The United Nations healthcare agency — the World Health Organization (W.H.O.) — has given transgender activists a majority of the seats in a panel that is drafting healthcare policies for children.
One of the supposed experts displays a “Be Gay, Do Crimes” tattoo.
Eleven members of the W.H.O.’s 21-member panel have no formal medical training, seven are transgender, and just ten have a medical background, according to a report by Daily Mail.
One of them is reportedly a controversial Canadian trans activist who has a strong influence on the Chinese app TikTok and says puberty blockers should be prescribed to all children, regardless of their gender identity, so they can “choose” their gender rather than being assigned one by society.
Another of the W.H.O.’s committee members says that transitioning causes no health problems and claims the only “actual side effects” of getting a sex change are a “significantly improved quality of life … and trans joy.”
The rest of the panel members are a mixture of activists, social justice advocates, human rights lawyers, STD researchers, and policy advisers, Daily Mail reports.
Another committee member, Ashley — a biological male who identifies as female and goes by the pronouns “they/them that bitch” — has a tattoo that reads, “Be Gay, Do Crimes.”
Ashley, who has co-written a study that claims puberty blockers and hormone therapies “ought to be treated as the default option” for children with gender dysphoria, has a significant following on TikTok where he calls for mental health checks on trans children to be scrapped before they are given puberty blockers and hormone drugs.
“Is there any reason to ask people to go through a lengthy and complex gender assessment in order to access gender-affirming care, or is that useless and should the time best be put in supporting decision-making,” Ashley reportedly said.
“And what our article concludes is that there’s really no evidence that gender assessments work — it’s just a lengthier process for no real reason,” he added. “Gender assessments are really an unnecessary form of gatekeeping that trans communities have been opposing for a while.”
Meanwhile, W.H.O. spokesperson Tarik Jašarević insists the guidelines on trans issues would focus on “adults only” and not the use of hormones, suppressants and surgeries on children.
“WHO guidelines are always based on balancing of available evidence, human rights principles, consideration of harms and benefits and inputs of end users and beneficiaries,” Jašarević said.
Nonetheless, some W.H.O. committee members are vocal about their support for letting children — some as young as 13 — undergo such medical procedures.
Reem Alsalem, the United Nations’ Special Rapporteur on violence against women, told Daily Mail that the new W.H.O. panel is too “one-sided” and that she believes the committee contains “significant unmanaged conflicts of interest.”
“Stakeholders whose views differ from those held by transgender activist organizations do not appear to have been invited,” Alsalem said.
“Such stakeholders include experts from European public health authorities who have taken the lead on developing an evidence-based and consequently cautious approach to youth gender transitions (eg England, Sweden and Finland),” she added.
Meanwhile, the W.H.O. group will set global guidelines for the ways that healthcare workers around the world can increase access “and utilization of quality and respectful health services by trans and gender-diverse people.”
“The WHO panel is made up mostly of social justice and human rights lawyers who believe the gender affirmative approach is the only option,” Stella O’Malley, psychotherapist and executive director of Genspect, told Daily Mail.
“[They] will determine care guidelines for trans people, yet they do not have anyone to represent critical balance on their panel,” she added. “The gender affirmative approach is presumed by WHO to be the only way forward and thereby dismisses conventional psychotherapy.”
“This is a narrow minded and heavily biased approach,” O’Malley affirmed. “The WHO are making a grave mistake, they should pause this process and consult with the many professionals who hold different approaches.”
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and X/Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
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