interventions for children as young as 10.

These actions have garnered strong opposition from a U.N. human rights official, as well as clinicians across Europe who work with transgender-identifying people, who say the World Health Organization (WHO) empowers ideologues, silences experts, and threatens the rights and safety of women and children. They also charge WHO with violating its own handbook by not considering the harms transgender procedures cause their subjects (especially minors), overlooking the impact transgender policies have on women’s spaces (including prisons), ignoring blatant conflicts of interest from those who profit from the transgender industry, and doing most of its work in the dark while giving the public only a few weeks to comment over the holidays.

WHO is in the process of drafting guidelines for how governments around the world should view so-called “gender-affirming care.” WHO officials will flesh out global guidelines for puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and transgender surgeries at a meeting from February 19-21.

The process is being overseen, in part, by WHO’s Department of Gender, Rights and Equity-Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (GRE-DEI).

Even before the team was formed, WHO entrusted Global Action for Trans Equality (GATE) — a radical transgender activist group funded by George Soros’s Open Society Foundations — to perform its “values and preferences” research. GATE told WHO that “required” interventions include telling nations to “[f]ight societal stigma” of transgenderism, “[i]mprove access to legal gender recognition and gender-affirming care,” and “[i]ncrease the inclusion of TGD people in all [decision-making] boards, panels, group, advisory committees, taking into consideration the diversity of our community (i.e., including transfeminine, transmasculine, AND non-binary trans identities).” (All caps emphasis in original.)

With the groundwork laid, WHO announced a panel comprised of activists and ideologues, not medical experts.

‘Genderf*ck’ and ‘an Uninterrupted Supply’ of Trans Surgeries: Inside WHO’s Transgender Guideline Panel

In December, WHO released the names of 21 proposed members of the Guidelines Development Group (GDG), which will draw up its proposed guidance on these controversial issues. They include:

• Florence Ashley, a Canadian “transfeminine jurist and bioethicist” using they/them pronouns. The WHO press release credits him as the author of the 2022 book, “Banning Transgender Conversion Practices: A Legal and Policy Analysis.” Its biography does not mention some of Ashley’s other works, such as “Genderf*cking Non-Disclosure: Sexual Fraud, Transgender Bodies, and Messy Identities” (an article saying a trans-identifying people should be able to withhold, or mislead, their sexual partners about their actual sex, because “gender and gender history are a private matter”) and the forthcoming book “Gender/F*cking: The Pleasures and Politics of Living in a Gendered Body” (which describes itself as “academic smut” that “ask[s] what it means to be horny on main in a sex-negative world”). The cover of his newest book, set to be released on Valentine’s Day, curiously resembles a Baphomet.
• Shobini Rajan, of the Indian government’s National AIDS Control Organization, spoke at the Second National Symposium on LGBTQI+ Health hosted by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). One of her sessions “emphasised the need to provide [an] uninterrupted supply of … medical [hormone therapy] and gender-affirmative surgeries for trans people,” said the UNDP report. Rajan also “spearheaded the agenda of Transgender Health in India beyond HIV/AIDS” and helped develop a “White Paper on Comprehensive Health related Services for Transgender Health.”
• Teddy Cook is described by WHO as “an Adjunct Lecturer at the Kirby Institute UNSW in Australia and a queer man of trans experience.” In 2022, he said, “The actual side effects of” transgender injections and surgeries include “a substantial increase of gender euphoria and trans joy.”
• Gail Knudson is a former president of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) and the Canadian Professional Association for Transgender Health (CPATH), and she co-authored WPATH’s “Standards of Care” versions 7 and 8. She’s also a member of the International Medical Advisory Panel (IMAP) of the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF).
• Walter Pierre Bouman, a past WPATH president who oversaw the release of “Standards of Care” version 8. Bouman’s practice at the Nottingham Centre of Transgender Health in Nottingham, England “involves prescribing, dosing and monitoring of gender affirming hormone treatment, providing referrals for gender affirming surgeries and other gender affirming medical interventions.”
• Chris McLachlan, a board member of WPATH, is “one of the authors of” WPATH’s “Standards of Care” version 8, and chair of the Sexuality and Gender Division of the Psychological Society of South Africa and the Professional Association of Transgender Health, South Africa (PATHSA). McLachlan “also runs a small private practice focusing primarily on members of the LGBTQI+ community, provides gender affirming healthcare and sees people that have been affected by conversion practices.” McLachlan is also a pioneer at conducting “marriage” services between same-sex couples as “one of the first registered marriage officers in South Africa under the Civil Union Act.” McLachlan is pursuing a Ph.D. at the University of South Africa with a thesis titled “Que(e)ring healthcare: Transgender and gender diverse persons’ lived experience within healthcare and the development of trans affirmative practice guidelines.”
• Cianán Russell, the director of the Trans Survivors Network, uses they/them pronouns and now works in extreme gender ideology advocacy for the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA-Europe) based in Brussels. Russell is also said to specialize in “conversion practice.”
• Yanyan Araña is “an empowered transgender woman working in advocacy since 2015 and continuously pushing for the inclusivity and accessibility of sexual, reproductive, and transgender health care for the [t]ransgender community in the Philippines. She is the Program Manager of Transcend by LoveYourself, the arm of LoveYourself Inc. that provides sexual health and gender-affirming services, research, events, and other interventions to the [t]ransgender community.”
• Erika Castellanos, a man who identifies as a woman, is executive director of GATE. He is a native of Belize but emigrated to the Netherlands and is currently receiving medical treatment for HIV from that nation’s health care system.
• Eszter Kismödi, a lawyer and CEO of Sexual and Reproductive Health Matters (SRHM), is a former board member of Global Action for Trans Equality (GATE).
• Apako Williams, the founder of the Tranz Network Uganda, has “a background in Social Works and Social Sciences,” including a bachelor’s degree in international relations.
• Ayouba El Hamri is “a trans and feminist activist based in Morocco” who uses they/them pronouns.
• Felisbela Maria de Oliveira Gaspar of Mozambique “works with public authorities for better inclusion of gender diversity in the health system,” particularly related to “sexually transmitted diseases,” notes Le Figaro.
• Rena Janamnuaysook established the Tangerine Community Health Clinic as “the first transgender-led health clinic” in Bangkok and co-founded the Thai Transgender Alliance. Rena’s specialty is in international development.
• Phan Thi Thu Huong of Vietnam “has participated in numerous works on gender inclusion, and in particular on broadening access to gender transitions in Vietnam,” says Le Figaro.
• Alicia Krüger, according to the French newspaper Le Figaro, is officially a consultant for the Federal Council of Pharmacists, in Brazil, on health matters for “LGBTQIAPN+ people (sic).”
• Sanjay Sharma became founding CEO of the Association for Transgender Health in India (ATHI) and served as part of the member advisory committee of the Transgender Empowerment Board of Delhi. “He was instrumental in the formulation of the first ‘Indian Standards of Care’ for the delivery of Transgender Healthcare- ISOC1, and two online certificate courses on Gender Education, namely the Introductory course for Medical, Paramedical, Nursing and Ancillary staff of Healthcare Facilities under the ‘Gender Friendly Healthcare Facility Initiative (GFHFI)’ and the Introductory course for Teachers, Educationists, Parents and Students under the ‘Gender Friendly Educational Institute Initiative (GFEII).’” Sharma is described as “a proud parent of a [t]ransgender woman and an active member of ‘Sweekar: The Rainbow Parents’, a parent support group for LGBTQAI+ persons.”
• Zakaria Nasser “has been involved in trans and queer feminist organising in Lebanon since 2007. Nasser was a member of Meem, an underground LBTQ group, since (2007)” and in 2016 “co-founded Qorras, a group producing queer feminist knowledge.”
• Walter Bockting, a professor of medical psychology, is a former president of WPATH.
• Elma de Vries of South Africa is a family physician, who “is completing a PhD in Health Science Education with the topic ‘How can the process of professional identity formation of a gender-affirming practitioner inform medical curriculum change?’”

Of all 21 members, “[o]nly the pediatrician Saima Paracha, member of the national AIDS program in Pakistan, seems to have not participated so far in work aimed at facilitating access to gender transitions,” notes Le Figaro. (Emphasis in original.)

On the other hand, WPATH, whose latest “Standards of Care” version 8 advises starting children on puberty-blockers at “Tanner Stage 2” (11.5 years old in boys, 10.9 years old for girls). “Out of the eight clinicians on the guideline development panel, five have held prominent positions in WPATH,” states Clinician Advisory Network on Sex and Gender (CAN-SG), a group of doctors “including clinicians working with trans and gender diverse people” across the U.K. and Ireland. “WPATH ha[s] been criticised for the poor quality of their clinical practice guidelines, which lack clear evidence to decision-making frameworks, and at times make recommendations that run counter to the evidence they present.”

“Terms like ‘health’ are being used to include the ideological-driven views of these committee members,” Travis Weber, vice president for Policy and Government Affairs at Family Research Council, told The Washington Stand. “It sounds scientific, but it’s obviously highly ideological. In the larger sense, the terms ‘health’ and ‘science’ are being used to usher in an ideology.”

He noted, in most cases, the world government body on health consulted extreme transgender activists instead of government health officials. WHO “calls itself a negotiating body, and it is developing a legal authority for the world, but it is not even asking for the input of every government in the world,” Weber told TWS.

U.N. Human Rights Official, Gender Clinicians Speak Out against WHO’s Transgender Guideline Team

Human rights officials and experts in medical care sharply criticized this board on multiple grounds. “The majority of the GDG [Guideline Development Group] clearly have strong, one-sided views in favor of promoting hormonal gender transition and legal recognition of self-asserted gender,” wrote Reem Alsalem, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, in a letter to WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, dated January 4. “Of the 21 announced GDG members, not one appears to represent a voice of caution for medicalizing youth with gender dysphoria or the protection of female only spaces.” (Emphasis in original.)

“It is clear that several transgender advocacy organizations were directly solicited” while “stakeholders whose views differ from those held by transgender activist organizations do not appear to have been invited,” he wrote. That includes European nations who developed “an evidence-based, and consequently, cautious, approach to youth gender transitions (e.g., England, Sweden, and Finland);” experts on teenage development and autism; and “patients harmed by the expanded access to hormones (including trans-identified individuals and detransitioners) as well as parents.”

A “growing number of public health authorities are deeply concerned with the proven harms of medical ‘gender-inclusive care,’” Alsalem noted, especially as gender dysphoria seems to emerge “in the context of complex mental illness and neurodiverse diagnoses.”

The panel appears to prize promoting gender ideology over the safety of broader society, he said. GATE transmitted its conclusion to WHO “without considering the human rights-related impacts of legal recognition of self-identified gender identity on wider affected groups, such as women and children,” and the right for all people “including girls to a life in dignity, safety and security that is free from violence,” said Alsalem.

The human rights official also blasted the panel’s secrecy. “It appears that the process for this guideline development began in 2021, yet the first official WHO announcement of this is dated the end of June 2023. By then, the GDG was already 75% formed,” and the public was “given only three (3) weeks over the Christmas and New Year’s holidays to respond” to the proposed membership roster.

WHO officials told The Times the public should identify conflicts of interest, a position that the rapporteur says conflicts with WHO’s handbook. The WHO Handbook for Guideline Development defines a conflict of interest as anything that “may affect or reasonably be perceived to affect the expert’s objectivity.” These include nonfinancial conflicts, such as “an attachment to a specific point of view that could unduly affect an individual’s judgment.”

The handbook also states, “the balance of benefits and harms of the intervention is appropriately considered when recommendations are formulated,” yet no detransitioners are represented.

CAN-SG also highlighted the growing global backlash against blind promotion of medical intervention for trans-identifying people, especially minors. “The gender-affirming medical approach has been abandoned by Finland, Sweden and England explicitly in children and adolescents because of the uncertainty about the benefits and likelihood of harm,” noted CAN-SG. Also, gender transitions threaten the health and safety of women and children, the group notes, especially “women in prisons, in hospitals, in care, in mental health settings, women accessing services following domestic or sexual violence, and those that are dependent on other people for intimate care. These are all people whose healthcare WHO should be championing.”

Yet WHO has instead normalized transgender ideology for years, its publications show.

WHO Wants to End ‘Stigma,’ Promote Health Insurance Coverage of Transgender Procedures

WHO has been moving to normalize extreme transgender ideology for years. In 2022, it updated its international guidance (International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, or “ICD-11”) to replace the terms “transsexualism” and “gender identity disorder of children” with “gender incongruence of adolescence and adulthood” and “gender incongruence of childhood.” WHO stated, “Gender incongruence has been moved out of the ‘Mental and behavioural disorders’ chapter and into the new ‘Conditions related to sexual health’ chapter. This reflects current knowledge that trans-related and gender diverse identities are not conditions of mental ill-health, and that classifying them as such can cause enormous stigma.”

“Inclusion of gender incongruence in the ICD-11 should ensure transgender people’s access to gender-affirming health care, as well as adequate health insurance coverage for such services,” said WHO at the time. “Gender-affirmative health care can include any single or combination of a number of social, psychological, behavioural or medical (including hormonal treatment or surgery) interventions.”

The radical activism concerns many, since President Joe Biden is considering adopting the WHO Pandemic Agreement, originally styled as a “treaty” that would radically expand WHO’s commands to nations during global pandemics, without a Senate vote.

Politicizing Health Care Endangers the Vulnerable, Say Experts

Critics noted WHO’s activist-driven guidelines, on transgenderism or other conditions, will harm people in every corner of the globe. “Most people lack a fixed moral anchor, and the vast majority lack the specialized expertise to dispute alleged ‘experts,’ so they default to ‘consensus,’” Weber told TWS. “That is the danger, regardless of how hard the teeth will be in the enforcement mechanism. This is setting a precedent that will drastically shift where the authority-making power resides to one body worldwide. This will shift power away from the people.”

As always, critics say, promoting the global elitists’ niche, left-wing ideology will most hurt the world’s poor. “Countries with fewer resources, or countries where public health authorities are just starting to note the international debates, will bear the brunt of contending with a WHO-endorsed guideline that may have the appearance of an evidence-based guideline, but which may be promoting potentially non-beneficial or even harmful interventions for gender-dysphoric youth,” said the Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine (SEGM).