Open letter to members of WPATH

Open letter to members of WPATH about Whittle’s attacks on the intersex community

I have found that not confronting bullies who attack other people unjustly and inaccurately is not healthy and constructive, especially when the person is head of an organisation which is speaking both on intersex and trans issues.

On Whittle's blog:
http://whittlings.blogspot.com/2008_07_01_archive.html

1) He has used OII's logo without our permission or even asking.

2) He has described me as having gone mad. He has no proof of this. All my correspondence with him has been cordial and factual. This is outrageous for the head of an organisation which speaks on both intersex issues and trans issues.

3) He has humiliated me in front of the board of OII by writing to almost all the board members and caused great damage to our organisation as a result. I simply asked a very important question about why Zucker was on the DSD committee and why the name of the committee was DSD committee when there is almost NO support for this terminology and most intersex people consider it offensive. That is a reasonable question from an intersex organisation which is truly international and the largest intersex organisation in the world. (Click here to read the letter.)

4) He wrote an e-mail to Zucker himself soon after receiving my open letter and in that e-mail he stated that they could shut up these outside people and organisations. Well, it is clear to me that he must have been talking about OII because he started his blog to misrepresent OII and it does not take a lot of logic to figure out the outside organisation he is trying to shut up.

From: Stephen Whittle
Date: May 29, 2008 5:52:50 AM EDT
To: WPATH-MEMBERSHIP@LISTS.UMN.EDU
Subject: Re: [WPATH-MEMBERSHIP] Open response to Alice Dreger
Reply-To: Stephen Whittle

Hi Ken

thank you for this very thoughtful response to Dana - I wonder whether you might want to say this more widely. I (both personally and in my role as President of WPATH) am being currently overwhelmed by a huge number of outside people and organisations, as you can imagine, to produce some response to the latest debacle re. the DSM V. Currently all of these enquiries are being fielded with 'this is a complex question - I'll get back to you some time in the distant future'. It's not doing my reputation, or WPATH's much good.

I cannot help but feel that with some judicious editing and a little more background, this could really shut some people up and show the extent of some of their specious claims. That does not mean to say that I do not recognise some of their concerns, and would like to see a public summary of your clinical follow up studies. Not many outsiders have access to the ASB - they are one of the more expensive and more difficult journals to access, so instead people rely on what they think you have said. I have often wanted to send out copies of your papers, but of course, the ASB's copyrights prevent it.

However, I think your response below has the beginnings of a much more serious statement that we could all benefit from. I also believe it might become something WPATH might be able to support and promulgate (subject to the board, of course).

all the best
Stephen

Professor Stephen Whittle, OBE, PhD, MA, LLB, BA
Professor of Equalities Law
Manchester Metropolitan University
All Saints West
Lower Ormond Street
Manchester, M15 6HB
-------------------------
Vice President , Press for Change
www.pfc.org/uk
President, World Professional Association for Transgender
Health
www.wpath.org
Executive Chair, Transgender Europe, www.tgeu.org

5) If you want a sample of the type of e-mails that he sends to people, just read this:

Letter from Whittle to Andrea Brown, someone who is not a member of OII, who tried to get both sides of this story

From: Stephen Whittle
Date: 2008/7/30
Subject: Re: Whittle and OII arguement: Now we have both sides of the arguement, eventually. You can make up your own minds, who is telling the truth.
To: Andrea Brown

Andrea (or whoever you are)

I knew an Andrea Brown in the early days of Press for Change, she was out, an activist and a kind, sensible, realistic young woman. I presume you are not her. But, to the point, my side of the argument was presented to OII at the end of June, within 3 weeks of reading their mail.

What is there not to believe in my reply - it is a simple outline of facts.

You really are becoming a disgraceful pariah, feeding off other people's miseries, and ultimately causing harm to those you profess to support. And you are vicious to boot.

This is not a threat , this is a promise: if you once again repeat, in any forum, yours', Sophia Seidlberg's or OII's defamatory lies and allegations, or anything else that is untrue or defamatory about me, I will sue you for defamation, even if I have to hunt you down to the ends of the earth. And I promise that - speak the truth and you have nothing to fear, continue these lies and I will use the law to obtain what is right and truthful.

Stephen

I would suggest you crawl back into your closet (from where you have never actually left), behind your wall of secrecy, and leave alone the rest of us who want to change the world for the better.

Stephen

____________________________________________________________________

I think that members of WPATH need to confront Whittle about this. This is very unbecoming and I do not understand how members can accept such outrageous behaviour without lodging a complaint. I do not merit this type of treatment and I resent this very much. I am not a member of WPATH and certainly would never consider becoming one after this type of treatment.

Kind regards,
Curtis E. Hinkle
Founder, OII
http://www.intersexualite.org/