Anne Wæhre is a Norwegian pediatrician involved in conservative clinical practices and anti-transgender activism.
Background
Wæhre earned a medical degree from University of Oslo (UiO) in 2000. Wæhre has been affiliated with Oslo University Hospital since 2006.
Wæhre has published on sex and gender minorities with other conservative clinicians, including Riittakerttu Kaltiala. Wæhre has published in anti-trans journal Archives of Sexual Behavior.
Anti-transgender activism
Wæhre was an invited speaker at a 2023 conference organized by anti-transgender hate group Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine.
References
Jessen RS, Wæhre A, David L, Stänicke E (2021). Negotiating Gender in Everyday Life: Toward a Conceptual Model of Gender Dysphoria in Adolescents. Arch Sex Behav. 2021 Nov;50(8):3489-3503. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-021-02024-6.
Kaltiala R, Bergman H, Carmichael P, de Graaf NM, Rischel KE, Frisén L, Schorkopf M, Suomalainen L, Waehre A (2020). Time trends in referrals to child and adolescent gender identity services: a study in four Nordic countries and in the UK. Nord J Psychiatry. 2020 Jan;74(1):40-44. https://doi.org/10.1080/08039488.2019.1667429
Wæhre A, Schorkopf M (2019). Gender variance, medical treatment and our responsibility. Tidsskr Nor Laegeforen. 2019 Apr 8;139(7). https://doi.org/10.4045/tidsskr.19.0178.
Staff report (October 13, 2022). Why do so many teenaged girls ask for gender reassignment? CNE [Christian News Europe] https://cne.news/artikel/1843-why-do-so-many-teenaged-girls-ask-for-gender-reassignment
Hodne, Anna Myklebust; Rise, Mina Maria; Five, Mari Linge (October 10, 2022). Plutselig økte én pasientgruppe: – Påfallende. TV2 https://www.tv2.no/nyheter/innenriks/plutselig-okte-en-pasientgruppe-pafallende/15159773/
Resources
LinkedIn (linkedin.com)
ResearchGate (researchgate.net)
Patrik Vankrunkelsven is a Belgian physician and anti-transgender activist.
Vankrunkelsven was an invited speaker at a 2023 anti-trans conference organized by the Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine.
Resources
Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)
Twitter (twitter.com)
LinkedIn (linkedin.com)
Kathleen Goonan is an American physician and anti-transgender activist.
Goonan was an invited speaker at a 2023 conference organized by anti-transgender hate group Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine.
Background
Kathleen Jennison “Kate” Goonan
References
Maryland House Bill 722. Statement of Kathleen Jennison Goonan, M.D. https://mgaleg.maryland.gov/cmte_testimony/2024/hgo/1vjoQqY54RkBw86DZa1AvSEmXfubUPF3-.pdf
- “I speak in support of legislation to limit access to so-called “gender affirmative” medical and surgical treatments which are unproven to reduce mental suffering in minors experiencing gender discordance.”
Jones, Zinnia (October 23, 2023). Mask off, mask on: Kathleen Goonan, advisor to SEGM and Genspect, taught Moms for Liberty to “play a dual game” and pretend to support parents who accept their trans kids. Medium https://zinniajones.medium.com/mask-off-mask-on-kathleen-goonan-advisor-to-segm-and-genspect-taught-moms-for-liberty-to-play-a609a6f36860
Media
Gender: A Wider Lens (July 7, 2023). EP 121 – Practical Advice for Managing Gender Identity in Schools with Dr. Kate Goonan. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpAlk1FWLr0
Resources
Atomic Gender (atomicgender.com)
Commonwealth Fund (commonwealthfund.org)
LinkedIn (linkedin.com)
Ivan D. Florez is a Colombian pediatrician and anti-transgender activist.
Florez was an invited speaker at a 2023 anti-trans conference organized by anti-transgender hate group the Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine.
Background
Ivan D. Florez-Gomez lists the following affiliations:
- Pediatrician, M.Sc. Clinical Epidemiology, Ph.D. in Health Research Methodology
- Full (tenured) Professor, Dept. of Pediatrics, University of Antioquia, Medellin, Colombia
- Pediatrician (PedsICU), Clinica Las Américas-AUNA, Medellin, Colombia
- Adjunct Professor, School of Rehabilitation Science, McMaster University, Canada
- Leader of the Appraisal of Guidelines for REsearch & Evaluation (AGREE) Collaboration
- Director, Cochrane Colombia
- Editor-In-Chief: Clinical & Pub Health Guidelines (Guidelines International Network-GIN)
- Editorial Board: Journal of Clinical Epidemiology; Journal of the American Heart Association, Cochrane Evidence Synthesis Methods, & Pediatric Discovery)
- Membership: SPOR-EA, GIN, Cochrane & the GRADE working group
Resources
X/Twitter (x.com)
ORCID (orcid.org)
Stephen Beck is an American healthcare executive and anti-transgender activist. Beck is a member of anti-trans group Society for Evidence-based Gender Medicine (SEGM).
Background
Stephen Richard “Steve” Beck was born May 22, 1967. Beck earned a medical degree from University of Cincinnati College of Medicine in 1992. Beck practices internal medicine in Ohio.
Anti-transgender activism
Beck coathored a 2021 letter with SEGM members William J. Malone, Paul W. Hruz, and Julia W. Mason critical of clnical guidelines published by endocrinology groups.
References
Abby Walch, Caroline Davidge-Pitts, Joshua D Safer, Ximena Lopez, Vin Tangpricha, Sean J Iwamoto (2021). Proper Care of Transgender and Gender Diverse Persons in the Setting of Proposed Discrimination: A Policy Perspective. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2021 Jan 23;106(2):305-308. https://doi.org/10.1210/clinem/dgaa816.
William J. Malone, Paul W. Hruz, Julia W. Mason, and Stephen Beck (2021). Letter to the Editor from William J. Malone et al: “Proper Care of Transgender and Gender-diverse Persons in the Setting of Proposed Discrimination: A Policy Perspective” The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, Volume 106, Issue 8, August 2021, Pages e3287–e3288, https://doi.org/10.1210/clinem/dgab205
Abby Walch, Caroline Davidge-Pitts, Ximena Lopez, Vin Tangpricha, Sean J Iwamoto, Joshua D Safer (2021). Response to Letter to the Editor from Malone: “Proper Care of Transgender and Gender Diverse Persons in the Setting of Proposed Discrimination: A Policy Perspective.” The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, Volume 106, Issue 8, August 2021, Pages e3295–e3296, https://doi.org/10.1210/clinem/dgab206
Jones, Zinnia (January 11, 2023). Anti-trans group SEGM’s cofounder Stephen Beck is an executive at Bon Secours Mercy Health, the fifth-largest Catholic healthcare network in the US. Gender Analysis https://genderanalysis.net/2023/01/anti-trans-group-segms-cofounder-stephen-beck-is-an-executive-at-bon-secours-mercy-health-the-fifth-largest-catholic-healthcare-network-in-the-us/
Julie Maxwell is a British pediatrician and anti-transgender activist.
Background
Child Health Services, Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Winchester, UK
Anti-trans activism
Via Trans Safety Network:
As recently as April 2021, NHS paediatrician Julie Maxwell was one of their “Clinical and Academic Advisors”. She was1, and is very open about working for Christian anti-LGBT and anti-abortion sex education charity LoveWise UK. Recordings of her training seminars for LoveWise are available publicly, where she offers to help push abstinence based and anti-LGBT sex education resources into secular schools.
Maxwell was also involved with a DVD campaign run by Creationist science think tank Truth In Science sent last year to every sitting MP and school on the so-called “Transgender Agenda”. We covered this last year when we heard about it originally. Creationism is the anti-scientific belief that humans were intelligently designed, and did not evolve as part of biological evolution.
Since 2012, Maxwell has also been, a director for the Family Education Trust, a religiously “family values” campaigning charity who promote anti-LGBT views and smacking children contrary to a growing body of evidence that children are harmed by the use of physical assault as a form of discipline. SEGM launched publicly in early 2020, and so far as we can tell Maxwell was part of their organisation from their inception.
References
Moore, Mallory (August 26, 2021). SEGM uncovered: large anonymous payments funding dodgy science. Trans Safety Network https://transsafety.network/posts/segm-uncovered/
Christopher Richards, Julie Maxwell, Noel McCune. Use of puberty blockers for gender dysphoria: a momentous step in the dark. http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2018-315881
Julie Maxwell, Katherine Clyde, Lucy Griffin (2019). Gender dysphoria: a question of informed consent BMJ 2019; 367 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.l6442
Media
Living Out (August 31, 2023). Thinking About Transgender feat. Dr. Julie Maxwell (Youth Leaders’ Crash Course #6). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THT_5OQ4g9o
Resources
Christian Action Research and Education (care.org.uk)
The Journal of the American Medical Association
Keyword analysis, 1962-2003
A reader sent this in 2003. The results were not independently confirmed.
I’ve been poking around the Journal of the American Medical Association, seeing what’s been published regarding [transsexual topics], when, and who authored it. I tend to look for patterns, like most good primates, and there are some very clear patterns that need thinking about:
A baseline search for the following words anywhere in the article of all available articles and archives between 1962 and 2003:
| Keyword | # of results |
| Blood | 12, 926 |
| Sex | 6,813 |
| Gender | 1,415 |
| Homosexual | 431 |
| Gay | 305 |
| Lesbian | 82 |
| Transsexual (including -ism, -ity) | 21 |
| Transexual | 0 |
Of the 21 articles published by the AMA in the last 40 years concerning transsexualism, the topics and disciplines are as follows:
1 article in the Archives of Opthomology:
Ajita Grewal, Robert Y. Kim, and Emmett T. Cunningham, Jr Miliary Tuberculosis. Arch Ophthalmol 1998 116: 953-954.
2 articles in the Archives of Internal Medicine:
C. J. Fortin, T. Klein, H. L. Messmore, and J. B. O’Connell Myocardial infarction and severe thromboembolic complications. As seen in an estrogen-dependent transsexual. Archives of Internal Medicine 1984 144: 1082-1083.
M. deMarinis and E. N. Arnett Cerebrovascular occlusion in a transsexual man taking mestranol. Archives of Internal Medicine 1978 138: 1732-1733.
9 arcticles in the JAMA:
M. M. Belli Transsexual surgery.. A new tort? JAMA 1978 239: 2143-2148.
T. J. Pritchard, D. A. Pankowsky, J. P. Crowe, and F. W. Abdul-Karim Breast cancer in a male-to-female transsexual. A case report
JAMA 1988 259: 2278-2280.
HIV-Related Tuberculosis in a Transgender Network-Baltimore, Maryland, and New York City Area, 1998-2000
JAMA 2000 283: 2515-2516.
Domeena C. Renshaw Lessons From the Intersexed. JAMA 1999 281: 1137-1138. JAMA 1992 267: 1342
K. L. Lehrman Pulmonary embolism in a transsexual man taking diethylstilbestrol. JAMA 1976 235: 532-533.
Joe Leigh Simpson, Arne Ljungqvist, Malcolm A. Ferguson-Smith, Albert de la Chapelle, Louis J. Elsas II, A. A. Ehrhardt, Myron Genel, Elizabeth A. Ferris, and Alison Carlson Gender Verification in the Olympics. JAMA 2000 284: 1568-1569.
Books, Journals, New Media Received. JAMA 2000 283: 676-677.
Domeena C. Renshaw Hermaphrodites and the Medical Invention of Sex. JAMA 1999 281: 1138-1139.
9 articles in the Archives of General Psychiatry:
R. E. Hellman, R. Green, J. L. Gray, and K. Williams Childhood sexual identity, childhood religiosity, and “homophobia” as influences in the development of transsexualism, homosexuality, and heterosexuality. Arch Gen Psychiatry 1981 38: 910-915.
Henry J. Friedman The Sexual Century. Arch Gen Psychiatry 2002 59: 667-669.
D. H. Barlow, G. G. Abel, and E. B.. Blanchard Gender identity change in transsexuals. Follow-up and replications. Arch Gen Psychiatry 1979 36: 1001-1007.
Cindy M. Meston and Penny F. Frohlich The Neurobiology of Sexual Function. Arch Gen Psychiatry 2000 57: 1012-1030.
L. M. Lothstein and S. B. Levine Expressive psychotherapy with gender dysphoric patients. Arch Gen Psychiatry 1981 38: 924-929.
H. J. Baker Male transsexualism.. Confirmation of a hypothesis?
Arch Gen Psychiatry 1975 32: 1587-1588.
D. H. Barlow, E. J. Reynolds, and W. S. Agras Gender identity change in a transsexual. Arch Gen Psychiatry 1973 28: 569-576.
S. I. Harrison, A. C. Cain, and E. Benedek The childhood of a transsexual. Arch Gen Psychiatry 1968 19: 28-37.
H. Greilsheimer and J. E. Groves Male genital self-mutilation. Arch Gen Psychiatry 1979 36: 441-446.
The American Academy of Pediatrics is the largest professional association of pediatricians in the United States.
2018 position statement
In 2018, three AAP committees involved in healthcare for gender diverse youth published a position statement
AAP rejects gender identity change efforts (GICE) created by conservative 20th-century clinicians who wanted to prevent the “bad outcome” of transgender adults:
In contrast, “conversion” or “reparative” treatment models are used to prevent children and adolescents from identifying as transgender or to dissuade them from exhibiting gender-diverse expressions. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration has concluded that any therapeutic intervention with the goal of changing a youth’s gender expression or identity is inappropriate. Reparative approaches have been proven to be not only unsuccessful but also deleterious and are considered outside the mainstream of traditional medical practice. The AAP described reparative approaches as “unfair and deceptive.” At the time of this writing, conversion therapy was banned by executive regulation in New York and by legislative statutes in 9 other states as well as the District of Columbia.
AAP also rejects the outdated non-affirming approach called “gender exploratory therapy” or “watchful waiting.”
Research substantiates that children who are prepubertal and assert an identity of TGD know their gender as clearly and as consistently as their developmentally equivalent peers who identify as cisgender and benefit from the same level of social acceptance. This developmental approach to gender affirmation is in contrast to the outdated approach in which a child’s gender-diverse assertions are held as “possibly true” until an arbitrary age (often after pubertal onset) when they can be considered valid, an approach that authors of the literature have termed “watchful waiting.” This outdated approach does not serve the child because critical support is withheld. Watchful waiting is based on binary notions of gender in which gender diversity and fluidity is pathologized; in watchful waiting, it is also assumed that notions of gender identity become fixed at a certain age. The approach is also influenced by a group of early studies with validity concerns, methodologic flaws, and limited follow-up on children who identified as TGD and, by adolescence, did not seek further treatment (“desisters”). More robust and current research suggests that, rather than focusing on who a child will become, valuing them for who they are, even at a young age, fosters secure attachment and resilience, not only for the child but also for the whole family.
In 2022, AAP President Moira Szilagyi wrote following their annual convention:
“There is strong consensus among the most prominent medical organizations worldwide that evidence-based, gender-affirming care for transgender children and adolescents is medically necessary and appropriate. It can even be lifesaving. The decision of whether and when to start gender-affirming treatment, which does not necessarily lead to hormone therapy or surgery, is personal and involves careful consideration by each patient and their family.”
Szilagyi (2022)
For this stance, the AAP has been attacked by anti-trans activists, including James Cantor, Julia Mason, Leor Sapir, Aaron Sibarium, Jamie Reed, Matilda Gosling, Jesse Singal, Colin Wright, and the conservative anti-trans hate group American College of Pediatricians.
References
Rafferty J et al (2018). Ensuring Comprehensive Care and Support for Transgender and Gender-Diverse Children and Adolescents. Pediatrics (2018) 142 (4): e20182162. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2018-2162 Authors: Committee on Psychosocial Aspects of Child and Family Health; Committee on Adolescence; Section on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Health and Wellness Michael Yogman, MD; Rebecca Baum, MD; Thresia B. Gambon, MD; Arthur Lavin, MD; Gerri Mattson, MD; Lawrence Sagin Wissow, MD; Cora Breuner, MD; Elizabeth M. Alderman, MD; Laura K. Grubb, MD; Makia E. Powers, MD; Krishna Upadhya, MD; Stephenie B. Wallace, MD; Lynn Hunt, MD; Anne Teresa Gearhart, MD; Christopher Harris, MD; Kathryn Melland Lowe, MD; Chadwick Taylor Rodgers, MD; Ilana Michelle Sherer, MD
Szilagyi M (August 10, 2022). Why We Stand Up for Transgender Children and Teens https://www.aap.org/en/news-room/aap-voices/why-we-stand-up-for-transgender-children-and-teens/
Resources
American Academy of Pediatrics (aap.org)
Healthy Children (healthychildren.org)
Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)
Twitter (twitter.com)