GenderLife Forum: The Information Exchange

...according to Zucker and Blanchard, That's why I'm sending this email and attachment to everyone I know, and urge you to do the same:
Please forgive me for sending this e-mail out to a list of people, but it’s an issue the is of great importance to me, and I hope to everyone in any way connected to the TG community.
The most important tool that therapists, psychologists, and psychiatrists have is the DSM, the “Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.” It is currently under review and revision. The current version is the DSM IV-TR. In 2010, the DSM V is scheduled to be released. The reason that I am sending this e-mail, and the issue that has raised my ire, is that a member of the American Psychiatric Association DSM-V Task Force and the Chair of the Sexual and Gender Identity Disorders Work Group is Kenneth J. Zucker, Ph.D. Head, Gender Identity Service Clinic, Child, Youth, and Family Program at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. His position is basically that being transsexual is a mental disease and CAN BE CURED! Here is a link to a wonderful piece on NPR. It contrasts his approach with an approach I think most people would find much more reasonable: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90247842
He calls his approach Reparative Therapy. It is the same approach used to “cure” homosexuality. Unless you feel transgendered people are mentally ill and can be cured of their condition, I highly urge you to write to the American Psychiatric Association and ask them to remove Dr. Zucker from their committees. In addition, you can ask for the removal of Ray Blanchard PhD., who works at CAMH with Dr. Zucker.
We can join together and write letters to APA stating our concerns and disputes with having a biased staffing of a committee to determine the criteria for GID. Here is the address to send letters:

APA
1000 Wilson Blvd, Suite 1825
Arlington, Virginia 22209

Thank you for taking the time to read this e-mail. Please join me in taking action. I have attached a letter that you can edit, print, sign and send if you’d like.

Thank you,
Hope


Here is the letter:
APA
1000 Wilson Blvd, Suite 1825
Arlington, Virginia 22209
May 8, 2008

To Whom It May Concern:
As a transsexual individual, I am highly concerned about your choice of Kenneth J. Zucker to chair the Sexual and Gender Identity Disorders Work Group and by extension, to be a member of the American Psychiatric Association DSM-V Task Force. His long standing advocacy of Reparative Therapy for transsexuals is disconcerting, and I am surprised that an organization that has discredited the use of Reparative Therapy for homosexuality would include Dr. Zucker in any aspect of revising the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. I would urge you to reconsider your choice, because allowing his bias to influence the creation of the DSM V would be a grave disservice to not only the transgender community, but the integrity of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.
Sincerely,
Hope Wa

As "homosexuality" was removed from the DSM many years ago, so should the so called "gender identity disorder" and "fetishistic 'transvestism'" diagnoses be removed from the DSM. If anything, there should instead be relevant physical medical diagnoses under congenital anomalies to associate with the relevant surgeries. It was a physical thing. There was nothing wrong with my brain before surgery fixed me.

Also, I consider it significant that none of the relevant professions or organizations has ever stood up, on an official basis, for insurance inclusion regarding surgery, or appropriate legal recognitions. Even though I have long since been fixed and finished, these topics make my blood boil.

p.s. Zucker, Blanchard, Bailey, and Lawrence are the scourge or our population's earth.

Quality !!!

Whats the next label that fits ?

Damn, I was hoping this was gonna be some troll attacking the forums.
Although Zucker is close enough.

I liked Zucker in Grease, he was the word.

Since I am strongly opposed to reparative therapy, I have to write a letter. I'm stuffing it into the envelope and I decided to check on the address...

Hope, where did you get that address? I see it's at the top of the press release, is that their public affairs office? Is that really where we want to send the letters?

Why not their main address? American Psychological Association, 750 First Street, NE, Washington, DC 20002-4242

Perhaps we should send a letter to both?

lol, I used to work in the Wilson street building. I think that the Arlington address is headquarters.

Thanks xkcd.

Ya know I don't personally care what those jack arses think any more than I do what the monkeys in the Congo think.

I realize they influence some other folks and that is regrettable but not everyone buys their pablum.

I agree with Jenny for once

The problem is that for every provider that buys into their pablum that's who knows how many kids get scarred, fall into drugs or flat out kill themselves because their parents took them to a provider that bought into the BBLZ junk science. Their lies need to be stomped into the ground and fully discredited, not written into the latest DSM.

This all falls into the two groups whether gender issues are physiological or psychological. This is what drives the medical, insurance, societal reactions towards our issues. If this is Psychiatric then they can fix it without having to cover SRS. But if this is a physical then it's best fixed with Gender Reassignment. As the Harry Benjamin Society says in the Standards of Care For HBS "It's best to bring the body in line with the mind, than cause brain damage by trying to bring the brain in line with the body" Another thing that I don't find myself in agreement with the DSM is they want to consider this a deviant sexual condition. I don't find myself getting off on being female, dressing, I am a female please let us be ourselves. The world would be a much better place!

The difficulty is that the goal post is very movable, with regard to GID being a sexual fetish of some kind. I mean, I don't dress to get off... but I do have more satisfying sex (alone or with a partner) when I can feel feminine. I'm sure we all do. Everyone likes to feel attractive, and it's very hard to feel attractive when your body is so very wrong. I think even cis folks should be able to understand this. Rebecca Romijn herself wouldn't feel very sexy with a chest covered in shag!

But, if you admit that you'd have a better sex life if your physical sex matched your mental one, all of a sudden you're stuffed in the autogynephile sardine can, and you're in the club with Anne Lawrence, assumed to be doing it merely to get off. Arg! Yeah, I always pursue major surgery that has a chance (what chance, depending on the surgeon, but still) of rendering me permanently non-orgasmic just to get off. Must be on account of this huge brain I'm lugging around!

According to the likes of Darth Blanchard, and Darth Zucker. Being a Transsexual is a mental disease. At this rate I kinda expect them to issue "Order 66" in the DSM 5. Not looking good. "Too bad we couldn't Nuke Toronto for Morbid. Just to be sure..."

Coercive Therapy is disowned by everyone but Ken. I wanna see his record for "conversions". Psychiatry is the only profession on earth you get to harm people with no proof of a cure.

That attitude smacks of "Well I don't give a shit, because I've transitioned. Who cares what happens to the next generation of TS people?"

I wasn't sure of the address, so I just sent an e-mail to their executive offices e-mail address.

I agree and disagree with Jenny. I totally agree, it doesn't matter to me what they think, I know what I am and that is the "most" important thing and nothing they say will change that.

Well, since I've started my transition, I've realized the problem is not with me (I am what I am), but with others and their perception of me and us as a whole. I have done a good job so far (fingers crossed) and am being accepted by my family and everyone I come out to. I can only affect people one at a time, but the DSM can change the perception of a vast number of people. That sure would make things easier for me, instead of trying to tear down the wall one brick at a time.

So, I feel it is very important to send letters to organizations like this, congress and any other people that can influence the larger crowd.

does that mean i can qualify for disability now that im mental?i think jerry falwell and the religious right were quite nutty also.

No, not that luck.

In the end, as always, this will affect the most those who have the least power (read: money), because they have to depend on the legitimate avenues to obtain hormones, therapy and surgery.

For the wealthy, there's always a way around any SoC and DSM.

PS: "Gender dysphoria" is big business, too. Keeping all those regulations in place (without giving any form of coverage, or a very limited form) ensures that a lot of people keep making some money out of it.

A quick shout out to all you letter writers out there, in the case of the DSM, the important APA is The American Psychiatric Association, not the American Psychological Association. Their contact address is:

American Psychiatric Association

1000 Wilson Boulevard
Suite 1825
Arlington, VA 22209.

They can also be e-mailed at: apa@psych.org

Or by phone: 1-888-35-PSYCH or 1-888-35-77924

The chair of the task force to revise the DSM is David J. Kupfer, M.D.

He can be contacted at:
David J. Kupfer, M.D.
Department of Psychiatry, Thomas Detre Hall of the Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, University of Pittsburgh, 3811 O'Hara Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15213

Or by e-mail at:kupferdj@msx.upmc.edu

Or by phone at 412) 624 - 2353