The World Health Organization (WHO) has announced it will be updating the organization’s current “gender mainstreaming manual” to say that gender goes “beyond non-binary” and that “sex is not limited to male or female.”.The WHO’s current gender guidance claims gender exists on a broad spectrum ranging from male to female. The newly updated terminology in the manual expands on that definition..According to the WHO website, the new gender guidelines will better define “the concept of intersectionality, which looks at how gender power dynamics interact with other hierarchies of privilege or disadvantage, resulting in inequality and differential health outcomes for different people.”.The update also states the global organization will be “going beyond non-binary approaches to gender and health to recognize gender and sexual diversity, or the concepts that gender identity exists on a continuum and that sex is not limited to male or female.”.Jenny Gamble, a professor in the School of Nursing, Midwifery and Health at Coventry University in the UK, criticized the WHO's gender rebrand as being unscientific and medically problematic..“It is a dismissal of basic biology, and a mistake,” she said. “Biology is a key determinant of health and illness. Not being clear about basic biology opens the door to a range of problems, including very poor health communication but also distorted data.”.“The wording regarding there being more than male and female sexes is concerning,” Dr. Karleen Gribble told The Daily Mail. “The website says that the handbook is being updated in light of new scientific evidence and conceptual progress on gender, health, and development. Rather, the idea that there are more than two sexes, is a postmodern, unscientific understanding that should not be supported by the WHO.”.The update also makes a point of saying the WHO is "going beyond non-binary approaches to gender and health to recognize gender and sexual diversity, or the concepts that gender identity exists on a continuum and that sex is not limited to male or female.".US Rep. Mike Rogers (Alaska), rebutted the WHO saying the organization has "repeatedly proven itself to be an utterly useless organization."
