Women Born Transsexual

Because we all know what grand arbitrators the Arch Diocese of Boston is.

Tell me about the statutory homosexual rape so many priest engaged in again.

I refuse to vote for anyone who represents the Hitler Youth Pope and not the interests of the American people.

The Catholic Church is a fraud, a criminal enterprise filled with lying scumbag con artists.

No gods, No masters.

From The Boston Pilot

http://www.thebostonpilot.com/article.asp?ID=11466

By Carol Glatz

Posted: 2/17/2010

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Public officials who openly support same-sex marriage cannot consider themselves to be Catholic, said an Italian cardinal.

“It’s impossible to consider oneself a Catholic if that person in one way or another recognizes same-sex marriage as a right,” said Cardinal Carlo Caffarra of Bologna.

The Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, reprinted a portion of a doctrinal note the cardinal released Feb. 14 concerning “Marriage and Homosexual Unions.” The note, which appeared in full on the archdiocese’s Web site, was aimed at helping enlighten Catholics in public office so that “they would not make choices that would publicly contradict their affiliation with the church,” he wrote.

Catholic politicians must not only promote the common good; they also “have a serious duty to make sure their beliefs, thoughts and proposals concerning the common good are consistent,” he wrote.

“It’s impossible for the Catholic faith and support for putting homosexual unions on equal footing with marriage to coexist in one’s conscience — the two contradict each other,” said the note.

Even more serious would be the case of a Catholic lawmaker who introduces a measure or votes in favor of a law that supports gay marriage, he said. “This is a publicly and gravely immoral act,” he wrote.

If a Catholic official were to ever implement or enforce such a law, “God forbid, we will, at the proper moment, give the necessary directives,” he wrote.

Cardinal Caffarra, who holds a number of positions in the Roman Curia including as a member of the Pontifical Council for the Family, the Pontifical Academy for Life and the Vatican’s highest tribunal, known as the Supreme Court of the Apostolic Signature, wrote that the consequences of same-sex marriage would be “devastating.”

“One of the pillars of our legal order — marriage as a public good — would crumble,” he wrote.

“The state’s legal order must not be neutral on marriage and homosexual unions just as it can’t be (neutral) on the common good: society owes its survival to families founded on marriage, not homosexual unions,” he wrote.

The cardinal also said allowing same-sex couples to adopt children would seriously hinder the child’s proper development because, without a mother and a father, the child would lack a male and female role model.

A consultor for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Franciscan Father Maurizio Faggioni, said the issue is not new and was addressed by the congregation in its 2003 document, “Considerations Regarding Proposals to Give Legal Recognition to Unions between Homosexual Persons.”

The document detailed the arguments against legal recognition of same-sex unions and asked lawmakers to fight growing movements to legalize gay marriage.

Father Faggioni said the church teaches respect for homosexual individuals and their rights as people, such as the right to employment and freedom from unjust discrimination.

“However, for the church, gay marriage is not part of an individual’s rights,” he told Catholic News Service Feb. 16.

Wanting to put a homosexual union on par with a marriage between a man and a woman “is unacceptable,” he said.

However, he said, supporting gay marriage laws would not incur excommunication since that sanction is reserved to extremely serious crimes like abortion or abuse of the sacraments.

The church seeks to encourage Catholic politicians to be inspired by church teaching and be consistent with what they believe and do, he said.

“Otherwise why would someone still call himself a Catholic if he is not inspired by the magisterium?” he said.

In my piece about Stephanie I stepped out of bounds, went beyond what passes for legitimate discourse in today’s world of neo-Victorianism where gender is used in place of the more properly applicable ‘sex’.

I wrote about lust, animal magnetism consummated immediately in a nasty ladies’ room of a dive drag queen hustle bar.

Now days there is a contingent of “classic transsexuals” who are pushing for us to use the phrase HBS or Harry Benjamin Syndrome instead of the term transsexualism.  Their argument is that transsexualism is tainted by its being used as the descriptive term of choice for transsexual and transgender hookers.

It follows then that proper people with transsexualism or post-transsexual people should disassociate themselves from the term transsexualism.

Now I tend to think what many of these folks find problematic is the three letter word one finds in the middle, “SEX”. But then too, I am a nasty girl who still likes trannie and thinks that it is like our n-word, which is to say a word that only we get to use legitimately.

I can understand why people who came out of the straight CD area of theory want to avoid the word sex and make no mistake about it the fountain head for most of the transgender arguments was first Virginia Prince and later the founders of Tapestry Magazine.  Tapestry was the voice of IFGE and grew out of the heterosexual CD rather than the queen community.

It is important to realize when the Transgender Movement really started and that was during the very conservative 1980s rather than during the 1960/1970 era of sexual liberation that spawned the Gay and Lesbian Liberation Movements.  It was therefore influenced by reactionary elements found in the cultural feminism of Mary Daly, Andrea Dworkin, and Cathrine MacKinnon.

AIDS and reactionary politics meant a backing away from frank discussions regarding sex.  We as transsexuals had the crap pounded out of us in the earlier part of the decade by Daly’s acolyte Janice Raymond as well as the infamous machinations of the alleged Opus Die member Paul McHugh.  Between feminism and the religious right there arose this wall of anti-sex propaganda.

In 1982 I marched topless down Market Street with the S/M group, Samois in the Pride Day parade as part of a protest against the anti-sex/anti-porn movement.  You see I am old enough to remember when the Catholic Legion of Decency governed the movies we could see and the books we could read.  I am old enough to remember the persecution of Lenny Bruce for having the audacity to teach us How to Talk Dirty and Influence People. They killed Lenny.

Emma Goldman was asked if she believed in free love and answered, “Free love? As if love is anything but free! Man has bought brains, but all the millions in the world have failed to buy love. Man has subdued bodies, but all the power on earth has been unable to subdue love. Man has conquered whole nations, but all his armies could not conquer love. Man has chained and fettered the spirit, but he has been utterly helpless before love. High on a throne, with all the splendor and pomp his gold can command, man is yet poor and desolate, if love passes him by. And if it stays, the poorest hovel is radiant with warmth, with life and color. Thus love has the magic power to make of a beggar a king. Yes, love is free; it can dwell in no other atmosphere.“

We live in an age where AIDS (sardonically described as the perfect disease that kills queers, junkies and n—-rs) has made even a discussion of loving freely seem insane.  Yet we are nightly subjected to ads for treatments of male impotence.  Impotence goes hand in hand with powerlessness and sexual repression.

Women’s Studies became “Gender Studies”.  I guess we had to hide that they were about women and feminism and that either of those areas had become either too controversial or too trivial to be designated as Ph.D. programs or legitimate fields of study.

Gender…  Judith Butler writes highly acclaimed unreadable books filled with obscure academic jargon and we are supposed to think she is deep because she shields us from a reality of cocks and cunts, mouths and assholes.

We used to speak of sex roles, that was back in the era of sexual freedom, the 1970s.  Now we speak of gender roles separated from people with cocks or cunts in the way married couples were separated and sleeping in their own twin beds in movies and television shows of the 1950s.

There are those who think we should erase the profoundness of sex change surgery or sex reassignment surgery divorcing it from the changing of the parts of our bodies that we use when having sex and the fact that the operation changes male parts to female and vis versa.  Better to obscure the idea that what was once a dick is now a pussy behind gender reassignment surgery or even worse behind genital reconstructive surgery which conjures up the image of surgically repairing an injured organ rather than changing the form and function.

At a time when women were demanding equality of the sexes, gender asserted the dominance of roles and subjugated maleness and femaleness to the culturally determined tyranny of god ordained roles.  Real men are once again defined by masculinity and real women by femininity.

One of the weirdest phrases to enter society on the path to sexual equality has been “gender variant”.  What in hell is a “gender variant”?  The term is meaningless in a society where men and women are free and is only really relevant in a society governed by misogyny and rigidly defined roles.  Using the concept of gender variance reifies the ideology of their being a gender binary that defines who are real men or real women based on their rigid adherence to some stereotypically defined role.

Of course this concept is useful for transgender people since it sets adherence to role rather than the messy sex parts as the standard.

It also seem to me that among many people assigned male at birth who want to be part of the T grafted on to LGB, that there is a near homophobic panic over the suggestion that they might actually want to have sex with male people. Then too there is this willful denial that drag queens, particularly those who not only live 24/7 but are sex workers are legitimately transgender.

The absurdity of all these attempts to disassociate not only transsexualism but the lives of many people with transgenderism not only from homosexuality but from sexuality by the use gender become clear in the face of the attacks from the psychiatric profession and the religious right (often times they are one and the same).

To both the religious right and to people like Blanchard/Bailey/Zucker/Lawrence/Green/McHugh we are all sex crazed perverts.

Instead of defending our having the same right to a satisfying sex life as cis-sexual/gender people we go into these elaborate forms of denial claiming it has nothing to do with sex and everything to do with gender, as though gender is pure and sex is dirty.

The liberation of self from the oppressive tyranny of both religion and psychiatry starts with our claiming the same rights to pleasure as those enjoyed by normborns.  The small step of defending  the frisson, the combination of desire for and identification with that occurs when viewing say fashion magazines, that is the carefully planned intent of the imagery which is after all aimed at selling merchandise to women by eliciting exactly that reaction, is the same reactions normborn women have.

When I have read some of the attacks upon our sexuality from not only the fore named psychiatric profession and the religious right but by certain anti-trans feminists I am forced to wonder if I can legitimately enjoy sex with my Hitachi Magic Wand much less the joyously free sexuality of my youth.

Fortunately the world as I experienced it in my youth was not the dark tangled web of religion, psychiatry and academic radical feminism but was rather the sexually anarchic world of left wing sexual freedom that characterized the far freer and more liberated days before the rabid right wing cum religious right take over during the Reagan/Thatcher era.

Perhaps it is time for us to get back to using the word sex when we mean sex, to defending our right to be sexual beings instead of pretending that sex is dirty and gender is pure.

Particularly since gender is so often tied to patterns of oppression that treat females as second class citizens.

Many, many years ago I  went to LA for the first time.

I went there accompanying Jan, who was going to an outlaw plastic surgeon for implants and orchiectomy.

I was excited, it was my first trip to Los Angeles.  We spent the night we got in at a house in Venice and went to Hollywood early in the morning where we checked into the Hollywood Roosevelt.

Dr. Gaunt’s office and quasi-operating room were next door, across Orange Drive in the old Max Factor Building.

I left Jan there.

I walked out on Hollywood Blvd.  It was a warm and sunny February day, I had my Yashica Electro 35, my first serious camera around my neck and I was looking for something.

On Hollywood and Highland I met a tall thin queen, startlingly pale in the harsh morning sun.  She looked at me dazed, with a downer glaze as I said to her, “Where is it happening at, sister?”

The Speak 39, the Onion 2 and the Alley down on Cahuenga.  I thanked her and said, “Catch ya, later.”  I tripped off down the Blvd. pass store windows still shuttered.

I was meeting with Bill Mandel, a writer from Santa Barbara.  I was to be his guide into a scene I barely knew myself.

Later that night with Jan safely recovering in a room at the Roosevelt he and I visited the Speak.

It was about as sleazy as a bar could possibly be.  A drag queen/transsexual hustle bar just down Cahuenga from Hollywood Blvd and  a perfect place to take Santa Barbara Bill who was totally into the slumming thing.

I was new to Hollywood and got the new girl challenge almost immediately.  It came from a barely dressed trannie named Stephanie who sauntered over to our table in a quaalude haze and asked, “What are you doing in here?  You know this is a drag bar and we don’t need real girls coming her to compete with us.”

I said I was a changeling from San Francisco and she asked if she could see.

We went into the lady’s room and I dropped my jeans and she stuck her fingers in me and we wound up having the sort of hot outlaw sex that made the era what it was.

We became friends and then lovers.  She was very troubled.  Her boyfriend had overdosed and died shortly before we met.  She was a throwaway streetkid, her parents were Cuban American and lived in Miami.

She introduced me to her friends and I started becoming serious about my photography.  I was heavily influenced by Mary Ellen Mark, Bruce Davidson, as well as the Magnum Black Star photographers and anyone who was part of the Bang Bang Club.

I was also becoming the “Shane” (L-Word reference) of my day with all these sisters looking to me for their “lesbian experience.

I broke up with Jerry and started a commuter romance with Stephanie.  More than just photographing her it was my mission to keep her from over dosing.  It was a constant job since she was in the words of the Rolling Stones song, “Dancing with Mister D.”

At the same time Stephanie and her queen as well as transsexual friends taught me to enjoy things I had refrained from  because of my politics.  Clothes and blatant sexual audacity.  The thrill of shocking people and camping theatrically.

Some of the sisters from San Francisco and some of the girls from LA started regularly traveling on the midnight PSA flight between SF and LA, a flight that was a flying stoned out party.

Nearly a year later I was planning on moving to Los Angeles to be her support and help her with her drug problem as well as to do a suicide watch.

On Valentine’s Day my friend Leslie and I were supposed to catch the cheap midnight PSA flight down from San Francisco for the weekend.  It was a stand by only flight that offered a ticket on the 4:00 am flight to any who were bumped.  We didn’t get on the midnight flight and flew the later flight, making it to Hollywood around 7:30 in the morning.

Stephanie was dead of an overdose, David Bowie’s album Changes on her record player repeating over and over.

I blamed myself for not being there even though she had over dosed so many times dying was inevitable.  It took several more sisters dying the same way before  I realized there was really nothing I could do to stop someone who was seriously determined to die.

Photography was an art that gave my life meaning and helped distance me into a participant observer in their world.  I wasn’t that into the pills.  But the combination of her death and my being brutally raped a few months later sent me into a tail spin where I wound up in an emergency room after over dosing.

My becoming a photographer grew out of our friendship and every Valentine’s Day  I still find myself remembering her.

Reposted with permission from Bird of Paradox

http://birdofparadox.wordpress.com/2010/02/13/cuba-statement-on-depathologisation-of-transsexualism/

February 13, 2010

The Sección Diversidad Sexual of the Centro Nacional de Educación Sexual in Havana, Cuba, has recently issued the following statement:

STATEMENT ON DESPATHOLOGIZATION OF TRANSSEXUALISM
Cuban Multidisciplinary Society for Sexuality Studies

5th Cuban Congress of Sexual Education, Orientation and Therapy

The Sexual Diversity section of the Cuban Multidisciplinary Society for the Study of Sexuality (SOCUMES) proposed the adoption of the following Declaration in its General Assembly of Members on 18 January 2010 in Havana, based on a proposal made by the National Commission for Comprehensive Care of Transsexual People, of the National Center for Sexual Education (CENESEX).

Recalling the current inclusion of transsexuality as a mental disorder in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders IV (DSM-IV) published by American Psychiatric Association (APA) and the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) of the World Health Organization (WHO);

Recalling also that the Standards of Care adopted in Cuba by the National Commission for Comprehensive Care of Transsexual People rely on those published by the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), which also includes the classification of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders and International Classification of Diseases E-10;

Considering that the American Psychiatric Association will publish in 2012 the fifth version of the above mentioned manual and that the chief and other specialists of the working group responsible for the review have recently proposed the non-removal of this category, as well as the application of corrective psychological therapy to children, to the sex assigned at birth;

Taking into account the concern expressed by individuals and human rights groups at the international level regarding this issue,

Considering that all transgender people -including transsexuality, transvestites and intersex people- may be vulnerable to marginalization, discrimination and stigma, based on the socially regulated binary approach that recognizes only two gender identities: male and female;

Considering also that the above classifications perpetuate and deepen social discrimination against these groups, causing irreversible physical and psychological damage that can lead these people to commit suicide;

Considering in addition that transsexuality and other transgender expressions are not an option for a lifestyle and that the modifications to their bodies have no cosmetic intentions. It is a right and an inner need to live with the gender identity which the person feels to belong;

Recalling the Yogyakarta Principles on the application of international human rights law in relation to sexual orientation and gender identity, especially Principle 18 on “Protection from Medical Abuses” which, among other things, make States and governments responsible to “ensure that any medical or psychological treatment or counseling does not, explicitly or implicitly, treat sexual orientation and gender identity as medical conditions to be treated, cured or suppressed”;

Considering that the right to public health and universal free access to its services are guaranteed by the Cuban government for all, but still requires additional laws to fully protect the rights of transgender people;

Recalling Resolution 126 of Public Health Ministry, of 4 June 2008, which regulates the procedures involved in health care for transsexuals;

Recognizing that multidisciplinary care provided by the National Commission for Comprehensive Care of Transsexual People, since its foundation in 1979 until today, has led to a remarkable improvement in the quality of life of transsexual people and their families.

Express our support for the removal of transsexuality from the international classification of mental disorder, especially in the DSM-V update to be published in 2010.

Reject the application of psychological therapies for transgender people, in order to reverse their gender identity, as well as sex reassignment surgeries performed to those under 18 years old.

Reaffirm that transsexuality and other transgender identities are expressions of sexual diversity, to which it must be ensured all psychological, medical and surgical treatments required to alleviate alterations to the mental health of these individuals, as a result of stigma and discrimination.

Also reaffirm that the implementation of these procedures respects sexual rights of each person, and are consistent with bio-ethical principles of autonomy, nonmaleficence, beneficence and justice.

Reaffirm in addition that transgender care should be comprehensive, beyond just medical and psychological care, to ensure recognition and respect for their individual rights.

Reiterate the need to consider all necessary legislations to ensure recognition of these rights, especially the Gender Identity Bill, which includes the identity change regardless sex reassignment surgery performance.

Call for a broader implementation of educational strategies regarding sexual orientation and gender identity at all levels of education and to the general population, as stated in the National Program for Sexual Education.

Reaffirm the need to include the attention to transgendered people in comprehensive social policies of the State and Government of Cuba, in correspondence with the “Declaration of the General Assembly of the United Nations, condemning the violation of human rights based on sexual orientation and identity gender “, supported by Cuba on 18 December 2008.

Havana, 22 January 2010

Sección Diversidad Sexual
Centro Nacional de Educación Sexual
Cuba

—————

Although it may be tempting to say that Cuba now joins France in regarding transsexualism as not being a mental disorder at all, there is some dispute about the reality of the French Health Ministry’s announcement in May 2009.

There has been some fairly lively discussion between various trans support groups in Europe, and there is a view that the French Health Ministry’s announcement was only about principles of reimbursement, and not about the moral obligations of the medical profession. Apparently, the French HAS (Health High Authority), which is run directly by the Ministry of Health, is currently promoting more pyschiatric control of trans people. It seems that the HAS report explicitly recommends that the French Social Security’s “official teams” (ie. those who are charged with pathologising and psychiatrising French trans people) be extended to the whole country.

Additionally the report also says that “psychiatric assessment will still be needed” for trans people to access their civil and human rights, no matter what is decided by the Health Ministry regarding reimbursement and classification.

The inference is that France is not working towards “depsychiatrizing” trans people and is therefore not fully committed to depathologisation.

There are way too many psychiatrists.  It is a glutted field filled with people often times better suited to the field of rapidly preparing ground meat preparations, French fries and shakes.

The DSM is their Bible, literally not figuratively speaking it is filled with quasi-religion based judgments.

It is as much a tool aimed at enforcing the misogynistic rule of the patriarchy and the ruling elite as is religion.

Forget Transsexualism for a moment.  Consider Asperger’s syndrome or as I call it the nerd/bookworm syndrome.  The Japanese have a different word “otaku”.  It describes a non conformist really into a specialized field of study, often with little outside of the world of fandom for corporate interests to exploit.

Non-conformity itself is considered a sign of mental illness.

Hell I consider non-conformity an act of rebellion against the slave owners of the rich corporate elite who would rather have us act as money producing robots who work and consume mindlessly like drone bees and worker ants.

Marching to the beat of a different drummer and doing your own thing without harm to others was why I was considered a hippie.

I can’t help but remember how as recently as the 1960s women who didn’t conform to the role of possessed by father until a bride and then a slave to her husband women were subject to having their mental health questioned.

The removal of gay and lesbianism from the DSM was not based on some arcane form of scientific research coming up with a genetic marker showing innateness the way so many transsexuals seem to hope will happen for transsexualism.  Oh no.  Homosexuality was removed from the DSM because queers stormed the gates of their gatherings with figurative pitch forks and torches.

In the words of the old IWW slogan, “Direct Action Gets the Goods.”

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-ed-diagnostic13-2010feb13,0,5577548.story

EDITORIAL

The fight over the DSM
The fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders isn’t due until 2013, but that has stopped critics.

February 13, 2010

Anew diagnostic manual prepared by the American Psychiatric Assn. either trivializes serious conditions, needlessly encourages hurtful stereotypes or succumbs to political correctness, depending on whom you believe.

Even experts will question one classification or another in the draft fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, which is why it’s been posted on the Internet for comments years before its expected publication in 2013. But the intention of the authors — to define more precisely which conditions require psychotherapy and how they’re related to one another — is laudable. And some of the early objections seem rooted more in politics or perception than in science.

For example, some parents of children with Asperger’s syndrome, which is characterized by social unease and obsessive interest in arcane subjects, apparently resent the fact that, instead of being its own category, Asperger’s will be grouped with three other syndromes under the heading “autism spectrum disorders.” That’s of concern because they don’t want their children labeled autistic.

It’s important to be sensitive, but not to the point of minimizing connections that can aid treatment. Other critics fault the manual for being too politically correct, as reflected in terminology changes such as “gender incongruence” in place of “gender identity disorder” to describe children uncomfortable with their gender. That and other changes — such as the replacement of “mental retardation” with “intellectual disability” — do seem designed to avoid stigma, but they do so without changing the meaning, so we don’t see anything wrong with that.

The manual is also being criticized for including a supposedly arbitrary inventory of addictions — gambling and binge eating are in but not sex or Internet overuse. That debate is a reminder that whether a problem is or is not included in the DSM can have real-world consequences: The manual is used by health insurers to decide what treatments to cover, as well as by state agencies, schools and courts.

The variety of criticisms reflects the fact that, compared with other fields of medicine, psychiatry lacks precision and that psychiatric classifications often have moral and political overtones.

With all its imperfections, the DSM serves an important purpose for psychiatrists and doctors in general practice. That doesn’t mean therapists can’t be alert to specific complaints from their patients that confound or combine the categories. As with the Bible, in some cases the manual should be taken not literally but seriously.

–

© 2010, The Los Angeles Times

There is supposedly a longer version in the print edition.  But the editions vary with location.  If it is in the one we get I will scan it and post it.  This makes official something that first started last year.

From the New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/13/world/europe/13briefs-France.html?scp=1&sq=transsexualism&st=cse

I thought it might be an appropriate time to show what I looked like one year post SRS.  This photo was taken in MacArthur Park during the late spring of 1973.

One year and I have had close to 67.000 hits.

I have had Tina’s critical eye as an editor of my sometimes written at 6:00 am before work posts.  She has helped me become a far better writer than I would be without her critical ear and eye for punctuation.  She has curbed my Beat desire to write long unpunctuated sentences.

I would like to thank Andrea Brown for her contributions. Her often incendiary and well documented posts have shown light into dark places and have exposed exaggerations as well as flat out lies that people tell because they are in denial of the truth of their transsexualism and think an unbelievable fiction is preferable.

I also wish to thank Andrea James for promoting my blog on her most excellent web site.

I want to thank Sharon Gaughan and Lisa Jain Thompson of TS-SI for both promoting my blog and publishing my opinion pieces.  I know they have taken a lot of heat as I  have long been a source of controversy.

Feministe for its “Shameless Sunday Promotions”

Questioning Transphobia for making me question some of my own thinking.

I’ve angered some readers who expected me to take their “classic transsexual” and others who expect me to accept what I see as absurd word games regarding the whole construct of transgender as umbrella.

I hope that over the next year the blog will continue to grow and for that I owe those of you who read this blog and link to it a big thank you.

http://www.dsm5.org/ProposedRevisions/Pages/proposedrevision.aspx?rid=193

American Psychiatric Association DSM-5 Development

302.85
Gender Identity Disorder in Adolescents or Adults

PROPOSED REVISION

Gender Incongruence (in Adolescents or Adults) [1]

A. A marked incongruence between one’s experienced/expressed gender and assigned gender, of at least 6 months duration, as manifested by 2* or more of the following indicators: [2, 3, 4]

1. a marked incongruence between one’s experienced/expressed gender and primary and/or secondary sex characteristics (or, in young adolescents, the anticipated secondary sex characteristics) [13, 16]

2. a strong desire to be rid of one’s primary and/or secondary sex characteristics because of a marked incongruence with one’s experienced/expressed gender (or, in young adolescents, a desire to prevent the development of the anticipated secondary sex characteristics) [17]

3. a strong desire for the primary and/or secondary sex characteristics of the other gender

4. a strong desire to be of the other gender (or some alternative gender different from one’s assigned gender)

5. a strong desire to be treated as the other gender (or some alternative gender different from one’s assigned gender)

6. a strong conviction that one has the typical feelings and reactions of the other gender (or some alternative gender different from one’s assigned gender)

Subtypes

With a disorder of sex development

Without a disorder of sex development

[14, 15, 16, 19]

……

http://www.dsm5.org/ProposedRevisions/Pages/proposedrevision.aspx?rid=193#

302.85
Gender Identity Disorder in Adolescents or Adults

RATIONALE

For the adult criteria, we propose, on a preliminary basis, the requirement of only 2 indicators. This is based on a preliminary secondary data analysis of 154 adolescent and adults patients with GID compared to 684 controls (Deogracias et al., 2007; Singh et al., 2010). From a 27-item dimensional measure of gender dysphoria, the Gender Identity/Gender Dysphoria Questionnaire for Adolescents and Adults (GIDYQ), we extracted five items that correspond to the proposed A2-A6 indicators (we could not extract a corresponding item
for A1). Each item was rated on a 5-point response scale, ranging from Never to Always, with the past 12 months as the time frame. For the current analysis, we coded a symptom as present if the participant endorsed one of the two most extreme response options (frequently or always) and as absent if the participant endorsed one of the three other options (never, rarely, sometimes). This yielded a true positive rate of 94.2% and a false positive rate of 0.7%. Because the wording of the items on the GIDYQ is not identical to the wording of the
proposed indicators, further validational work will be required during field trials.

End notes

1. It is proposed that the name gender identity disorder (GID) be replaced by “Gender Incongruence” (GI) because the latter is a descriptive term that better reflects the core of the problem: an incongruence between, on the one hand, what identity one experiences and/or expresses and, on the other hand, how one is expected to live based on one’s assigned gender (usually at birth) (Meyer-Bahlburg, 2009a; Winters, 2005). In a recent survey that we conducted among consumer organizations for transgendered people (Vance et al., in
press), many very clearly indicated their rejection of the GID term because, in their view, it contributes to the stigmatization of their condition.

2. In addition to the proposed name change for the diagnosis (see Endnote 1), there are 6 substantive proposed changes to the DSM-IV descriptive and diagnostic material: (a) we have proposed a change in conceptualization of the defining features by emphasizing the phenomenon of “gender incongruence” in contrast to cross-gender identification per se (Meyer-Bahlburg, 2009a); (b) we have proposed a merging of the A and B clinical indicator criteria in DSM-IV (see Endnotes 10, 13); (c) for the adolescent/adult criteria, we have proposed a more detailed and specific set of polythetic indicators than was the case in DSM-IV (Cohen-Kettenis & Pfäfflin, 2009; Zucker, 2006); (d) for the child criteria, we have proposed that the A1 indicator be necessary (but not sufficient) for the diagnosis of GI (see Endnote 5); (e) we have proposed that the “distress/impairment” criterion not be a prerequisite for the diagnosis of GI (see Endnote 15); and (f) we have proposed that subtyping by sexual attraction (for adolescents/adults) be eliminated (see Endnote 18) but that subtyping by the presence or absence of a co-occurring disorder of sex development (DSD) be introduced (see Endnote 14). As in DSM-IV, we recommend one overarching diagnosis, GI, with separate,
developmentally-appropriate criteria sets for children vs. adolescents/adults. The text material will provide updated information on developmental trajectory data for clients who received the GI diagnosis in childhood vs. adolescence or adulthood.

The term “sex” has been replaced by assigned “gender” in order to make the criteria applicable to individuals with a DSD (Meyer-Bahlburg, 2009b). During the course of physical sex differentiation, some aspects of biological sex (e.g., 46,XY genes) may be incongruent with other aspects (e.g., the external genitalia); thus, using the term “sex” would be confusing. The change also makes it possible for individuals who have successfully transitioned to “lose” the diagnosis after satisfactory treatment. This resolves the problem that, in the
DSM-IV-TR, there was a lack of an “exit clause,” meaning that individuals once diagnosed with GID will always be considered to have the diagnosis, regardless of whether they have transitioned and are psychosocially adjusted in the identified gender role (Winters, 2008).  The diagnosis will also be applicable to transitioned individuals who have regrets, because they did not feel like the other gender after all. For instance, a natal male living in the female role and having regrets experiences an incongruence between the “newly assigned”
female gender and the experienced/expressed (still or again male) gender.

3. It has been recommended by the Workgroup to delete the “perceived cultural advantages” proviso. This was also recommended by the DSM-IV Subcommittee on Gender Identity Disorders (Bradley et al., 1991). There is no reason to “impute” one causal explanation for GI at the expense of others (Zucker, 1992, 2009).

4. The 6 month duration was introduced to make at least a minimal distinction between very transient and persistent GI. The duration criterion was decided upon by clinical consensus. However, there is no clear empirical literature supporting this particular period (e.g., 3 months vs. 6 months or 6 months vs. 12 months). There was, however, consensus among the group that a lower-bound duration of 6 months would be unlikely to yield false positives.

13. In the DSM-IV, there are two sets of clinical indicators (Criteria A and B). This distinction is not supported by factor analytic studies. The existing studies suggest that the concept of GI is best captured by one underlying dimension (Cohen-Kettenis & van Goozen, 1997; Deogracias et al., 2007; Green, 1987; Johnson et al., 2004; Singh et al., 2010).

14. There is considerable evidence individuals with a DSD experience GI and may wish to change from their assigned gender; the percentage of such individuals who experience GI is syndrome-dependent (Cohen-Kettenis, 2005; Dessens, Slijper, & Drop, 2005; Mazur, 2005; Meyer-Bahlburg, 1994, 2005, 2009a, 2009b). From a phenomenologic perspective, DSD individuals with GI have both similarities and differences to individuals with GI with no known DSD. Developmental trajectories also have similarities and differences. The presence of a
DSD is suggestive of a specific causal mechanism that may not be present in individuals without a diagnosable DSD.

15. It is our recommendation that the GI diagnosis be given on the basis of the A criterion alone and that distress and/or impairment (the D criterion in DSM-IV) be evaluated separately and independently. This definitional issue remains under discussion in the DSM-V Task Force for all psychiatric disorders and may have to be revisited pending the outcome of that discussion. Although there are studies showing that adolescents and adults with the DSM-IV diagnosis of GID function poorly, this type of impairment is by no means a universal
finding. In some studies, for example, adolescents or adults with GID were found to generally function psychologically in the non-clinical range (Cohen-Kettenis & Pfäfflin, 2009; Meyer-Bahlburg, 2009a). Moreover, increased psychiatric problems in transsexuals appear to be preceded by increased experiences of stigma (Nuttbrock et al., 2009).
Postulating “inherent distress” in case one desires to be rid of body parts that do not fit one’s identity is, in the absence of data, also questionable (Meyer-Bahlburg, 2009a).

16. Although the DSM-IV diagnosis of GID encompasses more than transsexualism, it is still often used as an equivalent to transsexualism (Sohn & Bosinski, 2007). For instance, a man can meet the two core criteria if he only believes he has the typical feelings of a woman and does not feel at ease with the male gender role. The same holds for a woman who just frequently passes as a man (e.g., in terms of first name, clothing, and/or haircut) and does not feel comfortable living as a conventional woman. Someone having a GID diagnosis based on these subcriteria clearly differs from a person who identifies completely with the other gender, can only relax when permanently living in the other gender role, has a strong aversion against the sex characteristics of his/her body, and wants to adjust his/her body as much as technically possible in the direction of the desired sex. Those who are distressed by having problems with just one of the two criteria (e.g., feeling uncomfortable living as a conventional man or woman) will have a GIDNOS diagnosis. This is highly confusing for clinicians. It perpetuates the search for the “true transsexual” only, in order to identify the right candidates for hormone and surgical treatment instead of facilitating clinicians to
assess the type and severity of any type of GI and offer appropriate treatment. Furthermore, in the DSM-IV, gender identity and gender role were described as a dichotomy (either male or female) rather than a multi-category concept or spectrum (Bockting, 2008; Bornstein, 1994; Ekins & King, 2006; Lev, 2007; Røn, 2002). The current formulation
makes more explicit that a conceptualization of GI acknowledging the wide variation of conditions will make it less likely that only one type of treatment is connected to the diagnosis. Taking the above regarding the avoidance of male-female dichotomies into account, in the new formulation, the focus is on the discrepancy between experienced/expressed gender (which can be either male, female, in-between or otherwise) and assigned gender (in most societies male or female) rather than cross-gender identification and same-gender
aversion (Cohen-Kettenis & Pfäfflin, 2009).

17. In referring to secondary sex characteristics, anticipation of the development of secondary sex characteristics has been added for young adolescents. Adolescents increasingly show up at gender identity clinics requesting gender reassignment, before the first signs of puberty are visible (Delemarre-van de Waal & Cohen-Kettenis, 2006; Zucker & Cohen-Kettenis, 2008).

18. In contemporary clinical practice, sexual orientation per se plays only a minor role in treatment protocols or decisions. Also, changes as to the preferred gender of sex partner occur during or after treatment (DeCuypere, Janes, & Rubens, 2005; Lawrence, 2005; Schroder & Carroll, 1999). It can be difficult to assess sexual orientation in individuals with a GI diagnosis, as they preoperatively might give incorrect information in order to be approved for hormonal and surgical treatment (Lawrence, 1999). Because sexual orientation
subtyping is of interest to researchers in the field, it is recommended that reference to it be addressed in the text, but not as a specifier. It should also be assessed as a dimensional construct.

19. The subworkgroup has had extensive discussion about the placement of GI in the nomenclature for DSM-V, as the meta-structure of the entire manual is under review. The subworkgroup questions the rationale for the current DSM-IV chapter Sexual and Gender Identity Disorders, which contains three major classes of diagnoses: sexual dysfunctions, paraphilias, and gender identity disorders (see Meyer-Bahlburg, 2009a). Various alternative options to the current placement are under consideration.

References

Bockting, W. O. (2008). Psychotherapy and the real-life experience:  From gender dichotomy to gender diversity.Sexologies, 17, 211-224.

Bornstein, K. (1994). Gender outlaw: On men, women and the rest of us. London: Routledge.

Bradley, S. J., Blanchard, R., Coates, S., Green, R., Levine, S. B., Meyer-Bahlburg, H. F. L., et al. (1991). Interim report of the DSM-IV subcommittee on gender identity disorders. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 20, 333-343.

Cohen-Kettenis, P. T. (2005). Gender change in 46,XY persons with 5α-reductase-2-deficiency and 17β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase-3 deficiency. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 34, 399-410.

Cohen-Kettenis, P. T., & Pfäfflin, F. (2009). The DSM diagnostic criteria for adolescents and adults. Archives of Sexual Behavior, doi: 10.1007/s10508-009-9562-y.

Cohen-Kettenis, P. T., & van Goozen, S. H. M. (1997). Sex reassignment of adolescent transsexuals: A follow-up study. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 36, 263-271.

De Cuypere, G., Janes, C., & Rubens, R. (1995). Psychosocial functioning of transsexuals in Belgium. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 91, 180-184.

Delemarre-van de Waal, H. A., & Cohen-Kettenis, P. T. (2006). Clinical management of gender identity disorder in adolescents: A protocol on psychological and paediatric endocrinology aspects. European Journal of Endocrinology, 155(Suppl. 1), S131-S137.

Deogracias, J. J., Johnson, L. L., Meyer-Bahlburg, H. F. L., Kessler, S. J., Schober, J. M., & Zucker, K. J. (2007). The Gender Identity/Gender Dysphoria Questionnaire for Adolescents and Adults. Journal of Sex Research, 44, 370-379.

Dessens, A. B., Slijper, F. M. E., & Drop, S. L. S. (2005). Gender dysphoria and gender change in chromosomal females with congenital adrenal hyperplasia. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 34, 389-397.

Ekins, R., & King, D. (2006). The transgender phenomenon. London, CA: Sage.

Green, R. (1987). The “sissy-boy syndrome” and the development of homosexuality. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

Johnson, L. L., Bradley, S. J., Birkenfeld-Adams, A. S., Radzins Kuksis, M. A., Maing, D. M., & Zucker, K. J. (2004). A parent-report Gender Identity Questionnaire for Children. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 33, 105-116.

Lawrence, A. A. (1999). [Letter to the Editor]. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 28, 581-583.

Lawrence, A. A. (2005). Sexuality before and after male-to-female sex reassignment surgery. Archives of Sexual Behavior 34, 147-166.

Lev, A. I. (2007). Transgender communities: Developing identity through connection. In K. J. Bieschke, R. M. Perez, & K. A. Debord (Eds.), Handbook of counseling and psychotherapy with lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender clients(2nd ed., pp. 147-175). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Mazur, T. (2005). Gender dysphoria and gender change in androgen insensitivity or micropenis. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 34, 411-421.

Meyer-Bahlburg, H. F. L. (1994). Intersexuality and the diagnosis of gender identity disorder. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 23, 21-40

Meyer-Bahlburg, H. F. L. (2005). Gender identity outcome in female-raised 46,XY persons with penile agenesis, cloacal exstrophy of the bladder, or penile ablation. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 34, 423-438.

Meyer-Bahlburg, H. F. L. (2009a). From mental disorder to iatrogenic hypogonadism: Dilemmas in conceptualizing gender identity variants as psychiatric conditions. Archives of Sexual Behavior, doi: 10.1007/s10508-009-9532-4.

Meyer-Bahlburg, H. F. L. (2009b). Variants of gender differentiation in somatic disorders of sex development: Recommendations for Version 7 of the World Professional Association for Transgendered Health’s Standards of Care.International Journal of Transgenderism, 11, 226-237.

Nuttbrock, L., Hwahng, S., Bockting, W., Rosenblum, A., Mason, H., Macri, M., et al. (2009). Psychiatric impact of gender-related abuse across the life course of male to female transgender persons. Journal of Sex Research, doi: 10.1080/00224-490903062258.

Røn K. (2002). ‘Either/or’ and ‘both/neither’: Discursive tensions in transgender politics. Signs, 27, 501-522.

Schroder, M., & Carroll, R. (1999). Sexological outcomes of gender reassignment surgery. Journal of Sex Education and Therapy, 24, 137-146.

Singh, D., Deogracias J. J., Johnson, L. L., Bradley, S. J., Kibblewhite, S. J., Owen-Anderson, A., et al. (2010). The Gender Identity/Gender Dysphoria Questionnaire for Adolescents and Adults: Further validity evidence. Journal of Sex Research, 47, 49-58.

Sohn, M., & Bosinski, H. A. G. (2007). Gender identity disorders: Diagnostic and surgical aspects. Journal of Sexual Medicine, 4, 1193-1208.

Vance, S., Cohen-Kettenis, P.T., Drescher, J., Meyer-Bahlburg, H. F. L., Pfäfflin, F., & Zucker, K. J. (in press). Transgender advocacy groups’ opinions on the current DSM gender identity disorder diagnosis: Results from an international survey. International Journal of Transgenderism.

Winters, K. (2005). Gender dissonance: Diagnostic reform of gender identity disorder for adults. Journal of Psychology and Human Sexuality, 17, 71-89.

Winters, K. (2008). Gender madness in American psychiatry: Essays from the struggle for dignity. Dillon, CO: GID Reform Advocates.

Zucker, K. J. (1992). Gender identity disorder. In S. R. Hooper, G. W. Hynd, & R. E. Mattison (Eds.), Child psychopathology: Diagnostic criteria and clinical assessment (pp. 305-342). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

Zucker, K. J. (2006). Gender identity disorder. In D. A. Wolfe & E. J. Mash (Eds.), Behavioral and emotional disorders in adolescents: Nature, assessment, and treatment (pp. 535-562). New York: Guilford Press.

Zucker, K. J. (2009). The DSM diagnostic criteria for gender identity disorder in children. Archives of Sexual Behavior, doi: 10.1007/s10508-009-9540-4.

Zucker, K. J., & Cohen-Kettenis, P. T. (2008). Gender identity disorder in children and adolescents. In D. L. Rowland & L. Incrocci (Eds.), Handbook of sexual and gender identity disorders (pp. 376-422). New York: Wiley & Sons.

Zucker, K. J., Green, R., Bradley, S. J., Williams, K., Rebach, H. M., & Hood, J. E. (1998). Gender identity disorder of childhood: Diagnostic issues. In T. A. Widiger, A. J. Frances, H. A. Pincus, R. Ross, M. B. First, W. Davis, & M. Kline (Eds.), DSM-IV sourcebook (Vol. 4, pp. 503-512). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association.

…..

http://www.dsm5.org/ProposedRevisions/Pages/proposedrevision.aspx?rid=193#

302.85
Gender Identity Disorder in Adolescents or Adults

SEVERITY

For Adolescents and Adults

Please complete the following questions: [Note to Task Force—these first 4 questions are preliminary; the corresponding dimensional questions for the categorical diagnosis are on the next page]

1. My current legal sex or gender (e.g., as listed under “sex” on my passport or driver’s license, also called “assigned” gender) is:

a. Female
b. Male
c. Other (describe): _________________

2. My confidence that I really am what my legal “sex” states (namely,
a girl/woman or boy/man) is:

a. None
b. Mild
c. Moderate
d. Strong
e. Very Strong

3. The way that I experience and express my true gender compared to my legal sex or gender is:

a. Not at all different
b. Mildly different
c. Moderately different
d. Strongly different
e. Very Strongly different

4. I am distressed by feeling different from my legal sex or gender:

a. None
b. Mild
c. Moderate
d. Strong
e. Very Strong

Note to the Task Force: Definitions will be provided for primary and secondary sex characteristics and “assigned sex” and “assigned gender.” Questions A1-A6 are the dimensional metrics for the corresponding categorical criteria.

For Questions 1-8, please circle the letter next to the statement that applies to you the best.

A1. Over the past 6 months, how intense was your discomfort because your primary and/or secondary sex characteristics do not match your gender identity?

None
Mild
Moderate
Strong
Very Strong

A2. Over the past 6 months, how intense was your desire to be rid of your primary and/or secondary sex characteristics because they do not match your gender identity?

None
Mild
Moderate
Strong
Very Strong

A3. Over the past 6 months, how intense was your desire for the primary and/or secondary sex characteristics of the other gender?

None
Mild
Moderate
Strong
Very Strong

A4. Over the past 6 months, how intense was your desire to be of the other gender (or some gender different from your assigned gender)?

a. None
b. Mild
c. Moderate
d. Strong
e. Very Strong

A5. Over the past 6 months, how intense was your desire to be treated as the other gender (or some gender different from your assigned gender)?

a. None
b. Mild
c. Moderate
d. Strong
e. Very Stong

A6. Over the past 6 months, how intense was your conviction that you have the typical feelings and reactions of the other gender (or some gender different from your assigned gender)?

a. None
b. Mild
c. Moderate
d. Strong
e. Very Strong

7. Over the past 6 months, how would you describe your sexual attraction to other people?

a. Sexually attracted to males
b. Sexually attracted to females
c. Sexually attracted to both males and females
d. Sexually attracted to neither males or females
e. Other (please describe): _______________________________________

8. How old were you when you first had the strong desire to be, or to live in the gender role, of the other gender (or some gender different from your assigned gender)?

a. Age 5 years or younger
b. Between 6 and 9 years
c. Between 10 and 12 years
d. Between 13 and 17 years
e. Age 18 years or older

…..

http://www.dsm5.org/ProposedRevisions/Pages/proposedrevision.aspx?rid=193#

302.85
Gender Identity Disorder in Adolescents or Adults

DSM-IV

Gender Identity Disorder

A. A strong and persistent cross-gender identification (not merely a desire for any perceived cultural advantages of being the other sex).

In children, the disturbance is manifested by four (or more) of the following:

1. Repeatedly stated desire to be, or insistence that he or she is, the other sex

2. In boys, preference for cross-dressing or simulating female attire; in girls, insistence on wearing only stereotypical masculine clothing

3. Strong and persistent preferences for cross-sex roles in make-believe play or persistent fantasies of being the other sex

4. Intense desire to participate in the stereotypical games and pastimes of the other sex

5. Strong preference for playmates of the other sex

In adolescents and adults, the disturbance is manifested by symptoms such as a stated desire to be the other sex, frequent passing as the other sex, desire to live or be treated as the other sex, or the conviction that he or she has the typical feelings and reactions of the other sex.

B. Persistent discomfort with his or her sex or sense of inappropriateness in the gender role of that sex.

In children, the disturbance is manifested by any of the following:

In boys, assertion that his penis or testes are disgusting or will disappear or assertion that it would be better not to have a penis, or aversion toward rough-and-tumble play and rejection of male stereotypical toys, games, and activities;

In girls, rejection of urinating in a sitting position, assertion that she has or will grow a penis, or assertion that she does not want to grow breasts or menstruate, or marked aversion toward normative feminine clothing.

In adolescents and adults, the disturbance is manifested by symptoms such as preoccupation with getting rid of primary and secondary sex characteristics (e.g., request for hormones, surgery, or other procedures to physically alter sexual characteristics to simulate the other sex) or belief that he or she was born the wrong sex.

C. The disturbance is not concurrent with a physical intersex condition.

D. The disturbance causes clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.

Code based on current age

Specify if (for sexually mature individuals):

Sexually Attracted to Males

Sexually Attracted to Females

Sexually Attracted to Both

Sexually Attracted to Neither

–

© 2010 American Psychiatric Association.

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phone:              703-907-7300        703-907-7300 email: apa@psych.org

Republished with the  permission of Kelley Winters:

Kelley Winters

February 8, 2010

This Blog is not a forum for open ended discussions.

The open ended forum for anything goes discussions is called the Usenet.

A Blog is not a mailing list.  It has articles chosen by an editor and often written by that editor or by people chosen by that editor.

Some Blogs are more open to allowing comments from any and all than others are.

This is my blog.  I exercise the editorial control.

It is bad form to come here and speak negatively regarding people I consider friends.

I do not encourage ad hominem attacks.

Some people are on permanent moderation because of either pissing me off or because of their general reputations.

The wonderful thing about the internet and world of blogging is that if you do not like my rules you are free to start your own blog.

Of course that is more work than just trolling and using other people’s blogs that they have worked to create to engage in irrelevant to a given thread attacks on people not mentioned in the article that headed up the thread.

The Christo-Fascist and Right Wing Bigots  show their un-American colors once again by attempting to deny their fellow citizens their Constitutional rights of equality.

From The Iowa Independent

http://iowaindependent.com/27053/one-iowa-warns-of-new-push-to-ban-gay-marriage