Protesters Meet With APA

By Riki Wilchins


October 19, 1996 - Chicago, IL

IN WHAT MAY prove to be an historic meeting, four dozen demonstrators held a hour-long meeting with representatives of the American Psychiatric Association (APA) during the APA national conference for hospital administrators and managers.

The demonstrators -- a diverse group including members of Transexual Menace chapters (NYC, Chicago, LA and Tampa), It's Time America chapters (Illinois and Wisconsin), Queer Nation, the Lesbian Avengers, Transgendered Officers Protect & Serve (TOPS), various leatherboys and at least one intersexed person -- spent the morning outside the conference vigorously protesting the APA's use of Gender Identity Disorder or GID.

Demonstrators carried signs saying "Hey APA! How Many GAY KIDS Did You Treat TODAY?", "Get Your Laws OFF Our Bodies," and handed out a thousand fliers headed "FLASH! APA Discovers Members Have New Disorder: GenderPatho-Philia -- an unnatural need to pathologize any gender behavior which makes you feel uncomfortable." In a bit of guerrilla theater, some protesters managed to insert the flier into hundreds of the APA program guides so they were the first thing attendees saw when registering.

GID has drawn increasing criticism from gender-queers for its use in pathologizing transgendered people who want sex-reassignment surgery (SRS), and for its misuse in diagnosing and "treating" queer teens whose sole symptom is their parents' discomfort over gender-variance. While demonstrators expressed anger over GID, many stressed the need to maintain some basis for insurance reimbursement for individuals seeking SRS, but as a physical condition, like pregnancy, rather than a mental disorder, like schizophrenia.

Riki Wilchins, a spokesperson for Transexual Menace, said, "If I want my nose done, it's a 'nose job.' if I want my breasts done, it's a 'boob job.' But if I want my groin done, suddenly I have a mental disease.' GID is not about psychiatry; it's about punishing difference under the guise of practicing medicine."

In a related development, the Transexual Menace, the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF), Hermaphrodites With Attitude (HWA), and the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) have jointly called for picketing the APA's national offices in Washington, D.C., as part of NGLTF's annual "Creating Change" conference this year on November 8-10. The conference regularly attracts 2000 to 3000 queer activists from across the U.S.

Contacts for this story are: Stephanie Young 708/535-1502 Stephanie-Young@WorldNet.Att. Net and Riki Anne Wilchins 212/645-1753 riki@pipeline.com


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