A group of Republicans have called for the World Health Organization (WHO) to dissolve its group developing transgender guidelines.
The letter, first obtained by The Daily Wire, urges WHO Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus to disband the transgender Guideline Development Group (GDG).
From the group’s beginning, the letter, led by Rep. Rich McCormick (R-GA) and Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS), says, the “Guideline process has violated WHO requirements for a transparent and evidence-based approach. It has been shrouded in secrecy, irregularities, and profound conflicts of interest. Many members of the GDG are embroiled in a scandal involving the manipulation of scientific evidence.”
Instead of reviewing the “safety, effectiveness, risks and costs of treating gender dysphoria with medical interventions, including cross-sex drugs,” the group considered how “countries should provide such interventions and impose the highly controversial, sex-denying framework of ‘gender identity,’ including through legal ‘self-identification.’”
The Republicans called the group a “global marketing campaign.”
According to the lawmakers, the WHO group is involved with an entity that manipulates evidence, does not follow transparency requirements, is not evidence-based, will harm women, is shaped by financial entities, and possibly exploits lower-income countries.
“Policies that treat sex as a matter of ‘self-identification’ endanger women and children,” the letter says. “Most Americans recognize this fact, and strongly oppose ‘self-identified’ biological males accessing private spaces and competitions reserved for females. More than half of US States have filed lawsuits against President Biden’s efforts to impose these sex-denigrating policies in schools through Title IX, and all rulings thus far have been in their favor.”
“Most GDG members have clear conflicts of interest,” the letter adds, listing groups affiliated with the WHO GDG, such as the Global Action for Trans Equality (GATE) and the World Professional Association for Transgender Healthcare (WPATH).
“Both WHO’s reputation and your legacy as Director General are at risk. Any legitimate guidelines must be grounded in a careful review of the evidence and follow WHO’s requirements that the process be transparent and ethical. Anything less betrays WHO’s principles, history, and mandate,” the letter concludes. “We urge you to disband this Guideline Development Group, investigate the disreputable process that led to its formation, and discard its proposed guidelines.”
Twenty-seven House Republicans joined McCormick and Marshall in the letter.
