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World Professional Association for Transgender Health
The World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), formerly the Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association (HBIGDA), is a professional organization devoted to the understanding and treatment of gender incongruence and gender dysphoria, and creating standardized treatment for transgender and gender variant people. WPATH was founded in 1979 and named HBIGDA in honor of Harry Benjamin during a period where there was no clinical consensus on how and when to provide gender-affirming care.
Founding members included Dr. Harry Benjamin, Paul A. Walker, Richard Green, Jack C. Berger, Donald R. Laub, Charles L. Reynolds Jr., Leo Wollman and Jude Patton.
WPATH is mostly known for the Standards of Care for the Health of Transgender and Gender Diverse People (SOC). Early versions of the SOC mandated strict gatekeeping of transition by psychologists and psychiatrists and framed transgender identity as a mental illness. Beginning in approximately 2010, WPATH began publicly advocating the depsychopathologization of transgender identities and the 7th and 8th versions of the SOC took an approach that was more evidence-based.
WPATH develops, publishes and reviews guidelines for persons with gender dysphoria, under the name of Standards of Care for the Health of Transgender and Gender Diverse People, the overall goal of the SOC is to provide clinical guidance for health professionals to assist transgender, and gender nonconforming people with safe and effective pathways to achieving lasting personal comfort with their gendered selves, in order to maximize their overall health, psychological well-being, and self-fulfillment. To keep up with increasing scientific evidence, WPATH periodically commissions an update to the Standards of Care and the WPATH Guideline Steering Committee oversees the guideline development process. The first version of the Standards of Care were published in 1979. Versions were released in 1979 (1st), 1980 (2nd), 1981 (3rd), 1990 (4th), 1998 (5th), 2001 (6th), and 2012 (7th). WPATH released Version 8, the latest edition, in 2022; it is described as being based upon a "more rigorous and methodological evidence-based approach than previous versions."
SOC is an internationally accepted and influential document outlining how to provide patients with transition related care. Early versions of the SOC focused gender transition towards psychologists and psychiatrists and framed transgender identity as a mental illness. Beginning in approximately 2010, with pushing from trans activists the WPATH began publicly advocating the depsychopathologization of transgender identities in the 7th version of the SOC.
Medical treatment for gender dysphoria was publicized in the early 1950s by accounts such as those of Christine Jorgensen. During this period, the majority of literature on gender diversity was pathologizing, positing dysfunctional families as the causes of dysphoria and recommending reparative therapy and psychoanalysis, such as Robert Stoller's work. Others such as George Rekers and Ole Ivar Lovaas recommended behavioral treatments to extinguish cross-sex identification and reinforce gender-normative behaviors. Knowledge on various aspects of transition related care had existed for decades, but there was no clinical consensus on the care pathways for transgender people.
In 1966, Harry Benjamin published The Transsexual Phenomenon, arguing that since there was no cure for transsexualism, it was in the best interests of transsexuals and society to aid in sex reassignment and in the same year the Johns Hopkins Gender Clinic was opened by John Money. In 1969, Reed Erickson, a wealthy transgender man who played a large role in funding research and clinics for trans healthcare through the Erickson Educational Foundation, funded Richard Green and Money's book Transsexualism and Sex Reassignment, a multidisciplinary volume exploring instructions on medical care as well as social and clinical aspects, which was dedicated to Benjamin. The same year, he funded the 1st International Symposium on Gender Identity in London. The 4th conference, taking place in 1975, was the first to use Benjamin's name in the title.
The Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association and Standards of Care (SOC) were conceived during the 5th International Gender Dysphoria Symposium (IGDS) in 1977. The organization was named in honor of Benjamin and supported a mixture of psychological and medical treatment. The founding committee was entirely American and consisted of Jack Berger, Richard Green, Donald R. Laub, Charles Reynolds Jr., Paul A. Walker, Leo Wollman, and transgender activist Jude Patton with Walker serving as president; The first SOC committee included all founding committee members with the exception of Patton, a vote by attendees having opposed a "consumer" board member. The Articles of Incorporation were approved in 1979 at the 6th IGDS and HBIGDA was legally incorporated 7 months later.
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World Professional Association for Transgender Health
The World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), formerly the Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association (HBIGDA), is a professional organization devoted to the understanding and treatment of gender incongruence and gender dysphoria, and creating standardized treatment for transgender and gender variant people. WPATH was founded in 1979 and named HBIGDA in honor of Harry Benjamin during a period where there was no clinical consensus on how and when to provide gender-affirming care.
Founding members included Dr. Harry Benjamin, Paul A. Walker, Richard Green, Jack C. Berger, Donald R. Laub, Charles L. Reynolds Jr., Leo Wollman and Jude Patton.
WPATH is mostly known for the Standards of Care for the Health of Transgender and Gender Diverse People (SOC). Early versions of the SOC mandated strict gatekeeping of transition by psychologists and psychiatrists and framed transgender identity as a mental illness. Beginning in approximately 2010, WPATH began publicly advocating the depsychopathologization of transgender identities and the 7th and 8th versions of the SOC took an approach that was more evidence-based.
WPATH develops, publishes and reviews guidelines for persons with gender dysphoria, under the name of Standards of Care for the Health of Transgender and Gender Diverse People, the overall goal of the SOC is to provide clinical guidance for health professionals to assist transgender, and gender nonconforming people with safe and effective pathways to achieving lasting personal comfort with their gendered selves, in order to maximize their overall health, psychological well-being, and self-fulfillment. To keep up with increasing scientific evidence, WPATH periodically commissions an update to the Standards of Care and the WPATH Guideline Steering Committee oversees the guideline development process. The first version of the Standards of Care were published in 1979. Versions were released in 1979 (1st), 1980 (2nd), 1981 (3rd), 1990 (4th), 1998 (5th), 2001 (6th), and 2012 (7th). WPATH released Version 8, the latest edition, in 2022; it is described as being based upon a "more rigorous and methodological evidence-based approach than previous versions."
SOC is an internationally accepted and influential document outlining how to provide patients with transition related care. Early versions of the SOC focused gender transition towards psychologists and psychiatrists and framed transgender identity as a mental illness. Beginning in approximately 2010, with pushing from trans activists the WPATH began publicly advocating the depsychopathologization of transgender identities in the 7th version of the SOC.
Medical treatment for gender dysphoria was publicized in the early 1950s by accounts such as those of Christine Jorgensen. During this period, the majority of literature on gender diversity was pathologizing, positing dysfunctional families as the causes of dysphoria and recommending reparative therapy and psychoanalysis, such as Robert Stoller's work. Others such as George Rekers and Ole Ivar Lovaas recommended behavioral treatments to extinguish cross-sex identification and reinforce gender-normative behaviors. Knowledge on various aspects of transition related care had existed for decades, but there was no clinical consensus on the care pathways for transgender people.
In 1966, Harry Benjamin published The Transsexual Phenomenon, arguing that since there was no cure for transsexualism, it was in the best interests of transsexuals and society to aid in sex reassignment and in the same year the Johns Hopkins Gender Clinic was opened by John Money. In 1969, Reed Erickson, a wealthy transgender man who played a large role in funding research and clinics for trans healthcare through the Erickson Educational Foundation, funded Richard Green and Money's book Transsexualism and Sex Reassignment, a multidisciplinary volume exploring instructions on medical care as well as social and clinical aspects, which was dedicated to Benjamin. The same year, he funded the 1st International Symposium on Gender Identity in London. The 4th conference, taking place in 1975, was the first to use Benjamin's name in the title.
The Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association and Standards of Care (SOC) were conceived during the 5th International Gender Dysphoria Symposium (IGDS) in 1977. The organization was named in honor of Benjamin and supported a mixture of psychological and medical treatment. The founding committee was entirely American and consisted of Jack Berger, Richard Green, Donald R. Laub, Charles Reynolds Jr., Paul A. Walker, Leo Wollman, and transgender activist Jude Patton with Walker serving as president; The first SOC committee included all founding committee members with the exception of Patton, a vote by attendees having opposed a "consumer" board member. The Articles of Incorporation were approved in 1979 at the 6th IGDS and HBIGDA was legally incorporated 7 months later.