Letter to consultant brought in to clean up CAMH Clarke Institute |
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Below is a letter I sent to a consultant brought in to address longstanding problems at Tornto’s notorious CAMH Clarke Institute, the source of nearly all institutionalized oppression of trans people in North America.
To Annemarie Shrouder:
Thanks for your efforts in addressing serious issues at the CAMH Clarke Institute. I am a longtime critic of their role in decades of institutionalized oppression of trans people, not only in Toronto, but throughout the world. Since you’ve probably been inundated with partisan viewpoints, I will keep this brief.
1. The Clarke has a “parole board” mentality common among old-guard gatekeeping facilities that controlled access to trans health services. It is nearly the last “clinic” of its kind in North America, and should be disbanded in my opinion.
2. The Clarke staff members have been worldwide leaders for decades in several problematic areas:
* Reparative therapy on children ("curing" trans children)
* An “addiction” model offering “treatment” for those unhappy with their sexualities
* Phallometrics and application of forensic psychology for gender nonconformity (dating back to Freund)
* Etiology and taxonomy for trans people based on sexual arousal (definitions based strictly on sex assigned at birth)
* Focusing on the “problem” of trans women and ignoring health needs of trans men
* Turning down the vast majority of surgical applicants when The Clarke controlled funding (over 90% rejected)
* Prohibitive requirements that drive most clients to private or extralegal healthcare options
* Selecting participants/test subjects based on those who fit their taxonomies (convenience sampling)
* Using their nonrepresentative samples to conduct and publish research
* Using academic journals to suppress and discredit criticism
* Sociobiological/eugenic underpinnings present at the Institute since its opening in 1966.3. Below are published statements by and about people working there:
* Ray Blanchard: “A man without a penis has certain disadvantages in this world, and this is in reality what you’re creating.”
* Kenneth Zucker: “Zucker found several predictors of adolescent GID: lower IQ, lower social class, immigrant status, non-intact family, and childhood behavior problems unrelated to gender identity disorder.”
* Susan J. Bradley: (with Zucker) “a homosexual lifestyle in a basically unaccepting culture simply creates unnecessary social difficulties.”
* James Cantor: “These people are erotically attracted to the idea of being female...like a cross-dresser who wants to appear female all the way down to the bone, rather than just by the clothes.”
* Maxine Petersen, an older transitioner and Clarke collaborator: “Most gender patients lie.”It is this atmosphere of distrust and contempt that is the root of all the problems. Everyone listed above should in my opinion be fired, which would probably take care of 90% of the problems at The Clarke.
4. In the heyday of the “gender clinic” system, patients learned the “right” responses to match pet theories of gatekeepers at each clinic. Most trans people who see the Clarke Institute favorably are older transitioners who identify as “disabled” and are frequently recipients of government assistance. Because they are rarely able to assimilate after transition and are typically low-functioning socially, their identities are validated by programs at the Clarke, where they are classified in more socially acceptable ways than they might be under other taxonomies (which described them as “pseudotranssexual” or “nontranssexual"). Many actually enjoy the rigid requirements and humiliation, which somehow validates them and even plays into their fantasies regarding feminization.
I believe the CAMH Clarke Institute’s research will be the historical equivalent to gender that the infamous “Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male” is to race. I am not saying this to be rhetorical or hyperbolic, either. They are really that bad.
You are welcome to use or share the contents of this letter in any way you see fit. Thanks very much for your time, and feel free to contact me if you require citations for anything above or have any questions.
Sincerely,
Andrea JamesPS: Some of my writings about CAMH Clarke list my tsroadmap.com email address as a contact, which has been closed due to spam. Please contact me via my University of Chicago email address.
If you are in the Toronto area and seek trans health services, do not under any circumstances go to the CAMH Clarke Institute. Instead, please contact
LINK: Ottawa Transition Support (ottawatransitionsupport.com)
http://www.ottawatransitionsupport.com/
Includes local resource listings.
LINK: Trans Youth Toronto!
http://www.the519.org/programs/trans/tyt.shtml
A drop-in in downtown Toronto for transsexual and transgender youth age 26 and under.
LINK: Sherbourne Health Centre
http://www.sherbourne.on.ca/
At Sherbourne Health Centre, we offer a wide range of primary health care programs and services to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, transsexual, two-spirited, intersex, queer, or questioning individuals. Our goal is to provide you with dignified, non-judgemental services to help you feel better, cope better with day-to-day challenges, and address specific LGBT health issues.
LINK: Transcend: Transgender Support & Education Society (transgender.org/transcend)
http://www.transgender.org/transcend/
LINK: Transgender Health Program Vancouver (vch.ca/transhealth)
http://www.vch.ca/transhealth/
Their work in Canada illustrates that alternative architectures are possible for trans healthcare. The monolithic, controlling, centralised gender centre approach is not a given, merely a rather unfortunate byproduct of a marginalied history, just as there was nothing to commend backstreet abortion when unwanted pregnancies were similarly problematised by society. Includes a great overview of services [PDF]
LINK: Vancouver Trans Advocacy Group (VanTAG) (vantag.org)
The Vancouver Trans Advocacy Group (VanTAG) is a team of activists advocating the fair recognition of medical needs and human rights of transgendered people in BC. VanTAG’s members include transgendered individuals; family members and friends of trans people; and loved ones affected by inequities present in our social systems. Our aim is to facilitate a peaceful and productive conversation between the community and care providers.
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