Experts at tax trial explain gender identity disorder

Bay Windows
Thursday Jul 26, 2007

Rhiannon O’Donnabhain speaks to a reporter in her lawyer’s office Boston, Thursday, July 12, 2007. (Source:AP/Josh Reynolds)

Attorneys for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) spent the second day of a trial in which a transwoman is suing the federal agency for the right to deduct her medical expenses related to treatment for Gender Identity Disorder (GID) trying to make the case that sex-reassignment surgery is a cosmetic procedure rather than a medical necessity. IRS senior attorney John Mikalchus grilled Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders’ (GLAD) expert witness, psychiatrist Dr. George Brown, for more than four hours about the medical necessity of sex-reassignment surgery and other treatments for GID, asking him on multiple occasions to concede that the procedures are cosmetic. Brown, a psychology professor at East Tennessee State University and a board member of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), which issues the internationally recognized standards of care for GID treatment, refused to do so, but Mikalchus tried to hammer home that point himself. Mikalchus also suggested that surgery, hormones and other treatments for GID do not cure patients’ cross-gender identification but merely reinforce it, and he said that the treatments for GID are an anomaly in the mental health profession.

"You wouldn’t recommend liposuction for someone who’s anorexic, would you?" Mikalchus asked Brown.

In response, Brown countered that sex-reassignment surgery does cure cross-gender identification. "They experience themselves as female. The body is aligned female. The symptoms no longer exist," said Brown.

Rhiannon O’Donnabhain, a transwoman from the South Shore, filed suit against the IRS after the agency told her she could not claim a deduction on her federal income tax for the medical costs associated with her treatment for GID, including her 2001 sex-reassignment surgery. O’Donnabhain’s legal team, consisting of GLAD attorneys Karen Loewy, Ben Klein and Jennifer Levi, argued that GID is a disorder recognized by the medical community and that it is included in the Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), one of the standard handbooks used by mental health practitioners. They brought in witnesses to testify that the treatment she sought, including her surgery, were well within the norms of treatment for GID and that the surgery was medically necessary. The case, O’Donnabhain v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, is being argued in U.S. Tax Court in Boston before Judge Joseph H. Gale The trial began July 24.

The first day of the trial, O’Donnabhain took the stand and gave several hours of testimony, at times bursting into tears as she recounted her struggles with GID and her profound sense of being a woman trapped in the body of a man. As a child growing up in a devout Irish Catholic family in Rockland she had difficulty understanding and relating to her male peers, and she had a profound sense of discomfort in her own body. Starting at age 10 she began secretly trying on women’s clothes, but she never discussed her struggles with gender with any of her family or friends. By age 26 she was married, and during their 22-year marriage, she and her wife had three children. But her strong feelings of being trapped in the wrong body, and her decision to keep quiet about those feelings, were a strain on the marriage, and she said she had great difficulty being physically intimate with her wife. . . .

Interview with GLAD Attorney on IRS Trans Medical Deduction Denial Case

Monday, July 23, 2007

GLAD goes to trial in U.S. Tax Court tomorrow (July 24) on behalf of Rhiannon O'Donnabhain, who is challenging the IRS' decision to deny her a tax deduction for her sex reassignment surgery. (More background on this story here).

Senior Staff Attorney Jennifer Levi (left), a member of the GLAD team representing Rhiannon, talked with us about the importance of the case.

What is this case about?

Jennifer Levi (JL): In this case, the IRS denied a tax deduction for a transsexual woman who deducted medical expenses relating to her transition.

Why did the IRS deny her deduction?

JL: The position that the IRS has taken is that the surgeries that Rhiannon had were “cosmetic.” And what that means is that they’re insignificant--they’re just about trying to look better. And these weren’t about “looking better.” They were about transition. They were about being able to, not just transform the way she looked, but the way she felt, and the way that she was able to present her gender in the world. To trivialize this kind of surgical procedure, and to compare it to something like a nose job, is demeaning. And really centrally misses the basic point of transgender identity.

So you think that the IRS’s decision shows an underlying bias against trans people?

JL: Absolutely. We think it shows bias at worst, and a gross misunderstanding at best.

Why should Rhiannon have been able to deduct the surgery as a medical expense?

JL: The Internal Revenue Code allows deductions for expenses relating to medical care. The entire reason Rhiannon sought psychotherapy--and eventually hormones and surgery for the feelings that she had about being female--was medical. She was diagnosed with Gender Identity Disorder (GID), as recognized in the DSM IV, in the World Health Organization’s ICD-10, and in every major textbook and medical dictionary that addresses issues relating to mental health.

There’s just no real question that for some people whose gender identity doesn’t match their sex, that experience causes very serious anxiety, distress, sadness, and depression. And people should have access to medical care.

There’s an established course of treatment Rhiannon followed that clearly meets the statutory definition for medical care. All we have to show in this case is that the procedures she underwent were medical in nature. To suggest that they’re not is really to call into question the legitimacy of that experience of dysphoria.

Why is this case important?

JL: It’s important because it addresses pervasive misunderstandings, pervasive bias, pervasive prejudice that transgender people face. There is a lot of misinformation that underlies the discrimination that transgender people face in many areas of their lives.

What we’ve found in the context of this case is that most people really do see through what the IRS has said. People understand that if you wake up every day and you look in the mirror and the person that you see is not the person you feel like you are, that’s an uncomfortable experience at best, and disorienting and disabling at worst. Fair-minded people understand that individuals should be able to take steps to change that experience and integrate their lives more fully in order to be who they are--in order to wake up every day and see the person in the mirror that they feel themselves to be. And that when somebody does that, they shouldn’t be fired from their jobs, they shouldn’t be beaten up on the streets, they shouldn’t be denied equal treatment that other Americans receive under something as basic as the tax code.

Rhiannon’s experience is one piece of the experience of transgender people. Not everybody has the same interest in transitioning medically. Not everyone can afford to, and not everyone would want to. But this is an important case for the entire community. And that’s because what’s really at the heart of this case is a central misunderstanding about the importance of being able to express one’s gender identity. Everybody should be able to do that.

Posted by GLAD at 10:02 AM

Lauren Harries at Cardiff Barrage

Lauren (James) Harries as a boy and then. . .

Lauren Harries: The boy in the made-up world

You remember James Harries. He was the strange boy who wore bow ties and pretended to be an antiques dealer. Now 23, after a sex change, 'Lauren' talks about her plans for a chat show

By Julia Stuart

Published: 13 April 2001

At the age of 12, James Harries was hailed as an antiques expert. He claimed to have a rare talent for sniffing out pieces of rare china among jumble sale tat.

At the age of 12, James Harries was hailed as an antiques expert. He claimed to have a rare talent for sniffing out pieces of rare china among jumble sale tat. With his Edwardian-style miniature velvet suits, bow ties and shock of blond curls, he was the Little Lord Fauntleroy who perched on Wogan's settee, and advised the nation how to spot a bargain. Television clips showed him sitting in the back of a Rolls-Royce conducting business in his queer, high voice on a mobile phone, his legs too short to reach the floor. If anyone was going to make it in life, surely it would be the curious genius James Harries.

Now 23, the taste for period clothes remains, but today, rather than a suit, James is dressed in an Edwardian-style white embroidered nightie. For the one-time child entrepreneur is lying on a hospital bed after undergoing a sex-change operation. It's no longer James, it's Lauren.

She is quick to point out that "angelic" isn't her only look. "I've got a little slinky black number in there, you know, with pants to go with it," she says, pointing to the wardrobe with a pink polished finger nail. "I can wear pink, kitten heels with it and look very sexy. If I'd worn it I would have looked like a very slim, attractive model. The thing is, you can look angelic and you can look sexy as well."

Lauren's voice has deepened since her days as a child star, though she still can't pronounce her Rs. While her voice is now unremarkable, her appearance is certainly still striking. Tall and skinny, the once blond, frizzy curls have turned mouse. She dyes them blonde, and her hair hangs in butter-coloured clumps around her face. "It's ringlets now," she says, shaking her head. "I love my hair."

Above her top lip is a slight hint of stubble. One day, when she can afford it, she intends to have surgery on her Adam's apple, and maybe even breast implants if the hormones she is taking don't noticeably increase the size of her chest.

To Lauren, the surgery represents an end to the name-calling and the innuendos, and hopefully the start of being accepted by society. At school she was called a "wimp" and a "queer boy". As a teenager she was rejected by the gay scene as too effeminate, and women didn't seem to want to know.

"I didn't like the gay scene, and I wasn't gay anyway. I'm still a virgin and I haven't even kissed a man," says Lauren, who lives in Cardiff with her parents and two brothers. "I went to the clubs but I was looked upon as a little girl, not a man at all.

"Women assumed I was gay. When you're a man and you're scatty, flaky, and forget things and drop things, you look like Mr Bean. They didn't take me seriously. . . .

Do Lauren Harries a makeover!

Here!

‘I was a boy that turned into a butterfly’

July 25 2007

by Laura Wright, South Wales Echo


CELEBRITY transsexual Lauren Harries is unveiling an extra layer in an in-depth documentary to be screened next week.

The eccentric 29-year-old from Cardiff will bare all in a frank and open insight into her life in the hope that it will help her to be better understood.

Lauren found fame when she was just 10 years old as James Harries, the curly-haired, bow-tied child antiques “expert”.

The revealing documentary Where Are They Now? was filmed in one busy day by North Wales company Chwarel TV.

It will track the many changes that Lauren has experienced in the last two decades, from finding fame with Terry Wogan to having a sex-change operation six years ago. Lauren, of Rumney, Cardiff, said: “I’m completely honest. I go as personal as it takes. I’m always straight from the hip, if I’m asked a question, I’ll answer it.

“Nobody knows me properly, nobody understands what I have been through. This is my opportunity to show people me as a woman and as a person. It’s something people need to see.

“I hope they’ll learn I was a boy that turned into a butterfly.”

Lauren is now writing her life story and hopes the documentary will reach out to others. She said: “In the television industry they always want someone who’s safe and easy. When you’re a transsexual they don’t know what to do with you. . . .

U.S. woman seeks tax deduction for sex change

By Scott MaloneTue Jul 24, 5:11 PM ET

A woman seeking a tax write-off for her sex-change operation told the opening session of a potentially precedent-setting trial on Tuesday that the procedure was not just cosmetic but had made her whole.

Rhiannon O'Donnabhain is challenging a decision by U.S. tax authorities not to allow the $25,000 cost of her 2001 sex-change and breast augmentation surgeries as a tax deduction. The Internal Revenue Service calls the procedures elective and cosmetic, and ineligible for a tax break.

If the U.S. Tax Court in Boston overturns the IRS's decision, it could have big implications for transsexuals and other transgender people by setting a precedent for those who want to write off the high cost of sex-change operations.

"If I didn't have the surgery, I would have been on drugs or an alcoholic, or I would kill myself. There was no other way," O'Donnabhain, 63, told the court.

"I needed it to be complete ... females don't have male genitals and I was a female. The only way for me to be the real person I was in my mind was to have the surgery," she said.

In opening arguments for the IRS, Associate Area Counsel Maureen O'Brien said the gender-change surgery was not medically necessary.

"The surgery was the petitioner's choice, so it was a personal expense," O'Brien said. "The petitioner's breast augmentation as a result of breast implants was clearly cosmetic, the petitioner already had breast development as a result of hormone therapy."

Walter Meyer, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Texas Medical Branch and an expert in the field of gender identity disorder, told Reuters that in 2006 such disorders affected about one in 10,000 people. . . .

Venus of Mars clip: Venus' transgenderism develops

Pair hopes to start support group for transgendered

By Karen Shideler
McClatchy Newspapers
Originally posted on July 24, 2007


WICHITA, Kan. — Vanessa and Tom Webster are an unlikely family.

She is helping him with his health issues.

He is helping her become a woman.

Together, they're trying to start a group to help others dealing with transgender issues.

Their goal is to give people with gender dysphoria and their families, friends, life partners and professionals a place "where you can be yourself," Vanessa said.

'A very real condition'

It has taken years for Vanessa Webster to be herself.

Vanessa, 33, says she has known since she was 10 — and probably even earlier — that she was a female trapped in a male body.

People such as Vanessa are called transgendered. Some have had gender-changing surgery; others haven't. Being transgendered is not the same as being homosexual.

Wichita, Kan., physician Donna Sweet heard "a pretty good approach" to transgender issues at a recent talk on gender and sexuality:

"There are girl brains and boy brains, and there are girl (body) parts and boy parts, and sometimes they get mixed up," she said.

It happens in one in 11,900 males and one in 30,400 females, according to the Standards of Care of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health. . . .

Understanding Transgender Issues: Donna Rose's Story

The term transgender refers to a broad range of people who experience and/or express their gender in different, sometimes non-traditional, ways. Transgender people often face challenges in coming out and living openly, particularly in the workplace.

Many people have questions about transgender issues. This training video for corporate leaders presents the compelling personal story of Donna Rose, a well-known author, speaker and advocate on transgender and transsexual issues. Rose is an active member of the Human Rights Campaign’s Board of Directors and Business Council. Her website, www.donnarose.com, is also a well-known source of information and support for and about the transgender community.

Watch the video online.

'Trans'-forming Corporate America

From General Motors to Google, more companies are agreeing to protect transgender people from discrimination. Fortune's Marc Gunther reports.

By Marc Gunther, Fortune senior writer
July 24 2007: 5:58 AM EDT

(Fortune Magazine) -- When David Rosen became Donna Rose, the people in charge of the human resources department at her company didn't know what to think. Nor did her colleagues.

David was a former wrestler, a husband and a dad. Donna was on her way to becoming a post-operative transsexual woman. This was 1999, and her employer, PCS Health Systems of Scottsdale, Arizona (now a unit of CVS Caremark (Charts, Fortune 500)), had never dealt with a transgender person

Nothing awful happened. Rose kept her job as a technology manager. But she didn't get asked out to lunch much, and she was left out of the office football pool. "It was obvious that they weren't comfortable around me," she says, "and I wasn't comfortable with them not being comfortable around me." Before long, she quit.

Lots has changed since then. Rose took a job at Dell (Charts, Fortune 500), where she worked happily for four years. She wrote a book about her experiences and made a DVD called "Understanding Transgender Issues" with Eastman Kodak and the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest organization of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) people. Now she speaks to companies, including J.C. Penney, J.P. Morgan Chase and the America Online unit of Time Warner, about gender identity and diversity.

It's a safe bet that, even today, most Americans have probably never met a transgender person. Many don't know what the term means. But corporate America is learning, fast. . . .

Nick provides information for transmen

Edinanci Silva: A champion in a league of her own

The Brazilian Edinanci Silva is a hermaphrodite and won the gold medal in women's judo; beating the Argentine Briceño in the semifinals (Pan-American Games)

Saturday 21 July 2007 | Published in the Edición impresa
Translated from the Spanish by Curtis E. Hinkle

RIO DE JANEIRO.- Edinanci Silva was continually mocked and made fun of at school back in Campiña Grande. With all the cruelty that children sometimes become involved in, she was mocked because of her unsolved problem: she was a hermaphrodite. She had a male sexual organ, but felt like a woman; in fact, her internal reproductive organs were female. She suffered throughout her adolescence because of her situation. And after the Brazilian stepped up to the podium, she still to this day has somewhat painful memories about this after having taken first prize in women's judo (in the division up to 78 kg).

Edinanci's story is not new, but it remains touching. And it generates controversy, in spite of the fact she has been competing as a woman for more than a decade now. Which is how she feels about herself. Yesterday she returned to center stage for the gold medal, the same medal she won four years ago in Santo Domingo. Once again, just as the last time, there was one contestant remaining, the Argentine, Lorena Briceño, who lost in the semifinals, taking the bronze medal in the same division.

Daughter of a father who was a bricklayer and a mother who was a housewife, Edinanci was brought up in poverty. In fact, up to the age of 15 she worked cutting sugar cane. But at 15, she suffered from labyrinthitis (inflammation of the inner ear), a painful illness that from time to time can be caused from stress. They recommended that she start doing sports: she went to the club and the only openings were for judo. This was how her career began. And she began to like what she was doing. She wanted to be coached so that she could perfect her skills even further, but her mother would not let her leave home. Up until she was 17 and then she told her that they offered coaching in Sao Paulo that she could not miss. In reality, she had already made all the necessary arrangements to leave and go there.

But the key moment was in 1996. In April of that year, she underwent a double operation: removal of her male sex organ with clitoral reconstruction surgery. According to the IOC, this was what was necessary for her to qualify as female and to participate in the Olympic Games. She was a participant in Atlanta 96, Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004. And in spite of being the favorite for winning the title in all these competitions, she was never able to take home the Olympic medal. However, at almost 31, she has never given up. "As long as I have two arms, two legs and can walk, I will keep on fighting to make my dreams come true", she says now, with the same courage and determination she has always had.

She is different. And she knows it. "To this day, many judokas do not want to compete with me. I know that I am different, but my mind thinks and acts like that of a woman." Up until a few years ago, she dreamed of adopting children; but now, after more thinking about this as a more mature woman, she feels that she will not be able to make this dream come true. She is content with spoiling her nieces and nephews and her parents whom she gives all the medals she wins.

The Argentine Briceño confirms just how difficult it is to compete with her. "I could never have beaten her. She is different from all the other judokas I have competed against. She has a lot more strength", she explains after being beaten by the Brazilian in the semifinals. "But I do not believe that it is impossible to beat her. One of these days I am going to," she says with certainty. . . .

Transsexual trucker is 'hounded out' for wearing make-up

By LIZ HULL - Last updated at 08:46am on 23rd July 2007

Comments (1)

Woman's world: Mr Gaynor as Vikki-Marie

A transsexual is seeking thousands of pounds in damages after claiming he was forced out of his job as a truck driver when he started dressing as a woman.

Vikki-Marie Gaynor, 37, who was born a man, claims bosses started cancelling his shifts when he dropped his old name, Mike, and started wearing women's clothes, earrings and make-up to work.

The former soldier, who has been married twice and has a teenage daughter, was taunted by other drivers who made rude gestures towards him, it is alleged.

Now Mr Gaynor has launched a sexual discrimination claim against the haulage firm and the recruitment agency which employed him. He could receive a five-figure sum if the employment tribunal finds in his favour.

'I have been treated in an horrendous manner by my employers,' Mr Gaynor said last night.

'When I first started I was a respected driver, I turned up for work on time and did my job very professionally. My bosses knew me as Mike and had no idea I was a transsexual.

'But almost as soon as I told them I was changing my name to Vikki-Marie and entering the transition stage of my gender reassignment things changed. I started getting hurtful comments and my shifts started being cancelled without warning.

'In the end I realised I could no longer go into work, it was too painful.

'It is not right that I should be forced out of my job simply because I want to live as a woman and wear the clothes I was born to wear.' . . .

POV, Critique, Opinion: What's Up?: Big-city variety hard to beat, but it's equally unique here

Can small communities be cool? Well, yes. But first, a story.

We Boomers have been around for awhile, so it takes some heavy artillery to stop us in our tracks. Recently, this happened to us (Sandy and husband Jim). And we weren't running laps. I was, however, turning 60, and two of our four Next Gen sons had planned a birthday dinner at Nacional 27, a trendy downtown Chicago restaurant featuring a ceviche bar, salsa dancing and an exotic menu. Nothing like it in the Fox Cities. And so, what else was there to do but get wild and order just about everything on the menu? In minutes, our table was swimming in Ahi tuna and Tasmanian salmon ceviches. Soon the hot tapas and truffle-crusted filet mignon arrived, followed by our Latin server recommending Cuban creme brulee and coconut baba au rhum cake for dessert. Nothing like it in the Fox Cities. Then the check came, and it stopped us in our tracks. Nothing like that in the Fox Cities, either. And then there was our trip to San Francisco to visit our son Chad and his wife, Debbie. They took us to Asia SF, one of many downtown hotspots. OK, good. We love Asian food. During dinner, the transgender fashion show started. . . .

Lawsuit settled, 'Crying Game'-like 'There's Something About Miriam' premieres in UK

By Steve Rogers, 02/23/2004

The six straight men who sued to prevent the broadcast of an UK reality show in which, unbeknownst to them, they competed for the affection of a preoperative Mexican transsexual quickly got over their claims of injury and public humiliation in return for a cash payment, clearing the way for the program to debut on UK television last evening.

The undisclosed settlement -- which various reports pegged at anywhere between $150,000 and $250,000 a man -- followed November 2003's lawsuit over the previously scheduled broadcast of the series. which had been filmed earlier in the year in Ibiza.

During the beginning of the show, the six men were presented with a lineup of beautiful women and asked to pick the one that they found most attractive. All of them selected a South American beauty named Miriam. Then, in typical reality dating show fashion, they competed to win her affections.

However, unknown to the men, Miriam wasn't a woman. Instead, she was a preoperative transsexual -- similar to Jaye Davidson in the 1994 movie The Crying Game. . . .

There's Something About Miriam - The End

There's Something About Miriam

Miriam's secret

By EMILY SMITH
TV Editor

STUNNING model Miriam reveals how she got intimate with six guys on a shocking new reality show – but none realised she was born a MAN.

The leggy beauty was locked in a luxury Ibizan villa with the lads as they battled to seduce her on Sky One show There’s Something About Miriam.

And they were stunned when she finally revealed her startling secret.

Speaking exclusively to The Sun, Miriam, 22, says: “A lot of romantic stuff happened on the show. A few of the guys kissed me and there was a lot of touching and hugging. It was intimate.

“I got very close to a few of them, but none got close enough to realise my secret.

“At the end of the two weeks I said to them, ‘I was born a man. I am a woman in a man’s body.’

“I was really nervous at their reaction. I didn’t know if they were going to punch me or attack me.

“There was a great silence. One of them started laughing, some were angry, some were quiet and shocked while another took it very personally.

“I left immediately and I haven’t spoken to them since.”

Miriam, born in Hermosa, Mexico, is one of the most beautiful transsexuals in the world and there are no telltale signs she was born a man.

But she is a pre-op transsexual, often called a shemale, which means she still has her carefully-hidden male genitalia.

However for the time being, Miriam will remain that way.

She says: “I have no plans to have a full sex change at the moment. I am only 22 and am very happy the way I am. I love myself.”

Viewers of her show, which starts on Sky One on February 22, will see the six hapless lads drooling over Miriam as she first appears in a swimsuit on a yacht.

The footage shows them desperately trying to seduce her as they go on a series of dates.

Fooled six guys. . .pre-op transsexual

Many try to kiss and touch her boobs, others try to take things further.

But Miriam holds back until she delivers her bombshell secret after picking her favourite.

The embarrassed blokes threatened court action to get the show scrapped, fearing national humiliation.

But now it will be screened after Sky chiefs paid the lads a reported £125,000 each in compensation.

Miriam’s life story is a long battle to be accepted for being different, since the age of four, when she realised she wanted to be a girl.

She says: “My three brothers used to play baseball but I wanted to play Barbie.

“Then at 11 I met someone like me, somebody who also wanted to be a girl. He suggested I get some hormones to make my breasts grow and make me more like a girl.

“I got the pills. I’d tell the pharmacist I was buying them for my mother.”

Miriam’s breasts grew and she needed to wear a bra. Then at 12 she was asked to leave her school after the principal decided she was a bad influence. Miriam was forced to go home and tell her parents.

She recalls: “My mum said, ‘You’re my son, I love you and I will support you whatever you want to be.’ My dad didn’t seem surprised. He already knew. Everybody called me a faggot anyway. But my brothers really supported me.”

Miriam moved to another school but did not fit in and at 14 she ran away and spent six months working at a strip club.

She recalls: “I used to keep my shorts on so the customers could only put their money in the side. I made a lot of money — enough for my first boob implants.”

Finally Miriam’s mum tracked her down, then sent her to live with a relative and attend Hollywood High School at 15.

But there she fell for a boy and during an intimate moment he discovered her secret. The following day it was all around school and Miriam walked out.

She moved to New York to live with her uncle and started work in his estate agency.

The 16-year-old started dating men, but still carefully guarded her secret.

She recalls: “I went out with one guy for six months when I was 18.

“He asked me to marry him, so of course I had to tell him and he cried for a week.

“Because of his reaction I thought, ‘I am never going to do this again.’ I learned my lesson. I have to be honest about who I am.

“If someone asks me I will tell them, if someone gets attached to me, I’ll tell them. But otherwise I won’t.”

Meanwhile Miriam is happy with the way she is. She says: “In Mexico, they now compare me to Catherine Zeta Jones. I feel special — I feel unique.” . . .