“I try to kind of do whatever I can to help them understand best I can,” Berg said.
At another point in the May 2022 workshop, Metzger remarked that it is “always a good theory” to discuss “fertility preservation” with 14-year-old patients seeking gender procedures. But in those cases “I know I’m talking to a blank wall,” he said.
“We try to talk about it, but most of the kids are nowhere in any kind of a brain space to really, really, really talk about it in a serious way,” Metzger said. “That’s always bothered me, but you know, we still want the kids to be happy, happier in the moment, right?”
WPATH’s latest guidelines suggest that doctors should “inform and counsel all individuals seeking gender-affirming medical treatment about the options available for fertility preservation” before beginning puberty suppression or other procedures.
‘Science- and evidence-based benefits’
WPATH did not respond to a request for comment on Tuesday regarding the document release. Michael Shellenberger, the founder and president of Environmental Progress, said in the report that he had received the files from “a source or sources” who were familiar with his earlier investigative journalism work.
The transgender group has in the past been vocally opposed to restrictions on transgender-related medical procedures. In March of last year, in response to legislation in numerous U.S. states restricting transgender procedures, Bowers, the group’s president, said the regulations were aimed at “eliminating transgender persons on a micro and macro scale.”
“It is a thinly veiled attempt to enforce the notion of a gender binary,” Bowers argued.
In another statement that month, one opposing a measure by Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey to restrict transgender procedures on minors in that state, WPATH described its medical directives as “the foremost evidence-based guideline for the provision of [transgender] health care.”
Its care guidance is “based on the best available science with input from over 100 global medical professionals and experts and represents best-practice guidelines for the provision of gender-affirming health care,” WPATH said.
Shellenberger did not respond to a request for comment on Tuesday. In the report, he acknowledged the novelty of an environmental group publishing the bombshell transgender documents.
The activists of Environmental Progress, he said, are “pro-human environmentalists, and our mission is to incubate ideas, leaders, and movements for nature, peace, and freedom for all.”
“We thus work on a wide range of issues, from climate change to homelessness to freedom of speech, all of which constitute important aspects of our ‘environment,’” he wrote.
“At a moral level, we feel duty-bound to publish the WPATH Files and do everything within our power to encourage as wide an audience as possible to access them,” he said.
“We believe they show that WPATH is neither a scientific nor medical organization and should not be treated as one.”
Daniel Payne is a senior editor at Catholic News Agency. He previously worked at the College Fix and Just the News. He lives in Virginia with his family.
