For years, professional medical organizations have lied about the benefits and harms of so-called “gender-affirming care.” The World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), the Endocrine Society, and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) have publicly touted the benefits of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries designed to remove or mutilate the healthy body parts of children, but privately, they’ve known that these procedures are not backed by medical evidence.
This is what a new lawsuit from Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier alleges. In the suit, Uthmeier argued these organizations helped their members sell life-altering procedures to children, hide potential risks, and tell parents that their children would commit suicide if the children did not undergo the recommended treatments.
I know firsthand exactly the harm these organizations have done. My parents were told I would commit suicide if they didn’t let me undergo cross-sex hormones and a double mastectomy when I was a teenager. I was too young to fully comprehend the permanent decision I was making, and my doctors never told me the lifetime of health damage or regret that I could face. Instead, medical societies and my doctors lied to me and then pocketed thousands of dollars.
I don’t deserve to suffer every time I want to be intimate or need to use the bathroom. I don’t deserve to be robbed of the ability to breastfeed my children. And I don’t deserve the psychological suffering or physical agony of a damaged body.
Neither do any of the other countless detransitioners who have also been lied to by their doctors. No child can consent to chemicals or surgeries that disfigure their bodies and warp their minds.
The organizations at the top of this medical scandal need to be held accountable for the harm they’ve caused detransitioners like me, and for the lies they helped doctors tell patients. WPATH, the Endocrine Society, and the APA are all responsible for widespread misinformation and the public endorsement of pseudoscientific child abuse experiments.
As the lawsuit alleges, “There is no credible evidence that sex interventions alleviate pediatric gender dysphoria. To convince patients, insurance companies, regulators, and judges otherwise, [WPATH, the Endocrine Society, and the APA] initiated a coordinated campaign to develop ‘clinical guidelines’ recommending sex intervention for pediatric gender dysphoria.”
Florida is at the forefront of seeking justice for detransitioners and stopping the gender abuse scandal. It was the first state where I testified when I began speaking out about my story, and it could soon be the first state to hold professional medical organizations to account for their fraud.
It’s too late to reverse the damage these organizations have done to me, but it’s never too late for justice. And it’s not too late for other vulnerable children who could be lied to and coerced by their doctors.
I hope that Florida’s lawsuit is successful. If Attorney General Uthmeier is victorious, WPATH, the Endocrine Society, and the AAP could be fined $1 million each, penalized $10,000 for each false claim about transgender procedures, and prohibited from continuing to lie about the safety of these procedures.
More than that, I hope that the lawsuit serves as a warning to other medical organizations. The lies of gender ideology, the medical abuse and fraud, and the coercion must end. Patients deserve real treatment, informed consent, and the truth.
