I watched the Gender A Wider Lens live broadcast and was struck by the analogy drawn by the one MD on the panel, Dr. Carrie Mendoza of FAIR, that she is seeing "end stage" symptoms in these WPATH files analogous to stages in other medical scandals like the opiod over-prescription scandal and I don't know if she intended it, but I commented that she might be saying this is like a disease process that has to run its course and we are at a critical stage of the disease with all the hallmarks of that. She also said what I have been thinking, that this ends when everyone knows someone personally who has been harmed, just like when we all knew someone who had lost a family member or child to overdose after starting with prescription medicine and then moving on to street drugs including fentanyl.
I also recall having a client who at the time the opiod over-prescribing scandal was coming to light who was suffering with chronic pain associated with a host of medical problems and was losing access to his prescription for fentanyl, and that many pain patients were scared they would also lose access due to the scandal--I think this will happen here too, and I've said many times to colleagues who are worried about the latest round of legislative actions banning access to gender care that they are only setting this up to be a problem by not reigning in access to people who shouldn't have access.
I’m also skeptical that true believers in the trans cult will have their views changed by this. It may help to influence some who were on the fence. To me, it all boils down to whether you believe every person has an unmeasurable , unobservable, inborn characteristic called “gender identity” that might be incongruent with their physical body. If you believe this, everything the activists say and do makes sense. Of course you would want to identify people with this condition as young as possible and give them medical treatment to relieve their distress. Of course someone having depression or other mental health issues is likely a result of this condition and shouldn’t preclude them from treatment. Of course treatment should be covered by insurance.
But I, and likely everyone reading a comment on this Substack, question that premise. And there is lots of evidence that it’s nonsense. Unlike other “internal” characteristics such as handedness or sexual orientation, you can’t test for, or even coherently define, gender identity. Other internal characteristics don’t require medical treatment - they are simply characteristics of a person that only impact that person’s behaviors. Inborn characteristics don’t change their rate of occurrence or demographics dramatically over a short period of time - so where are the thousands of women of my generation, and every previous generation, who are “actually men” and just never knew it? Could I be one? Did they all commit suicide? If so, why are suicide rates so much higher now that being transgender is so much more accepted? Why are suicide rates higher in post-transition transgender people than the general population? Why have the demographics of people seeking gender transition shifted from almost exclusively born male to heavily weighted to born females? Could I have internal versions of other physical traits that don’t match my body? Could I be a tall person in a short person’s body? A black person in a white body? Do I have a predefined internal number of tattoos that I must get to avoid the distress of “tattoo dysphoria”?
To me, this is the root of the argument that we must attack if we are to make any headway with the general public. As long as activists can convince people that gender identity is an inborn characteristic, it will be easy to make the argument that we are just bigots. But if we can get people to question that premise, the whole house of cards comes down.
As long as you think you’re saving these kids gendered souls you’re going to think these physicians are the heroes. People have done the craziest things for faith.
I appreciate all the good attention and writing given to the WPath files--and also look forward to Andrew Doyle's Sunday program on this, which will feature quite a line-up. Like others here, though, I'm not optimistic this will break through into the mainstream media that all friends and acquaintances of mine read (eg the Times and WaPo, PBS, and MSNBC).
Meanwhile, the level of knowledge about this situation, and gender ideology generally, on my side (D) of the aisle remains appallingly low to nonexistent. As one small example, we had a conversation recently with a D candidate for State Assembly, with every single notable pol endorsing him, that, in a crude paraphrase, went something like this:
Him: "Hi, [introduces himself, identifies who's endorsing him], we're here collecting signatures so I can get on the ballot."
Us: "We need to know where you stand on women's rights vis-a-vis men who identify themselves as women."
Him: "Well, I haven't really decided on that. It's complicated."
Us: "It's actually not complicated, and we're really concerned about the way our party is throwing women and girls under the bus."
Him: "Well, I coach my kids' little league. Do you think a girl should be able to play on the boy's team, and a boy on the girl's team"
Us: [after establishing that the scenarios relate to post-puberty teams]: "They present different situations: for the girl, yes; but for the boy, no, as it would be unfair to the other girls."
Him: "So, see, it's complicated."
Us: "No, actually not. The issue here is male puberty, which gives boys an insurmountable advantage and takes opportunities away from girls."
Him: Nods, in slightly possible recognition that this might be true.
US: "I think the way to approach this, rather than starting with "it's complicated," is to start with the issue of biological sex. This doesn't matter for everything, but when it does, it's what matters."
This is the level of comprehension we're dealing with. We left on an amicable handshake, but we didn't sign his petition. We have a long way to go to get out of this mess.
It's not my idea but I would love to see it as well--a letter one could send to MD's etc about this. Or maybe to "major medical societies" who thought their colleagues in this field were also doing medicine using the same standards as elsewhere---but were wrong.
You might have identified the problem here, which is what sounds horrifying to us might sound reasonable to others. The power of belief can be so strong.
The Economist and Newsweek are mainstream media, so that's great, but where is WaPo & New York Times? Where is The Guardian? Le Monde? and numerous other venues?
Every Democratic Politician should have to read this. Every doctor and every mental health practitioner should have to read it.
Maybe everyone can email it to their politicians. Also: send it to editorial board of the newspaper or other media that you read.
I am struck by the quote, “If you have already closed your mind to the idea that there’s something wrong with the science, it’ll be hard for you to open it to the science’s misapplication.” Many of us have been bracing ourselves what the tsunami of regret and detransition on the horizon. It makes sense to feel outrage at what parents, schools, and medical professionals are doing with this vulnerable population. When I read Marci Bower’s response to the publication of these documents, I actually felt empathy. How are these parents and professionals going to cope with the fact that they unnecessarily took away the future sexual function of children? With as much outrage as I currently feel about all of this nonsense, those misguided individuals are going to need help too.
“Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, one by one.”
― Charles MacKay, Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds
There's not much here that hasn't been out there already. It's been a year since Jamie Reed's whistleblowing article dropped. I've given up hope on bombshells. But, eventually, this woo shall pass.
I sent a respectful email to NPR , asking them to investigate the WPATH files story , with a link to the files. I think we should flood NPR, Washington Post, NY Times with letters asking to investigate. It may be particularly valuable if the requests come from the left (not that it should matter). Also, what about the journalist who did a story for NY Times about child transition recently?
Many believe the files will benefit detransitioners in their malpractice lawsuits, and I agree. Most likely, a more practical, healthy alternative must be developed. Has anyone thought about the fact that Sweden, Finland, Norway and Denmark have stopped hormones/surgeries on minors---the significance is that we haven't heard of a tsunami of teen suicides causing their health systems to go back to the "Dutch Protocol." Speaking of which, we have to tell the full story about the flaws in the 2011 study by DeVries, Cohen-Kettenis and Steensma (the full write up of which appears to be edited at pubmed or the places its published) and by this I mean the very small cohort that completed the flawed exit studies, only 32 or 33. There was a suicide after surgery and a death by sepsis the day after a surgery. Perhaps we also have to get into the fine details of the female anatomy and the fact that no surgeon can create ersatz labia, clitoris and a tissue tube that has the multitude and concentration of nerves we females actually have. (if we didn't, would women have a second child?)
Here's my mini-lecture on the Ferring pharma-funded Dutch study:
Good reminder of their talking points. I hope kind hearted pediatricians will pause with this new trove of information curated so nicely in the wpath files. So much harm has been done.
Congrats on the book launch! I just ordered my copy :)
Mike Pesca cited an interesting but maybe old statistic about The NY Times and the NY Post being the most popular newspaper subscriptions (maybe in the NY area? The Post being a guilty pleasure that people don’t brag about out reading, (on the podcast episode with the interview with Rob Henderson on Luxury Beliefs)
I watched the Gender A Wider Lens live broadcast and was struck by the analogy drawn by the one MD on the panel, Dr. Carrie Mendoza of FAIR, that she is seeing "end stage" symptoms in these WPATH files analogous to stages in other medical scandals like the opiod over-prescription scandal and I don't know if she intended it, but I commented that she might be saying this is like a disease process that has to run its course and we are at a critical stage of the disease with all the hallmarks of that. She also said what I have been thinking, that this ends when everyone knows someone personally who has been harmed, just like when we all knew someone who had lost a family member or child to overdose after starting with prescription medicine and then moving on to street drugs including fentanyl.
I also recall having a client who at the time the opiod over-prescribing scandal was coming to light who was suffering with chronic pain associated with a host of medical problems and was losing access to his prescription for fentanyl, and that many pain patients were scared they would also lose access due to the scandal--I think this will happen here too, and I've said many times to colleagues who are worried about the latest round of legislative actions banning access to gender care that they are only setting this up to be a problem by not reigning in access to people who shouldn't have access.
I’m also skeptical that true believers in the trans cult will have their views changed by this. It may help to influence some who were on the fence. To me, it all boils down to whether you believe every person has an unmeasurable , unobservable, inborn characteristic called “gender identity” that might be incongruent with their physical body. If you believe this, everything the activists say and do makes sense. Of course you would want to identify people with this condition as young as possible and give them medical treatment to relieve their distress. Of course someone having depression or other mental health issues is likely a result of this condition and shouldn’t preclude them from treatment. Of course treatment should be covered by insurance.
But I, and likely everyone reading a comment on this Substack, question that premise. And there is lots of evidence that it’s nonsense. Unlike other “internal” characteristics such as handedness or sexual orientation, you can’t test for, or even coherently define, gender identity. Other internal characteristics don’t require medical treatment - they are simply characteristics of a person that only impact that person’s behaviors. Inborn characteristics don’t change their rate of occurrence or demographics dramatically over a short period of time - so where are the thousands of women of my generation, and every previous generation, who are “actually men” and just never knew it? Could I be one? Did they all commit suicide? If so, why are suicide rates so much higher now that being transgender is so much more accepted? Why are suicide rates higher in post-transition transgender people than the general population? Why have the demographics of people seeking gender transition shifted from almost exclusively born male to heavily weighted to born females? Could I have internal versions of other physical traits that don’t match my body? Could I be a tall person in a short person’s body? A black person in a white body? Do I have a predefined internal number of tattoos that I must get to avoid the distress of “tattoo dysphoria”?
To me, this is the root of the argument that we must attack if we are to make any headway with the general public. As long as activists can convince people that gender identity is an inborn characteristic, it will be easy to make the argument that we are just bigots. But if we can get people to question that premise, the whole house of cards comes down.
As long as you think you’re saving these kids gendered souls you’re going to think these physicians are the heroes. People have done the craziest things for faith.
I appreciate all the good attention and writing given to the WPath files--and also look forward to Andrew Doyle's Sunday program on this, which will feature quite a line-up. Like others here, though, I'm not optimistic this will break through into the mainstream media that all friends and acquaintances of mine read (eg the Times and WaPo, PBS, and MSNBC).
Meanwhile, the level of knowledge about this situation, and gender ideology generally, on my side (D) of the aisle remains appallingly low to nonexistent. As one small example, we had a conversation recently with a D candidate for State Assembly, with every single notable pol endorsing him, that, in a crude paraphrase, went something like this:
Him: "Hi, [introduces himself, identifies who's endorsing him], we're here collecting signatures so I can get on the ballot."
Us: "We need to know where you stand on women's rights vis-a-vis men who identify themselves as women."
Him: "Well, I haven't really decided on that. It's complicated."
Us: "It's actually not complicated, and we're really concerned about the way our party is throwing women and girls under the bus."
Him: "Well, I coach my kids' little league. Do you think a girl should be able to play on the boy's team, and a boy on the girl's team"
Us: [after establishing that the scenarios relate to post-puberty teams]: "They present different situations: for the girl, yes; but for the boy, no, as it would be unfair to the other girls."
Him: "So, see, it's complicated."
Us: "No, actually not. The issue here is male puberty, which gives boys an insurmountable advantage and takes opportunities away from girls."
Him: Nods, in slightly possible recognition that this might be true.
US: "I think the way to approach this, rather than starting with "it's complicated," is to start with the issue of biological sex. This doesn't matter for everything, but when it does, it's what matters."
This is the level of comprehension we're dealing with. We left on an amicable handshake, but we didn't sign his petition. We have a long way to go to get out of this mess.
Thank you!!!
It's not my idea but I would love to see it as well--a letter one could send to MD's etc about this. Or maybe to "major medical societies" who thought their colleagues in this field were also doing medicine using the same standards as elsewhere---but were wrong.
You might have identified the problem here, which is what sounds horrifying to us might sound reasonable to others. The power of belief can be so strong.
The Economist and Newsweek are mainstream media, so that's great, but where is WaPo & New York Times? Where is The Guardian? Le Monde? and numerous other venues?
Every Democratic Politician should have to read this. Every doctor and every mental health practitioner should have to read it.
Maybe everyone can email it to their politicians. Also: send it to editorial board of the newspaper or other media that you read.
I am struck by the quote, “If you have already closed your mind to the idea that there’s something wrong with the science, it’ll be hard for you to open it to the science’s misapplication.” Many of us have been bracing ourselves what the tsunami of regret and detransition on the horizon. It makes sense to feel outrage at what parents, schools, and medical professionals are doing with this vulnerable population. When I read Marci Bower’s response to the publication of these documents, I actually felt empathy. How are these parents and professionals going to cope with the fact that they unnecessarily took away the future sexual function of children? With as much outrage as I currently feel about all of this nonsense, those misguided individuals are going to need help too.
“Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, one by one.”
― Charles MacKay, Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds
There's not much here that hasn't been out there already. It's been a year since Jamie Reed's whistleblowing article dropped. I've given up hope on bombshells. But, eventually, this woo shall pass.
I sent a respectful email to NPR , asking them to investigate the WPATH files story , with a link to the files. I think we should flood NPR, Washington Post, NY Times with letters asking to investigate. It may be particularly valuable if the requests come from the left (not that it should matter). Also, what about the journalist who did a story for NY Times about child transition recently?
One of the worst aspects of this pediatric transition scandal is the push against what they call gatekeeping and I call common sense.
Many believe the files will benefit detransitioners in their malpractice lawsuits, and I agree. Most likely, a more practical, healthy alternative must be developed. Has anyone thought about the fact that Sweden, Finland, Norway and Denmark have stopped hormones/surgeries on minors---the significance is that we haven't heard of a tsunami of teen suicides causing their health systems to go back to the "Dutch Protocol." Speaking of which, we have to tell the full story about the flaws in the 2011 study by DeVries, Cohen-Kettenis and Steensma (the full write up of which appears to be edited at pubmed or the places its published) and by this I mean the very small cohort that completed the flawed exit studies, only 32 or 33. There was a suicide after surgery and a death by sepsis the day after a surgery. Perhaps we also have to get into the fine details of the female anatomy and the fact that no surgeon can create ersatz labia, clitoris and a tissue tube that has the multitude and concentration of nerves we females actually have. (if we didn't, would women have a second child?)
Here's my mini-lecture on the Ferring pharma-funded Dutch study:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHiPfDbaC1k&t=25s
Good reminder of their talking points. I hope kind hearted pediatricians will pause with this new trove of information curated so nicely in the wpath files. So much harm has been done.
Congrats on the book launch! I just ordered my copy :)
Hi Lisa,
Thank you for this bite-sized summary. I will be cribbing from your wording when I need quick talking points about the WPATH files.
Unfortunately it still seems to be crickets…
No coverage in any mainstream media outlets.
How much longer can they continue to hide from this?
This WPATH statement reads as the ‘nullification’ of truth. Also literally obsessed with genitals!
Mike Pesca cited an interesting but maybe old statistic about The NY Times and the NY Post being the most popular newspaper subscriptions (maybe in the NY area? The Post being a guilty pleasure that people don’t brag about out reading, (on the podcast episode with the interview with Rob Henderson on Luxury Beliefs)