Latest Legal Victory and MORE

We're pleased to report another positive decision for an incarcerated prisoner with gender dysphoria, this time in Tallahassee, FL, after years of struggle trying to obtain access to appropriate care and treatment. WPATH member George R. Brown, MD served as the expert for the plaintiff. "This is the most dramatic language I have seen from a judge in support of transition for prisoners AND in support of the WPATH SOC as relates to inmates," Dr. Brown wrote when forwarding the trial order. Readers will find the 61-page order posted on the WPATH.org website. The case is Keohane v Jones (Florida Dept. of Corrections).

In our Transgender Health section below, the most "viral" story in the past two weeks is the debate over the Littman article exploring "Rapid-Onset Gender Dysphoria (ROGD)." We present stories from 4 sources, one "traditional news" source, one conservative outlet, one liberal outlet, and one "higher education" general news source." Also in this section, two encouraging stories about access to care in the US.

In our Traditional News section below, we present an Australian story about debates concerning the legitimacy of treatment for Gender Dysphoria. This piece spreads false information about both Harry Benjamin, MD, and WPATH, information designed to discredit the Standards of Care. Our members in Australia might want to consider reaching out to this publication to correct these falsehoods.

We also bring you an open access journal article on genital reconstruction in Columbia. The abstract is in Spanish and English; English-readers will need to run the body of the article through a translator. Spoiler alert: The conclusion reads, in part, "Although there are several satisfactory surgical techniques, there is not a perfect one that achieves all the proposed objectives from an ideal vision. [The evidence shown] reinforces the idea that the Colombian health system, based on legislation, should and can guarantee the timely surgical treatment of transsexual patients, in order to ensure the best outcomes that lead to high levels of satisfaction and an increase in the quality of life, in an effort to respect the human dignity of these people."

Two final pieces also have positive messages: The Endocrine Society congressional briefing on trans health is the 3rd link on the Healio page, and employers in the UK are starting to offer trans-related health treatments as part of their private healthcare schemes. It's interesting to note that the UK first included trans health in their national health program, and now it's going private, too, whereas in the US we had to go the other way: get employers to prove it could be done and didn't break the bank before public health programs would begin to take it on. Oh, well... whatever it takes to get there, let's just be sure we get to a place where all trans people have access to competent, affordable, basic, necessary, and emergency care!


Jamison Green, PhD
Communications Director