Jay has a post up on what his trans agenda is. I agree with most of it, with some reservations. It’s interesting to note, however, that at least two of his platform planks are controversial; they might even place him in the distinct minority.
He’s also got a post up on the social construction of disability.
Do tell!
But actually, my real true trans agenda is not to yell at my silly co-workers who do things last minute, eat my lunch, renew my hormone prescription, plan a takeover of all feminisit communities, and by cat food.
Seriously.
Out of interest, which two?
–IP
These two:
Sorry to be ignorant…
The DSM is diagnosis criteria for mental disorders, isn’t it? What’s the case against not listing tans-related stuff as a disorder?
What are the Harry Benjamin Standards of Care?
–IP
It implies that transsexuality is a disorder, and it implies that cissexuality is the norm from which we all deviate.
Search me. Google might know, though.
1) The HBIGDA SOC are documented here: http://www.hbigda.org.
2) The DSM contention is one of ‘normalization’. There are many who percieve the presence of GID as a diagnosis in the DSM as describing a TS as “disordered”, when in fact they do not perceive themselves to be “disordered”.
I’ve always looked upon the DSM as a tool to give mental health professionals a common vocabulary, and the presence of a diagnostic category in there does not mean that there is an “illness” per se, merely a behaviour that warrants description in its own right.
Oddly, being in the DSM in the land of insurance gives TSes a lever to coerce the medical insurance companies into working with the TS client.
The HBIGDA discussion is a bit touchier because it creates a series of “gatekeeper” posts that a TS must navigate during the transition process. Many of those posts exist more to ensure that the various medical professionals have “done their due diligence” in a manner that is demonstrable before the law. (yes, malpractice suits are a big risk)
Additionally, the HBIGDA standards are designed to create a set of filters that will minimize the risk of someone making a gender transition that really shouldn’t for a variety of reasons (other mental health conditions, self discovery etc.)
The ‘gatekeeping’ aspect of HBIGDA really seems to grate on some people, others find that the SOC gives a kind of structure that they are comfortable with. The standards are not so rigid as some of the early institutionalized gender programs (e.g. the Clarke Institute in Toronto), and give a lot of leeway to the patient and therapist in the specific path of treatment.
In truth, both serve a purpose today.
*confused*
Surely having it listed in DSM implies it’s a disorder, so removing it implies it isn’t a disorder, no? Why is it a bad thing to stop listing it as a disorder?
–IP
[...] f any kind. But still. Still! A disease! Grog commented about the GID diagnosis in this comments thread: 2) The DSM contention is one of ‘normal [...]
What grog said. Some transsexuals (and gendervariant, genderqueer, and transgender people) believe that it stigmatizes gendervariance; some transsexuals believe that it is an accurate description of transsexuality. Some transsexuals don’t want to be associated with a disorder; some transsexuals are worried about losing insurance coverage if GID is dumped out of the DSM.
Ah, got it.
I also think that the DSM is often held up as some kind of “canonical list” of mental illness, when the reality is much more subtly nuanced than that.
For example, being transsexual may not itself be a disorder that prevents someone from functioning in the world, but it may legitimately be an underlying factor in treatment for a whole range of other issues the transsexual/transgender client may be facing.
As such, having it described in a clinical reference remains a useful tool for a clinician that is trying to describe a patient’s state in “common language” that other professionals will understand.
The unfortunate part is that the general public has not been adequately educated as to what the DSM really means. {few adults have heard of it in my experience, even fewer have actually studied it at all}
Yup. I’ve encountered the assumption that the presence of GID in the DSM means that transsexuals are not sane.