Women Born Transsexual

See http://aebrain.blogspot.com/2009/03/developments-at-apa.html

None of the people in any of the symposia at the next American Psychiatric Association  annual meeting have a high opinion of Dr Zucker.
Quite the contrary, and some of the presentations are going to blow the whole CAMH work out of the water with solid science.

I know science and medicine are supposed to be objective areas with no politics, but being a human activities, they are.

I consider it quite significant that one of the two symposia questions whether GID belongs in the DSM at all, and the second makes a solid case for biological causation,

I get the distinct impression that AGP/BBL is on the nose with the APA, as it doesn’t actually fit the facts, and the proponents are now regarded as dubious, or at least “controversial”, and not in a good way.

Zoe Brain

A few years ago I was involved in arguments with sisters who were going to gynecologists and getting Pap Smears.  I mentioned that I had gone to one regarding possible exposure to an STD and that even knowing my medical history she performed a Pap Smear which I refused to pay for.

Knowing a bit about what the test was for and having a copy of “Our Bodies Ourselves laying around I knew what this article in the current Newsweek points out:

NEWSWEEK

Thank God doctors in the United States are free to treat patients as they deem best, free from interference by faceless bureaucrats. If bureaucrats were in charge, physicians might have to prescribe the newest hypertension drugs as a first-line therapy, do MRIs to diagnose back pain and give regular Pap tests to women who have had total hysterectomies. Oh, wait—they do. All these medical practices are common, despite rigorous studies showing how useless or wrongheaded they are. Definitive studies over many years have shown that old-line diuretics are safer and equally effective for high blood pressure compared with newer drugs, for instance, and that MRIs for back pain lead to unnecessary surgery. And those Pap tests? Total hysterectomy removes the uterus and cervix. A Pap test screens for cervical cancer. No cervix, no cancer. Yet a 2004 study found that some 10 million women lacking a cervix were still getting Pap tests.

On the otherhand at the time of these arguments I had become involved in the Breast Cancer Awareness Activities in LA.  Running in the Susan B Komen 5K etc.  At a time when AIDS was devouring all the available medical resources in the L/G Communities across the nation women were dying of undiagnosed breast cancer.

I had lumpy implants that made the administration of a mammogram impossible.  The lack of health insurance often means putting of seeking medical attention until neglect forces issues to a crisis.

In 2005 one of my lumpy implants tried to force its way out and I had them removed in an emergency procedure. 10 days from initial physician contact to post-op. I had a woman doctor who specializes in breast surgery. When she looked at the tissues the implants had been encased in she told my partner that I likely had cancer and was going to need a double mastectomy. But instead of doing it then and there she was going to send biopsies off to the lab.

I lucked out.  I didn’t have cancer the nasty tissue that she removed was just scar tissue.

The point being get the tests you need not the ones you don’t.  We have some special needs and we don’t get points for ignoring them.

I’m very likely to disappoint a lot of you who are expecting me to be much more anti-transgenders than I am.

As I said (and my life partner as well as others involved in starting the whole WBT meme) much of out anger could be resolved by respecting boundaries and the different needs of different groups instead of erasing post-SRS women’s lives under that umbrella of transgender.

I am often blamed and cited as saying harsher things than generally reflect my overall opinions on a number of issues.  I’ve also been very argumentative at times particularly back in the 1990s when I was still drinking.  Hell even now I sometimes say stuff I regret when I get involved in fights.  This isn’t helped by having a serious potty mouth.

To make one thing clear I support all transinclusive hate crimes bills and a transinclusive ENDA.  I support the legalization of Same Sex Marriage.

Part of what led me to feeling the need for making this statement was   the death of  Jennifer Gale, a homeless transgender veteran who died of exposure in the streets of Austin a couple of months ago.  Now I am of the opinion that no veteran should ever be allowed to become homeless and that the richest should be taxed to pay for this.

Something else came to mind and that is a lot of WBTs can just assimilate and some have far better paying jobs than I do. What could we do that involves only sending a check or even something through Paypal.  Reed Erickson many years ago started a foundation.  It funded the NTCU in San Francisco where I worked way back when.

Reed didn’t need to do that yet he felt it would be a good thing.

I have watched over the past few year as transkids have gotten murdered as soon as they came out.  Before they ever had a chance to learn what was dangerous and what was not as dangerous in the way of behavior.  As the rap goes we are not socialized and it is hard to become socialized without living or doing.

As for me I’m done with snotty behavior on both sides of the question of out vs stealth. The reality for most of us lies somewhere in-between.  Further if you are posting to a trans anything list, Usenet, blogs or running your own blog any claims you make to being Stealth better have the same level of irony I associate with Calpurnia and Andrea’s “Deep Stealth Productions” either that or there must be a sense of privacy that doesn’t exist in public forums.

Mostly I feel you don’t have the right to instruct other sisters on their right to live their lives as they choose.  That extends to Kate Bornstein too and means I think putting down someone by calling them a “Professional Trannie” sucks.  I’ll make an exception on this rule regarding Ann Coulter and her alleged connection to a transprefixed word.

The same goes for people who are in the public too.  Y’all don’t get to slam folks who go off and don’t post to the afore mentioned forums.

When it comes to relationships…  Almost everyone of us has had a rocky history.  Some of us are straight, some lesbian, some bisexual and some are asexual. An awful lot of us live lonely lives with no one.  Same Sex Marriage is beneficial to all of us no matter what since it prevents any marriages we have from before being challenged, any heterosexual marriages we may enter in to or any same sex marriage we may want to enter into become permitted and can not be challenged.  Now I’ve heard some sisters say, “I don’t want a same sex marriage.”  Well that isn’t how this works.  There are no separate but equal forms for either heterosexual or same sex couples.

Besides those same Reich Wing Christo-Fascists who are harping on about same sex marriage would nulify any right we have to marry anyone of either sex if they could.  Indeed the only people we might be allowed to marry if they have their way are F to Ms and even that is doubtful.

Being pissed off by some of the politics of transgender doesn’t mean I hate people who are transgender or wish to throw them under the bus.  That takes us back to mutual respect for differences.  Respect for each other and where we are coming from is a two way streets, a give and take.  Some of them do have a point when they argue that the Reich Wing Christo-Fascists do not distinguish between us.  Neither do the cops and way too often neither do the courts.

And I know I’ve disappointed those who expect me to be a lot more anti-transgender that I am.  Once the anger wore off and the thinking began I softened.  It is sort of like the anger I felt right after 9/11 that made me real right wing for a year or two.  Anger clouds the mind and prevents clear thinking.

From The Advocate on line

A nasty health regulation that the Bush administration tried to impose before bolting from the White House may be rescinded by the Obama administration.

Dubbed the “conscience” rule, when issued in December, if effectively allowed receptionists, insurance claims managers, and other people marginally related to the health care industry to refuse to provide information, referrals, and other care based on their religious or moral beliefs.

The regulation lets the government cut off funding to health care providers that do not allow their employees to abstain from work they find objectionable.

The “conscience” rule came at the urging of conservatives and was considered a substantial victory for the pro-life movement.

“We are proposing rescinding the Bush rule,” said a Human and Human Services department official in a Washington Post interview.

The transgender community hailed the decision. Michael Silverman, the executive director, of the Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund, noted that killing this regulation is very important since trans men and women face an inordinate amount of hostility and discrimination in hospitals and doctors’ offices.