"WPATH Files" Authors Upset Over How "Suspiciously" Happy Trans People Are

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“WPATH Files" Authors Upset Over How “Suspiciously” Happy Trans People Are
The error-ridden "WPATH Files" spend 37,000 words telling you what to think. Nowhere is this more obvious than where the authors experience dismay over "suspicious" happiness of trans people.

ERIN REED
MAR 9, 2024

In case you missed it, last week, conservative activists released a document purported to expose "the worst medical scandal in history." Of course, I'm referring to the WPATH Files leak, reminiscent of ClimateGate. This incident involved a set of selectively cherry-picked and often decontextualized forum posts from an internal bulletin board, where doctors could ask one another questions and share clinical observations. I quickly fact-checked the document, which featured 37,000 words of editorial commentary, and found 216 instances of errors, misrepresentation of data and citations, misrepresentations of the actual leaked material, and more—a number that continues to grow. However, one section particularly caught my eye: the authors seemingly express frustration that transgender regret is so low and go so far as to call it "suspicious" that transgender people are so happy.

The section in question, like many other sections, frames something in the leaks that would otherwise be read positively “actually” scandalous. Marci Bowers, in a discussion about detransitioners, notes that regret rates tend to be very low for transgender care. Another post weighs in that in 25 years, they have seen 600 patients and only 4 detransitioners. These two “leaks” obviously dispute the idea that transgender people are filled with regret and that transition does not make people happier, so the editorialized report takes another tactic: that it is “suspicious” that transgender people are so happy.

See this section from the report, entitled “suspiciously low regret rates”:

“This reluctance to acknowledge regret may step from a reluctance to confront the consequences of [transgender people’s] own choices… In the first follow-up study of patients what the time were referred to as transsexuals, conducted approximately 15 years after the Netherlands began offering sex trait modification interventions, the majority of participants reported being happy and feeling no regret despite researchers noting that improvement in “actual life situations [was] not always observed.” … Rather than being proof that sex-trait modification surgeries are the cure for gender distress, these low regret rates are cause for investigation.”

Of course, as with virtually every portion of the WPATH files, the authors do not present the very next lines of the 1988 study in the Netherlands, where the authors state that they considered this and found it uncompelling:

should be systematic over all the subjects to explain the outcome. Whether this is the case is difficult to answer. Taking into account that the evaluation has been marginal and does not warrant far-reaching conclusions, we assume that the research findings do not indicate that the reported subjective well- being should be regarded as unreliable or misleading. The fact that the research situation does not prompt the interviewed persons to deliberately describe their situation as better than it really was, can be regarded as a sup- porting argument. Transsexuals who had yet to complete medical treatment were not in a position of dependence on the investigators, because the inves-
tigators were not involved in the treatment.

That study then concluded, “that there is no reason to doubt the therapeutic effect of sex reassignment surgery.”

To be certain, transgender individuals face significant discrimination in public life. The mere act of using a bathroom can result in severe abuse, harassment, and even arrest in some places. Many transgender people experience profound family rejection, discrimination, and hostility. In 2024 alone, nearly 500 bills have been proposed targeting transgender people, matching the number proposed in 2023. Despite this, the present world is more accommodating than it was for transgender individuals studied in 1988, who undoubtedly faced even greater hostilities. Often, the only work available to many transgender people at the time was in sex work, and HIV prevalence was extremely high. Despite all of these challenges, transgender individuals in the 1988 study, as well as today, indicate high levels of satisfaction and low levels of regret. Yet the study authors seem to ask, “Why won’t they just be unhappy?”

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