HOW GENDER MEDICINE SET ITSELF UP FOR DISASTER For @CompactMag, I report on what the 100s of WPATH conference videos I obtained tell us about this troubled field: compactmag.com/article/how-ge… 👉I 'll be publishing the conference videos on my Substack: benryan.substack.com/p/i-obtained-1… As I write for Compact magazine: This catalogue, which the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, or WPATH, fought to keep shielded, provides a rich account of how leading figures in pediatric gender medicine approached scientific research, drove the evolution of medical practices, and strategized politically during a critical turning point in this field’s brief and tortured history. The two years following Chase Strangio’s 2021 address were a period in which statehouse Republicans escalated their attacks on this field. The WPATH conference presenters largely responded to the political siege by doubling down. Rather than engage in soul searching over whether their methods in pediatrics were ethically sound and whether any criticisms had merit, they overwhelmingly stuck to their guns. Presenters frequently downplayed fundamental hazards about irrevocably altering adolescents’ bodies. Meanwhile, a parade of systematic reviews—the gold standard of scientific evidence—was concluding that the evidencebacking pediatric gender medicine is weak and inconclusive. These findings have led health authorities in a number of European nations, concerned about risks such as infertility, to reverse course. They reclassified pediatric gender-transition interventions as experimental and sharply restricted minors’ access. Not WPATH. The organization remained on an inexorable trajectory in the opposite direction, toward its eventual head-on collision with the second Trump administration. For highlight clips, see the 🧵👇
