Subject: RE: [Peninsula_Interweave] pathologizing transgender

From: "Joyce" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 11 Sep 2006 11:59:20 -0700

Since we are discussing the issue I thought I might just put a bit of
perspective on this.

The APA  American Psychiatric  Association has classified Transgender Folk ,
and Transsexuals (GID)

as a "Personality Disorder" for a long time - (since the '50's) The
implication is this is a purely Psychological condition.

Psychiatrists really have to assert that any disorder has a psychological
basis in some sort of repressed 

emotional/psychological trauma. That is how Psychiatry got started. They
refuse to acknowledge any

physical basis for this. Since some 10-20% of its (APA) membership is
probably GLB it could no longer sustain that position 

with those members.  So 30 years ago it dropped the classification for GLB
people. T's on the other hand make up only 0.1%

of the population so it is easy to refuse to reclassify "GID". 

>From time to time some people (including me) have tried to change that,  but
the APA is intractable on this issue.

Demanding that Psychiatry is the only therapy gives them patients for life. 

The major TG organizations (NTAC and GenderPAC,..) have stayed out of this
and the GLB organizations (NCLR, HRC, .etc..,)  have also refused to address
it. 

In fact, most GLBT folk don't seem to care much. 

The problem I have with it is that like paragraph 65 in Nazi Germany people
will ignore this until 

they don't - then a TG person can be committed to a mental hospital and
given a lobotomy (legally). Now no one in the medical field pays too much
attention

to it but what if they don't in the future? 

The insurance issue is related but has bit of different history. This comes
from the feminist efforts of the extreme

lesbian separatists in alliance with ultra-conservatives. Germaine Greer,
Janice Raymond, and Mary Daly among others in the late 60's and through the
70's (even today)

asserted that TG people (especially MTF) were trying to undermine feminists.
They wrote vicious and horribly untrue tirades against TG (MTF's)

Janice Raymond who was (and still is ) chair of the Women Studies Department
at UMASS (my alma mater -boy was that fun) wrote a paper

for the HEW headed by the late Jesse Helms (Now the  HHS) Department that
recommended that TG people should not be able to get any medical benefits
(no Medicare etc..)

Private insurance companies picked up on this and have all disqualified TG
people from coverage for various ailments. I believe that to this day

TG (MTF) are not covered for breast cancer treatment, by Medicare. This was
true in SF for city workers until the recent change in policies (Thanks to -
Mark Leno). 

It would great if someone wanted to do something about this but ...... you
know...

  _____  

From: [email-masked]
[mailto:[email-masked]] On Behalf Of Marnie Singer
Sent: Monday, September 11, 2006 10:35 AM
To: Peninsula Interweave
Subject: Re: [Peninsula_Interweave] pathologizing transgender

Brian sent the following comment to me instead of the whole list and then
asked me to forward it to y'all...

Brian Singer <reedsinger@sbcgloba <mailto:reedsinger%40sbcglobal.net> l.net>
wrote: 
I strongly recommend Judith Butler's "Undoing Gender." In this book (and
actually, one or two articles in it that are very good are all you need to
read), she talks about the issue of medicalizing trans issues in order to
get the help they need. For example, without a diagnosis of "GID," many
doctors will not put a person on hormones. However, it is problematic
because these terms continue to stigmatize us as pathological in some way.
I, for one, have NEVER been diagnosed with G.I.D. My doctors have always
treated me with the utmost respect and dignity. If I ask for something, they
give it without any kind of diagnosis. This has also been true thus far for
any legal papers/documents/changes. Lucky I guess.

Cheers,

Brian

Marnie Singer <marniesinger@ <mailto:marniesinger%40sbcglobal.net>
sbcglobal.net> wrote:
When it comes to pathologizing transgender issues and terms, health
insurance is irrelevant. Only now are some insurance plans covering some of
the treatments, and the pejorative terms started long ago.

I like Frey's distinction that transgender folk have differences in physical
development, not a mental disorder. It's a condition, not a pathology. The
illness, if you will, is society's response to the condition, which
legitimately, I think, can be treated legally as a "disability" because many
people respond as if it's another person's disability. 

The article said:
<< "Because it's a medically diagnosed condition, it fits in as a disability
under the New York Human Rights Law," Mr. Spitz said. "We have to
accommodate the disability and allow the individual to perform the job." >>

When the arc of justice has bent sufficiently that difference is not seen as
wrong, transgender folk won't need to be considered disabled to have their
human rights respected.

Marnie

Amy Zucker Morgenstern <parishmin@uucpa. <mailto:parishmin%40uucpa.org> org>
wrote:
This was interesting, Marnie. Thanks.

I know there's considerable discomfort and
disagreement among transgender folks about the
pathologizing of transgender, terms like gender
identity disorder, etc. I've wondered how much the
use of medical terms is an accommodation to insurance:
if you want help paying for the elements of your
transition, you have to call them treatments for a
disorder. Then this article stressed that because
this is a medical condition, state law (and maybe the
Americans with Disabilities Act? Family and Medical
Leave Act?) required she be treated as anyone with an
illness or injury would be.

Is this what drives the medicalization of the terms,
do you think?--the fact that health insurance and law
respond well to that?

Amy

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---

From: "Joyce" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 11 Sep 2006 11:59:20 -0700

_____  

Cheers,

Brian

The article said:

Marnie

Amy

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