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Apparently someone has finally decided to work on the DSM.
Well, they have put Dr Kenneth Zucker on the committee to do that work on transgendered folk. He is a crony of Bailey, and Anne Lawrence. Do you think that is the reason I feel like I have been staked out on a hill of fire ants?
Gwen
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Wolf in the Hen House
CaroL
You are not alone.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Gender_ID_Coalition
Unfortunately, I am not sure if these folks can get their acts together (includes me, sadly) to do anything about it. Seems to be many agenda's being pushed, ranging from wanting to change the make-up of the committee, to removing GID as a mental illness in the DSM, to limited intersex goals such as stopping automatic surgery on children born with variant genitalia. All good aims, but lacks focus.
CaroL
Gender id coalition
I have crossed paths with a few of the members and have co-moderated for a group that was owned by Phyllis Cudmore TS Woman.I recently left the group because they felt I should apologize for calling them men in dresses something that I hadn't done but another member did.I had started a post about gardening in New Hampshire and the post was Hijacked by Leslea (co-owner and PM Brent.I had mentioned I needed to remove a stump and it became their joke to say I should blow it up then they went on to talk about dynamiting fish I simply stated that was to much testosterone for me.The group had been going on and on about guns self defense and killing people. Phyllis asked those who were sick of the gun posts to come up with ideas for different threads so gardening in New Hampshire was born.The group is supposed to be a health and wellness group tailored to allow ts children to particpate yet there is a lot of talk about guns and Leslea the list manager openly uses profanity when in disagreement with other members.The only reason I'm bringing this up is to point out that one must be carefull who they align themselves with. Amy
Some are just "men in dresses".
When I was impersonating a male, I was always just turned off when the boys started doing their macho testosterone games. It ranges from whose team is best, to who has the biggest and baddest truck.
One humorous point to all this is that I used to drive a Dodge 4X4 Diesel pickup. It was purchased for me by my X to make me more masculine. I just drove it, pulled big things to please her, took her places that made her gasp in wonder and did all the stuff.
Every once in a while an insecure man would approach me and tell me how much better his Ford truck was. I soon grew tired of it all and just began telling people like that it should be the person who makes the payments who decides. Of course, these little boys did not want to give it up at that, they wanted to do the domination game. It really shattered their world that I lived outside all that.
I wasn't a dominant male even when I was in the "act". It just never made sense to me. I was on the TG veterans yahoo group for a while and the Dominants were really bossy. I demured of doing such meaningless things.
Gwen
You've made some excellent points gwen
I believe that some true TS's can suffer from autogynephilia or some symptoms brought on as a coping mechanism due to an inibility to transition.From what I've read and seen it seems mostly to be found in late transitioners.Something I found funny was that liking TS fiction is considered a symptom.I wonder if that is all types of TS fiction or just certain types.Amy
The LuRiD dEtAiLs amonst us WoMen.
Male Puberty washed over me at age 9. My first fantasy was of being Bell in "Beauty and the Beast." The Huge but loving male holding me tightly. I remember something happening that really made my eyes cross. :)
It was that way every time I masturbated.
Simultaniously, I was being seriously programmed to be a Male. For me, it was like using a nail file to do a gun stock.
When I got married, as I was programmed to do, but I finally managed to build this mental image of I as a big mean warrior taking his wooooman! LOL. It was a difficult act, but I did it. So, where was my oscar? That imagery worked long enough to have two kids.
Somewhere along the line, I began imagining myself as the helpless maid and my X as the conqerrer, on top. By 35 it was difficult to maintain an erection using that imagery. We used Viagra but it gave me astonishingly brutal headaches. By 45, there were no more erections.
So, my imagery was twisted from the start.
I even bought some rubber pantys with a cold hard, "thing". I wish I had thought of heating it in the microwave or something. Maybe she would have liked it better.
I was, am, and always will be emotionally in love with my X. She, understandably wants someone with a hard and hot "thing". It is too brutal on her own self image to go to bed with a woman.
Its all very tragic but happily she has moved on and I am beginning to. :)
Gwen
Bad Moon Rising
Zucker starts from the premise that GID is something to be repaired. He believes it should be repaired because living transgendered is "so damaging."
Of course, the cynic in me suggests he and others like him realize that "repair" is a fool's mission that will line his pocket with gold for the life of the patient.
How can a community that decades ago set side the same illogical response to homosexuality embrace such utter nonsense?
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
Fools mission?
Maybe Gender Identity Disorder can be "repaired", I wouldn't discount that entirely. I don't think that "repair" is possible with today's science, but maybe some day, given sufficient money and research.
Mr. Ram
Are You Suggesting Homosexuality Can Be Repaired?
eom
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
I guess I am!
But not with today's technology.
Mr. Ram
Hmmmm
I didn't know it was broken...
~~Laika
What borders on stupidity?
Canada and Mexico.
.
Repair it?
Some of the research I have read suggests that perhaps the testosterone "flood" during sexual differentiation in the first trimester gets interupted or otherwise made unacceptable.
Coming against the intolerant ideals of the fundis, a genetic research Doctor once told me that the statistical distribution of abnormal gender development is the same in all Mammals, from squirrels to humans. She said it has always been that way and we need to get over what is seen as normal and acceptable. Of course she is of Indian nationality and there are places there where trans people are seen as just another gender.
It all seems very shattering to those of us who are trying to live through all of this. Eventually, humans will develop some more tolerance or at least be able to identify people like me before birth and terminate the pregnancy.
Gwen
Some experiments can't be done.
From reconstructing my awful childhood with information from my siblings, and my own memories, I have concluded the following: Of course this conclusion is a living thing and apt to change at any moment.:)
Mom wanted a girl very badly, after two boys. I heard her lamenting the fact many times later in my youth. As a babe, she raised me as a girl until about 4 years old. Whether she created my feminine nature or it was already there to be nurtured, I do not know. Developmental people will tell you that being raised as a girl until that age could be a major problem right there.
Then, when my stepfather came on the scene, he was extremely frightening and brutal to me. He practically shaved my head while beating me, and I was so terrorized by him that I never ever bonded with him. There were so many times that I was teased and called sissy and then told to act like a man. In recent years, I have realized that my parents were confronting something which was very frightening to them. I also believe that they did their best in spite of the fact that both had much more than two pieces of checked baggage.
It really is imposible to know isn't it? Perhaps with a Mother who had some idea that I really was not a girl, and a caring and well balanced father who would have allowed me to sit on his lap and taught me to play catch, who knows. Would it have cured me? I have no good answer for that.
What I do know is that as a man, I had almost no friends, and hated the role I had in life. I loved my X and my children more than life its self. The loss of them has been more painful than anything I can imagine.
Now, as a woman, I started out with no friends and it has been extremely trying to fight my way out of my shell. I am struggling to learn even the most basic social graces. Oddly, I am often very jolly as a woman. People tell me that they see a mixture of mirth and mischief in my eyes above charming dimples. Oh, gosh, blush, smirk, giggle, giggle!
I really do not know if my life is real, or just a benignly tolerated delusion. I do my best and that is all there is.
Many blessings
Gwen Brown
Hanged if you do....
and hanged if you don't.
One of the difficulties about GID is that if one sees it as a variation on the norm, why does it need treatment, shouldn't those variants just live in their preferred role?
If they have body changing things, like hormones or surgery, if it is simply a lifestyle choice, then doesn't it become the same as cosmetic surgery, you know bigger boobs or botox?
I suspect the answer is between the two. I see my 'trans-sexualism' as just that a journey from one side to the other. I crossed the divide with the help of a surgeon and others, and the cure came when I changed my birth certificate. I had then changed gender or sex.
As such my gender situation wasn't an illness in itself, but the effects it had on me once I realised what I wanted to do and then found such a struggle, did have an affect. I depressed me, broke up a marriage, and meant my children grew up largely without a father figure. It's still something my son and his wife have difficulty with, which I regret but am not necessarily responsible for causing.
I think most would agree that the side issues of frustration and depression can cause quite a degree of illness in some folk, so there is a need for some medical/psychiatric inclusion or involvement. Especially as it is also known that gender confusion can arise from psychiatric illness. It was rumoured that Peter Sutcliffe, the Yorkshire Ripper, said he wanted a sex change. This is a seriously disturbed monster who killed 13 women with a hammer and screw driver.
I hope he never fits the criteria of GID/transsexual syndrome.
AT the end of the day, i think life should be about helping individuals to realise their optimum potential in every way, including helping them to express themselves as they see themselves and to live the lives they choose, providing it has no adverse affect upon others - in a real sense, not an imaginary one, which is what most prejudice is.
Rant over.
Angharad.
Angharad
Bravo!
Beautiful words and sentiment. Thank you.
Gwen My Friend, You Have Every Right To Feel
The way that you do. Me, I find those who think that they can cure one of being T.G. to be as bad has Hitler. I got involved in the T.G. Community when I began reading the stories. I have found many friends here and I hope to find many more. Personally, I do hope and pray that that committee sees the light and decides to help instead of hurt.
May Your Light Forever Shine
May Your Light Forever Shine
Repair US??
IMHO, anyone who has the brilliant idea of 'repairing' a TG person is someone who is a big idiot. To anyone who is 'repaired' by their methods are quite possibly the ones who will be six feet under. Years ago, before I transitioned, I was seeing a shrink who was doing everything he could to put his own feelings and thoughts into my head. he told me outright that he couldn't see me as a woman or happy with such a decision. I dropped him like a hot plate. He would make a *GREAT* team member with Dr. Zucker and his cronies in their own private little fantasies about having a 'perfect' world without anyone who was gay, lesbian, bi, or TG. Makes me wonder what sort of drugs they are taking to bring this sort of junk into light. Maybe they should go into a different sort of practice.
Goldie