What Is Trans?

There is a lot of brouhaha going on about what bathrooms transgender folk use. Politicians trying to avoid having to face real issues, generate false issues to divert attention from the real problems. That is unfortunate. What is even more unfortunate is the recent attacks on transgender people. It would appear that they see an easy target because most people are ignorant of transgender issues. I commented online after reading something a transwoman wrote as I found it a well thought out article regarding the bathroom issues and the affect it might have on cisgender women. Cisgender is a term that refers to people whose gender identity is in agreement with their biological sex. It was suggested that I should write about this and try to shine a light of knowledge to disperse the darkness of ignorance. I will do my best to illuminate. I have my own way of perceiving some of this and have found that some things I say are not well received in the transgender community, but I think it is the best way I can think of to present it to people who aren't knowledgeable in this area. So please, this is not meant to offend anyone, I am just trying to bring a little understanding.

Let us start with the medical/science/psychological part of it. I understand that many do not read technical journals let alone medical journals, but this snippet is taken directly from the DSM-5 on Gender Dysphoria. The DSM is the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual used by psychologists/psychiatrist and counselors to diagnose and treat those suffering from Gender Dysphoria. After reading it, you may understand why many don't “get” transgender issues.

“The need to introduce the term gender arose with the realization that for individuals with conflicting or ambiguous biological indicators of sex (i.e., "intersex"), the lived role in society and/or the identification as male or female could not be uniformly associated with or predicted from the biological indicators and, later, that some individuals develop an identity as female or male at variance with their uniform set of classical biological indicators. Thus, gender is used to denote the public (and usually legally recognized) lived role as boy or girl, man or woman, but, in contrast to certain social constructionist theories, biological factors are seen as contributing, in interaction with social and psychological factors, to gender development. Gender assignment refers to the initial assignment as male or female. This occurs usually at birth and, thereby, yields the "natal gender." Gender-atypical refers to somatic features or behaviors that are not typical (in a statistical sense) of individuals with the same assigned gender in a given society and historical era; for behavior, gender-nonconforming is an alternative descriptive term. Gender reassignment denotes an official (and usually legal) change of gender. Gender identity is a category of social identity and refers to an individual's identification as male, female, or, occasionally, some category other than male or female. Gender dysphoria as a general descriptive term refers to an individual's affective/ cognitive discontent with the assigned gender but is more specifically defined when used as a diagnostic category. Transgender refers to the broad spectrum of individuals who transiently or persistently identify with a gender different from their natal gender. Transsexual denotes an individual who seeks, or has undergone, a social transition from male to female or female to male, which in many, but not all, cases also involves a somatic transition by cross-sex hormone treatment and genital surgery (sex reassignment surgery).

Gender dysphoria refers to the distress that may accompany the incongruence between one's experienced or expressed gender and one's assigned gender. Although not all individuals will experience distress as a result of such incongruence, many are distressed if the desired physical interventions by means of hormones and/or surgery are not available. The current term is more descriptive than the previous DSM-IV term gender identity disorder and focuses on dysphoria as the clinical problem, not identity per se.” DSM-5, page 451.

To over-simplify, basically a person who suffers Gender Dysphoria feels that they have the mind of one gender in the body of another. The affect on the afflicted person could be anything from a mild discomfort with who they are to such discomfort as to cause suicidal thoughts and behaviour. In 2014, the Williams Institute did a study on suicide within the transgender community in which they reported in their Executive Summary:

“The prevalence of suicide attempts among respondents to the National Transgender Discrimination Survey (NTDS), conducted by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and National Center for Transgender Equality, is 41 percent, which vastly exceeds the 4.6 percent of the overall U.S. population who report a lifetime suicide attempt, and is also higher than the 10-20 percent of lesbian, gay and bisexual adults who report ever attempting suicide. Much remains to be learned about underlying factors and which groups within the diverse population of transgender and gender non-conforming people are most at risk.” - Williams Institute - Suicide Attempts among Transgender and Gender Non-Conforming Adults – Jan 2014

The whole report can be read here for those who wish to know more. http://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/AFSP-Williams-Suicide-Report-Final.pdf

So, gender dysphoria is very real. This isn't just some guy wearing a dress as some ignorant people dismiss it. This is a real issue and to those who suffer from gender dysphoria, they can feel trapped. To make matters worse, for many, if they come out to others, they are ostracized. Referring once again to that Williams Institute study:

“— Family chose not to speak/spend time with them: 57%

— Discrimination, victimization, or violence at school, at work, and when accessing health care

• Harassed or bullied at school (any level): 50-54%

• Experienced discrimination or harassment at work: 50-59%

• Doctor or health care provider refused to treat them: 60%

• Suffered physical or sexual violence:

— At work: 64-65%

— At school (any level): 63-78%

— Discrimination, victimization, or violence by law enforcement

• Disrespected or harassed by law enforcement officers: 57-61%

• Suffered physical or sexual violence: By law enforcement officers: 60-70”

- Williams Institute - Suicide Attempts among Transgender and Gender Non-Conforming Adults – Jan 2014

So this is very real. For many, the way out is death.

I am going to switch tracks for just a moment. I have given you the facts. Now I want to share my feelings and thoughts on this. I may not be very eloquent, but when I write, I try to speak from the heart. So bear with me.

I note that many people reject being transgendered as a life choice. Of course, many of the same people feel the same way about Gays and Lesbians. Science says otherwise, but some people you will never be able to convince. Oh and please don't cite passages from the Bible to support your hate. They come from the Old Testament and have passages in there about not eating bacon or shrimp or wearing that nylon/polyester shirt. Though when you counter bible thumpers with those passages they tell you they don't count. Of course not, they affect them. They prefer only to put faith in those that can support their hate and ignorance. They claim to be Christians, but Jesus said nothing against Gays, Lesbians, or Transgendered. Jesus said that he was the way and the light and left us with one commandment, Love. Not love if, or but, just love.

Okay, enough said about religion. I have been fortunate to know many in the transgendered community. We have shared laughs and tears together. They are very wonderful people. Maybe you should get to know some of them before condemning them. At odds with the workplace discrimination, one study found that many transgendered people are actually highly intelligent. They found that they were the most under-utilized segment of the population due to discrimination. This is changing as more and more companies adopt policies to prevent discrimination, but still has a long way to go. HRC's release of its Corporate Equality Index (CEI) back in March, I believe, showed the status of companies becoming more accepting and getting a perfect 100 appears to be the goal for many of the top companies.

I think that as more and more companies come out in support of transgender people, the backlash from those who feel the need to bully and control others is getting worse. Hopefully, this will change.

Okay, so what do I think is at the root? This is where I get the most flack from the transgender community. I see this as a birth defect. As the DSM notes there are those that are intersexed. These are people who were born with both genitalia. In the past, doctors would often make the decision on which sex to assign with or without the parents input. Often times, they guessed wrong. The old belief was that environment decided what gender you accepted. So if you were assigned a boy at birth, you were raised a boy and compelled to do boy things. If you were a girl, you would be raised as a girl and do girl things. Unfortunately, for some, it isn't so cut and dried. We are all born neo-female. At some point in vitro we get a burst of hormones that cause the physical changes that then end up defining us as male or female. However, sometimes those hormones are disrupted, or replaced by other influences that may cause things to “go wrong”. We can see the physical result with intersexed people. However, and this is just my thoughts, sometimes the physical change gets completed, even ata odds with what our brain believes us to be.

That raises the question, could the rise in transgender population be attributed to people feeling freer to come out and express themselves as they truly are? Or is it because we have mucked up our environment so badly that there are endocrine disruptors and other influeneces that are causing what might have once been a rare occurrence to become more commonplace? I'll leave that to the scientist to figure out. Unfortunately, there hasn't been much studies done on transgender people. I would suppose that is in part because for many they preferred to stay under the radar and not draw attention to themselves. There have been some though. One study looked at the brain and found that there is actually a difference between male, female, and transgendered brains. So there is scientific research, modest, but still there, that maybe warrants a deeper study. There was one study that actually proffered that maybe there is a third gender. Wrap your heads around that kiddies.

Okay, so between the all the studies, the documentation, there is evidence that this is a real thing. So why do we still keep hating? We hear about the courage it took for a transgender person to transition. Why is it so courageous if it is just slapping on a dress as some ignorant people say? Unfortunately it is not that simple.

A person suffering from gender dysphoria, cannot just decide one day to be the other sex. They have to be in the care of a counselor/psychologist/psychiatrist. This professional often has to write letters to the doctors before doctors will begin treatment. Back in the 90's, this was the old Benjamin Protocols. The mental health professional, oh let's shorten that to MHP, would have to challenge you and make you have to prove that you were truly transgendered. As time went on, it was found a gentler approach was needed and WPATH became the standard of care for transgendered people. A copy of the recent version of the Standards of Care (SOC) can be downloaded from here, http://www.wpath.org/site_page.cfm?pk_association_webpage_menu=1351&pk_association_webpage=3926

So a person suffering gender dysphoria would seek out a MHP to help them find a resolution, whether it was simply coping, or going the full route to transition. After a diagnosis of gender dysphoria was ascertained, the person affected would have to seek out a endocrinologist to set up a course of treatment. In the past, the MHP would have to write a letter to the doctor before treatment could begin, however, in recent versions of the SOC, that has been revised. Some doctors may still require it to cover themselves. Now, I haven't read the new version of the SOC, but in the past, you would eventually have to transition and live your life as the opposite sex for one year before getting approval for gender reassignment surgery or sexual reassignment surgery, I have heard it referred to both ways. I believe in the past it also required two letters from two different MHP, but I believe that has been removed from the SOC in the recent version. I guess I should read it at some point to get caught up.

So besides the discrimination that a transgendered person faces in their day to day life, they had to prove their way to the mental health and medical professionals. I also have to note that often they are left to find these professionals on their own. That is not very helpful when you encounter a MHP that doesn't believe in LGBTQ issues. I have heard of a number of websites that have cropped up to offer this information. I believe in the Boston area, many go to Fenway Health.

Of course, that is just the medical side of things. There is also many hours of electrolysis for male to female transfolk. They could opt for laser too. They might also undergo facial surgery to better contour the face to look more feminine. They may also go for a tracheal shave to remove a prominent adam's apple. The costs are phenomenal and often times not covered by insurance as the insurance companies have been allowed to discriminate. So for many, they look to the sex trade or making pornos to raise the money.

So there is a lot of information here, but I have barely touched upon it. It is a complicated issue. However, I feel that we can make the lives of transgender people a whole lot easier if we can just remove our own ignorance and help them on their journey. There have been many people who have transitioned and are having successful careers. Some who are better known, Chaz Bono, Laverne Cox, Janet Mock, and Catilyn Jenner. Oh and the Wachowski Brothers who are now the Wachowski Sisters.

All transgendered people want is to be loved and accepted just like everyone else. They didn't ask to be born the way they were. No one would choose that as a life choice. Who would choose to live in a world that hated and despised you? We need to learn to accept everyone for who they are and what they do. I hope this brought a little insight and awareness. Thank you for taking the time to read it.

My heart to your heart, one heart, one spirit.