Friday, August 31, 2007
"Whoever he becomes, that's OK because that's who he is"
Special to The Seattle Times
Zach likes his fancy gloves with a ruffled trim. He first asked his mother if he could have a dress last summer, when he was 4½. "After the third request, I thought, 'I'm not going to put him off anymore,' " says his mother, Rebecca.
Information on the Web
Children's National Medical Center: www.dcchildrens.com
Gender Odyssey Family: www.genderodysseyfamily.com
Gender Spectrum Education and Training: www.genderspectrum.org
Starts today
Gender Odyssey Family, through Monday at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center, 800 Convention Place, Seattle. Admission at the door is $150-$200 for adults, $100 for teens 13-17, free for children
12 and under. Childcare is provided on-site. (www.genderodysseyfamily.com)
Five-year-old Zach stands barefoot in the middle of his bedroom, faced with a dilemma: Should he wear the pink dress or the powder blue? Both are long princess-style affairs, the first displayed on a hanger held by his mother, Rebecca, the second, slightly wrinkled, pulled from the top of a dresser by Zach himself.
"Or would you rather wear your witch's outfit?" his mother asks him, nodding at a black polyester costume in the closet, its neckline trimmed in orange.
"No," Zach says. "I think I want the blue one." He dashes out of the room with dress in hand, returning half a minute later, his pink T-shirt replaced by a tight crushed-velvet bodice. Zach bounds around the room, smiling, wisps of blond hair breaking free from the French braid that trails down his back.
It's that playful exuberance that Rebecca and her husband, John, hope their son never loses. "But we're concerned that this piece of him will get lost, if other children aren't able to respond to him well," says Rebecca, 39, who asked that her family's real names not be used.
Of course, most parents dream of the best for their children. But Rebecca and her husband are a certain kind of parent: They're raising a boy who wants to dress in girls' clothes. And that places them in largely uncharted territory. Is this a passing phase or something central to Zach's identity?
A compass of sorts may await the family this weekend, when mother and son participate in a local conference called Gender Odyssey Family. The event at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center will be Seattle's first conference for parents raising "gender-variant" kids, or those children who fall outside what's traditionally defined as "boy" or "girl."
The conference will offer 23 sessions over the course of the weekend, some geared toward entire families and others focused specifically on gender-variant teens.
One family workshop, titled "A Dad's Place," will provide a forum for fathers to discuss the feelings brought about by raising such children. Another family workshop will help parents determine how — and when — to disclose their child's gender variance to others.
Experts in such fields as pediatrics, endocrinology, psychotherapy, gender studies and communications, and parents of gender-variant children will lead workshops. . . .
Trans week in Seattle
Trans tax trial concludes
ejacobs@baywindows.com
The United States Tax Court resumed hearing testimony Aug. 23 in Rhiannon O’Donnabhain’s lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for denying her a medical deduction for the cost of her sex reassignment surgery. The IRS’s expert witness, forensic psychiatrist Park Dietz, testified that he does not believe Gender Identity Disorder (GID) meets the medical definition of a disease and that IRS regulations only permit medical deductions for treatments related to diseases or injuries; he argued that taking a medical deduction for sex reassignment surgery to treat GID violates IRS regulations. Dietz defined a disease as a pathology that has a biological basis. He was the final witness to testify in the trial, and prior to his appearance the court heard three days of testimony from witnesses July 24-26 (see “Experts at tax trial explain gender identity disorder,” July 26, and “Tussle over tax deduction continues,” Aug. 2).
Dietz, who has consulted on a number of high profile court cases including the trials of Jeffrey Dahmer, the Menendez brothers and the Unabomber, told Judge Joseph H. Gale that GID is “a serious personal problem. Whether it would best be understood as a psychological problem or a social psychological problem or a social problem remains to be seen.” He said it is appropriate for people with GID to seek medical treatment for the disorder, but he said differences in gender identity are “one of the variations in the human condition” and that people who fall outside the conventional labels of male and female should not be viewed as diseased.
Dietz attempted to link the GID diagnosis to the treatment of homosexuality as a disorder prior to its removal from the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) in 1973. He claimed that at one time in history it was useful to the gay community to have homosexuality classified as a disorder because it took homosexuality out of the criminal arena. Contrary to Dietz’s reading of gay history, the laws in many states criminalized homosexual acts long after homosexuality was removed from the DSM; the U.S. Supreme Court waited until 2003 to strike down the nation’s sodomy laws. Dietz said eventually the classification of homosexuality as a disorder outlived its usefulness, and he said that while the GID diagnosis allows transgender people access to medical treatment, it also stigmatizes them.
“Only by shedding that illness metaphor was it possible to look at gay people as full humans and not impaired. And ultimately I think transgender people deserve the same consideration,” Dietz told the court.
On cross-examination Ben Klein, a member of O’Donnabhain’s legal team and an attorney for Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders (GLAD), pressed Dietz on whether GID should be viewed as a legitimate mental disorder and emphasized the psychological trauma experienced by people with GID. He asked Dietz if GID is associated with suicidality, auto-castration or penectomy, which means the removal of the penis. On the first day of the trial O’Donnabhain testified that prior to her sex reassignment surgery there was an incident where she stood in her kitchen gripping a knife and contemplating cutting off her own penis.
Dietz responded that GID is associated with all three conditions or acts described by Klein but that there is less of an association than mental health officials once believed. . . .
Private School Keeps Transgender Teacher On Staff
(08/30/07 -- DURHAM) - For 12-years a band and music teacher named Leslie Webster has taught at the Duke School for Children - a private kindergarten through eighth grade school near the Duke University campus. Now Ms. Webster has become Mr. Webster and at least one parent of 9-year-old is very concerned.
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"It should not be a topic of discussion, especially something as harsh as a gender change," concerned parent Jim Gossett said.
But this week, the school sent a letter home to parents saying teachers would discuss the sex change with students who were taught by Webster last year.
"Every so often a community has the opportunity to test its core values," school officials stated in the letter, "Duke School is now facing such a test."
"I'm a parent of two children at the school. I think the school handled it exactly right." Erwin Chemerinsky, a law professor at Duke usually comments on the U.S. Constitution. Now he's speaking up for his children's transgender teacher.
"It used to be that schools made teachers leave the classroom when their pregnancy began to show. And it used to be said that children couldn't deal with gay and lesbian teachers. We look back at those things and it seems so anachronistic. Likewise, students and children can deal fine with transgender teachers. It's the person that matters in the classroom. Not the gender of the teacher," Chemerinsky said.
Trans Filmmaker Reinvents the Teen Comedy
Published: August 30, 2007
Actress-Filmmaker M.C. Brennan has exciting news. After her transgender teen comedy, Dramatis Personae, won an Outfest Screenwriting Lab fellowship and was given a staged reading—with Exes and Oh’s auteur Lee Friedlander directing Nip/Tuck’s Willam Belli in the lead role—things are really heating up.
“The Outfest experience led to a lot of interest from producers and now I’m in the process of preparing to direct the script as my first feature! There are some really exciting folks who’ve expressed an interest in being a part of it, and hopefully over the next couple of months…those pieces will fall into place.”
The Arizona native, who’s lived in San Francisco, Seattle and Los Angeles, began making short films while still in high school, while she was acting in local theatrical productions, commercials and 1985’s gender bending flick Just One of The Guys. The multi-talented trans woman has covered sports for Phoenix’s LGBT Echo magazine, designed posters for Dr. Demento, written over 150 songs and recorded five full-length albums.
Lately, Brennan has been experiencing a cinematic career revival. Her first full-length screenplay, The People’s Choice, won several awards, she appears in 2007’s lesbian Itty Bitty Titty Committee and Jana Marcus’s acclaimed photographic celebration of trans lives, Transfigurations (currently showing at Seattle’s Gender Odyssey Conference).
Brennen says she’s particularly thrilled with the reception her latest screenplay, Dramatis Personae, received at Outfest. “It’s very exciting and very flattering. [The Outfest Screenwriting Lab] was, by far, the most knowledgeable, most supportive environment I’ve ever experienced.”
Based loosely on Brennan’s own experiences, Dramatis Personae—which Brennan describes as “Pretty In Pink meets Hedwig and the Angry Inch”—revolves around a transgender high schooler from the wrong side of the tracks, and her riches-to-rags, new kid in town love interest.
Disappointed with “what passes for teen comedies today,” Brennan reminisces, “We had...the great John Hughes movies like Sixteen Candles…[that] spoke to the real truth of growing up and finding yourself…[and] had at least some queer subtext. I wanted to write a very funny, borderline filthy teen comedy that put the queer characters front and center.”
The screenwriter—who once wrote a four-book series spoofing secret agent archetypes, then co-founded the satirical Loon News and contributed to Comic News—finds inspiration in her own life. “From an early age I recognized the cosmic absurdity of my situation, and I think the ability to laugh at myself and at life’s little ironies is one of the reasons I’m still on this nutty planet.” . . .
Ten Money Questions for Jamison Green
Filed under Ten Money Questions
Jamison Green
Queercents strives to represent diversity in the LGBT community and in my opinion the trans voice and view is one where we have come up short. So when I asked Helen Boyd if she could introduce me to a few thought leaders in the trans community, she put me in touch with Jamison Green. I was thrilled when he responded and graciously accepted our request for an interview.
Jamison is an internationally respected leader within the transgender movement and has written books, won awards and appeared in numerous documentaries. I asked him to get personal about money and share his thoughts about the financial issues that impact the trans community at large. I enjoyed this thoughtful conversation. I’m sure you will too.
1. There has been much debate in the press about Who Pays for Sex Reassignment Surgery. What’s your opinion on the topic?
It’s easy for people to get all bent out of shape about the idea of paying for someone else’s stuff, no matter what it is. The issue, as I see it, is not about whether taxpayers should cover particular medical expenses for prisoners, or whether we should advocate an “I did it on my own, so others should do it on their own, too” social philosophy. The issue is whether we as a society include sex reassignment as a covered medical expense (in insurance or government-funded contexts) because it is a human need, or whether we exclude it because we have a moral objection to it. I think our current medical insurance system in this country is seriously broken and truly serves only the affluent, but that is a different topic.
Given the current system, the way insurance works (whether it is taxpayer-funded Medicare or private insurance schemes) is that it purports to reduce costs by spreading them throughout an insured pool of individuals. Looked at in this way, the cost of surgical sex reassignment is much less than many other less rare and more expensive treatments that are routinely provided, such as open heart surgery or spinal disc repair, etc.
We have no difficulty justifying these expenses, but we have a lot of resistance to paying for someone’s sex change. Why is that? When we advocated for insurance coverage for transgendered and transsexual city and county employees in San Francisco, the amount that every covered person in the plan had to pay for trans treatments was less than one fifth of the cost that every covered person had to pay to provide substance abuse treatments for subscribers. It is just as easy to get angry about paying for someone else’s substance abuse treatment, but no one complains about that. So, without belaboring the point, it seems to me the issue is less one of “how do we divide the finite resource pie?” than it is one of “which people matter?” So long as trans people are regarded as exotic, perverted, or disposable, it will be easy to complain about sharing our scarce resources with them. My goal is to shift this social paradigm so that no one has to suffer from this kind of prejudice.
2. What is your most significant memory about money?
When I was in my early 30s, my partner, Samantha, and I saved for two years to have a month-long trip to Europe, which we took in 1982. My parents had always said that it was extremely expensive to go to Europe, and I had this idea that I’d be extremely lucky to get ever get there, but once we’d made up our collective mind that the trip was a priority, Samantha and I were able to commit to the sacrifices saving that much money required. We weren’t making much money then, and it was a struggle to save $5,000.00, enough to cover our trip and maintain our apartment, car payment, etc., while we were away. We had a wonderful time, managed our daily expenses well, and came back with $1000.00 in hand. It was then that I realized that I had much more capacity than I had previously imagined, and that I really could do things that I wanted to do if I committed myself to my goals.
3. What is your worst habit around finances?
In spite of what I just said above, my worst habit is spending money too easily. I’m quite good at it, actually. I am generous to a fault, and somewhat self-indulgent, too, and I am inclined to spend money when I have it, even though I know I should be saving, especially as I am getting closer to retirement age.
4. In your book, Becoming a Visible Man, you discuss many of the challenges of the female-to-male transsexual experience. Can you share thoughts about how this personally impacted your financial status?
Becoming a Visible Man When I undertook all the medical expense of transition and surgical sex reassignment, in the years 1988 through 1991, I was very fortunate to have a management position at a leading computer technology design and manufacturing firm. I managed to have some of the minor costs (psychological counseling and hormones) covered by insurance, though on claim forms I did not describe my condition as anything having to do with transsexualism, which was excluded from treatment.
Fortunately, most of what transsexual people need in the way of medical care is not unusual, and is available to non-transsexual people (a fact that underlies one of the main arguments I have made for years about the discriminatory exclusion statements that prevent transsexual people from openly receiving medical care), so it never raised a flag.
When it came to my genital reconstruction surgery and medically necessary hysterectomy, I needed to borrow $10,000.00 from my mother to cover the $22,000.00 payment that I was required to make at the hospital the morning of my surgery (”cashier’s check only, if you please — we don’t want any deadbeat transsexuals stiffing us for their expenses!”).
Of course I worried about potential job discrimination, but, again, I was lucky. I approached the matter as if it was nothing out of the ordinary, generally a private matter, but nothing to be ashamed of, and besides, I was at work to do a job, one at which I was capable and competent, so I just made sure that I focused on the job, believing that if I did I would not be subject to dismissal.
As it happened, I did become downwardly mobile, but that was my own choice as I opted in 1992 to take on more of an activist role, and became a part-time freelance writer to finance myself as I built up the educational organization FTM International through 1999. . . .
Cross dressing pupil allowed to attend school
03:23 PM CDT on Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Intersex: Case studies
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| 1932 Olympic gold medallist Stella Walsh had both male and female characteristics. Image: Bettyman/Corbis The Western world defines gender in two distinct categories. But in reality, gender is a spectrum. Why does society, and even science, struggle to understand and accept those who are somewhere between male and female? This article is a boxout that goes with our feature – Intersex: The space between the genders, read the full article here. The writer HERCULINE BARBARIN was a 19th century French hermaphrodite who was treated as a female at birth but later redesignated a man after a scandalous affair and a medical examination. A hermaphrodite, she started her life as a pious girl in a Catholic orphanage, growing into a bewildered adolescent enchanted by the ripening bodies of her classmates, and becoming a passionate lover of a schoolmistress. After the affair was revealed she was reclassified as a man. . . . |
Crowds cause sex change
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| A school of bluehead wrasse containing a mix of females and 'sneaky' males that look identical to females. Image: James Cook University SYDNEY, 11 September 2006: Sex changes are common among coral reef fish - but gender can depend on who's around, according to a recent study by a team of Australian and American scientists. Philip Munday of James Cook University and colleagues from the University of California Santa Barbara have found that juvenile bluehead wrasse choose their sex according to the crowd they grow up with. "It turns out that social effects are really important to whether a bluehead wrasse becomes a male or a female when it is young," says Munday. "These fish are very sensitive to their social surroundings which ultimately determine whether they will become male or female." . . . |
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Thriller with a Message
Dee McLachlan (third from left) hopes the audience realises the types of cities we’re really living in.
The sinister workings of illegal prostitution have burdened our detention centres and courts for many years. Since the recent uncovering of sex trafficking in Australia, transsexual director and writer Dee McLachlan has embarked on a creative journey to tackle the issue.
Her latest film, The Jammed,captures the true essence of Melbourne and Sydney’s sex trade.
“I once read that 40 girls were being held captive in Kew – an upper class suburb of Melbourne. I was in such disbelief that a thing like this was possible,” McLachlan said.
“My script is mild compared to what really goes on. A large percentage of the girls don’t know that they’re coming to Australia to become prostitutes and they’re treated like dirt.
“I remember reading one transcript where a girl was repeatedly raped until she was broken in and agreed to do it. Some girls who refuse are locked away for weeks on end and fed pizza under the door.”
McLachlan said the demand for prostitutes in Australia and the lack of local girls willing to go into the business were key reasons why women were trafficked into the country and forced to serve as sex slaves. She said the problem was more pronounced in America where up to 50,000 women a year are illegally brought in to work as prostitutes.
“Our government is in denial. It’s much easier to deport them than to sort out the problems and see them as victims,” McLachlan said. “Many don’t testify because they fear the consequences and retribution on their family.
“Some girls won’t testify even with [a 30-day temporary] visa. They say, ‘Why should we help you and get our lives threatened at the other end?’ Other countries have amended the laws and the victims get residency and protection, which helps when testifying.”
McLachlan said The Jammed took just 19 days to film. The script centres on a Chinese mother who comes to Australia to find her missing daughter. She enlists the help of an innocent bystander and together they rescue three girls from a trafficking syndicate.
It is a graphic and confronting film, which contains rape and physical abuse scenes. But it is also an emotional movie that taps into the strength of relationships, desperation and a need to survive. . . .
Trans Health Conference Sept. 5-8, 2007
The theme of the conference is “Looking to the Future: Environment, Transplantation, Telepsychiatry.” Among the forums to be discussed at the symposium are “On the Calculation of the Prevalence of Transsexualism” and “The Impacts of Gender Policy in Athletics.” See www.wpath.org for more info. |
UK: BBC3 commissions new teen transexual documentary
Gemma Pritchard
BBC3 has commissioned eight documentaries for its third Body Image season, including the story of an 18-year-old trans woman who travels to Thailand to undergo genital surgery.
BBC3 will follow up last season's Lucy: Teen Transsexual with Lucy: Teen Transsexual in Thailand, which continues the story of 18-year-old Lucy Parker as she travels to Thailand to undergo male-to-female genital reconstruction surgery to bring her body into harmony with her gender identity.
Lucy has already undergone two years of hormone treatment, psychological analysis and surgery, making her one of Britain's youngest transsexual women.
The cameras will follow her throughout her surgery in Thailand and painful recovery.
It is one of three documentaries in the season made by UK production company Endemol's Brighter Pictures.
Brighter Pictures has also made Danny: My Secret Female Body (working title), which follows a 22-year-old female-to-male trans man, Danny, who has lived as a man for the past four years.
The documentary follows him as he gets chest reconstruction surgery to remove his breasts.
In the UK, there is estimated to be around 15,000 transsexual people who self-identify as the opposite gender from the physical body they were born with.
Around a third of them have surgery to change their bodies to be the opposite sex. . . .
Onetime JonBenet murder suspect began gender transition
by Ed Walsh
edwalsh94105@yahoo.comThe former suspect in the 1996 murder of 6-year-old beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey told the Bay Area Reporter that he had sought gender reassignment surgery, not because of any driving desire to become a woman, but to help him avoid capture by police.
He also said that a buried "gothic box" exists and that if uncovered, would result in his re-arrest for JonBenet's killing.
"I had one reason and one reason only to change my sex," John Mark Karr said last week in his only Bay Area media interview. "I saw it as an opportunity to change my identity and further evade law enforcement."
Karr, 42, was in Bangkok when he was arrested a year ago this month and extradited to Colorado. The Boulder County district attorney decided not to file murder charges against him after his DNA did not match DNA found at the murder scene. Karr revealed to the B.A.R. that before the DA dropped charges, he agreed to plead guilty to second-degree murder in exchange for avoiding the death penalty. The deal became moot when the DA declined to proceed with the case.
Karr was then extradited to Sonoma County to face 2001 child pornography charges, but those charges were dismissed after prosecutors conceded that they lost Karr's computer that they say had contained child pornography.
At the time of his arrest, Karr said that he had been undergoing hormone replacement therapy and laser treatments to permanently remove facial hair. He had been on track, he said, to get all the surgeries to completely transform into a woman by this summer. . . .
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Trans-Arizona
Our society is fixed on the idea of two genders. What is it like for a student in between?
by Nicole Stewart
published on Wednesday, August 29, 2007
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| Sam Nalven / STATE PRESS MAGAZINE |
On these days, Tran is "Steven."
But on other days, Tran can be spotted strutting in sky-high stilettos and a lace-trimmed tank top. A swaying black miniskirt skims the tops of his thighs. The smudged liner is accented by dark eye shadow, and silver hoop earrings swing breezily from his earlobes.
On these days, Tran is "Tranny."
With a pun intended, Tran's self-assigned nickname classifies him as one of the many young adults identifying themselves as transgender. In Tran's case, the term means that he neither identifies himself as male nor female.
"You can look at this both ways. You can say that I'm neither, [or] you can say that I'm both," he says. "I feel like I'm somewhere in between — where I'm not female, and I'm not male."
Yet the term "transgender" can have a variety of definitions for different people, says Madelaine Adelman, co-chair of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) in Phoenix.
The most common meaning is a person whose gender identity or expression "does not conform to their birth sex," says Adelman, who is also an associate professor in the School of Justice and Social Inquiry. "You may be [physically] identified as a male, but you know in between your ears that you're a girl, and you desire and need to live as a girl would live in that society."
The presence of transgender individuals can be found nationwide. Groups such as GLSEN and the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Questioning and Queer Coalition aim to encourage and support diversity in the community, but a growing presence does not always mean an easy life for a transgender.
In many cases, it's the exact opposite.
Growing up guy
It took Tran 17 years to come to terms with his sexual and gender identity.
"Growing up, I tried to be one of the guys," he says. "They'd sit around and talk about 'chicks' and cars and sports and stuff, but it just wasn't me. I just didn't understand how I could connect with a guy, so, in that sense, I didn't really feel like I was male."
Tran says he kept his identity hidden from his conservative parents, who expected him to take a traditional path in life and to become a doctor. "I think they knew something was different, they just didn't want to think it was [that I am] gay," he says.
Though Tran neither identifies himself as a man or a woman, he says he calls himself gay. "It's the easiest way to help people understand how I feel sexual orientation-wise," he says. . . .
The death of Polk Street
Gentrification is destroying the home of a vibrant, if marginalized, queer community
By Joseph Plaster
Click here to read about the Polk's long, queer history
Kelly Michaels was following the San Francisco dream when she escaped her small Alabama hometown at 17 and hitchhiked westward. It was 1989.
"I had stars in my eyes," Michaels told the Guardian, sitting on the floor of her friend's small single-room occupancy Tenderloin apartment, hints of a Southern drawl now paired with Tammy Faye mascara and bleached-blonde hair. "When you're 16 or 17 and have dreams of being famous, you come to California — and you probably end up on Polk Street in drag."
Michaels arrived on Polk with little more than blue jeans, a bra, and rubber falsies to her name, making ends meet as a street sex worker. It wasn't what she was looking for; the Polk was plagued with drugs and violence. But her dad was embarrassed by his transgendered daughter and didn't her want her back. The neighborhood was a home.
She found a community at fierce Polk Gulch trans and boy-hustler bars like Q.T. and Reflections, where clientele included one "big, tall, black Egyptian transsexual hell-raiser" known to draw a gun. Scores of boy hustlers "coming in daily from the Greyhound station" danced naked on the bars. At the end of the night, Michaels's new family members would pool their money and rent a hotel room for $30.
"The bars were the churches, the sanctuaries," Michaels's friend Terri, an African American man in his 50s, told us. "You weren't really going to be hassled there."
Not any more. "Polk Street is dead," Michaels told us. "Dead as fuck now."
THE NEW POLK STREET
The new kids on the block are calling it "revitalization."
After the three-decades-old gay bar Kimo's is transferred to a new owner at the end of September, there will be only two queer bars left on a street that was San Francisco's gay male center in the 1960s and a gritty, affordable home for low-income queers, trans women, and male sex workers in the following decades. Where scores of hustlers lined up against seedy sex shops and gay bars just a few years ago, crowds of twentysomething Marina look-alikes now clog the sidewalks in front of upscale clubs.
Polk's queer residents and patrons are now being priced and policed out of their neighborhood — and their city — as business and tourism interests continue to eat away at the city's center. Lower Polk Gulch, just blocks north of City Hall and one block east of Van Ness, has in the past few years succumbed to multimillion-dollar businesses, upscale lofts, increased rents at SRO hotels and apartments, and a new million-dollar city streetscape beautification plan. The related increase in policing and new efforts to clean up the street is making the area an unwelcoming place for the marginal queers who for so long called it home.
It has been the most down-and-out segments of the queer population — male sex workers, trannies, young people, poor people of color, and immigrants — who have often been the queer population's boldest and most innovative actors, pushing the movement forward in new ways. What does queer San Francisco lose when our most marginalized members are pushed, policed, and priced out of the city? . . .
The J. Michael Bailey Controversy Over Transsexuality
by: Autumn Sandeen
Tue Aug 28, 2007 at 02:02:14 AM EDT
. . . read all 18+ comments. . .
There are some fair criticisms
...of the methods used to discredit Bailey.
<>Personally, as a transwoman, I find his theories alarming, judgemental, and to be honest, nonsensical.
Alarming because they play to stereotypes, and the notion that anything not heterosexual (read a little more about his theories on homosexuality, too...there's less to any gay friendliness on his part than you might think) is somehow a deviation, in this case to the point of paraphilia. Deviation in our society is somehow considered a bad thing, even though it is a natural part of evolution!
<>To be honest, transsexualism to me, seems like a normal outcome of a certain confluence of biological factors. Paraphilias, IMHO, are few and far between, and don't make sense as identities.<>
<>Maybe there are some autogynephiles, and homosexual transsexuals out there. Fine, I hope they find solace in their lives. The real concern is that his theories will perpetuate needless pain and cause severe stigmatisation for other transwomen (he doesn't address transmen) who do not fit those categories. Personal I question if Drs. BBL et al know about the null hypothesis, or the possibility that they were measuring something else in their carefully selected for studies? Such as symptons, not causation? Or even patterns that are something completely different, but mislabeled due to precognition? Do they know that not that long ago, calling yourself transsexual was as unacceptable as calling yourself a gay man? To an undiscerning public, a gay man might be a pervert (forgive me) but a transwoman was a freak and a pervert as well! Welcome to the closet! I know, because I felt that based on the transsexual lives I saw, and knowing that I was not sexually attracted to men, self destruction was the only answer. I tried to join the army (getting yourself killed also hides your secret forever) yet asthma kept me out (or my poor overworked guardian angel) then tried to do it for myself. Not because I was a gay man, but because I saw no way to be who I felt I was. Finally, nearly self destroying myself stopped working.
<><> But... even for all of the unneeded pain caused transsexuals by such theories, villifying him, and especially attacking his family, is way out of bounds, and only serves to discredit those activists who use that sort of tactic. I'm not saying that all of the charges against Andrea James, Lynn Conway or Dierdre McCloskey are accurate. They are very troubling, and some of them do have real evidence behind them. <>I don't care why Bailey's children were brought into this discussion...it's a disgusting tactic, and I resent how it has served to obscure the real debate. It was a stupid move, period, which has led to sympathy for bad science in a public that pays attention to fireworks before facts. Now we can be accused of being defensive (yes, I understand personally and well about living ones life defensively) and clever propagandists for this "science" will play on this ad nauseum. Defensive people "must be hiding something."
<><>Learn long term strategy, activists, before you go to war...ad hominen attacks can be answered, and if you are in a vulnerable position, don't use them...
<>I am a day to day activist...I am living amongst people who knew me before and after, I built up goodwill and acceptance by being understanding and answering their concerns with my own inner truth as I see it. I was doing very well, yet now I have to fear whether or not all the caring in my relationships will have a subordinate clause attached. Thanks a heckuva lot, there, some people!
For a Low-Dose Hormone, Take Your Pick
Patches, pumps, pills, low-dose pills and super-low-dose creams and gels: Ever since the landmark Women’s Health Initiative study found that hormone therapy could be harmful, a dizzying array of new low-dose treatment options have been offered to counter the symptoms of menopause.
Some deliver hormones the old-fashion way, by mouth. Others do it through the skin, by patch, cream or gel, or through vaginal rings or suppository tablets. On Aug. 3, the Food and Drug Administration approved yet another treatment, a spray that delivers low-dose estrogen to the skin.
For doctors and patients, the wealth of options can be overwhelming. “There are a trillion products out there,” said Dr. Mary Jane Minkin, professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Yale. “You can take that low dose many different ways, and ultimately it boils down to personal preferences.”
Dr. Minkin said she was not surprised that patients were confused, adding, “So am I.”
The variety reflects the industry’s efforts to win back women with symptoms like hot flashes, night sweats and vaginal dryness who are reluctant to use traditional products because of the Women’s Health Initiative findings, released five years ago.
The large clinical trials found that hormones increased the risk of strokes and potentially life-threatening blood clots, and that combined estrogen and progestin also increased the risk of breast cancer and heart attacks. (Women who have not had hysterectomies must use the combined hormones.)
The current recommendation for troubling menopausal symptoms is to take the lowest hormone dose needed for relief for the shortest possible time. But doctors acknowledge the lack of proof that lower doses are safer. “We assume the lower doses are going to be safer, but we don’t really have any data that has examined that,” said Dr. Michelle P. Warren, founder and medical director of the Center for Menopause, Hormonal Disorders and Women’s Health at Columbia University Medical Center and a consultant for Bradley Pharmaceuticals, the maker of Elestrin.
Many women seeking natural remedies have turned to compounding pharmacies, druggists who promise so-called bioidentical hormones that are chemically synthesized but have the same molecular structure as hormones produced by a woman’s body. . . .
Letters regarding a controversy
Debating a Hypothesis:
To the Editor:
Re “Criticism of a Gender Theory, and a Scientist Under Siege” (Aug. 21): Benedict Carey casts this story as a matter of politically correct thugs trying to undermine Dr. J. Michael Bailey’s legitimate scientific research. But even Dr. Bailey’s defenders admit the research in question turned out to rest on shoddy anecdotal evidence.
In light of that fact, the story can’t possibly concern “the corrosive effects of political correctness on academic freedom,” as someone quoted in the article claims. The question was whether his book had any legitimate scientific basis. And it didn’t. But perhaps that doesn’t make for a very interesting story.
John Casey
Chicago
•
To the Editor:
It’s unscientific to require an explanation for gay or transgender identities but not heterosexual, nontransgender identities.
The Bailey hypothesis claims that biological males who identify as women are either trying to attract men or to fulfill their own fantasies. The “alternate” hypothesis is not always the “woman trapped in a man’s body” cliché; the alternative is to let people describe their lives in their own terms.
Karen Hogan
Olympia, Wash.
•
To the Editor:
Dr. Ben Barres should choke on his observation that Dr. J. Michael Bailey “seems to make a living by claiming that the things people hold most deeply true are not true” — unless he condemns Galileo, Darwin, Einstein, Leakey et al.
James W. Voelz
St. Louis
UK: Boys who like girls to be boys . . .
In Neil Bartlett’s Twelfth Night, the male comic roles are played by women. Our correspondent asks who’s really wearing the trousers
Look at what you’re wearing,” Neil Bartlett, writer, director, profligate translator and provocative performer demands. “Jeans, a T-shirt, trainers. What does it say?” Not, thankfully, that I really ought to have made more of a sartorial effort for our interview in the RSC’s Clapham rehearsal rooms. Breeches-deep in preparations for his bewilderingly cross-gartered Twelfth Night, Bartlett is busy unpacking the mercurial concept of staging gender.
“You and I are essentially wearing the same thing. But you are not dressing as a man. I am not dressing as a woman. We are not attempting to disguise our sex.” His slug of a moustache would surely prove something of a handicap. “Not really,” he says, smiling. “There are infinite ways to play gender.” He explains: “It can be ravishingly sexy, it can be very precisely unsexed. Some of my casting is completely true to type. Lady Olivia [Justine Mitchell] is an extraordinary, thoroughbred woman. Count Orsino [Jason Mer-rells] is a gorgeous man, but they’re playing opposite a Viola [Chris New] who is very obviously an attractive young man with false tits. It releases proceedings from the grip of naturalism immediately.”
Shakespeare’s slippery, androgynous twin, shipwrecked on Illyria’s shores, who disguises herself as a boy and falls desperately, inappropriately in love, is often played by a man. This year, Ed Hall and Declan Donnellan both staged their all-male Twelfth Nights at the Old Vic and The Swan theatres.
In Bartlett’s production, however, the male comic characters are also played by women. “They are the creators of mayhem in the play,” he says. “And to see Malvolio chased about by three expert comediennes in padded Y-fronts is a delicious sight. I cannot conceive of a more perfect Toby Belch than Marjorie Yates. Twelfth Night is this incredible dressing-up box of a play and everyone has to find their costume.
“To me it just isn’t strange,” Bartlett adds, “because I’ve never done anything else. One of the first pieces of theatre I ever did was called Dressing Up.” . . .
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Album, Snakehouse
First Transgendered Lead Singer Signed by Major Label
From NPR this AM:
“The rock band the Cliks has gotten a lot of attention this summer after touring with Cyndi Lauper, and the band is being compared to the Pretenders and David Bowie. But there’s another reason why the band is in the spotlight: lead singer, Lucas Silveira. When the band was first formed he was a she — Lillia Silveira, who fronted an all-female band. But the musician has since transitioned into a male, making him the first transgender lead singer to be signed to a major label with the album, Snakehouse.”
You can listen to the segment here. Lucas has decided to not take testosterone for fear of altering his singing voice, a decision that was easier to make thanks to the example set by one of his FTM friends who purposefully chose to avoid hormones because he didn’t want to blend. Apparently he wants to be recognized as TS since anyone can be a genetic male but being transgendered is unique. An interesting perspective that is sure to stir up controversy in the community but probably a sign of things to come as traditional concepts of gender continue to be challenged.
Second Life: Testing being transgendered
Anil Ananthaswamy
New Scientist
25 August 2007
WILLIAM WISE had always felt he should have been born a woman. A year and a half ago, he finally got the chance to live as one. He chose a provocative new look: a cute, contemporary hairstyle with bangs, a tank top with spaghetti straps and a plunging neckline, and bare midriff. There was one twist, however. He had to live inside an online virtual world called Second Life. . .
First Person: Bigendered
Gender Discrimination Charges In PDX, OR
My name is Lisa/Lee Iacuzzi and I have two separate gender discrimination complaints against two nonprofits in the city of
Transgender performance now at Rouge Bar
Katie Nelson and Peter Corbett
The Arizona Republic
Aug. 27, 2007 07:31 PM
Psychic TV, whose seven members are mostly from New York, will now play at The Rouge Bar in Tempe, 423 N. Scottsdale Road.
"It's so frustrating," said P-Orridge, en route to The Rouge. "It has already cost us thousands of dollars. We had to stay here any extra day and we're loosing people who don't know where the hell we are now. I'm really sad for all my sisters in the transgender community. We've never ever encountered anything like this anywhere. We've played in over 30 countries and never been told we have to change venues because of what gender I am." . . .
Monday, August 27, 2007
Monkey misery for Kenyan women villagers
BBC News, Nachu, central Kenya
A troop of vervet monkeys is giving Kenyan villagers long days and sleepless nights, destroying crops and causing a food crisis.
Earlier this month, local MP Paul Muite urged the Kenyan Wildlife Service to help contain their aggressive behaviour.
But Mr Muite caused laughter when he told parliament that the monkeys had taken to harassing and mocking women in a village.
But this is exactly what the women in the village of Nachu, just south-west of Kikuyu, are complaining about, sexual harassment.
They estimate there are close to 300 monkeys invading the farms at dawn. They eat the village's maize, potatoes, beans and other crops.
And because women are primarily responsible for the farms, they have borne the brunt of the problem, as they try to guard their crops.
The monkeys grab their breasts, and gesture at us while pointing at their private parts.
They say the monkeys are more afraid of young men than women and children, and the bolder ones throw stones and chase the women from their farms.
Nachu's women have tried wearing their husbands' clothes in an attempt to trick the monkeys into thinking they are men - but this has failed, they say.
"When we come to chase the monkeys away, we are dressed in trousers and hats, so that we look like men," resident Lucy Njeri told the BBC News website
"But the monkeys can tell the difference and they don't run away from us and point at our breasts. They just ignore us and continue to steal the crops."
In addition to stealing their crops, the monkeys also make sexually explicit gestures at the women, they claim.
"The monkeys grab their breasts, and gesture at us while pointing at their private parts. We are afraid that they will sexually harass us," said Mrs Njeri.
The Kenyan Wildlife Service told the BBC that it was not unusual for monkeys to harass women and be less afraid of them than men, but they had not heard of monkeys in Kenya making sexually explicit gestures as a form of communication to humans.
But whatever the truth of the villagers claims, the predominantly farming community is now having to receive famine relief food.
The residents say the monkeys have killed livestock and guard dogs, which has also left the villagers living in fear, especially for the safety of their babies and children.
All the villagers' attempts to control the monkeys have failed - the monkeys evade traps, have lookouts to warn the others of impending attacks and snub poisoned food put out by the residents.
"The troop has scouts which keep a lookout from a vantage point, and when they see us coming, they give warning signals to the ones in the farms to get away," said another area resident, Jacinta Wandaga.
The town has been warned by the Kenya Wildlife Service not to harm or kill any of the monkeys, as it is a criminal offence.
Running out of options, residents are harvesting their crops early in an attempt to salvage what they can of this year's crop.
Unfortunately, this only invites the monkeys to break into their homes and steal the harvested crops out of their granaries.
Even the formation of a "monkey squad" to keep track of the monkeys' movements and keep them out has failed.
The area is simply too large for the few volunteers to cover, they say.
Some residents have lost hope and abandoned their homes and farms, but those who have stayed behind, like 80-year-old James Ndungu, are making a desperate plea for assistance.
"For God's sake, the government should take pity on us and move these monkeys away because we do not want to abandon our farms," he said.
"I beg you, please come and take these animals away from here so that we can farm in peace."
Disclosure thwarted adoption, trans man says
PGN Writer-at-Large
© 2007 Philadelphia Gay News
A local transgender man says privacy invasions related to his sexual status prevented him from adopting in the tri-state area.
The trans man, who asked to remain unidentified, said he and his wife worked with a local adoption agency, Methodist Family Services of Philadelphia, for about four years, hoping to adopt a child in Pennsylvania, New Jersey or Delaware.
He said Methodist insisted on including a paragraph about his transgender status in the home study of the couple. State law requires that home studies be conducted before an individual or couple can become adoptive or foster parents.
The home study could be sent to all 67 counties in Pennsylvania, along with counties in New Jersey and Delaware, he said.
After more than 30 rejections, the trans man and his wife have decided to end their relationship with Methodist.
“We argued with them about including the [trans] information, because it’s not relevant and could hurt our chances of a match,” the man said. “But Methodist insisted and we finally relented. They said they needed to include it to cover their asses in the event the information came out at a later date.”
State and local laws governing home studies in the region are silent on the issue of transgender information, leaving decisions about including the material up to the discretion of the agency conducting the study.
Only one state — Florida — specifically forbids the adoption of children by lesbians and gays. Mississippi prohibits adoption by same-sex couples and second-parent adoption. Utah forbids adoption by any unmarried cohabitating couple.
Anne Rice Burgess, chief program officer for Methodist, said Methodist’s policy is to include the transgender status of a prospective parent in the home study, even if it might get into the hands of a biased county worker.
“We view this as an identity issue,” Burgess explained.
But she noted that future discussions with Methodist’s legal counsel might prompt the agency to amend its policy and not include the information in home studies.
Burgess also said Methodist would respect the wishes of lesbian, gay or bisexual clients who didn’t want their sexual orientation disclosed and that the organization strongly advocates for all of its prospective adoptive parents, including those who are GLBT.
The trans man expressed hope that every adoption agency, not only Methodist, would respect the privacy wishes of transgender clients.
“We weren’t trying to do anything misleading,” he said. “We just wanted to get our foot in the door. When you see other families getting kids after a few months, you realize that prejudice is taking place.” . . .
Finding the Real Me
Editor’s Note: Advocate Pauline Park, an Asian transgender woman who was adopted by a Caucasian couple, says she has finally found a sense of belonging.
The famous Chinese movie star Chen Xiao Ching once said, “It’s hard being a person, harder being a woman, and even harder being a famous woman.” What about being a transgender woman? Pauline Park, the chair of the New York Association for Gender Rights Advocacy, understands best the weight of this question.
Whenever someone asks Park where she is from, Park never knows how to answer. Park and her brother were adopted by a Caucasian couple from a Korean orphanage when Park was only eight months old. Growing up in a small town in Wisconsin, Park and his brother were the only non-white residents. When he was in elementary school, teachers and parents looked at Park and his brother curiously and asked, “Whose children are these?”
“Ever since I was a kid, I never knew where I belonged. I was born in Korea but I have never been there. I grew up in America but people call me Chinese or Japanese,” Park says.
Even more confusing for her was her sexuality. “When I was little, I felt that I was a girl. I was just a girl’s soul in a boy’s body,” she says. In 1978, Park and her brother left home to attend college in Madison, Wis. Madison had a more active gay and lesbian community, and the university had a center for gay and lesbian students. This was where Park and her brother came out as openly gay.
Park’s adoptive father passed away when she was 12. Not wanting to upset her adoptive mother, a devout Christian, Park hid her sexuality from her even after she came out of the closet. Even when a male admirer came to her house and roused suspicion from her mother, she still did not admit to being gay.
In 1981, Park left for the London School of Economics and fell madly in love with the first man she has ever lived with. She began dressing and living as a woman. Three years later, when Park graduated and returned to America to work in Chicago, her boyfriend traveled from London to see her. After her boyfriend left, Park’s adoptive mother finally openly talked about her son’s sexuality.
“She said to me, she knows that this man was my boyfriend. She didn’t use the term ‘gay,’ but she was subtly expressing to me that she can accept this,” Park says. . . .
Sunday, August 26, 2007
Confusing Dildo and Penis Incredible
A California appeals court has ruled that a woman married for 14 years to a person she mistakenly thought was a man, at least for some portion of that time, can have her marriage annulled, but cannot at the same time make a state community property marriage law claim to a portion of the value of the family home purchased in her "husband"'s name.
The August 15 ruling upheld San Bernardino County Superior Court Judge John M. Pacheco's original ruling in the case.
According to the court's opinion by Presiding Justice Manuel Ramirez, Joy H. claimed to believe that Tammy C., who presented as a man but never had a sex change, was in fact John R. Based on her stated belief that she had entered into a legally valid marriage, Joy H. made the community property claim.
The couple met at their workplace, and Tammy identified herself as John, having an ID obtained in Arizona. They married in 1988, and after the wedding John informed Joy that he was sterile so that artificial insemination would be required to have a child. A co-worker provided the sperm that enabled the couple to give birth to a girl in 1989.
According to Ramirez's opinion, "Although the parties had a sexually active relationship, Joy H. maintained that she did not know that Tammy C. was a biological female." Joy claimed that John said he was self-conscious about his obesity and asked her not to look at him or touch his genitalia during sex. That cover allowed John to use a silicone dildo for intercourse. . . .
"Pholomolo-No-Man-Woman" by Veronique Renard
"Transgender Theories," KQED program transcript
"Transgender Theories"
 | Listen (RealMedia stream) |
| Download (MP3) (Windows: right-click and choose "Save Target As." Mac: hold Ctrl, click link, and choose "Save As.") |
Host: Michael Krasny
Guests:
 | Dr. Alice Dreger, associate professor of Clinical Medical Humanities and BioEthics at Northwestern University |
| Dr. J. Michael Bailey, professor of Psychology at Northwestern University |
| Joan Roughgarden, professor of Biological Science at Stanford University and author of “Evolution's Rainbow" |
| Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality |
Saturday, August 25, 2007
That's Lady Bunny, Honey
DJ Lady Bunny
Legendary drag queen, film star and DJ Lady Bunny returns to Buffalo this weekend for Summer in the City 2007: A Benefit for Pride Center of WNY. From her early days in Atlanta performing with RuPaul, Mr. Charlie Brown, and a host of others, to her meteoric rise to fame in the “Big Apple,” Lady Bunny has kept audiences entertained for more than 20 years.
I recently caught up with Lady Bunny to chat about her life, career, and her upcoming trip back to Buffalo…
Artvoice: First things first, where did you get the name “Lady Bunny”?
Lady Bunny: It was a bad joke that stuck! Southern drag queens often called themselves “Lady”—like the Lady Chablis. And “Bunny,” well, that’s anybody’s guess. I do remember that Sergeant Carter’s girlfriend on the TV show Gomer Pyle was named Bunny, but I also loved a rare late ’60s comic book called Bunny: Queen of the In Crowd that featured a blonde model in psychedelic outfits, which I’ve borrowed from heavily.
AV: I see. So, tell me about your first drag show?
LB: Well, I’m dating myself…but hell, why not? No one else wants to date me! I lip-synched to “Young Hearts Run Free” by Candi Staton at a party in the dump that RuPaul and I lived in in Atlanta. It was a fairly pitiful and drunken affair.
AV: How did you end up becoming a DJ too?
LB: Well, as dance music became more and more techno in the late ’80s—you know, pots and pans music with no vocals—I would often get hired to spin lighter music in a lounge off of the main dance floor to provide variety. Actually, Michael Alig (the axe-murdering “Party Monster”) gave me my first paying gig at a party called “Panty Girdles.” I’ve never really promoted myself as a DJ but there seems to be a demand. I think half of my appeal as a DJ is that I dance around and carry on, so they get a DJ and a clown both for the price of one!
But the other half is that I’m not afraid to play songs that people know and love…I’m not necessarily trying to be cutting edge. I don’t know a crowd who doesn’t love Whitney’s [Houston] “I’m Every Woman” and that song is over 10 years old! Especially at a gay event, who wouldn’t want to twirl to that? Ultimately, I play a little bit of everything based on the feeling I get from the crowd. I say, “Give ’em what they want. I can play what I like at home for free!” Making people dance is a celebratory sensation so it’s a job that makes you feel good. Or is it just the liquor? Whatever.
AV: So, what do you think is the most interesting thing about you?
LB: Since I’m so incredibly fascinating, I don’t think this interview is going to be long enough to list all of them. Ha, just kidding!
Seriously, I guess that a lot of people don’t realize that in addition to comedy, I actually have a very serious politically and socially conscious side. Gay people are under attack and it’s time to start fighting back. I’ve been writing a lot on my blog about current issues and have received good feedback from it. My blog even won a “Cybersocket Award for Best Personal Home Page” last year. So, I’m not just a potty-mouthed tramp. Although if a tramp is what your looking for…
AV: What’s your favorite thing to do when visiting Buffalo?
LB: Eating chicken wings! I actually had come directly from Wigstock [an annual outdoor drag-a-palooza organized by Bunny] the night before my last visit and since it was a daytime gig, I didn’t get to go sightseeing and had to leave the next day. So, perhaps some stud would like to show me around this time? Call me.
AV: Lastly, where can readers get more info on all things Lady Bunny?
LB: You can visit my Web site, Ladybunny.net, and check out my DVD trailer or press kit information with details on many of exploits, from Pamela Anderson’s Roast to Wigstock and more. I’m also thrilled to say that I was recently cast in the sequel to Another Gay Movie. So, keep your eye out for “Lady Bunion” on the big screen. I wouldn’t fit on a small one!. . .
I *AM* ARUNE
The title above is not really egotistical. As Lynn Conway now has a page on her web site titled “Who is Arune??” I thought to answer her in this essay.
There really is no need to discuss the basic question at any length. I am Willow Arune, a transsexual woman, retired lawyer and post-op, 57, happy as a clam and content with my life which I share with Sonia, our six cats and two dogs. Last November, we relocated to the wilderness of Prince George, in northern British Columbia, from Vancouver. How far north? Well, last night we watched the northern lights instead of television…
But that is not the story, really. The story is about Blanchard, Bailey, and the concerted efforts by some transsexual women to attack them and anyone who dares support them in any manner, fair or foul (and mostly foul). The real war started with the publication of a small book - “The Man Who Would Be Queen”, written by Michael Bailey. It contains three parts, the last of which deals in a popular science manner with the concepts of Ray Blanchard, of the Clarke Institute in Toronto, regarding transsexuality. Those leading the battle against the book, Blanchard, and anyone who crosses their sights, are Lynn Conway and Andrea James, both of whom have large web sites setting out their position and “investigations”.
Firstly, from the start of this mess, I have asked for calm - without much success. That first request can be found on the Web. As I found myself changing my initial opinion and seeking further clarification at certain points, I contacted Bailey, then Blanchard, Lawrence and Petersen, the major proponents of the autogynephilic concept. They have been most kind at sharing views and comments, including their participation in an AG support list of over 150 members.
In so doing, I became a target for James and Conway. Not that I wished to get fully engaged, but it seems that any supporter of Blanchard must perforce endure attacks by the two of them and their vehement allies. That has proven to be very nasty and at times, I must confess, I tend to lose my cool. At other times, I assume that the world must know of this situation and write accordingly, leaving some confused and lost.
Firstly, Bailey did very little "research" for the book, in the classical sense. It is an anecdotal explanation of Blanchard's concept applied to real situations of six women, and that only in Part 3. Bailey's own work is more truly reflected in Parts 1 and 2 - and Part 1 is what gives the book its title and cover. That was the publisher's decision, not Bailey's. I dislike both, but in the context of Part 1, it makes sense.
Blanchard did the research which Bailey reports on in his book, admittedly in a popular science manner. Blanchard started off in 1985, with 21 papers following, up to the mid 90s. His research is hard to find - and that is due in the main to the copyright rules of scientific publishers. At the time these papers were done, Blanchard was a psychologist at the Gender Identity Clinic of the Clarke (he joined in 1980); he is now the Head of Clinical Sexology Services at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, commonly referred to by transsexual women in Canada still as “the Clarke’. The availability of his research might soon change for the better. So my first comment is that most are dealing (sorry, Mike) with the monkey instead of the organ grinder. To understand Bailey in full, one must read the original material. Blanchard had a large number of subjects to participate in all of his studies. Other TS studies have had small numbers - the oft-cited Dutch brain study had but seven brains; Bolin had a sampling of 16 core transsexuals for “In Search of Eve”.
Secondly, Blanchard, Bailey and Petersen have been restricted in replying to their critics. They are bound by confidentiality - especially in respect of those that have been patients and who are now loudly critics. The temptation to reply in kind and with the true story must be overpowering - but they have not done so as they are professionals. Mike is facing one remaining (the others having been dropped) accusation at his university, where he is the head of his department. The merits of those accusations, or the remaining one, are suspect (reading about “Cher” - the major complainant - and "Robot Man" tends to dispel any aura of credibility that she may have, in my opinion). Any lawyer for the university would jump down hard if Mike were to respond to the vocal critics in any meaningful way. One recent article has dealt with the concerns, and the issues in a real sense, without the emotional rants. It is not a simple issue and as one sided as the critics seem to often suggest. I stress that such is an accusation, not proven, not yet determined.
The explosive rethinking of sex reassignment
At 50, Roy Berkowitz-Shelton was a caring, well-respected family doctor with a flourishing practice in Massachusetts. He was bald and had a beard. He and his wife, Allison, had a long and loving marriage and two nearly grown kids.
There was just one problem with his life. Ever since he could remember, Roy had been attracted to women's makeup and clothes. One day, on a trip to the grocery store, he blurted out: “Allison, I feel I'm a woman.”
Today, 21/2 years later, he has fulfilled his dream. He is now Dr. Deborah Bershel. Deborah dresses in dark skirts and teal tops and owns a dozen pairs of high heels. She loves to shop. Thanks to female hormones and facial surgery, which smoothed her forehead, reshaped her nose, softened her jaw line and shaved her Adam's apple, she resembles someone's kindly aunt. Now, she wants to take the final step: surgery that would amputate her penis and create a vagina.
“I feel like a whole person now,” she says.
Deborah's journey was sympathetically recounted this month by the Boston Globe magazine. It is not so unusual any more. Transgendered people now share equal billing with gays, lesbians and bisexuals in the ever-expanding panoply of sexual minorities. The standard explanation is that they are the victims of a biological mistake, born into a body of the wrong sex. The vast majority of transgendered people are biological men who wish to become women.
In liberal Massachusetts, Deborah encountered very little social disapproval of her sex change. On the contrary. Her patients and co-workers have been immensely supportive. Her Conservative Jewish synagogue never wavered. Most people in our tolerant, open society believe people should be able to follow their own path to happiness and self-fulfilment. If anything, they think Deborah is courageous. “It takes a lot of soul-searching to sacrifice the things you have to be true to yourself,” said Denise Leclair, executive director of the International Foundation for Gender Education.
But not everything has been smooth. Deborah was certain she would be able to maintain her marriage. She believed that after her transition, she and her family would begin a deeper and more honest life together. And indeed, her wife, Allison, tried to keep an open mind. She went with Roy to a cross-dressing convention. She took care of Deborah after her facial surgery. They went to marriage counselling together. In the end, it didn't work. Allison told Deborah there was a reason she had married a man, and asked her to move out.
Deborah's teenaged son is handling the adjustment well. But her 20 year-old daughter has become estranged and refuses to speak to her. Deborah's father seems resigned. “I'm heartbroken,” he says, “but he's my son.”
Deborah says she wasn't suicidal as a man – just restless and unfulfilled. She doesn't seem to have much remorse or guilt for the destruction of her family or the pain she's caused. She's exploring the singles scene and has posted her profile on a women-to-women dating site.
In the gay-rights movement and the academic world, nothing – but nothing – is more explosive than the science and politics of gender. And that includes the subject of transgendered women.
In the prevailing narrative, people like Roy are essentially women trapped in the bodies of men. But there is another theory, one that's deeply unpopular, to say the least. It holds that they are really men with an unusual psychological quirk: a male deviation called autogynephilia.
This theory is largely based on research studies conducted at Toronto's Clarke Institute during the 1980s and 90s. It found that some men who seek sex changes are driven mainly by an intense erotic fascination with dressing up as women. The researchers found that as they get older, these men (predominantly heterosexual) become increasingly eager to add more realism to their presentations through surgery. As women, they rhapsodize about being able to express their natural inclinations for shopping, makeup, domesticity and gentleness. But in other ways, they aren't womanly at all. They aren't interested in babies and children. And, like Deborah, they still find women sexually attractive. After their transition, they see themselves as lesbians.
One expert who supports this theory is psychologist J. Michael Bailey of Northwestern University. His 2003 book, The Man Who Would Be Queen, explains the biology of sexual orientation and gender. It has been called a compelling explanation of the science. But he has been bitterly denounced for his treatment of transgender issues. One prominent academic, a transgendered woman, compared his views to Nazi propaganda. Another well-known transgendered academic, Deirdre McCloskey, called his work “false, unscientific and politically damaging.” He has been accused of gross violations of scientific standards, and his research associates were warned by others in the field to keep their distance. He told The New York Times that the two years after he published his book were the hardest of his life.
Some people believe the crusade against Dr. Bailey is political correctness run amok. Alice Dreger, an ethics scholar brought in to conduct a lengthy investigation, exonerated him of wrongdoing and said, “What happened to Bailey is important, because the harassment was so extraordinarily bad and because it could happen to any researcher in the field.” . . .
Friday, August 24, 2007
Scotland: Devious or deviant, what's Greer up to?
NO-ONE does a 30-second sound-bite quite like Germaine Greer, but I wonder exactly what was going through her notoriously sharp mind when she made her throwaway remark at the Edinburgh International Book Festival last week that Diana, Princess of Wales, "was a devious moron".
Or perhaps not quite so throwaway, when you bear in mind that she has spent the last forty years trying to shake up the Establishment. She changed the lives of a whole generation of women with the publication in 1970 of The Female Eunuch, in which she explored the theme that women don't realise how much men hate them, and how much they are taught to hate themselves.
Over the years she continued to send out shockwaves, as she wrote about her own experiences of lesbian sex, rape, abortion, infertility, failed marriage - she was married for three weeks in the 1960s, during which time she said she was unfaithful on a number of occasions - and menopause.
Yet while her early writings may have been provocative, they were unarguably thoughtful, and however shocking, encouraged people to challenge their perceptions of women and their place in society. . . .
