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Gender Identity a Mental Disorder?
Bright Blessings family! I wanted to share this letter with you that I wrote to the Dean of Instruction at the college I am attending for my continuing education classes for my work:
Dear (Dean):
We just finished the unit on Mental Disorders in our Human Diseases class. I am very disturbed that gender identity issues are included as a disorder. Someone's gender identity is NOT a mental disorder. It is a complicated and integral part of the person's identity, and the stereotype of transgendered people as being mentally disordered can not be tolerated. I'm curious if this is the opinion of the author, the position of (the college) or the position of (the accrediting body)? In any scenario, this must be challenged. This is no different then when homosexuality used to be included on the APA's list of mental illnesses. Please advise so I will know how to direct my response. Thank you.
Unfortunately brother and sisters the fight is not over. The basic mental health of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered issue is still under attack in this country. Please send your energy as you feel appropriate for a successful resolution of this issue. Love ya (mean it!).
Oberon
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by A. Llewellyn on -
I would suggest referring to such people by the pronoun they prefer, such as 'he' for transmen (men in women's bodies) and 'she' for transwomen. At least, that's how it's usually done in the trans and gender queer communities. They may prefer to be labeled by the gender they do not identify with, but it made it kinda confusing for me.
I would be labeled an 'FTM' (female to male), so I receive rejection because I don't present as 'butch'. I'm not a masculine boy, I'm a feminine boy, and because my body isn't male people don't accept me as a boy. Because they can't wrap their heads around who I am, which usually ends with me laughing at them because they just don't realize what I am. I'm a boy, and just because my body doesn't reflect that (yet) doesn't mean I'm less of one.
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Permalink Reply by Phoenix Rising on -
I see where you're coming from - but I referred to them as I did because I felt it made it a bit easier with the written word~
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Permalink Reply by Drakill Tannan on
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Homosexuality has always been something arround the 10%, it's just that reciently people have stopped being morons and gays can come out of the closet. It's no longer something abnormal, just something uncommon. That is why it's no longer a mental disorder. Normal isn't a strict value, it's more of a range in within what's acceptable and what's not acceptable. The fact that it also causes a dificulty in the person's life is also important, it's not a disease if it does not cause harm. In the past being gay supposedly created several problems, but now we realize it's not homosexuality, rather homophobia causing the problems. It simply can't be clasified as a disorder anymore.
Now, there IS something wrong with a woman being trapped in a man's body. A woman should be in a woman's body, and when it isn'tn that way there is an issue: the person suffers because of it, and it shouldn't be. I'm not saying being transgender is a bad thing, on the contrary, that might as well be considered the cure of the disease/disorder that having such gender identity problem poses.
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Permalink Reply by A. Llewellyn on
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Thank you for everything you wrote. If anything has the illness, it's society, not us who are living our lives as we are instead of as society (that big nebulous blob) wants us to be.
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Permalink Reply by Drakill Tannan on
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Yes. A disease is a disease because society says so, it's not an objetcive value.
This is per definition, at least in the mental health area.
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Permalink Reply by Drakill Tannan on
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In esence nothing is really "right" or "wrong". Society labels something as "disease" because it results disfunctional to it. Social introyects take us to belive something "diseased" is something bad/wrong/evil, but diseased only means disfunctional in the enviorment.
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Permalink Reply by Drakill Tannan on
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Tristan i did mention before, i think it's on page 1, a "disease" should not even be adressed if it does not cause a problem to the person. As an example i said that we all clasify as schizotypical people, but since it causes no problems any psychologist that adresses it is an idiot. In the same way, if you have no probled derived from your condition it should not be adressed.
I'm a humanist (developing) psychologist, my particular branch, intrapersonal gestalt, considers it is the client (pacient) who decides what is wrong and what is to be done about it, but this can only apply in an individual basis.
Sociologicaly speaking (and diseases must be seen through the sociology lenses) it does cause problems on most of who suffers of the conditinon, that is why it's clasified as a disorder: it's not normal and it causes suffering. (in general) -
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Permalink Reply by A. Llewellyn on
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I'm sorry, but your logic isn't making any sense to me. Homosexuality is no longer a mental disorder because people fought for it not to be. That's just the history. It's not because society suddenly had an epiphany and said, 'Oh, well, those homosexuals, they aren't that weird'.
'A woman should be in a woman's body...'
I know you don't realize this, but what you just wrote is coming from a place of cisexual normativity and privilege where a woman must have a vagina. That's not true. A woman can have a penis and still be a woman. She can even be a happy woman! Some women in traditionally-male bodies are not happy that way, and so they take steps to change that. Same goes for men in non-traditionally male bodies. Plenty of people are coming out as gender queer or genderless. We don't need a cure. If society could broaden its narrow mind they would look at me, breasts and womb and compact, petite body and see me for the man I am. I don't have to have a penis to be a man; in fact, I don't plan on ever having such surgery. I plan on taking hormones to create a more androgynous body because that will better reflect how I feel my body should look. Some gender variant people will take hormones and undergo surgery, but the gender spectrum is wide and plenty of men will be content in traditionally-female bodies and vice versa. We don't need body parts to make us who we are. We are already there, it is society that must see us as we are.
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Permalink Reply by GarlicClove on -
There is also a diference between gender and sexual preference. It used to be a person was not actually considered transgendered if they preferred the opposite of their genetic gender (for example you could not be male-to-female and a lesbian). This is, however not the case in the real world. Now, psychologists tend to look at gender and sexual preference as to completely separate things.
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Permalink Reply by Drakill Tannan on
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I don't take away the credit from gay activists. Thanks to them society realized homosexuality wasn't a disease, but that takes no turth away from what i said.
I've been checking arround, and i am pretty sure for a woman to be a woman, she needs to have a vagina (or had), since a woman is a human of female sex, and the sex (wich differs from gender) refers to the phyisical characteristics. Without such characteristics the person's sex is not female and thus it's not a woman.
This is semantcs, of cource. But this is the "official" definition of what a woman is. So yes, for a woman to be a woman she needs to have a vagina. Else we're talking about a human with the superficial aperance of a woman.
Now, if a man wants to act like a woman (and i am against it personally, wich is why i support sex-change operations so much, since sociologically-wise modifying the traditional roles appears to have negative concecuences on society) he's still a man. He might dress, speak, be gay and feel like a woman, but as long as there's a penis between his legs, he's a man.
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Permalink Reply by A. Llewellyn on
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Wow. You're cisexual privilege and arrogance is disgusting on so many levels.
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Permalink Reply by Drakill Tannan on
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I may have misunderstood, but are you implying i feel superior because my gender and my sex correspond with each other?
If so you are mistaken.
I was arguing semantics. Per definition a woman has a vagina.
But if that's now what you meant, please explain.
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