The TRUTH About Gender Mutilation

With Mia Hughes, WPATH Files Report Author

Mia Hughes is an Ottawa-based British journalist and researcher for Michael Shellenberger's nonprofit, Environmental Progress. Mia authored the WPATH Files report, which exposed widespread medical mistreatment of children, adolescents, and vulnerable adults in the realm of gender-affirming care.

We were both in Lisbon, Portugal, for the Genspect conference—which uncoincidentally coincided with WPATH’s conference. (NB I reached out to WPATH organizers and speakers to have a conversation about their reasoning for gender-affirming care. As expected, I received no responses. Throughout this conversation I made an effort to steelman WPATH arguments.)

Mia and I began with the concept of Gender Soul. While the “soul" remains unchanged, the body can be altered through medical procedures. This raises the question of whether individuals can deceive themselves into happiness by medically altering their bodies to align with their self-identities at a particular time. We also discussed whether transgender identities are genuine or political. Mia argued, broadly, that these are political identities and that the idea of transgender identity does not comport with reality. 

This led to a discussion about medical interventions in gender-affirming care. Mia provided reasons for why medicine should prioritize well-being rather than altering perfectly healthy bodies through procedures like phalloplasties, mastectomies, and vaginoplasties. As she described these surgeries in detail, I found myself recoiling. These extreme surgical interventions raise empirical and ethical questions about how those who undergo sex-based procedures feel years afterward. Does these treatments lead to happiness or are they ghoulish nightmares?