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Mar 4, 2024 31 tweets 16 min read Read on X
THE WPATH FILES

Advocates of gender-affirming care say it’s evidence-based.

But now, newly released internal files from the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) prove that the practice of transgender medicine is neither scientific nor medical.

American Medical Association, The Endocrine Society, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and thousands of doctors worldwide rely on WPATH. It is considered the leading global authority on gender medicine.

And yet WPATH’s internal files, which include written discussions and a video, reveal that its members know they are creating victims and not getting “informed consent.”

Victims include a 10-year-old girl, a 13-year-old developmentally delayed adolescent, and individuals suffering from schizophrenia and other serious mental illnesses.

The injuries described in the WPATH Files include sterilization, loss of sexual function, liver tumors, and death.

WPATH members indicate repeatedly that they know that many children and their parents don’t understand the effects that puberty blockers, hormones, and surgeries will have on their bodies. And yet, they continue to perform and advocate for gender medicine.

The WPATH Files prove that gender medicine is comprised of unregulated and pseudoscientific experiments on children, adolescents, and vulnerable adults. It will go down as one of the worst medical scandals in history.

environmentalprogress.org/big-news/wpath…Image
Why I Am Publishing WPATH Files And How I Got Them

The written WPATH Files come from WPATH’s member discussion forum, which runs on software provided by DocMatter.

Ninety seconds of the 82-minute video was made public last year. We are making the full video available for the first time.

One or more people gave me the WPATH Files, and my colleagues and I attempted to summarize them as a series of articles. We quickly realized the topic was too sensitive, complex, and large to be dealt with as a work of journalism, and we moved the project to the research institute I founded seven years ago, Environmental Progress (EP).

The Files are authentic. We redacted most names and left only those individuals who are leading gender medicine practitioners to whom we sent “right-of-reply” emails. We know WPATH members discussed our emails internally. No WPATH leader or member has denied that the Files are anything other than what they appear to be.

EP is publishing a 70-page report to provide context for the 170 pages of WPATH Files. Mia Hughes is the author of the report. It and accompanying summary materials can be downloaded at the link below. That link also provides a link to the full WPATH video.

What follows are simply a few highlights. People with a serious interest in the topic should read the report and all the files:

environmentalprogress.org/big-news/wpath…
Part I: Children and Adolescents

“We're explaining things to people who haven't even had biology in high school…”

“I think the thing you have to remember about kids is that we're often explaining these sorts of things to people who haven't even had biology in high school yet,” says Dan Metzger, an endocrinologist.

“The 14-year-olds, you just... It's like talking [about] diabetic complications with a 14-year-old. They don't care. They're not going to die. They're going to live forever, right? So I think when we're doing informed consent, that's still a big lacuna.”
“14 year old trans female who started transition since she was 4… wants to have Gender Affirming Surgery”Image
“I’ve recently received questions from an [‘Assigned Female At Birth’] pre-menarche 10 y/o patient about whether blockers will ‘stunt’ his growth…”Image
“It is very difficult to ask that they wait until age 16...”Image
A “16 y/o patient…found to have two liver masses… the likely offending agents were the hormones…”

The problem is that drugs can cause tumors, even, apparently, in people as young as 16 years old.Image
“To what degree… providers discuss actual rates of surgical complications… (e.g., pain…additional surgeries, necrotic tissue, infection, hematomas…”

Many young patients experiencing gender distress do not appear to understand that they may suffer serious consequences from long-term hormone use and genital surgery.Image
“I feel the best time for surgery in the U.S. is the summer before their last year of high school.”

Despite the widespread and growing expression of concern within the WPATH Files over the negative side effects of gender medicine, WPATH members urge that irreversible surgeries take place when adolescents are just 16 or 17 years old.Image
Image
“Most of the kids are nowhere in any kind of brain space to really talk about it seriously.”

One WPATH member says, “It's out of their developmental range sometimes to understand the extent to which some of these medical interventions are impacting them.”

“We try to talk about it, but most of the kids are nowhere in any kind of a brain space to really, really, really talk about it seriously.”
Many Parents Don’t Understand What Will Happen To Their Children

“I try to kind of do whatever I can to help them understand best they, best I can,” says a therapist. “But what really disturbs me is when the parents can't tell me what they need to know about a medical intervention that apparently they signed off for."
“In a developmentally delayed 13yo… what is the ethical approach?”

The situation of obtaining informed consent is complicated further when the adolescents are also developmentally delayed and, in the case below, “may not reach the emotional and cognitive developmental bar set” by WPATH’s already very low standards of care.Image
“Oh, the dog isn’t doing it for you?”

Many gender medicine victims are filled with regret that they were sterilized. Nobody knows this more than the doctors who mistreated them. At times, their response to such regret appears callous.

“I follow a lot of kids into their mid twenties, I'm always like, ‘Oh, the dog isn't doing it for you, right?’ They're like, ‘No, I just found this wonderful partner and now we want kids. So you know, it doesn't surprise me.”
“I’m unaware of an individual claiming ability to orgasm when they were blocked at Tanner 2.”

Many gender medicine patients lose sexual function, including experiencing orgasm. As such, they are not only deprived of sexual pleasure, they are significantly undermining their ability to form long-lasting romantic relationships.

It’s clear from the Files that even many people within gender medicine do not understand this.

On January 14, 2022, the surgeon and President of WPATH, Marci Bowers, explained this reality in a low-key way.

Seven days later, a WPATH member asked Bowers to clarify.Image
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“After 8-10 years of [testosterone, they] developed hepatocarcinomas… died a couple of months after.”

For some gender medicine patients, there are fates worse than both sterility and loss of sexual function.Image
Part II: Mental Illness

“A Patient Who Became Dangerous”

On an unknown date, a San Francisco-based surgeon named Thomas Satterwhite posted an urgent new message to WPATH’s internal message board.

“I had a patient who became dangerous/threatening to our care team post-op,” he wrote, “which ultimately ended in a restraining order.”

Satterwhite explained that “This patient had undiagnosed mood disorders that did not surface until post-op, after which, she travelled around the country to find other surgeons to provide care.”

It’s a chilling story, and one that raises many questions about the ethics and legality of gender-affirming medicine.

At the top of that list is how did Satterwhite and his colleagues miss the fact that the person they operated upon had a serious psychiatric condition?

But Satterwhite was focused on a more prosaic question: What was the best “medicolegal” way that he could warn other doctors and health care providers that his former patient was “potentially dangerous”?
There is no evidence in the WPATH Files, nor elsewhere, that the experience shook Satterwhite enough to question whether gender-affirming care is, in reality, committed to the maxim, “First, do no harm.”Image
Our Awful History Of Mistreating Mental Illness

Nations have struggled to care properly for people with mental illness and psychiatric disorders for centuries.

After every past scandal, we pledge to do better next time, relying more on science than ideology.

Readers of the WPATH Files may walk away with the sense that we have learned nothing.

Repeatedly throughout the WPATH Files, we see gender medicine practitioners waive away evidence that mental illnesses and psychiatric disorders have been misdiagnosed as gender dysphoria.

The WPATH Files are a picture of people single-mindedly committed to the hammer of gender medicine and thus seeing every patient who comes to them as a nail.

environmentalprogress.org/big-news/wpath…
“Disordered eating,” “purposeful malnutrition,” and a “high prevalence of eating disorders”

A therapist raises concerns in a message about the age of a patient.

“I have an incoming 13yo (soon to be 14 yo)... I was under the impression that is more the exception to start for kids under 16, not the norm…”

But the person has another piece of troubling information.

“A possible complication,” the therapist warns, is that it “sounds like there is some purposeful malnutrition and restrictive eating for ‘a more non-binary appearance.’”

The chief medical officer of a health center in Texas chimed in that the therapist had best hurry the 13-year-old teenager along the gender-affirming path because “waiting appears to increase the rate of suicide,” which is one of several pseudoscientific myths repeated within the WPATH Files.Image
“Something is off… I am wondering if they might have schizoaffective disorder or schizophrenia”Image
“...I was surprised to find that several of my clients met criteria for dissociative disorders...”Image
“Someone can have schizophrenia and be ready for surgery…”Image
“...I have noted a high incidence of dissociative disorders...”Image
“I have operated on three DID [Dissociative Identity Disorder] patients... All three did okay out to the six month mark....”Image
Image
“In the last 15 years, I had to regrettably decline writing only one letter, mainly b/c the person evaluated was in active psychosis and hallucinated during the assessment session...”Image
“They had alters who were both male and female gender and it was imperative to get all alters who would be effected by [Hormone Replacement Therapy] to be aware and consent to the changes."Image
Part III: Ethics

“I’m not aware of any other medical procedure that requires the approval of a therapist.”

Frequently, WPATH members push back against “gatekeeping,” including the requirement for sound mental health before undergoing a lifelong regime of drugs and surgery.Image
Image
“If an individual patient feels that they made a mistake… be careful with that not letting that change the way others receive care.”

At times, WPATH members speak of the growing number of “detransitioners” who regret gender medicine.

Some gender medicine practitioners express less concern for the detransitioners than for the threat they may pose to gender medicine.Image
“Patients need to own and take active responsibility for medical decisions, especially those that have potentially permanent effects."

There is evidence within the WPATH Files of WPATH members, as well as its president, Marci Bowers, blaming their victims.Image
Image
“Those conversations can be ongoing even after the intervention has occurred.”

Readers of the WPATH Files may be struck, as we were, by how flexible WPATH members were in rationalizing their mistreatments.

Faced with rising amounts of regret and detransition, WPATH members describe what’s happening as a “gender journey” not a single “transition.”

And faced with their own failure to achieve informed consent, WPATH members re-frame it as a “process,” and an “on-going conversation.”

“...informed consent [is a]... process... not one conversation at one point in time ... those conversations don't have to stop once the Medicaid and intervention has been started. Those conversations can be ongoing even after the intervention has occurred.”
“What has been currently happening is, frankly, not what we need to be doing, ethically.”

As we saw above, many WPATH members waive away the evidence of medical mistreatment.

But others appear genuinely concerned by the lack of informed consent.

A therapist describes talking to parents after they meet with a medical doctor.

“I would go in, and say, ‘Okay, so tell me what you learned.’ They would be like, ‘We have no idea what they were talking about.’

“Part of it is that they feel less deferential to the kind of doctor I am than the kind of doctor the medical doctor is.

"And because they really are seeking the care, they're just going to say they know when they really aren't picking up on what's happening.

“And so I think the more we can normalize that it is okay to not get this right away, that it is okay to have questions, is, you know, the more we're going to actually do a real informed consent process than what I think has been currently happening and that I think is, frankly, not what we need to be doing ethically.”

You can tell that her comment had an impact from the long and awkward pause that followed.

/END

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More from @shellenberger

Aug 4
🚨EXCLUSIVO: ARQUIVOS DE 8 DE JANEIRO

Novos arquivos vazados revelam que o Supremo Tribunal Federal brasileiro usou ilegalmente postagens de redes sociais para encarcerar manifestantes pró-Bolsonaro.

Em 8 de janeiro de 2023, centenas de apoiadores de @jairbolsonaro invadiram prédios governamentais em Brasília, em um episódio surpreendentemente semelhante ao 6 de janeiro nos EUA. Muitos eram idosos ou doentes e não cometeram atos de violência. Ainda assim, todos foram rotulados de “golpistas”, “terroristas” e “fascistas” pelo presidente do Brasil, @LulaOficial, e pelo ministro do Supremo Tribunal Federal, Alexandre de Moraes.

Agora, os ARQUIVOS DE 8 DE JANEIRO mostram que Moraes criou uma força-tarefa de inteligência secreta e ilegal que usou postagens de redes sociais para justificar a prisão de manifestantes não violentos.

Moraes e sua força-tarefa:
— operaram através de um grupo secreto de WhatsApp que criava “certidões” de inteligência ilegais;
— mantiveram manifestantes detidos enquanto realizavam varreduras em suas redes sociais;
— usaram o discurso online como base para a prisão “preventiva”;
— negaram aos advogados o acesso às provas;
— usaram ilegalmente um banco de dados biométrico para identificar manifestantes.

Esses arquivos revelam que os processos do 8 de janeiro foram politicamente motivados e envolveram amplos abusos de poder.

Moraes, servindo aos interesses de Lula, contornou a lei para efetivamente criminalizar o discurso político. Sua repressão judicial excessiva contra os manifestantes ajudou a legitimar a narrativa de que o 8 de janeiro foi uma “tentativa de golpe” coordenada – uma narrativa central para o processo em andamento do tribunal contra Bolsonaro.

A investigação ARQUIVOS DE 8 DE JANEIRO foi liderada por @david_agape_ e @EliVieiraJr e editada por @galexybrane.Image
CONTEXTO:

No mês passado, o Supremo Tribunal Federal (STF) ordenou que Bolsonaro usasse tornozeleira eletrônica e o proibiu de usar redes sociais e de se comunicar com outros investigados.

O Brasil agora enfrenta tarifas de 50% dos EUA, uma medida que entrará em vigor em 6 de agosto.

O uso “criativo” de seus poderes por Moraes — sancionado pelo Secretário de Estado dos EUA, @marcorubio, no âmbito da Lei Global Magnitsky por violações de direitos humanos — foi a base para:
— Tornar @jairbolsonaro inelegível por 8 anos
— Censura a jornalistas e tentativas de intimidação contra críticos como @elonmusk
— Prisões em massa e congelamento de bens de pessoas inocentes

Isso é lawfare em seu mais alto nível.

Os ARQUIVOS DE 8 DE JANEIRO vazados revelam novo material do arquivo “Vaza Toga”, exposto pela primeira vez por @ggreenwald e @FabioSerapiao.Image
“A PGR (Procuradoria-Geral da República) pediu a LP (liberdade provisória) deles, mas o ministro não quer soltar sem antes a gente ver nas redes se tem alguma coisa.”

Nas semanas seguintes ao 8 de janeiro, centenas de detidos permaneceram na prisão — mesmo quando a Procuradoria-Geral da República (PGR) recomendou formalmente sua soltura. Prazos legais foram ignorados, violando o Código de Processo Penal.

O que defensores públicos e advogados suspeitavam, mas ainda não podiam provar, agora pode ser confirmado. A verdadeira razão por trás dos atrasos era que Moraes estava esperando sua força-tarefa escanear as contas de redes sociais dos réus.

Em uma mensagem de WhatsApp de 13 de fevereiro de 2023, a leal chefe de gabinete de Moraes, Cristina Kusahara, reconheceu que a PGR havia recomendado a soltura de um grupo de detidos, mas Moraes “não quer soltar sem antes a gente ver nas redes se tem alguma coisa”.Image
Read 19 tweets
Aug 4
🚨EXCLUSIVE: JANUARY 8 FILES

New leaked files reveal that Brazil’s Supreme Court illegally used social media posts to incarcerate pro-Bolsonaro protesters.

On January 8, 2023, hundreds of supporters of former President @JairBolsonaro entered government buildings in Brasília, in an episode strikingly similar to January 6 in the US. Many were elderly or ill and committed no acts of violence. Yet all were labeled “coup plotters,” “terrorists,” and “fascists” by Brazil’s president @LulaOficial and Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes.

Now, the JANUARY 8 FILES show that Moraes created a secret and illegal intelligence task force that used social media posts to justify the imprisonment of nonviolent protesters.

Moraes and his task force:
— operated through a secret WhatsApp group that created illegal intelligence “reports”
— kept protestors detained while performing scans of their social media;
— used online speech as a basis for “preventative” imprisonment;
— denied lawyers access to evidence;
— illegally used a biometric database to identify protesters.

These files reveal that January 8 prosecutions were politically motivated and involved sweeping abuses of power.

Moraes, serving Lula’s interests, bypassed the law to effectively criminalize political speech. His overprosecution of protesters helped legitimize the narrative that January 8 was a coordinated “coup attempt” – a narrative central to the court’s ongoing prosecution of Bolsonaro.

The JANUARY 8 FILES investigation was led by @david_agape_ and @EliVieiraJr and edited by @galexybraneImage
CONTEXT:

Last Month, Brazil’s Supreme Court (STF) ordered Bolsonaro to wear an electronic ankle monitor and prohibited him from using social media and communicating with other individuals under investigation.

Brazil now faces 50% tariffs from the US, a measure set to go into effect on August 6.

Moraes’ “creative” use of his powers — sanctioned under the Global Magnitsky Act for human rights abuses by US Secretary of State @marcorubio — was the basis for:
— Banning @jairbolsonaro from elections for 8 years
— Censoring journalists & attempts at intimidation against critics like @elonmusk
— Mass arrests and asset freezes of innocent people

This is lawfare at its highest level.

The leaked JANUARY 8 FILES reveal new material from the “Vaza Toga” archive first exposed by @ggreenwald and @FabioSerapiao.Image
“The Prosecutor General’s Office asked for their release, but the Justice doesn’t want to let them go before we check their social media.”

In the weeks following January 8, hundreds of detainees remained in jail — even when the Prosecutor General’s Office (PGO) formally recommended their release. Legal deadlines were ignored, violating the Code of Criminal Procedure.

What public defenders and attorneys suspected, but could not yet prove, can now be confirmed. The real reason behind the delays was that Moraes was waiting for his task force to scan defendants’ social media accounts.

In a WhatsApp message on February 13, 2023, Moraes’ loyal chief of staff, Cristina Kusahara, acknowledged that the PGO had recommended the release of a group of detainees, but Moraes “doesn’t want to let them go before we can check their social media.”Image
Read 19 tweets
Jul 31
The newly declassified appendix to the Durham report is game-changing. It showed that the CIA believed Russian intelligence memos, which analyzed hacked emails and alleged a Clinton Plan to vilify Trump by linking him to Russia, were credible.

"The CIA prepared a written assessment of the authenticity and veracity of the above-mentioned intelligence. The CIA stated that it did not assess that the above [redacted] memoranda or [redacted] hacked U.S. communications, to be the product of Russian fabrications.”Image
In contrast to the CIA, the FBI rejected the intelligence and invented flimsy reasons not to trust it. The FBI's dismissive attitude also contrasts sharply with the FBI's credulousness toward any evidence that implictated the Trump campaign. Image
What’s more, FBI General Counsel James Baker, “unlike his colleagues, did not dismiss the credibility” of the Russian reports that Obama had pressured Attorney General Loretta Lynch to pressure the FBI to drop the investigation into Hillary Clinton's emails, particularly given Lynch's other behaviors.Image
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Read 8 tweets
Jul 30
Victory! President @realDonaldTrump Treasury Dept. has imposed sanctions on the Brazilian tyrant, Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who is preventing former President @jairbolsonaro from competing with President @LulaOficial in presidential elections next year. This is a major victory for free speech and democracy. Bravo!Image
For decades, the media have demanded financial sanctions against tyrants. But now that Trump is imposing sanctions against Left-wing tyranny, the media is crying about sovereignty. The hypocrisy is so thick you can cut it with a knife. Witness the propaganda:Image
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“Alexandre de Moraes has taken it upon himself to be judge and jury in an unlawful witch hunt against U.S. and Brazilian citizens and companies. De Moraes is responsible for an oppressive campaign of censorship, arbitrary detentions that violate human rights, and politicized prosecutions—including against former President Jair Bolsonaro.  Today’s action makes clear that Treasury will continue to hold accountable those who threaten U.S. interests and the freedoms of our citizens.” @SecScottBessent

home.treasury.gov/news/press-rel…Image
Read 4 tweets
Jul 28
Trump’s tariff push failed, the media said. But the new US-EU trade deal shows it worked spectacularly well. The US will get 10x more in revenue from tariffs on EU imports, and $600B more in direct investment from EU. Even Trump haters say it’s a big win for the US. Image
It was obvious back in April that the aggressive tariffs were a negotiating strategy. A bunch of supposedly smart people acted really dumb about this because they are market ideologues and/or TDS sufferers.
As we noted back in April, the tariffs are the messy birth of a new world order. 

Nice to see the @nytimes finally acknowledge this. The “framework seemed likely to permanently reshape the trading relationship between two of the world’s largest and most interconnected economies.”

Nothing succeeds like success.Image
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Read 9 tweets
Jul 24
It's better to let mentally ill people buy and use meth and fentanyl on sidewalks, believes Gavin Newsom, than arrest their drug dealers, and them, and mandate rehab.

But enabling Mexican-Chinese drug mafias to murder mentally ill Americans with fentanyl, as they do everyday and did again a few hours ago in San Francisco, as the video below by @war24182236 shows, is barbaric and pathological.

I thus applaud Trump's announcement that he will crack down on open air drug use and the government policies that encourage addiction.

Harm reduction led to drug deaths rising from 20,000 in 2000 to over 100,000 in 2023. The federal government should have acted decades ago to stop the barbarism.

Seventy percent of Californians last November voted to crack down on fentanyl. Newsom opposed that measure (Prop 36) and is starving its implementation of resources, for the simple reason that he needs Soros money for his presidential run.

Californians should support the federal government in, finally, doing the right thing on addiction and the drug death crisis.
From the US to Europe to Asia, there is one and only one humane way to deal with "homelessness" and it's this, below. It's wonderful to see it in this new Executive Order by @realDonaldTrump :

"The Order redirects funding to ensure that individuals camping on streets and causing public disorder and that are suffering from serious mental illness or addiction are moved into treatment centers, assisted outpatient treatment, or other facilities."

whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/20…Image
Congratulations to everyone who has worked hard to expose the drug death and addiction crisis and demand rational action. Be sure to follow @Gina_McDee @JacquiBerlinn @Twolfrecovery @EricaJSandberg @bettersoma @war24182236 to demand action at all levels of government.

Read 7 tweets

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