A New Era!

As we begin releasing presentations from Detrans Awareness Day, we invite you to join us in Washington DC for the next Genspect conference, March 10-12 2027

WPATH is over. Like Schrödinger’s cat, it may still appear to exist in multiple states, but anyone who understands this issue knows it is only a matter of time before the organisation collapses. WPATH’s work is so irretrievably shoddy that it will soon be wholly discredited. All we need to do is give it enough time. The WPATH Files, released in March 2024, exposed the disgraceful conduct of leading clinicians; not only were they causing harm, they knew they were causing harm to vulnerable patients. Since then, a steady stream of scandals and legal challenges has shown that no criticism is too strong for this well-funded outfit.

Of course, WPATH still has millions of dollars supporting it, so dismantling it will be slow. Their decision to hold their next conference in Mexico has all the hallmarks of a well-funded junket. We have been in regular contact with concerned parents across Latin America, and it is clear that WPATH and their associates are already making inroads into that region. And why wouldn’t they? One of the next major battles will be trans tourism. As the western world slowly wakes up to the manifold harms of medical transition – dreadful long-term mental health outcomes, increased suicidality, mortality and suicidality – more mercenary actors are shifting operations to countries with looser regulations.

There are so many fires to put out that some days it feels like whack-a-mole. At Genspect, though, we keep our eyes on the solution. We could spend the next decade building a case against WPATH, its disastrous Standards of Care, and every clinician associated with it. But there is no time. We need solutions, and we need them quickly. Too many people are being harmed today from these radical interventions that are unsupported by a robust evidence base.

That is why we commissioned the Gender Framework. Leading experts in the field, such as Dr Stephen Levine, Dr Colin Wright, and Prof Holly Lawford-Smith, offer a clear distillation of the issue alongside practical approaches for professionals to work compassionately with gender dysphoric individuals. Abigail Shrier describes The Gender Framework as “An indispensable roadmap through the gender debate.” And we agree!

The Gender Framework is grounded in the understanding that psychological support is more appropriate than the medicalization of identity. We have already received strong feedback from clinicians and other professionals in the field, and we encourage you to share it widely. Please pass it to a teacher, a youth worker, a psychologist, a sports coach, anyone who would benefit from a clearer, more grounded perspective on this issue.

Most people do not understand this issue, and many do not try. Those who have not been directly affected often treat it as an irritating sideshow. Those of us who have know better. This is a colossal medical scandal, exposing failures across healthcare, education, academia, and journalism.

Still, we have to work with the reality in front of us, which is why we have made a strategic shift. Rather than chasing WPATH around the world, we are choosing to move on and turn our attention to where the power is.

We are now building on the success of our Washington DC conference in March and expanding it into something much bigger. From Wednesday 10 March to Friday 12 March 2027, we will host a new kind of Genspect conference in Washington DC. We are calling this series A New Era because that is exactly what this is. We will bring together leading voices from the legal, clinical, and professional worlds, alongside policymakers, parents, and detransitioners. The final day, Friday 12 March, will be given over to Detrans Awareness Day.

Detrans Awareness Day this year was a tremendous success. My opening speech from the event is at the end of this article. I was more nervous speaking then than I have been in years. I was extremely apprehensive because I wanted the more than 70 detransitioners in the room to feel good about being there. I wanted them to sense that something had shifted, that the mood is changing and that the world is finally beginning to wake up.

For years, anyone raising concerns about medical transition was dismissed as a bigot and a transphobe. That is no longer holding water. The zealots still throw slurs around with abandon, but it no longer really matters – their insults have been too many for too long and public awareness has shifted. Most people now sense that something has gone wrong. They may not know what is happening, but they often have a vague understanding that there are underlying problems.

This is why we are so keen to offer a clear way forward. Now is the time for clarity and leadership. The medicalized model has been tried and across objective long-term outcomes, it is a failure. Our forthcoming Detransitioners Primer will give professionals a practical and informed way to work with detransition.

We now know that sending detransitioners to gender-affirmative clinicians, or even to “affirmative-lite” clinicians, is profoundly inappropriate. Clinicians in this context need to refrain from further medicalizing individuals. The pain a detransitioner experiences when, after many harrowing years, they finally work up the courage to attempt to reverse the process, only to encounter the very clinical mindset that set them on that path, is too much to endure. It is not appropriate, and they should not have to go through this.

Detransitioners do not want further treatment from clinicians who have mistreated them. They don’t even want to meet them and it is not fair to expect detransitioners to carry the burden of clinicians’ reckless errors.

When I think back to the first Genspect conference, it feels like aeons ago. I could hardly believe it when I heard that WPATH was coming to Killarney, Co Kerry. My home turf! That was when we first conceived the idea of following them around the world, insistently offering an alternative alongside their events.

Our Bigger Picture Series began there, just after lockdowns, when everyone was eager to meet again. It feels like a different world then. Helen Joyce delivered the keynote. Professors Michael Biggs and Ken Zucker, along with other luminaries, spoke. Fifteen detransitioners attended that event.

But this was before the Cass Review, when high-quality evidence was scarce and few people had even heard the term detransition. We offered free tickets to WPATH attendees and we were intrigued by how many clinicians crossed the town to participate in our conference.

WPATH did not like that. They sent legal letters and tried to shut us down. We carried on.

Before our next conference in Denver in November 2023, WPATH requested to meet us and we had a series of conversations with senior figures. The meetings went nowhere. They wanted to assure us that they were nice people. But we were completely uninterested in their personalities – we remain, as always, focused on long-term outcomes and the best possible practice in this area.

More legal letters followed. We went to Lisbon, Portugal in 2024. There was a high level of interest from European WPATH clinicians who attended our conference, and many have since moved away from the WPATH model. We remain in touch with them, and they have added to the growing number of clinicians speaking out about this issue. Then, in September 2025, we went to Albuquerque for another counter-conference to highlight the harms of the inappropriate medicalization of self-reported identities.

We think we have made our point.

We can return to our counter-conference strategy if needed, and we can once again follow WPATH across the world – we won’t take our eye off that particular ball anytime soon. But we believe now is the time to move the queen up the middle of the chessboard.

Those in positions of influence are engaging with us seriously and want to be well-informed about this issue, and we are happy to help in that endeavor. After years of being ignored, criticized, dismissed, and smeared, we are now in a position to work with those who can effect change.

So it is onward and upward.

We have new research underway and major initiatives in development. We remain mindful of the divisions in public life and are committed to engaging with people of all political hues. Anyone who is informed and willing to think carefully about this issue is welcome to engage with us.

On that note, potential speakers are often disappointed to have missed the opportunity to speak, so if you would like to speak at our next conference, please get in touch at beyond@genspect.org.

And if you want to be part of what comes next, please join us in Washington DC in March 2027.

We will once again bring detransitioners together in significant numbers, and we expect many more than the 70 who joined us this year. It is a costly undertaking. If you would like to support a detransitioner to attend, we would be extremely grateful: https://gofund.me/a65d6e281

Every Genspect conference we have held has sold out, and many people have been disappointed. If you would like to attend, we urge you join the waitlist now to receive priority access when registration opens.

We expect record numbers of detransitioners in 2027. If you have been harmed by medical transition, your presence matters. Please email beyond@genspect.org to register your interest in attending.

For now, to whet your appetite, you can watch my rather nervy plenary speech from Detrans Awareness Day in March 2026. We will be releasing the presentations and panel discussions over the coming weeks, and all likes and shares are, as always, very much appreciated.