I Am a Transman: I Was Kicked Out of WPATH’s Science Symposium for Wrongthink

I am a transgender man who works with an organization called Gender Dysphoria Alliance (GDA). Our intention is to clear away the vitriol and misinformation coming from all sides of the proverbial isle by highlighting the condition that motivates medical transition: Gender Dysphoria. It was in this capacity that I virtually attended the World Professional Association of Transgender Health’s (WPATH) Biannual Scientific Symposium, where they happened to be introducing their latest Standards of Care (SoC 8); the document that is intended to guide clinicians in treating children and adults presenting with gender dysphoria.

I had two primary intentions in attending the conference. The first was to gain a better understanding of the recently released SoC 8, which I had already read and had many reservations about. The second, more important, was to network with providers within WPATH who might have similar aims to GDA’s. However, the more presentations I attended, the more concerned I became with WPATH’s internal culture. The theme of the language used in the presentations and from audience questions was that of righteousness and persecution, not medicine and scientific inquiry. Even in a presentation on medical interventions for children who identify as ‘nonbinary’ and ‘genderqueer’, including hormone treatment and surgeries to solidify those identities, the only questions asked of the presenters was not about the existence of studies that demonstrate the health benefits of such treatment, but rather how to get ‘transphobic parents’ to agree to the interventions.

As I was attending virtually, the only way for me to interact with other conference goers or presenters was via the chat and forum functions within the virtual platform. Attendees were encouraged to participate in various affinity group forums or start new threads on topics of interest. On the second-to-last day I introduced myself in a forum called 'trans attendees'. I said, “Hi all! I am a trans man and representative of the Gender Dysphoria Alliance - an international organization that advocates for better mental health care for gender dysphoric people and more robust research into the medical interventions offered to us.” This post received one laughing emoji.

The following are transcriptions of the rest of the replies I received. Be aware, most of the participants are WPATH member providers, specifically in the mental health field. I am not going to introduce or name the individuals commenting, and will only indicate when I chime in. I have included the emoji responses to each reply because I feel it helps give the sense of the community consensus.

The first reply was, “For those unaware, the Gender Dysphoria Alliance promotes links to anti-trans, pro-conversion-therapy organizations. Detrans/retrans people deserve better than such organizations, and cis attendees should be aware the above post is not an accurate reflection of their mission.” This message received 12 thumbs up.

I replied, “I am sorry [name] but that is false. GDA is 100% opposed to conversion therapy and I have not misrepresented the mission of the org. Why would I do that? Anyone is welcome to see what we are about. [linked to website]”

The next response read, “yall GDA is an anti trans hate group. Aaron, happy to have a professional discussion offline if this is a conversation you’re actually interested in having.” This message received five thumbs up and two hearts.

“The first point on their website is “inform the conversation about GD'' which leads straight to “there are different types of gd (e.g. HSTS, AGP, ROGD, DSD-related)...” Autogynephilia has been as debunked as anything in mental health can be. Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria is a political construct that as best as I can tell means either “My kid came out as trans and I don't like it” or “I’m not a good enough parent to have realized what was going on with my kid and now I’m sad.” The ROGD community in both cases would punish the kid. Any group that acknowledges either of those two theories about transgender people deserves to be shouted down in any group of science-based practitioners of physical and mental health.” Three thumbs up.

“I take great reservation for any organization that affiliates with Ray Blanchard or Lisa Littman, let alone champions them as contributors to their Advisory Board. Their publications have caused harm to trans people globally by fundamentally misrepresenting the lived experiences of trans people with relative impunity.” One thumbs up.

I chimed back in, “Our aim is to understand gender dysphoria - what causes it, how best to treat it. Understanding the different types of gender dysphoria is fundamental to this end. I have found the trans community at large is uninterested in the details of GD, which I think is doing us harm long term.”

“These are TERF talking points. No trans folks are ‘denying the realities of biological sex.’’” Four thumbs up.

“Do you believe we also need to look for explanations as to why some people are (cis) male or (cis) female? Or do you believe they are self-evident? Does an explanation benefit individual members of the community? Or does it simply provide some reassurance around validity to those who do not have trans identities?” Five thumbs up.

“If your answers to these are difficult for you, or seem to move away from that of the majority of the community, it may be worth reflecting on your own experiences with and reactions to cisnormativity.” Nine thumbs up, four hearts.

“Aaron Terrell I hope you are not being disingenuous here. Giving the benefit of the doubt, there is nothing wrong with investigating gender dysphoria. But any scientific investigation of necessity starts with an unbiased mind and with clear criteria for validating or disproving hypotheses. In particular, Blanchard’s autogynephilia stuff has been examined already and has been universally rejected by serious mental health researchers, providers, and overwhelmingly by trans people’s experience. He fundamentally misunderstands so many things about trans experience. Without anything new from him, considering his reasons for gender dysphoria is roughly equivalent to considering whether or not the earth really is round. We just know better.” Eight thumbs ups.

“GDA is a hate group hiding behind a “scientific” veneer and this organization’s publications are cited as reasons to deny gender affirming care by transphobic politicians. I hope you realize the harm spreading discredited science does to our community both on a medical and political level.” Six hearts.

“‘Biological sex’ or more accurately sexual development based on chromosomes, hormones and are more realistically described in a variety of bimodal spectrums so I refute the mainstream endonormative view of sex which I am confident this group also endorses.” Two thumbs up. Eight hearts.

“I would advise against attempting to educate groups with an established pattern in this area and in this forum. We have nothing to gain. Meanwhile you just help them consider counter arguments to misinformation they were considering spreading, and allow them to refine their arguments to be more difficult to challenge.”

“In general, I completely agree. But since Aaron Terrell identifies as trans themself, I was open to the possibility that they might be individually open to considering better science. If they are some sort of infiltrator, then you’re absolutely right. I wasn’t sure how to determine that.”

“His bio states he is “co-founder” of the GDA, which given just their openly stated mission statements, concerns me.”

“Folks please keep in mind there may be people registered for this conference and accessing this app/chat to screenshot things out of context and share on wider social media. If someone from GDA is here, there may be even folks from even more heinous organizations watching this forum. WPATH does not audit attendees for accreditation or reputability of the organization they represent.” Three hearts.

Me again, “I am 100% genuine and co-host a podcast discussing the various types of GD where we host individuals who share their own experiences with those different types. It’s called Transparency and can be accessed on whichever podcast platform you prefer and also video versions on YouTube. Blanchard’s theories have not been debunked despite so many claims that they have- researchers just stopped asking the questions about it and instead just accept a concept of innate gender identity- when there is no actual evidence to support that. If you can point me to research that better explains male to female GD I would be more than happy to review it.”

“Y’all it might be best to just not engage.” Two thumbs up. Seven hearts.

They heeded the above advice and the flow of replies, which had been rapid fire, stopped. Around this point I left to run an errand and about an hour later I tried to access the conference via the app instead of my desktop and found I was no longer registered for the conference. I assumed this was an issue with the app and not my registration, but when I got home to my desktop, the browser I had been logged in on also showed I wasn’t registered. I emailed an administrator at WPATH who quickly replied telling me she had ‘reset’ my login and to try again. That did the trick and I was back in the conference, though I was half concerned I was intentionally removed due to the earlier discussion. I watched the rest of the day’s presentations and refrained from using the discussion platform.

On the last day of the conference I started a thread (as attendees were encouraged to do), in a last ditch attempt to make contact with anyone within WPATH who might ally with GDA. The platform encouraged the thread writer to give a title, a description, and then ask the first question to kick off the conversation. My thread read as follows:

Title: Trans individuals concerned with affirmation only approach

Description: I am a transgender adult who is concerned by the rapid medicalization of gender diverse children and young people. I am with Gender Dysphoria Alliance- an organization of adults with experiences of gender dysphoria advocating for safe and holistic care for trans and gender nonconforming people. Please see www.genderdysphoriaalliance.com for more information.

Question: What are clinicians doing to ensure gender nonconforming cis children and adolescents aren’t transitioning unnecessarily?

I expected to get slammed in the comments in a similar fashion I had the day prior, but I was hoping people might reach out privately via the private message function. What actually happened was I was unenrolled in the conference within minutes of posting the above thread. I was not formally notified of my expulsion, nor given a warning regarding any potentially inappropriate conduct on my part. Rather, when I returned to check if there were any replies to my thread, I was taken to the homepage of the platform that told me I was not currently registered for any conferences.

I do know it was that thread that resulted in my removal because the app that hosted the conference had an advantageous glitch that allowed me to see what was being discussed despite no longer being registered. That is, I continued to receive notifications of messages, but when I clicked to open them I was taken to the screen that said I wasn't registered. I screenshot those notifications and then later looked up the people commenting. I am again not including Their names, but in this case I am including their job descriptions.

Clinical Director of Transgender and Intersex Specialty Care Clinic at Mayo Clinic Florida: “hi all, back again to call GDA out as an anti-trans hate group. Please see the trans attendees thread for discussion.”

Registered Social Worker, Psychotherapist - Family Therapy, Crisis Management, DBT, DDP, and Gender Affirming Therapy. 2S-LGBTQIA Health Educator. WPATH Clinician: “Hi look! They’re back to stir the pot! Do not engage with this thread or individual. They are part of a TERF led anti trans hate group focused on…”

The same WPATH Clinician moments later: “Just wanted to bring attention to the fact another TERF and member of the gender dysphoria alliance keeps trying to make threads and…”

[I had not made any other threads]

Doctoral Student at Brown University School of Public Health: “Hi [above WPATH Clinician]. Please report any of these threads to the registration desk so they can review and take action.”

WPATH Clinician: “The individual is Aaron Terrell”

Doctoral Student at Brown: “Hi [WPATH Clinician]. Aaron was removed from the platform earlier this morning. I’ve also gone in to delete the discussion topic that was posted.”

Thirty minutes later:

Clinical Director of Transgender and Intersex Specialty Care Clinic at Mayo Clinic Florida: “can we please get this removed?”

Clinical Director of Transgender and Intersex Specialty Care Clinic at Mayo Clinic Florida: [sent a new photo]

Clinical Director of Transgender and Intersex Specialty Care Clinic at Mayo Clinic Florida: @[Doctoral student at Brown], I’m still seeing the thread.

Fifteen minutes later:

Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine: “organizers, please take this thread off [tags two administrators]”

These appeals for the thread to be removed stopped appearing on my phone, so I assume their pleas were finally headed.

Just read again the words I wrote that multiple WPATH health professionals were so deeply offended by,

Title: Trans individuals concerned with affirmation only approach

Description: I am a transgender adult who is concerned by the rapid medicalization of gender diverse children and young people. I am with Gender Dysphoria Alliance- an organization of adults with experiences of gender dysphoria advocating for safe and holistic care for trans and gender nonconforming people. Please see www.genderdysphoriaalliance.com for more information.

Question: What are clinicians doing to ensure gender nonconforming cis children and adolescents aren’t transitioning unnecessarily?

It is clear the clinicians and researchers who wrote the SoC not only do not have an answer to that simple and reasonable question, they are appalled that anyone would even ask it.

Myself and GDA’s director have sent multiple emails to WPATH’s registration office asking for either a reason for my eviction or the $725 registration fee refunded. It was on the final day of the conference that I was kicked out, but we should have had access to the conference materials for 60 days after it ended. We have yet to receive a response from WPATH.

I did have an opportunity to ask this question in person at the Annual Transgender Health Summit in San Francisco a few months later. I directed the question to four representatives from the American Psychological Association (APA), who are writing the APA’s Guidelines for Working with Transgender and Gender Diverse Patients. The response was much more civil in person than online, but they still didn't have an answer. One of them told me it is not a Psychologist’s job to decide who is trans and who isn’t trans. They are training the Psychologists to affirm what their patient tells them their gender is, and to assist them in obtaining medical intervention to “achieve their embodiment goals.” Another one dodged the question but in a scolding tone told me that implying anyone could be harmed by gender medicine is rooted in “fear of transness”, which is simply “transphobia”. The third panelist answered that it is pointless “to try to tell a teenager who they are” or to try to “make them be cis”, effectively pretending I asked a question I did not ask. All of them were transgender or non-binary.

The reason I tell these stories from these trans health conferences is to demonstrate the fact that pediatric gender medicine comes with no diagnosis, no assessment, no guardrails or safe-keeping. The doctors writing these guidelines eschew any “pathologizing transness” and mandate that any minor presenting in gender clinics be immediately affirmed and assisted with accessing puberty blockers, hormones, and surgeries. Anyone, including trans people ourselves, are dismissed as ‘anti-trans’, ‘TERFs’, and ‘transphobes’ for even suggesting this may be unsafe or unethical.

The LGBT Courage Coalition was founded by Jamie Reed, a whistleblower from a pediatric gender clinic that was doing this kind of ‘gender-affirming care’. Jamie is being called a liar by her critics for saying her clinic was doing exactly what these activists advocated for and have now codified into medical guidelines. Every clinic who follows WPATH and the APA’s guidelines for working with transgender youth will operate in the same manner as Jamie’s clinic, because that is what they have been instructed to do. The reason these same trans activist clinicians accuse Jamie of lying and GDA of being anti-trans is because they have to believe no harm could possibly come from affirmation only gender healthcare, because if it did, they would be responsible for it.

The longer they censor and defame anyone sounding alarms, the more young people are harmed, and the more culpable they become.