AAWAA has joined a coalition of Australian women’s and LGB groups to co-sign a letter addressed to the WHO’s Guideline Development Group (GDG) in relation to the 18 December 2023 announcement of the proposed development of a guideline on the health of trans and gender-diverse people.
Our coalition respects the WHO’s global mandate to promote healthier lives, and your ongoing commitment to the right to health of trans and gender-diverse people by seeking to increase their access to quality and respectful helth services. However, we are concerned that the proposed health guideline will endorse the medicalisation of gender non-conformity especially in girls who on current trends are dominating referrals to gender clinics where they are prescribed a range of options to suppress their biological sex.
We are particularly concerned by the GDG’s incomplete adherence to the WHO’s conflict of interest policy applicable to guideline development, as outlined in their own Handbook for Guideline Development. We reason there are obvious conflicts of interest raised by the announced GDG membership, as we outline in detail in our letter, below.
