The Highwire with Del Bigtree - WPATH LEAKED EMAILS SPARK CONTROVERSY

Episode Date: July 18, 2024

Leaked emails from the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) reveal internal debates and disagreements among members regarding the best practices and guidelines for transgender healthcare. These leaks have sparked discussions about transparency and also revealed that the Biden Administration pushed for no age restrictions for medical transition of minors.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-highwire-with-del-bigtree--3620606/support.

I want to talk about some really breaking news in the space of the transgender movements. There's people that identify as this as a way of being. And the issue that we entered this on was we have a medical industrial complex that had created a cottage industry on the backs of these people, of this group. And at the same time, eliminating age groups for certain types of surgeries and drugs that don't really have the backing of science behind them. Right. And remember, Hillary, Dr. Hillary Kass, Kass, She basically was one of the top British pediatricians in the UK. And she had the cast report.

And that came out just a couple months ago and said, puberty blockers are not supported by science. This is a bad idea. We really need to pump the brakes on this. The NHS in the UK stopped them. And now Scotland is stopping them as well. They're being advised. Scottish government advised to halt puberty blockers.

And why are they doing that? Well, we actually have studies now coming out showing what is happening here. one of the studies, puberty blocker and aging impact of testicular, testicular cell states and functions. So this report was the largest clinical report of juvenile testicular. They call it biorepository. So they actually looked, they actually looked at what was happening, whatever the changes of these children's testicular changes under a microscope. And looking at the data and the tissue. And they said this.

They said, in all children with gender dysphoria on chronic puberty blocker treatment, highlighting shift in pediatric patient demography in the U.S. at the tissue level, we report mild to severe sex gland atrophy in puberty blocker treated children. So what are they saying there? They're saying their sex glands are atrophying. Now, why is it a big deal? Because when doctors are talking to these kids, they're saying, look, this is just the first step.

We're going to block your normal puberty. We're going to put you then on cross sex hormones and then finally surgery. And there's no more back after that. But they're saying, we'll put you on these. and if you change your mind, you can go back. Everything will go back. But this study says this. This combined with the noted gland atrophy and abnormalities from the histology data

raised a potential concern regarding the complete reversibility and reproductive fitness of spomatogenial stem cells. That's basically the seat of life for your sperm cells. So they're saying this is looking like it may not be reversible for a lot of people. So this is one of the big studies that's coming out now that is showing that this isn't really the case. So what happened now in the United States? Because the United States is becoming an outlier, still going full steam ahead here with these type of medications. You just had Robert Kiyosaki.

You know, here's a comedian. He's like, what's going on in school? It's a really good question, especially in the United States of America. It does feel like, you know, we're pushing the envelope further and harder and faster than anyone else. Yeah, yeah, exactly. And how is that coming from the top down here in the United States? So this isn't something that's coming from the bottom up in the medical community. So we have the New York Times actually doing some reporting here.

So this is one of them. We have Biden officials pushed to remove age limits for trans surgery document shows. So these are internal emails that were produced part of discovery for a legal case. And what are they talking about here? Well, it says in the draft, in the United States, setting age limits was controversial from the start. The draft guidelines released in late 2021 recommended lowering the age minimums to 14 for hormonal treatments, 15 for mastectomies, 16 for breast augmentation or facial surgeries and 17 for genital surgeries or hysterectomy 17 and they're talking about the draft guidelines were from the world professional associations of transgender health so that's

w path this is this professional organization it's a nonprofit but they set a lot of the standards that the medical community goes by and they're known to be pretty liberal we talked about that group being a lot of like activists in this community that sort of got in there so there's questions on is it capable of of being objective enough to handle this very sort of, you know, brand new medical space, if you will. Absolutely. So they released the draft guidelines. And all these ages are saying recommendations here,

here, here. When the final guidelines came out in 2022, no age limits. And so the New York Times goes back and says this about that. It says the proposed age limits were eliminated in the final guidelines outlining standards of care, spurring concerns with the international group and with outside experts as to why the age proposals had vanished. Where did they go? There was this robust conversation going on between

medical professionals within this group, and all of a sudden they said, here's our standards of care, no more age limits. So that brings us to Rachel Levine. She is started as an activist, but she's also the United States Assistant Secretary for Health, and she's the one that really guides a lot of this for the Biden administration. And released emails now show this. I'm going to read directly from New York Times reporting on this. It says one excerpt from an unnamed member of the WPath Guideline Development Group, recall the conversation where Sarah Bouteng, then serving as Admiral Levine's chief of staff,

saying, quote, she is confident, based on the rhetoric she's hearing in D.C., and from what we've already seen, that there's specific listings of ages under 18 will result in devastating legislation for trans care. She wonders if the specific ages can be taken out. So there's a smoking gun, but now they go even further. Another email stated that Admiral Levine,

quote, was very concerned that having ages mainly for surgery, Remember, that's the last step will affect access to care for trans youth and maybe adults too. Apparently, the situation in the USA is terrible, and she and the Biden administration worried that having ages in the document will make matters worse. She asked us to remove them. Wow. These are really smoking guns for people. Totally. Yeah.

I mean, have this group that, as we said, is filled with activists, but even they said there should be some age limits, it looks like. Yeah. So we stepped in, you know, we've got Levine stepping in and just saying, get rid of all of those, those, those. age list, just if someone wants the surgery, they should be able to get it at any age. Right. And so you have this W-Path organization that is known to be liberal for how they go about these recommendations. And it also caused infighting within them. It was even too much for them. So we have these internal emails. I'll go back to New York Times and it says this. In other emails released this week, some W-Path members voice their disagreement with the proposed

changes saying, quote, if our concern is with legislation, which I don't think it should be, We should be basing this on science and an expert consensus if we're being ethical. Wouldn't including the ages be helpful? One member wrote, another said, I need someone to explain to me how taking out ages will help in a fight against the conservative anti-trans agenda. People are going, you're making it so extreme. It's going to get blocked by everybody that's, you know, you're trying to open up a pathway, I guess, for this conversation. Yeah. And when you go that far, you just make it difficult for everybody.

It seems like they've passed the rational mind piece. with even people in the organization. And so what are they talking about? There's a lot of court cases going on. Over 20 states have moved to ban these type of surgeries and puberty blockers for children. Texas did in 2023 just about a year ago in August, and that went into effect that bill.

That was contested as most of these states are. They contest these bills right away, the parents and the doctors that want these surgeries. Well, that was actually challenged in Supreme Court, and they had lost. So this is the headline here. Texas Supreme Court upholds ban. on transition-related care for minors.

So that's going to be a precedent probably moving forward in the United States to use that. But let's go back to Rachel Levine. So she was on camera, and her transition wasn't rushed. It wasn't something that she did under doctor's supervision very quickly within a couple months or a year. Well, let's be clear it didn't happen when she was 17 years old, right?

Yeah. Which is why you're trying to take away age groups. Yes. Right? And it didn't happen under this umbrella of XVI years. of expediency and speed that we're seeing right now. And so let's hear it from her mouth directly. We have some tape and she was basically talking

about this freely at a conversation. Good. My transition was very different, because for many reasons, professional and mostly personal reasons, I transitioned over 10 years. Most people don't take that long to transition. First of all, young people are not willing to do that anymore. And I mean, I don't know if I was 15 now,

I don't know if I would have taken so long, but again, When I was 15, what were you going to say and who would you tell and how would you possibly express that? But so the language started about, you know, so that was now 20 years ago when I started, when I kind of started this journey. And it was starting to become more in culture and the Internet and support groups, et cetera. So I took a long time. I don't regret any of that. I have no regrets because if I transitioned with it I was young and I wouldn't have my children.

I can't imagine a life without my children. And so every experience led me to here. And so how could I regret that? It's amazing that she doesn't seem to see that she's making our point for us. I can't imagine life without having had children, having been robbed of that experience. I'm so glad that my transition happened after all that, yet all she does is to try to make sure that kids can make this decision so that they'll never be able to have kids. It's the biggest issue why we get. I want to be clear.

We've said it time and time again, especially here at Freedom Fest, live and let live. If you're an adult, after the age of 18, do your body what you will, you know, whatever your experience. But it's about children. It's about literally we're talking about castrating them. Making sure that they can never have the life, the dream that Levine is talking about right there.

It's just amazing. She kind of was like, I mean, I just came. Like the disconnect is unbelievable. Right. And for people out there watching, what percentage of kids won't be able to reverse? that? We don't know because the studies really aren't, the robust studies aren't really being done.

They're not really done and we don't know. So those leaked emails forced the Biden administration, it forced their hand to actually come out on this. And this is go back in New York Times. It's about a week after that. Biden administration opposes surgery for transgender minors. Wow. Okay. So the Biden administration said this week that it opposed gender

affirming surgery for minors, the most explicit statement to date on the subject from a president who has been a staunch supporter of transgender rights. I mean, this is what I was saying right at the beginning. you know, people will say they've written into the show, why are you getting this issue? You've already, you know, you're controversial enough with vaccines. We've been saying from the beginning because it's about children.

Yeah. As I said, adults do what you will, but we really want the safety of children. It's because we talk about these things that now you see, you know, that was just a litmus test. I'm sure they went out and polled and say, well, are we going to be okay being at the cutting edge of like anyone can get a surgery? Right. And obviously, when they looked out of America, this energy has changed. We've been talking about this. This conversation is not going the direction that they wanted to go.

And now you see that, that headline. That headline doesn't exist. If people like you and I and all of the podcasters, all of the people that have covered this issue, if we're not talking about it, America's at sleep. No one, they don't have a pulse. Then we are stuck with these crazy decisions. It's when we talk about it that we actually make a difference.

I think that that's proof of the pudding right there. Right. It really is now the independent media that's having a large part in shaping the culture here in the United States. Yeah.