"Don't Call Us Nuts"
APA To Be Blasted
By TG Activists
By Riki Wilchins
Just 5 months after demonstrating
outside the American Psychiatric
Association's annual meeting,
transactivists have announced they are
once again planning to confront APA
members over Gender Identity Disorder
(GID). [See May 5 release below.]
The peaceful demonstration, to be
held outside the APA national meeting in
Chicago on Saturday, October 19, has
been called by members of the Chicago,
Connecticut, NYC and Boston chapters of
the direct action group, the Transexual
Menace. [Interested parties should
contact Riki Wilchins (Riki@Pipeline.Com,
212-645-1753) or Nancy Nangeroni
(NRN@world.std.com); free rooms will be
found for those needing overnight
accommodations.]
Not About Dysfunction,
But Punishing Difference
While GID is often used for
transexuals seeking sex-reassignment
surgery, it is also routinely applied in
pathologizing gender variant children,
queer teens, non-complaining crossdressers,
and transgenders.
Said a Menace spokestrans, "Yes,
it's important that people get their
surgery and insurance reimbursement.
But it's also crucial we do so without
pathologizing millions of gendervariant
and transgendered teens, adults, and
kids. GID isn't about dysfunction.
It's about punishing gender difference
and enforcing gender norms in the guise
of practicing medicine. Just like the
earlier disease of `homosexuality,' GID
is inevitably used against the most
vulnerable among us - our genderqueer
kids."
"We think the APA has their *own*
disorder -- GenderPathoPhilia -- which
we define as `an abnormal need or desire
to pathologize any gender behavior which
makes you uncomfortable.' They've had
their turn `treating' us - maybe it's
our turn to render a little treatment
back. Pack your bags for Chicago!"
Millions in Tax Dollars for
"Treating" Gender Variant Kids
According to Phyllis Burke's new
book GENDER SHOCK, for almost 3 decades
the US government has been funneling
millions in taxpayer dollars to locate,
diagnose and "treat" scores of children
for having the "disease" of GID.
States Burke, "Government records
indicate that, since the early 1970's,
at least 1.5 million dollars was awarded
from the National Institute of Mental
Health (NIMH), adding she believes
"[this] is probably the tip of the iceberg."
This "research" and "treatment"
continues even today with children as
young as 3 or 4 years of age. Often
their only "disorder" is running afoul
of the APA's traditional fear of sexual
or gender difference.
Daphne Scholinski is one such
child who was involuntarily committed
by her parents from age 14 to 18, after
being diagnosed with GID. An athletic
teen, Scholinski she did not want to
wear dresses or be submissive. After 3
months, she attempted suicide by
drinking a facial astringent. "Most
people die after they get out.
The recovery from the system is what
gets people in the end. Life
expectancy of my friends is pretty low.
Most of my friends are dead."
Activists Protest APA
[May 5, 1996 - New York City]
On May 5, 1996 over a dozen
gender activists from the queer
community, Transexual Menace (CT),
Transexual Menace (NY), Transexual
Menace (Men), and TOPS, demonstrated
outside the annual meeting of American
Psychiatric Association and called for
an end to diagnosing transpeople as
mentally disordered. The diagnostic
category of "Gender Identity Disorder"
(GID, also known as "gender dysphoria")
is routinely applied to anyone seeking
sex reassignment surgery (SRS).
Activists handed out over 1,000
leaflets [text follows]. Others held up
signs saying "Keep Your Laws OFF My
Body" and "Gender Euphoria NOT Gender
Dysphoria." The demonstration continued
for several hours while attendees
arrived, many of whom stopped to chat
with demonstrators. Some seemed shocked
at the sight of so many black
"Transexual Menace" T-shirts outside the
convention hall, while others were
amused, intrigued or supportive.
NY State Police had initially
sought to move demonstrators from their
site in front of the Jacob Javits Center
where the Convention was held. They
relented only when several members of
TOPS, the national organization for
trans peace officers, including Deputy
Sherrif Tonye Barreto-Neto and Lt. Janet
Aiello, showed their badges and
identified themselves as fellow
officers. They patiently explained why
they were there and negotiated for half
an hour, after which Police allowed
demontrators to stay. One trooper
privately explained to demontrators that
he wanted to be supportive, having done
papers on transexuality in college.
Dissension Over GID Within
TransCommunity
In spite of the demonstration,
removing GID as a psychiatric diagnosis
has been a source of continuing dispute
within the transcommunity. The
diagnosis has enabled many transexuals
to obtain insurance reimbursement for
the $10-40,000 cost of SRS, without
which they could never have afforded it.
Notably, most of those at the
demonstration who were transidentified
were also post-operative.
Other activists point out this
reimbursement has been accomplished at
the expense of pathologizing an entire
class of tens of thousands of people,
including non-complaining crossdressers
and transgendered people who have no
desire for surgery. They further
maintain the tide on reimbursement is
clearly going out in the current
political climate. Some have compared
"GID" to "homosexuality" when it was a
disorder: more a political than a
medical category. Since they show no
symptoms of mental impairment or
disorder, they state they resent the
diagnosis.
GID has also come under
increasing fire from the larger queer
community, which has noted its use in
obtaining "corrective treatment" for
non-complaining gender-variant children
as young as 2-4, as well as against
"butchy" teenage lesbians and "nelly"
teenage gayboys whose parents simply
fear the stigma of queer offspring.
This has led some to seek a
compromise strategey which, while
removing GID as a mental disorder, would
retaining some medical basis for
reimbursement. They point out
intersexed "corrective" [sic] surgery is
routinely reimbursed without question,
although it is often exclusively and
openly cosmetic. In addition, they note
that childbirth is also reimbursed but
is not a disease or a disorder.
Dr. Wynelle Snow, MD, a
psychiatrist and member of Transexual
Menace (CT), and Riki Anne Wilchins of
Transexual Menace (NYC) met with members
of the Association of Gay, Lesbian and
Bisexual Psychiatrists during the
convention, to air transgender concerns
and seek the association's support. The
AGLBP will be taking up the issues in
its upcoming meetings. In addition, Dr.
Snow is formally requesting the group
change its name to include
"Transgender."
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