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Beyond WPATH: anti-trans declaration

by Andrea James Reviewed September 2, 2026 6 min read

Beyond WPATH was a 2023 petition created by anti-trans activist Joseph Burgo to attack the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH). It was signed by many key leaders in anti-trans extremism.

Background

In 2018, several groups began incubating organizations to create an alternate to the Standards of Care, published since 1979 by WPATH. In 2023, WPATH released Version 8 of their Standards of Care, which prompted the declaration.

Complaints

The declaration stated:

“We hold that the authoritative status of WPATH’s Standards of Care is fatally undermined by the following errors and ethical failures:

  • The Standards specifically promote the affirmative care model, continuing to endorse widespread medical treatments (drugs and surgery) for trans-identified youth despite rising scientific skepticism that has led Sweden, Finland, France, and the United Kingdom to retreat from that approach.
  • WPATH endorses early medicalization as fundamental while these other countries now promote psychosocial support as the first line of treatment, delaying drugs and surgery until the age of majority is reached in all but the most exceptional cases.
  • In a correction issued soon after its release, nearly all lower age limits for suggested medical and surgical interventions were removed – an abdication of responsibility for basic child-safeguarding norms.
  • A chapter on ethics that had appeared in earlier drafts was eliminated in the final release – a further abdication of ethical responsibility.
  • ‘Eunuch’ was included as a new gender identity (not necessarily a physical condition) without convincing evidence for its existence; a hyperlink within the Standards links to an external site that incorporates graphic and sexual fantasy stories portraying the castration of adolescent males.
  • A definition of “detransition” fundamentally mischaracterizes it, invalidates the traumatic experience of many who feel harmed by gender-related medical interventions and subsequently revert to living as their biological sex, and offers no guidance for supporting individuals who are coping with the grief and pain of detransition.
  • While presented as evidence-based, the Standards of Care fail to acknowledge that independent systematic reviews have deemed the evidence for gender-affirming treatments in youth to be of very low quality and subject to confounding and bias, rendering any conclusions uncertain.”

Signatories

The declaration received over 2,000 signatories.

note: Names are presented as shown on the list, including any affiliations listed. Signatories are not independently confirmed and may not be authentic. The list below and the longer list may contain errors or omissions.

Notable anti-trans activists listed as signatories include:

  • Laura Becker: Artist and Teacher; Detransitioner
  • David Bell: Psychoanalyst and Retired Consultant Psychiat; British Psychoanalytic Society/Royal College
  • Keira Bell: Medically transitioned as a minor
  • Dr Michael Biggs: Associate Professor of Sociology; University of Oxford
  • Heather Brunskell-Evans: Dr Heather Brunskell-Evans; Sociologist of medicine
  • Petra Bueskens: Psychotherapist | Academic; PPMD Therapy
  • Joseph Burgo: Clinical Psychologist
  • Richard Byng: General practitioner and academic
  • Az Hakeem: Consultant Psychiatrist
  • Holly Harrington: Concerned Swiss Parents Association
  • Linda Hart: Doctor in Social Sciences; Researcher
  • Øyvind Hasting: psychiatrist; Vestre Viken HF (Norway)
  • Elise Hayes: Concerned parent of trans identified youth; Member of Genspect
  • Laura Wiley Haynes: Court Appointed Special Advocate
  • Ritchie Herron: Detrans Advocate
  • Andrea Heyting: Construction Manager; Trans Woman
  • John Higgon: Clinical Neuropsychologist
  • Anne Kalvig: Professor
  • Dianna Theadora Kenny PhD: Professor; Consulting psychologist/psychotherapist
  • Anna Kerr: Principal Solicitor, Feminist Legal Clinic In
  • Susan King: Detransitioner, Psychology Undergraduate stud
  • Lori Regenstreif: MD, CCFP(AM), MScCH, FCFP, FRACGP
  • Jay W Richards: Director and Senior Fellow; The Heritage Foundation
  • Avi Ring: Retired Chief Scientist, Mol. Neurosc.
  • Jan Rivers: former public servant / independent researche; Fully Informed NZ
  • Lynne Robertson: Environmental Management; Coalition for Biological Reality / Concerned
  • Jane Roper: Guernsey Women’s Rights Network
  • Michael Wheat: LGB Alliance Aotearoa New Zealand, Gay Men Ad
  • Melanie Whyte: Parents of Adolescents with Gender Distress
  • Bronwyn Williams: Solicitor; Feminist Legal Clinic
  • Janice Williams: Chair, OBJECT; www.objectnow.org
  • Stephanie Winn: Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, write
  • Robert Withers: Jungian analyst; BPC And UKCP
  • Lauren Wohl-Sanchez: Public health communications consultant
  • Jean L Wyldbore: Community Health Worker (retired); Coalition for Biological Reality, Australia

The following signatories have similar names as noted anti-trans activists but may be different people:

  • Ben Appel: Licensed Psychologist [not author Ben Appel]
  • Jennifer Block: Concerned Parent [possibly Jennifer Block]
  • J. Cohn: MD; Internal Medicine [possibly “J. Cohn”]
  • Torren Danowski: Concerned parent and grandparent
  • Graham Linehan: Manager of Elder Programs, Feminist, Mother [possibly Graham Linehan or an impostor]

Resources

Beyond WPATH (beyondwpath.org) [archive]

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