Sunday, November 23, 2008
America’s psychiatric bible, the “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders” (DSM), is a masterwork of “consensus science” over empirical evidence. For instance, Toronto psychologist Ken Zucker is the foremost proponent of reparative therapy for gender-variant children, even though gender variance resolves in most children with or without reparative therapy. He claims we should ignore the empirical evidence and rely on his “clinical wisdom” instead. Parents who fall for this nonsense are on his clinic’s waiting list right now, waiting to subject their own children to all kinds of misery in order to “cure” them. This DSM ritual document has taken on great significance in the last half century. The fates of transgender people are just one of the issues that lay ahead. English Professor Christopher Lane at Northwestern University discusses the argument about whether the next revision of should be done openly and transparently so mental health professionals and the public could follow along, or whether the debates should be held in secret.
This may sound like an arcane, insignificant spat about nomenclature. But the manual is in fact terribly important, and the debates taking place have far-reaching consequences. Published by the American Psychiatric Assn. (and better known as the DSM), the manual is meant to cover every mental health disorder that affects children and adults.
Not only do mental health professionals use it routinely when treating patients, but the DSM is also a bible of sorts for insurance companies deciding what disorders to cover, as well as for clinicians, courts, prisons, pharmaceutical companies and agencies that regulate drugs. Because large numbers of countries, including the United States, treat the DSM as gospel, it’s no exaggeration to say that minor changes and additions have powerful ripple effects on mental health diagnoses around the world.
Full article in LA Times:
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-lane16-2008nov16,0,1940730.story
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Posted by
Andrea James on 11/23 at 08:27 PM
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McGill University philosophy student James Albaugh has a good opinion piece on the pathologization of gender variance by the American Psychiatric Association (APA):
Put yourself in the place of someone who’s trying to transition. Many people simply just don’t understand why you would do that. Then add to that the realization that the APA, a socially-recognized mental health authority, considers you to be diseased, simply out of who you are. Ask yourself if you would be willing to trade a bit of your dignity for medical treatment. If not, why should anyone else have to?
Full article:
Non-normative gender is not a disease
http://www.mcgilldaily.com/article/5765-non-normative-gender-is-not-a
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Posted by
Andrea James on 11/23 at 08:23 PM
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The November 5 issue of The Advocate has a good piece on how M2F gender variant woman Diane Schroer’s successful federal discrimination lawsuit could spell more legal victories for American transgender employees:
On September 19 a federal district court in Washington, D.C., sided with Schroer, ruling that she was indeed discriminated against on the basis of sex—a violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. It was the first time a transgender person had won a lawsuit on such grounds.
Full article:
http://www.advocate.com/issue_story_ektid64675.asp
See also:
Work transition for transsexual women
http://www.tsroadmap.com/reality/jobtrans.html
Transworkplace
http://transworkplace.ning.com/
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Posted by
Andrea James on 11/23 at 08:15 PM
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Monday, November 17, 2008
At their 2008 annual meeting, the American Psychological Association (APA) released a report by their Task Force on Gender Identity and Gender Variance. They then adopted a resolution based on that report.
Beneath its façade of supportive and progressive language, the report promulgates the most controversial and conservative views about transgender people, while dismissing or downplaying more progressive, more ethical, and more scientifically rigorous literature.
For years, this task force waged a war of attrition against those who wanted the report to reflect the diverse literature on trans issues, especially from those in the trans community.
The trans community has been preparing detailed analysis of this problematic report. My contribution was to compare the draft I was sent for comment with the final.
I have created an annotated version that shows the changes made since the draft was sent out for comments. Because the draft was sent out as a 195-page hard copy only, APA severely curtailed debate about the contents. My annotations include highlighted text and comments.
“>
To read the comments, hover over or click the icons on each page.
- yellow indicates added materials
- blue indicates changed materials, with original in the dialogue boxes
- red indicates removed materials
- green indicates my commentary
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APA Task Force on Gender Identity and Gender Variance
http://www.tsroadmap.com/info/apa-task-force.html
APA Task Force Report: Annotated Comparison of Draft and Final (PDF)
http://www.tsroadmap.com/info/apa-task-force-notes.pdf
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Stay tuned for more in-depth analysis in the future.
See also:
Lynn Conway’s open letter to the APA regarding Task Force data dispute
http://www.tsroadmap.com/notes/index.php/site/comments/lynn_conways_open_letter_to_the_apa_regarding_task_force_data_dispute/
Kenneth Zucker & APA Task Force on Gender Identity, Gender Variance, and Intersex Conditions
http://www.tsroadmap.com/notes/index.php/site/comments/kenneth_zucker_apa_task_force_on_gender_identity_gender_variance_and_inters/
My comments on draft of APA trans task force report
http://www.tsroadmap.com/notes/index.php/site/comments/my_comments_on_draft_of_apa_trans_task_force_report/
Trans task force report for American Psychological Association is out
http://www.tsroadmap.com/notes/index.php/site/comments/trans_task_force_report_for_american_psychological_association_is_out/
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Posted by
Andrea James on 11/17 at 05:28 PM
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The “transkid” fraud JT LeRoy has been back in the news. For those who aren’t aware of this minor literary scandal, a middle-aged eccentric named Laura Albert created a hoax a few years ago involving an underaged transgender West Virginia truckstop prostitute turned memoirist. And people actually believed it. People always want to assume the worst about trans youth, though that has been changing in the ensuing years thanks to mainstream media coverage and family support organizations.
One of Albert’s conspirators has just written a book about the whole lurid mess:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2008/nov/02/savannah-knoop-jeremiah-jt-leroy
It reminded me of Denise Tree, aka Kiira Triea, another middle-aged eccentric who has claimed to have undergone genital surgery for an intersex trait in 1974 when she was 14. Among other telltale signs of fraud in her fantastic tale, she was in fact born in 1951. The gullible press and a few sloppy academics lapped up Tree’s improbable tale of sexualized torment as a teenager in the clutches of the Johns Hopkins clinic. Tree’s aunt, Nancy Henley, got her Ph.D. in psychology from Johns Hopkins in 1968, which may expain Tree’s fixation on the school and knowledge of various programs.
In addition to her own bogus story, Tree is also owner and author of transkids.us, a hoax site allegedly written by trans children. Tree has a long history of using sockpuppets, dating back to USENET in the early 1990s. Transkids.us is her most elaborate creation, believed only by the most gullible of online noobs, primarily LiveJournal denizens. However, Tree has duped a few sloppy academics who buy her stories, much like her counterpart Laura Albert. Tree has even coauthored a paper with J. Michael Bailey, whose own elaborate transkid “Danny Ryan” has come under question. In his 2003 book The Man Who Would Be Queen, Bailey claimed “Danny” was cured of gender identity disorder and is now a happy gay man. JT LeRoy, Danny Ryan, and Denise Tree’s life story all have one thing in common: we are supposed to believe them without independent verification. In all three cases, that has not been forthcoming. In all three cases, the independent evidence put forth to date only raises more questions.
It’s not clear why some people feel a need to make up these kinds of stories. They all seem to desire attention, even negative attention. It seems to be a very specific kind of trolling, in which they strongly identify with or are attracted to the person they create, a sort of skeevy Pygmalion thing.
What disturbs me more than a couple of kooks making stuff up is the lack of concern among academics, especially sexologists. I would hope that a field constantly under scrutiny would see that keeping one’s own house in order should be their first order of business. This is the field that allowed John Money to go unchallenged while his most “successful” patient’s life spiraled into despair and suicide, while Money continued to proclaim the case a success. Why has there been no independent confirmation of Danny Ryan, the child whose “curing” was the framing device of the book Bailey used to get tenure? Haven’t we learned not to take these kinds of people at their word?
I am confident that the whole truth about Danny Ryan and Kiira Triea/Denise Tree will come out in time. The truth caught up with John Money. The truth caught up with Laura Albert. The truth will catch up with J. Michael Bailey and his co-author Kiira Triea. It’s just a matter of time, and I take the long view on all of it.
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Posted by
Andrea James on 11/17 at 04:23 PM
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