A group of gender ideology critics has launched a petition against the World Health Organization’s (WHO) ongoing process to develop transgender health guidelines.
The WHO announced its plan to advance new transgender guidelines on December 18. Several WHO departments that deal with gender, equity, and sexual health are working together on the guidelines.
They will advise on “health sector interventions” aimed at increasing “respectful health services” for trans-identifying and “gender diverse” people, the WHO said. Among other things, the guidelines will focus on “gender-affirming care,” including hormones, health policies that support “gender-inclusive care,” health care for trans-identifying people who have suffered “interpersonal violence,” and legal recognition of self-determined gender identity.
The petition from gender ideology critics is dubbed “WHO Decides?” and says the signers “strongly object” to the “highly biased” panel tasked with coming up with the guidelines.
More than three-fourths of the WHO panel’s 21 members are transgender activists, the petitioners claim, and the few physicians are either HIV specialists or “gender doctors.” The panel also does not include any child development experts or detransitioners, people who transitioned but then regretted it, the petitioners noted.
“There is currently a worldwide explosion of teenagers wishing to undergo a sex change,” the petitioners say. “The majority of the panel members have expressed strong views in favor of hormonal and surgical interventions for transition, dismissed known and potential risks associated with these interventions, and denigrated psychotherapeutic approaches as ‘conversion therapy.'”
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The petition calls on the WHO to cancel its first meeting in February and “go back to the drawing board.”
Currently, the panel is set to meet on February 19 to offer its recommendations at the WHO’s headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.
The WHO is offering a public comment period of just three weeks that fell over Christmas and New Year’s Day and will end on January 8. The petitioners noted that most people are “unplugged” and celebrating the holidays during this time.
The petition currently has more than 3,600 signatures from pediatricians, clinical psychologists, clinical social workers, parents of trans-identifying children, teachers, counselors, nurses, professors, and even one person who self-identified as a “transsexual.”
Several groups signed the petitions, including the LGBT Courage Coalition, Sex Matters, LGB Alliance, Transgender Trend, Gender Dysphoria Alliance, and Therapy First.
In recent years, several countries in Europe have pumped the brakes on both transgender social transitions and medical interventions for children. This came after detransitioners started speaking out about how it had harmed them.