The General Assembly;
APPLAUDING the intent of GA Resolution #467 “Affordable Transgender Hormone Therapy”, which seeks to ensure universal access to hormone therapy for all consenting individuals in WA member states; but
CONCERNED that parts of GA #467 create serious ambiguity and fail in some cases to adequately protect the rights of transgender individuals;
OBSERVING that resolutions passed both before and after the passage of GA #467 provide a more comprehensive framework for WA member states to work within and address many of the inadequacies of GA #467; for example
NOTING that GA Resolution #91 “A Convention On Gender” had already mandated states provide gender-adequation procedures in addition to establishing the legal status of intersex, transgender, and intergendered persons;
DISAPPOINTED that although GA #467 states that the experiences of transgender individuals “are not the product of “mental illness,” “confusion,” “disease,” or anything of the sort”, it goes on to claim that gender dysphoria is a “mental condition [that] ought to be treated,” an attitude which may unwittingly contribute to public stigmatization and medicalization of transgender individuals, while GA #91 avoids any mention of individuals belonging to non-majoritarian genders innately having an accompanying mental condition;
ALARMED that GA #467 both definitionally excludes puberty blockers as well as synthetic estrogen and testosterone derivatives, which are often required for effective administration of these hormones, and requires member states to provide hormone therapy to any consenting individual, including those who, while capable of consenting, are genuinely medically unfit to receive it, whereas GA Resolution #571 “Access To Transgender Hormone Therapy” addresses both of these issues;
WORRIED that while GA #467 requires that all member states provide affordable access to hormone therapy, it fails to provide for any sort of explicit financial assistance or WA subcommittee to oversee disbursement of aid from the WA General Fund to countries in need of such monetary assistance, a situation which may result in impoverished WA members struggling to comply with its requirements, such a mandate goes beyond GA #467’s purpose in recognizing a civil right by unduly imposing substantial obligations on member states and their populations;
AFFIRMING the WA’s requirements that member states may not criminalize transgender individuals’ expression of their gender identity and its prohibition on using coercion as a tool to either impose or deny an individual hormone therapy; but
CONCERNED that since GA #467 “[f]orbids any member-state from denying a transgender person access to hormone therapy as a punishment or as part of a punishment for a crime”, WA members who impose fines as punishments for crimes (regardless of the gender identity of the criminal) are functionally barred from imposing such punishments on some transgender individuals insofar as an individual may be unbale to both pay the fine and continue their hormone therapy, thereby hindering the effective application of genuine justice in some cases through WA law;
ALARMED that GA #467 simply requires access to hormone therapy, but does not so much as encourage that therapy be overseen by a medical professional, a situation which may lead to poorly-informed individuals with little medical expertise attempting to oversee their own hormone therapy regimen, potentially to harmful effect;
HEREBY, this body does repeal GA Resolution #467 “Affordable Transgender Hormone Therapy”.
