`The Cutting Edge-November 2013
By Barbara F.
Anderson, Ph.D., LCSW
The World Professional Association for Transgender Health
(WPATH) is preparing for its bi-annual conference in Bangkok, Thailand in Feb.
2014. A featured speaker will be Antonio
Guillamon, MD, PhD who will speak on “The Brain of Transsexual Persons.” A summary of his presentation follows: “The brain structures and mechanisms
that support gender identity are unknown.
One way to approach this topic would be to compare males and females
with dysphoria to those who do not feel dysphoria. Two decades of research into brain
differences in our laboratory, working with several species, including humans,
has produced 2 main ideas. First, sex
differences are seen in complex networks and differences in any given structure
must be approached in this context.
Second, sex differences in the brain can take 1 of 2 morphological
patterns; in some structures males show larger measurements than females while
in other structures the opposite is true.
“…post-mortem studies of hormonally treated m-t-f
transsexuals have reported that 2 nuclei, which are located in the
hypothalamus… are feminized. The idea
that the brain[s] of transsexual persons might be feminized in m-t-f
transsexuals or masculinized in f-t-m transsexuals has attracted media
attention and become popular. It also
seems to fit with the idea of being trapped in the wrong body. However, findings from post-mortem brain studies
include the effects of the cross-sex hormone treatment and the suggestion of
brain feminization in m-t-f transsexuals might be an over-simplification of how
the brain actually is in transsexuals before they receive hormone
treatment.” For more information on Dr.
Guillamon’s talk, see WPATH’s website @ www.WPATH.org.
“Trans-Kin Update: Support for Family & Friends of
transgender People” recently won the international Book Award in the Gay and
Lesbian Non-Fiction category. According
to Eleanor Hubbard (who may be the author/editor/publisher) “this guide has
helped countless significant others, family members, friends and allies” to
deal sensitively with TGs. For more
info: www.Trans-Kin.com
New Jersey joins California as only the 2nd
state to prohibit licensed therapists from engaging in conversion therapy. This is the now-discredited form of
psychotherapy designed to “cure” patients of homosexual and transgender
thoughts and behaviors.
Pakistan’s TG community, along with intersex and
cross-dressing individuals are known
as “hijras.” These male-bodied people identify as women
and have faced discrimination and
ridicule for centuries. Segregated, they
have usually earned their living as dancers, circus performers, sex workers,
and beggars. In 2012, a Supreme Court
ruling allowed them to obtain IDs that permit them to vote and acknowledge them
as the “3rd gender.”
On November 4, 2013, 18 year old Sasha Fleishman was set
afire while dozing on an Oakland bus.
Sasha identifies as “agender” and though appearing male, was wearing a
skirt, according to his father. “Being
agender simply means that a person doesn’t feel that they are either a boy or a
girl, according to Mr. Fleishman. A 16
year old high school student is in custody as a result of footage available on
a security camera.
Know the name William T. Vollmann? Refreshingly, a New York Times feature (Nov.
14, 2013) presents a positive story about a cross-dresser who is accomplished
and confident that he is OK. In the
article, “The Self Images of a Cross-Dresser,” Mr. Vollmann, “the absurdly prolific author and National
Book Award winner…has developed a female alter ego named Dolores ….” She is the subject of his new edition of
photos and paintings, “The Book of Dolores.”
The author is 54, straight, the father of a daughter and married to a
physician. He began cross-dressing
“seriously” about 5 years ago after meeting some “girls’ in the
Tenderloin. They took an interest in
him and he responded, researched the subject of the Noh theater dancers and
Kabuki actors of Japan, and writing a short book (504 pages) on the subject.
