The Cutting Edge-Sept 14, 2015

By Barbara F. Anderson, Ph.D., LCSW

 

Lots of news this month so entries will by necessity be brief.  Hopefully, you can follow up on articles that whet your appetite from original sources.

 

In an opinion piece, Richard A. Friedman, professor of clinical psychiatry, examines the fascinating subject, “How Changeable is Gender?” in the NYTimes of Aug. 23, 2015.  He begins his treatise with facts illustrating that modifying one’s gender does not guarantee a lifetime of happiness as evidenced by high incidence of post-transition suicide and depression. He then moves on to discuss gender dysphoria in children and cites several studies tracking its persistence thru adolescence to adulthood.  His conclusion is that this experience in children is “highly unstable and likely to change.”  However, the longer dysphoria persists, say into adolescence, the more likely it is to signal a permanent condition.

 

Remember Ashley Diamond, the trans inmate who sued the State of Georgia for access to hormone replacement treatment and protection from prison rape?  In a surprise move, she was unexpectedly paroled after serving less than a third of her 12 year sentence for burglary.  The parole board issued a statement that her release was “compatible with the welfare of society and public safety….” NYTimes Sept. 1, 2015

 

Gay and transpeople are seeking a meeting with the Pope during his visit to the US in September.  They are asking him to take a stand on the issues of sexuality and gender that are increasingly dividing Catholics.  Lui Matsuo, 28, born female, has said he has identified as a male since a toddler, and is among a group of gay and trans Catholics looking forward to attending the 4-day upcoming World Meeting of Families in Phila. occurring just prior to the Pope’s visit. NYT July 29, 2015.

 

A lengthy and admiring portrait of Phyllis Frye appeared on the front page of the Sunday NYTimes, August 30, 2015.  Entitled “Once a Pariah, Now a Transgender Judge,” it describes the lifetime achievements of this pioneer.  In the summer of 1976, 28 year old Phillip Frye embarked on transition.  He had been forced to resign from the military for  ”sexual deviation,” had been disowned by his parents, divorced by his wife, and denied contact with his son.  With the encouragement of Frye’s 2^nd wife, she embarked on a new life in which she could be forthright and authentic.  Today, at 67, she is this country’s 1^st openly transgender judge. In the years between she earned a law degree, appeared on the Phil Donahue Show, and spoke out eloquently for gay and trans rights.

 

Transgress and Harbor View presses have released the 1^st guidebook of gender transition written especially for youth.  Author, Seth Rainess, offers a roadmap of the many issues youngsters can expect to encounter on their journeys, including medical treatment options, dating and disclosure.  The title is “Real Talk for Teens: A Jumpstart Guide to Gender Transitioning and Beyond.

FMI <sethjamison1@gmail.com>

 

A proposal by the Obama administration bans any health program that receives federal funds from discriminating based on gender identity.  This rule is considered to be “the most significant affirmation of the rights of transgender individuals of equal treatment in health care and health insurance that has existed anywhere in the law” according to a prominent law professor.  This regulation must go through a public comment period before implemented. NYTimes Sept. 4, 2015.

The Cutting Edge-August 23, 2015

Barbara F. Anderson, Ph.D., LCSW

 

Much to my surprise I found myself quoted at length on SFGate (June 6, 2015) in an article titled, “As transgender discussion increases, workplace improvement still needed.”  The article begins with a bow to Caitlyn Jenner, moseys through several examples of workplace violations leading to law suits, segues to the importance of mental health care and bingo!! There I am.  Six paragraphs are devoted to my philosophy of treatment, services offered and an example of a successful case.  After another page and a half of other professionals’ take on the field of TG care, the author winds up.  Aha!  The signature tells me that this was written by a Stanford University Journalism student who interviewed me months ago.  I wondered how that article turned out!!!

 

Caitlyn’s at it again.  According to the NYTimes, July 23, “I Am Cait” is a new E! reality series.  It premiered July 26^th and “chronicles Ms. Jenner’s new life….”  Ms J’s children from her first and second marriages have refused to participate but (surprise!) Kim and Kanye, Kylie and Khloe will be in attendance.  On a more serious note, Caitlyn may face a manslaughter charge as a result of a fatal car accident on the Pacific Coast Highway in February of this year.  The NYTimes reports that “Ms Jenner was driving in a manner ‘unsafe for the prevailing road conditions’ when her sport utility vehicle rear-ended a Lexus, pushing it into traffic.” (Aug. 21, 2015)

 

With all the recent exposure of transgender issues in the media, interest has arisen concerning the number of transgender people.  In their column, The Upshot, the NYTimes, June 9, 2015, “Searching for a Best Estimate of the Transgender Population” addresses this matter.  Difficulty in getting an accurate count is due to several factors.  The Census Bureau does not inquire about gender identity; being fluid it is hard to define on a multiple choice list of options (there are more than 50 options on Facebook); accuracy is difficult to guarantee as many people are reluctant to admit to a non-conforming gender identity to avoid discrimination.  However, better data is important for policy-making in health, education, criminal justice, social services, sports, and the military.

 

nterestingly, the Census Bureau published a paper recently in which they “analyzed people who most likely were transgender, based on the fact that they had changed their name or sex with the Social Security Administration.”  Since the inception of the Social Security Administration in 1936, 135,000 (rounded off) people have changed their names to one of the opposite gender, and 30,000 changed their sex as well.  Of these, 65% were female-to-male and 35% were male-to-female.  A caution in considering this data:  people who have not changed their names, who have not notified the SSA, who transitioned before age 16, or don’t have a social security number, are not represented in the paper.  A second study, using survey rather than administrative data, estimated that 0.3% or 700,000 people identify as trans.  Gallup is continuing to study the matter using a sample of 350,000 people.  If you have not been rendered unconscious by the detail above, stay tuned for updated information.

 

How young is too young?  The New York Times is onto that issue as well.  In a June 17, 2015 story entitled, “New Girl in School: Transgender Surgery at 18,” Katherine Boone’s story is told. She is an 18 year old high school senior in Cazenovia, NY who experienced depression in her freshman year associated with the onset of puberty. Symptoms included suicidality and cutting.  At 16 she began estrogen and spironolactone.  There is no law against minors receiving hormones or surgery but insurers, including NY’s Medicaid, have refused coverage for these youngsters.  The question providers wrestle with is “whether  teenagers, habitually trying on new identities and not known for foresight, should be granted an irreversible physical fix for what is still considered a psychological condition.”  A surgeon who has done more than 30 operations on children under 18, is quoted as saying, “We’re trying to find the sweet spot….The problem is it’s not an age, it’s a situation.”  Dr. Paul Mc Hugh, a psychiatrist, is skeptical of surgery for sex reassignment “for a psychological condition and even more so for children.”

 The physician who opened the first sex-change clinic in an American hospital died July 31, 2015.  Howard W. Jones, Jr. (1910-2015) helped found the Johns Hopkins Gender Identity Clinic in 1965. Prior to that, he had pioneered gynecological surgery, primarily in infants born with ambiguous genitalia.  He is also credited with being the first American physician to fertilize a woman’s egg outside the uterus, 3 years after this was accomplished in England. (NYTimes, Aug.1, 2015)

 

 

Barbara F. Anderson, Ph. D., LCSW

July 21, 2015

 

If you find yourself in Brooklyn, don’t miss the Brooklyn Museum’s exhibit, Faces and Phases, “an ongoing exhibit documenting black African lesbians and transmen.”  Zanele Muholi ‘s “incandescent” photographs of 250 people gazing” frankly, shyly, proudly, defiantly as [her] camera portrays people who are participating in making their own history.” The New Yorker, May 18, 2015.

 

The New York Times is at it again. It has devoted its complete editorial page to TG issues as part of its series on trans lives.  The June 6 column, “Let Transgender Troops Serve Openly” speaks for itself.  The nut of it is that there is an “absence of common-sense leadership on this issue by Pentagon leaders [forcing] commanders on the ground to develop a patchwork of unofficial rules.”  The writer presses Defense Secretary Ashton Carter to review the current ban on transgender troops and the type of policies needed to allow them to serve openly. <nytimes.com/trans-today>

 

Barnard College in NYC will begin accepting transwomen who are defined as “applicants who consistently live and identify as women, regardless of the gender assigned to them at birth.”  Although transmen are not eligible for admission, those women who transition after admission will be able to complete their education at the college.  Wellesley and Smith Colleges have similar policies while Mt. Holyoke is even more inclusive.  In addition to accepting transwomen, it also accepts transmen as well as those who do not identify as either gender.  Hollins University in VA requires that applicants have “completed the physical sex reassignment surgery and legal transformation from male to female.”  Transitioning from female to male is cause for loss of student status at this all women’s school.  New York Times, June 5, 2015.

 

On May 29, 2015, Caitlyn Jenner, appeared as Vanity Fair’s cover girl.  Photographed by Annie Liebovitz and dressed by Jessica Diehl, “the challenge was really about finding out from Caitlyn what this all means to her,” said VF’s fashion and style director.  For those awaking from a protracted nap, Caitlyn is the former Bruce Jenner, Olympian athlete and member of the Kardashian klan.  New York Times, June 4, 2015.

 

Sam Martin is one of a group of authors of children’s literature that incorporate trans characters in their books for young readers.  His first work of fiction is about a transgender teenage boy who falls in love with an older boy on a Cape Cod beach.  It is admittedly semi-autobiographical and published in the hope of helping youngsters to feel less alone with their awareness of their transgender identity.  The subject of gender fluidity has rarely been addressed in this genre and remains “one of the last taboos in a publishing category that had already taken on difficult issues like suicide, drug abuse, rape and sex trafficking.” Since 2004, when the first young-adult novel with a trans character was released by a mainstream publisher, 50 such books have been published, mostly for teens.  The next frontier is books for the 8-12 year-old reader.  One author, Alex Gino, identifies as genderqueer and has written “George,” about a boy who knows he’s a girl but doesn’t know how to tell family and friends.  So far, responses from parents have been positive.  New York Times, June 6, 2015

 

The American Medical Association (AMA), has come out (so to speak) with a statement criticizing the military’s policy barring TG troops saying “there is no medically valid reason” to disqualify them from serving.  The policy barring gay and lesbian troops was rescinded in 2011 and earlier this year the Army and Air Force issued a ruling that made it harder to discharge transtroops.  On the day following publication of this editorial, Secretary of Defense, Ashton Carter, is scheduled to deliver the keynote speech at the Pentagon’s annual GLBT pride event (who knew?).  The article predicts that “his words will ring hollow to talented and dedicated transgender service members if [he] fails to announce a review of the ban and movement toward its repeal.”  New York Times, June 8, 2015.

 

From the website of the Transgender Law Center comes this news item. “A San Francisco Transgender woman has settled her privacy and civil rights lawsuit with the CA Department of Motor Vehicles, the 2^nd lawsuit of its kind against the DMV in the Bay Area in the past 4 years. In Mar. 2013, Jane Doe went to the DMV to change the gender marker on her ID.  The DMV employee became visibly angry and began to loudly lecture her on the ‘sin’ of being transgender….  In the settlement, the State of CA agreed to pay Ms. Doe almost $30,000.  The TLC will also continue to urge the DMV to incorporate transgender sensitivity into its ongoing employee training.” June 4, 2015

The Cutting Edge- May 2015

Barbara F. Anderson, Ph. D., LCSW

 

In the continued saga of Ashley Diamond, the transgender inmate who sued the state of Georgia for cutting off her supply of hormones and requesting safe housing within the prison system, the newest word (NY Times May 8, 2015) is that she received a transfer to a medium-security prison after being touched inappropriately by another inmate and then receiving a threatening note from another.  Stay tuned for word about her request for continued hormone replacement.

 

Current US Passport Guidelines.  In the past, a temporary passport with the revised gender marker was provided to allow for travel during the transition process, but those procedures are now defunct.  Currently, you can get the sex marker changed on a passport with a letter from a doctor.  No surgery or hormone therapy is required.  All requests to update the sex designation on a passport must use Passport Application Form DS-11, regardless of whether you have a passport already or not.  Obtain and submit the form in person at a Passport Acceptance Facility, such as your local Post Office.  You will need a certified copy of your name change order, an original letter from your doctor or a birth certificate with the corrected sex, and a new passport photo.  You will also need to submit 2 fees, one of $110.00 and a separate $25.00 execution fee. For more info. http://travel.stategov/passport/get/get_4855html Source: personal correspondence.

 

The New York Times published the “first of a series that looks at the state of transgender rights in America, how it has changed and the struggle ahead.”  They devoted the whole of the editorial page to “The Quest for Transgender Equality,” and it includes a comprehensive history of the movement’s trials and triumphs beginning with the incident at Compton’s Cafeteria here in San Francisco.  Three years before the Stonewall Riots of 1969, trans women rioted after being ejected Compton’s, one of the few safe gathering places for the community.  That same year, Harry Benjamin, an endocrinologist who had treated transpeople for years, published “The Transsexual Phenomenon” outlining how individuals could transition medically.  Public disclosure by prominent people such as actress Laverne Cox, whistle-blower Chelsea Manning, and athlete Bruce Jenner have brought positive attention to the community.  The extraordinary complexity of the experience has been written about in the popular media, allowing the general public to become informed about and comfortable with the subject.  Legislative changes have followed with protections and expanded access to relevant health care and procedures.  On the employment front, gender identity has been included among the areas in which discrimination is prohibited.  Future entries in this series will be covered in this column as they appear.

 

The 2^nd in the series appeared 1 week later on May 11, 2015 and was solely devoted to an individual named Diane Schroer, a former Army officer who worked at the CIA in the late 1980’s.  Her story is told against the background of a young woman, Jenny who transitioned in 2013 at the same organization. 

 

The 3^rd was published another week later, May 18, 2015, entitled, “Increasingly Visible, Transgender Americans Defy Stereotypes.”  This segment acknowledges the individuals who stand out in the movement starting with Christine Jorgensen’s SRS in the early 1950’s; the 1969 Stonewall Uprising in which Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson figured prominently in founding the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries in NYC; Renee Richards’ legal fight in the ‘70’s to play tennis as a woman; Mario Martino, who in 1977 became the first TG man to publish an autobiography in the US; Lou Sullivan in the 80’s, who founded FTM International, a support group for TG men; Rhys Harper, a transmen and photographer who documented physical transitions online in the 90’s; and most recently, Harmony Santana, 19, who in 2010 was cast as the first trans actor to play a transgender character in a major role. For more info see <nytimes.com/trans-today>

 

Yet another TG inmate story, this time from New Boston, TX.  Joshua Zollicoffer, aka Passion Star, is challenging Texas’ “refusal to accept new national standards intended to eliminate rape in prison….”  Having been victimized by “sexual harassment, coercion, abuse and assault in Texas’ maximum-security prisons for men,” she demands that the state implement the Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003.  Despite its passage 12 years ago, the final standards of how to prevent, detect and respond to abuse in custody took 10 years to be completed.  Even then, it took 2 more years for governors to be required to certify full compliance with the law. Today, only New Hampshire and New Jersey have done so. For the whole story, see the NYTimes, 5/13/15. Keep the faith.

The Cutting Edge

Barbara F. Anderson, Ph.D., LCSW

 

Did you know that Inside Edition’s Zoey Tur became the 1^st on-air trans reporter?  In an earlier iteration she was “Chopper” Bob—a helicopter pilot who covered the 1994 car chase led by O.J. Simpson.  Zoey began transitioning in 2013 and stated to US Magazine in their Feb. 16 edition, “There’s diversity in nature, why not in the media?”

 

The bathroom remains the last bastion to be breached giving transpeople free access to public accommodations.  According to a statement on the Transgender Law Center’s website, “multiple states are trying to make it a crime for transgender people to do something everyone does every day- use the bathroom.”  Florida, Kentucky and Texas have all introduced bills making it illegal for trans people to use bathrooms consistent with their gender identity. The penalty can be a fine or criminalizing both trans people and the building owners who allow free access.  Ultimately, this legislation can deny transpeople access to institutions such as schools, professional offices and subsequently limit participation in the full range of activities available to others.  Especially impacted would be the most vulnerable of our trans citizens, those who cannot change identity documents “because of systemic employment and health care discrimination.”  For a fuller discussion of this subject and action that you can take to oppose this movement, http://transgenderlawcenter.org.

 

In a subsequent posting, the TLC reports that the EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) has ruled that “it’s not acceptable for employers to single out transgender people for harassment—including … forcing them to use a different bathroom than everyone else.”

 

“Many people believed Sisa Abu Daooh was a man until several weeks ago, when she publicly revealed her 42-year-old secret.”  So goes the story in the New York Times (March 26, 2015) titled, “A Woman’s Secret Life Posing as a Man in Egypt.”  It chronicles Sisa’s tale in which she worked more than 30 years among the shoeshine men of Luxor, Egypt.  She socializes, prays and dresses just as they do.  She decided to disclose her secret with her awareness that the police are accelerating their persecution of gay and gender dissonant individuals.  Amazingly, her story has been widely accepted because “there is no suggestion that her choice of clothing had anything to do with sexuality” but with the need to support her daughter after being widowed.  A human rights activist living in Egypt interviewed for this article explained, “while the state appropriately honors her for her courage, it imprisons others who call themselves transgender.  If the government cared about principles, not exploiting prejudices, it would respect people for being true to themselves.…”

 

Ashley Diamond is suing the state of Georgia for cutting off her supply of hormones.  She is a prison inmate, transgender woman, and client of the Southern Poverty Law Center.  After using female hormones for 17 years, they were abruptly discontinued in 2012 with her arrest for burglary. “In her lawsuit she asks the court to direct prison officials to provide her hormone therapy, to allow her to express her female identity through ‘grooming, pronoun use and dress, ‘and to provider her safer housing.”  For more info on this story see the NY Times Apr 6 & 7, 2015.

 

In California, a historic victory reinforced TG rights.  On behalf of Michelle Norsworthy, an inmate of a men’s prison, the Transgender Law Center won a ruling that “it’s illegal to deny transgender people access to essential health care, including gender-affirming surgery.”  In a different case, the Justice Department ruled that it is unconstitutional for state prisons to withhold hormone treatment. For more info: <info@transgenderlawcenter.org>

The Cutting Edge - March 2015

Barbara F. Anderson, Ph.D., LCSW

 

An article in the Pink News covers the controversy over B-52’s lead singer, Katie Pierson’s release of a song, “Mister Sister.”  Trans activists complain that they feel “misunderstood and patronized.”  The song appears on Pierson’s album, “Guitars and Microphones,” and was released in February.  In a letter to the Huffington Post a fan said, “misgendering is always wrong.  ‘Mister Sister,’ beginning with the title itself, is a reminder of the constant water-torture drip that transpeople endure day in and day out when we’re addressed as the wrong gender.”  Pierson defends her song saying it was meant to be about “the power of transformation and the joy of being accepted as you are, but more importantly, the joy of self-acceptance.”  You can watch the video on www.pinknews.co.uk/2015/02/18/b-52s-lead singer......and decide for yourself.

 

On August 17, 2013, transwoman, Islan Nettles, 21, was walking down a New York City street with 2 transfriends.  She was allegedly taunted with gay slurs by a group of 7 young men after which one beat her so violently that she died without regaining consciousness.  One of the group was arrested and despite his protestations of innocence in the killing, and the fact that another of the group admitted guilt, the Manhattan District Attorney’s office took 1 ½ years to build a case against the admitted killer!  On March 3, 2015 the case against him was eventually presented to a grand jury which indicted James Dixon on charges of manslaughter and assault. He was not charged with murder as proof of intent would need to be proved.  Despite evidence of gay slurs, no charges of a hate crime were entered either.  Such a charge would have required the prosecution to prove that the motive of the crime was that the victim was transgender.  The handling of this case so incensed the trans community that an advocacy group, the Trans Women of Color Collective, was formed.  One of its purposes is to highlight the “indifference the authorities show across the country to the killings of men transitioning to women.”  Lourdes Hunter, the director of the organization said, “the long delay in bringing charges against Mr. Dixon reflected the low priority such cases have among the police and prosecutors.” New York Times March 4, 2015

 

Closer to home, Taja DeJesus was killed on Feb 1, 2015 in the Bayview district of San Francisco. Her killer was found dead by his own hand the next day.  In the face of 6 transgender deaths in the year 2014, her death has galvanized the trans community to start the Indiegogo fundraising campaign to aid her family with funeral costs. Funds raised over and above the family’s needs will be used to help trans women of color. SF Examiner, March 4, 2015.

 

A feature story in the New York Times’ Style section of the Sunday edition of March 6, “Better Late than Never,” focuses on (guess what?) “late transitioners.”  The article recounts the varied stories of 7 individuals, 2 of whom hail from the Bay Area.  They’ve all taken the plunge late in life, one at 85 years of age.  And it seems that no one holds anything back-- from discussing the difference between having sex with a man versus a woman, to the itemized cost of facial feminization,--transpeople of a certain age tell all.  Professionals of course, were consulted for the article, including a Social Work professor who wrote her doctoral dissertation on “late-age transitioners.”  You may want to check out her website www.tosurviveonthisshore.com and consider participating in the project if you are over 50 years of age and identify as gender variant.

The Cutting Edge-Jan 2015

Barbara F. Anderson, Ph.D., LCSW

 

Another wonderful article by Jennifer Finney Boylan, transgender author of “Stuck in the Middle with You: A Memoir of Parenting in Three Genders,” appeared on the Op-Ed page o f The NY Times, Jan 7, 2015.  The article focuses on the suicide of 17 year old Leelah Alcorn and Jennifer’s recollection of her own suicidal ideation.  I’ll quote liberally from her article as I could not do it justice otherwise. 

 

“Leelah was no mistake.  The world abounds with all sorts of ways of being human, one of which is being trans.  It is a tragedy that Leelah was never given the chance to be proud of who she was. And that she thought the only way to change the world was through her death.

 

“Suicide is a constant among transgender people; we are one of the most at risk groups in the country.  One study suggests that over 40% of us attempt it during the course of our lives.

 

“I was among that number.  In 1986 I stood at the edge of a cliff in Nova Scotia, looking down at the Atlantic, considering the plunge into the sea below.  Then I turned back.  Somehow here I am….

 

“My own life was saved in part by books. When I found Jan Morris’s 1974 memoir, “Conundrum,” it was as if I found a wormhole to another universe, a galaxy where people like me could thrive.  I wish I could have also given Leelah two more recent works:  Janet Mock’s “Redefining Realness” and Kate Bornstein’s  “Hello Cruel World.”  They might have made a difference.

 

“If reading provided me with solace, so did writing.  Keeping a journal, telling stories, inventing worlds gave me comfort until the time came when I had the agency to make my own choices….

 

“It may still be possible to fulfill at least one of Leelah’s wishes.  In her note, she wrote: ‘My death needs to mean something.  My death needs to be counted in the number of transgender people who commit suicide this year.  I want someone to look at that number and say, ‘that’s [expletive] up and fix it.  Fix society.  Please.’”

 

In November 1997 I published an article in my column for this newsletter entitled, “Did it Have to Happen?”  Like Jennifer’s piece, it focused on suicidality among the trans population.  As a therapist I emphasized the importance of psychological treatment in identifying and addressing depression and serious mental health issues before irreversible actions ensued.  In the spirit of the adage, “when you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail,” each of us offers the resource we have at hand.  I will certainly consider Jennifer’s suggestions and hope that she will include mine in forthcoming writing on the subject.

 

Once again the city of West Hollywood is in the forefront of liberal causes.  Not known as “Gay Camelot” for nothing, having been one of the first in the nation to pass a same-sex marriage law, known as a haven for gay people, painting its crosswalks in rainbow hues, now it has taken one more step to make transpeople feel welcome.  An ordinance has been passed prohibiting the designation of “male” or “female” on single stall public restrooms. All such facilities have to be labeled “gender neutral.” (New York Times Jan. 18, 2015)

 

 

The Cutting Edge-November 2014

Barbara F. Anderson, Ph.D., LCSW

The new (Oct. 14, 2014) report by the Williams Institute found that transparents generally report positive parenting experiences.  Transgender individuals parent at lower rates than the general public—approximately ¼ to ½ of such individuals are parents.  The vast majority report that their relations with their children are positive, even during the parent’s “coming out” or transition period.  They report a high level of discrimination—either formally at the hands of the court or informally by the child’s other parent in child custody and/or visitation arrangements.  For more info on the report, contact Laura Rodriguez lrodriguez@rabengroup.com

 

Veterans’ Health Administration policy states that “medically necessary care is provided to enrolled or otherwise eligible intersex and transgender Veterans, including hormonal therapy, mental health care, preoperative evaluation, and medically necessary post-operative and long-term care following sex reassignment surgery.  Sex reassignment surgery cannot be performed or funded by VA.” For the full VA policy: http://va.gov/vhapublications/ViewPublication.asp?pubID=2863 (Personal correspondence Nov. 13, 2014)

 

November 20, 2014 was the 16^th Transgender Day of Remembrance, “a solemn tribute to those who have lost their lives to anti-transgender hatred or prejudice, and a day to raise awareness of the constant threat of brutality.”  Founded in 1998, it is an annual event commemorating the still unsolved murder of Rita Hester. The next year, the “Remembering Our Dead” web project was established and a San Francisco candlelight vigil was held in 1999.  Subsequently, hundreds of cities throughout the US and the world have hosted annual Transgender Day of Remembrance events in solidarity with trans victims of hate crimes. While not every victim self-identified as trans, each was a target of violence because of his/her real or perceived gender identity or expression. 

Some stats: transpeople are 1.5 times more likely to be targeted than the broader LGBT community.

                      67% of the victims were transwomen of color.

                      78% of transchildren (K-12) reported harassment in school.

<www.LGBTQnation.com>

 

The author and transgender activist, Leslie Feinberg, died at 65 on Nov. 15, 2014.  Best known for the novel, “Stone Butch Blues” (1993), Feinberg is survived by partner and spouse, Minnie Bruce Pratt, Syracuse poet and professor, who described her as “an anti-racist white, working class, secular Jewish transgender, lesbian, female, revolutionary communist [who] was the first theorist to advance a Marxist concept of ‘transgender liberation.’”  Feinberg also authored “Transgender Warriors” (1997); “Trans Liberation” (1999); and “Drag King Dreams” (2006).  Before her death of complications from a tick-borne disease, she was “preparing a 20^th anniversary edition of ‘Stone Butch Blues.’  She worked up to a few days of her death to prepare the edition for free access, reading, and download from on-line.”  In an interview she talked about the language she used to describe her gender.  Though she has been referred to “as a butch, as a he-she, as a passing woman, as a drag king,” Feinberg stated that no language really describes her experience.  However, she “accept[s] the language that best conveys to a large group of people who I am and what I’m arguing for.”  (LA Times, Nov. 18, 2014)

 

The Cutting Edge-November  2014 

By Barbara F. Anderson, Ph.D., LCSW

 

Have you seen “Transparent,” the new Amazon show that has received raves from critics and fans alike?  Rotten Tomatoes’ site gives it a 97% approval rating, describing it “as much about a change in television as it is about personal change.  Transparent raises the bar for programming with sophistication and sincere dedication to the human journey, warts and all.”  Jill Soloway created the pilot about 3 siblings whose father reveals he is going through a significant life transition.  She says the show stands for gender freedom for all and within that freedom we can find grays and muddled purples and pinks, chakras that bridge the heart and mind, sexiness that depends on a masochistic love or a sweeping soul dominance.  In particular, Transparent wants to invent worlds that bridge the binary….”

 

“Easing the Law for New Yorkers Shifting Gender” is an article in the NY Times Oct. 7, 2014.  It refers to a change being advanced by the N. Y. City Council and the Mayor in the definition of “what constitutes a transition from one sex to another, allowing a person’s own identity, not anatomy, to be the The Cutting Edge determining factor.”    It would allow alterations to birth certificates at the recommendation of physicians, psychotherapists, physician’s assistants, nurse practitioners and midwives.  The criteria for amending a certificate will be “that the requested change more accurately reflects the applicant’s sex and is consistent with contemporary expert standards regarding gender identity.”  The long-standing requirement for SRS will be dropped and original birth records will be sealed.

 

“Lily McBeth, 80, a Focal Figure for Transgender Rights” is the heading of an Oct 5, 2014 obituary in the NY Times. Formerly, William McBeth had been a medical supplies salesman from New Jersey. Upon retirement, s/he took a position as a substitute elementary school teacher.  Having taken a break to recover from SRS, upon returning to the classroom in February 2006 as Lily, an intense debate arose among parents leading to an exploration of the human rights issue concerning opportunities for transgender people.  Ms. McBeth, who died on Sept. 24, was referred to as “the state’s most important civil rights figure in the last 2 decades.”  It is notable that the NJ school administration defended her right to teach based on NJ Civil Rights laws.  Parents were divided with some trotting out the usual claims that children were being forced to confront issues of sexuality beyond their ken while others felt her teaching skills were unimpaired by her transition.  Although never terminated, the school stopped requesting her services as a substitute teacher, and she finally withdrew her availability stating in an interview that “they put me in a closet again.”  She never wrote her autobiography but in an interview she stated that had she done so, it would have been called, “From He to Shining She.”

 

On Sept. 3, 2014, Mills College in Oakland, CA became the first all-women’s college in the US to openly welcome gender non-conforming students.  Any student ho self-identifies as a woman is welcome.  Applicants “who do not fit into the gender binary” are eligible as long as they were assigned “female” at birth.  Enrolled students who transition and later identify as a man may stay and graduate.  However, those who were assigned “female” at birth but already legally identify as a man are not eligible.

 

About 3 to 5 of the 1,000 undergrads identify as gender non-conforming every year.  Mt. Holyoke has an even broader policy of inclusion admitting “any qualified student who is female or identifies as a woman.” (Think Progress website, Sept 2, 2014)

 

Don’t be surprised if some of your glamour photos end up some day on display.  Robert Swope found a cache of 340 snapshots of men”dressed cozily as women, engaging in domestic pursuits…, having dinner or playing scrabble.”  He learned the photos, found at the 26^th St Flea Market in Manhattan, were taken at Casa Susanna, a weekend retreat in the Catskills for 1960’s cross-dressers.  120 of the images have been collected into a book published in 2005 by Powerhouse that is now in its 3^rd printing.  Now all of the photos are to be auctioned at the Wright Auctionhouse in Chicago in the hopes that an institution will buy them for public display. (NYT 10/16/14)

 

Lastly, don’t miss the13th San Francisco Transgender Film Festival, Nov. 7-9 at the Roxie Theater, 3117 16^th St. @ Valencia.  For more info: WWW.SFTFF.ORG.

 

 

The Cutting Edge-October 29, 2014

By Barbara F. Anderson, Ph.D., LCSW

 

Have you seen “Transparent,” the new Amazon show that has received raves from critics and fans alike?  Rotten Tomatoes’ site gives it a 97% approval rating, describing it “as much about a change in television as it is about personal change.  Transparent raises the bar for programming with sophistication and sincere dedication to the human journey, warts and all.”  Jill Soloway created the pilot about 3 siblings whose father reveals he is going through a significant life transition.  She says the show stands for gender freedom for all and within that freedom we can find grays and muddled purples and pinks, chakras that bridge the heart and mind, sexiness that depends on a masochistic love or a sweeping soul dominance.  In particular, Transparent wants to invent worlds that bridge the binary….”

 

“Easing the Law for New Yorkers Shifting Gender” is an article in the NY Times Oct. 7, 2014.  It refers to a change being advanced by the N. Y. City Council and the Mayor in the definition of “what constitutes a transition from one sex to another, allowing a person’s own identity, not anatomy, to be the determining factor.”    It would allow alterations to birth certificates at the recommendation of physicians, psychotherapists, physician’s assistants, nurse practitioners and midwives.  The criteria for amending a certificate will be “that the requested change more accurately reflects the applicant’s sex and is consistent with contemporary expert standards regarding gender identity.”  The long-standing requirement for SRS will be dropped and original birth records will be sealed.

 

“Lily McBeth, 80, a Focal Figure for Transgender Rights” is the heading of an Oct 5, 2014 obituary in the NY Times. Formerly, William McBeth had been a medical supplies salesman from New Jersey. Upon retirement, s/he took a position as a substitute elementary school teacher.  Having taken a break to recover from SRS, upon returning to the classroom in February 2006 as Lily, an intense debate arose among parents leading to an exploration of the human rights issue concerning opportunities for transgender people.  Ms. McBeth, who died on Sept. 24, was referred to as “the state’s most important civil rights figure in the last 2 decades.”  It is notable that the NJ school administration defended her right to teach based on NJ Civil Rights laws.  Parents were divided with some trotting out the usual claims that children were being forced to confront issues of sexuality beyond their ken while others felt her teaching skills were unimpaired by her transition.  Although never terminated, the school stopped requesting her services as a substitute teacher, and she finally withdrew her availability stating in an interview that “they put me in a closet again.”  She never wrote her autobiography but in an interview she stated that had she done so, it would have been called, “From He to Shining She.”

 

On Sept. 3, 2014, Mills College in Oakland, CA became the first all-women’s college in the US to openly welcome gender non-conforming students.  Any student ho self-identifies as a woman is welcome.  Applicants “who do not fit into the gender binary” are eligible as long as they were assigned “female” at birth.  An enrolled student who transitions and later identifies as a man may stay and graduate.  However, those who were assigned “female” at birth but already legally identify as a man, are not eligible.

 

About 3 to 5 of the 1,000 undergrads identify as gender non-conforming every year.  Mt. Holyoke has an even broader policy of inclusion admitting “any qualified student who is female or identifies as a woman.” (Think Progress website, Sept 2, 2014)

 

Don’t be surprised if some of your glamour photos end up some day on display.  Robert Swope found a cache of 340 snapshots of men ”dressed cozily as women, engaging in domestic pursuits…, having dinner or playing scrabble.”  He learned the photos, found at the 26^th St Flea Market in Manhattan, were taken at Casa Susanna, a weekend retreat in the Catskills for 1960’s cross-dressers.  120 of the images have been collected into a book published in 2005 by Powerhouse that is now in its 3^rd printing.  Now all of the photos are to be auctioned at the Wright Auctionhouse in Chicago in the hopes that an institution will buy them for public display. (NYT 10/16/14)

 

Lastly, don’t miss the13th San Francisco Transgender Film Festival, Nov. 7-9 at the Roxie Theater, 3117 16^th St. @ Valencia.  For more info: WWW.SFTFF.ORG.

The Cutting Edge-October 2014

By Barbara F. Anderson, P.D., LCSW

 

Have you run into radfems yet?  The New Yorker magazine, in its Aug. 4, 2014 issue, published a fascinating article titled, “What is a Woman?” and tells us all about them.  Michelle Goldberg, the author, writes of this movement of women who challenge trans women’s right to call themselves women.  They trace their position back to 1973, at the height of the second wave feminist movement, when a group of women at the West Coast Lesbian Conference took the position that a born male hasn’t “earned the title of woman.”  They believe that “anyone born a man retains male privilege in society; even if he chooses to live as a woman …he can never understand what being a woman is really like.”  Reference is made to the book, “Unpacking Queer Politics” (2003) by Sheila Jeffreys which criticizes m-to-f transition as a “capitulation to misogyny.”  The author is considered the “Andrea Dworkin of the U.K.” and is seen as either a heroine or zealot, depending which side you are on.  An opponent of the movement posits that radfems are victims of trauma at the hands of men and deserve respect for their experience. However, “the pain of radical feminists … can’t trump trans rights.”  She advises them to “stay out of spaces where transgender male-to-female people go.  It’s not our job to avoid you.”

 

“As One” is an opera with a “novel twist” according to the NYTimes of Sept. 6, 2014.  Laura Kaminsky and 2 collaborators (one of which is herself, trans) have written this chamber opera which premiered Sept. 4, 2014 at the Brooklyn Academy of Art.  Hannah, the protagonist is trans and the dilemma faced by the creators is how to make her story universal while reflecting the very specific events around her transition.  They solved this by having 2 voices unify one character.  A baritone sings “Hannah before,”  while a mezzo-soprano plays “Hannah after.”  Throughout the piece, the singers’ voices are notably incompatible until the end when they sing “strikingly in unison…. A harmonic disturbance in the final chord suggests that Hannah’s fulfillment is not so complete.”

 

Did you catch Lady Valor: The Kristen Beck Story on CNN Sept 4?  It told the story of Christopher Beck, Navy SEAL in Iraq and Afghanistan.  According to the review in the New Yorker, Sept. 5^th edition, “Christopher Beck carried out countless secret missions.  Beck’s most covert action, however, had nothing to do with the military.  For most of his life, and his 20 years with the SEALs, Beck considered his true identity to be female.  Months after retiring from the Navy in 2011, he summoned the courage to begin hormone therapy and come out publicly.” 

The Cutting Edge-August 2014

Barbara F. Anderson, Ph.D., LCSW

 

From the Transgender Law Center (TLC) comes an announcement of the implementation of AB1121.  It is a CA bill signed into law in Oct. 2013 and refers to obtaining an accurate birth certificate without the need for a court-ordered gender change in order to amend a gender marker on a birth certificate.  Instead, one can submit a form with a doctor’s letter to the state Department of Health accompanied by a $23.00 fee. Additionally, those seeking a name change consistent with their gender identity are no longer required to publish their intention in a local newspaper.  Only if another person challenges the requested name change is the applicant required to attend an in-person court hearing.

 

The TLC has updated their comprehensive publication, ID Please!  It is a guide for “navigating processes of updating California and federal identity documents to reflect accurate gender markers.”  For more info,  info@transgenderlawcenter.org.

 

More from the TLC:  Chelsea Manning will get “rudimentary treatment” for her transition, according to Chuck Hagel, US Secretary of Defense.   It is not clear what treatment will consist of, but TLC will urge that all medically necessary health care be provided the soldier convicted of leaking classified material to WikiLeaks.  For background on this case, see the June 2014 edition of Devil Woman.

 

And more: Since 2011, Meggan Sommerville, transwoman, has been suing her employer, Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., for the right to use the women’s restroom.  HLS will only grant permission upon seeing proof of gender confirmation surgery despite the fact that her identity documents and her employer’s health plan acknowledge her as female.  In a more recent and widely publicized case, her employer has received a favorable ruling from the Supreme Court allowing them to deny health coverage of contraceptives pleading conflict with religious beliefs.

 

On a happier note, TLC reports that San Francisco has named a street after “transgender icon, Vicki Marlane.”  At the end of the Trans March of the Pride Parade, a new street sign was unveiled.  Turk St., between Jones and Taylor in the Tenderloin, has been renamed in honor of the late transgender performer and community activist.  Marlane died in 2011 of complications of AIDS.  She started her career as a traveling circus performer, did drag throughout the country, and moved to San Francisco in 1966. Her show, “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” at Aunt Charlie’s, evolved into a weekly event, “The Hot Boxx Girls.”

 

Two interesting notices from WPATH (World Professional Association for Transgender Health) arrived in June.  “This month, the American Medical Association joined the World Health organization in adopting a policy declaring that transgender individuals should not be required to undergo genital surgery or forced sterilization in order to change legal identification documents….”  The goal is “to ensure that transgender patients always receive appropriate preventive care regardless of whether or not it matches with the gender on the birth certificate.”  For more info, www.amaassn.org/ama/pub/news/2014

 

Also from WPATH, “Wall Street Journal Editorial Critiques Transgender Health, July 2, 2014”  A spokesperson from the organization commented on an op-ed article by conservative psychiatrist, Paul McHugh, who described trans identity as “disordered” (whatever that means) and, ignoring generally accepted medical opinion, argued that patients should be denied medically necessary treatment such as hormonal and surgical interventions.  He believes that the growing support of transgender rights illustrate a troubling trend toward affirmation rather than treating such individuals as ill and confused.

 

A freebee:  Free trans and queer yoga is available at CounterPULSE, 80 Turk St.@ Taylor.  For times and dates, <CounterPulse.org>

 

The Cutting Edge June 20, 2014

By Barbara F. Anderson, Ph.D., LCSW

 

Good news on the Medicare front.  The National Center for Transgender Equality has issued a Fact Sheet on Medicare Coverage of Transition-Related Care.  Medicare provides health insurance for older adults and people with disabilities.  For years certain medical services for transpeople were excluded.  In May 2014, an independent federal appeals board ruled this to be unreasonable.  The backstory:  In 1989, Medicare adopted a position excluding SRS.  In May of this year, The US Department of Health & Human Services, in response to the appeal of a beneficiary, invalidated this categorical exclusion.  Now decisions about coverage for transition-related care will be made on a case-by-case basis, just like all services provided by Medicare.  This ruling is final and not subject to appeal. For more information :<www.TransEquality.org.>

 

More good news!!!  The Respect After Death Act (AB1577) passed the California Assembly (61-3) and will now move to the Senate.  It will ensure that transpeople have their authentic gender identity reflected on their death certificates providing appropriate documentation such as written instructions from the deceased, an updated birth certificate or driver’s license, or evidence of transition-specific medical treatment.

 

The NY Times (May 30, 2014) announced the death of Storme DeLaverie, 93 year-old early leader of the Gay Rights Movement.  “Storme was a singer, cross-dresser and bouncer who may or may not have thrown the first punch at the 1969 Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village…. She said in interviews that she had begun performing as a singer by her late teens, first as a woman and later dressed as a man…. She was the M.C. of the Jewel Box Review … in which she dressed as a man; the rest of the cast members, all men, dressed as women.”  RIP.

 

News from Sweden and New York.  Transpeople no longer need to provide a psychiatric evaluation and diagnosis when changing their legal gender in Sweden. The sole requirement is that applicants are living in their experienced gender role and plan to continue to do so. (Personal correspondence, June 2014)

New York State changed its policy requiring transgender people born in NYS to provide proof of SRS in order to alter their birth certificates.  Now a medical provider’s affidavit of “appropriate clinical treatment” will suffice.  Oddly, this change does not apply to NYC which has its own system for issuing birth certificates. (NY Times June 10, 2014)

 

In recognition of Pride Month, Time Magazine elected to feature Laverne Cox on its June cover.  She is a transgender woman who plays the trans character, Sophia, on the Netflix show, “Orange is the New Black.”  Her identical twin brother plays her character in pre-transition flashbacks.  When asked in an interview by the NY Times, if Laverne looks forward to the time when there is a transgender crime-scene investigator on a CSI spinoff, she responded, “this is my dream! I actually believe it is possible.”

 

An unprecedented number of transpeople have been honored as Grand Marshals in Pride parades across the country.

 A lengthy opinion piece in the NY Times (May 25, 2014), titled “Who Are Women’s Colleges For?” explores the concern that some women’s colleges’ administrators have that admitting students who aren’t “legally female” will cause them to lose Title X funding.  This ruling prohibits all discrimination “on the basis of sex” in any educational institution receiving federal funding.  Exempted are private schools that serve a single-sex student body.  Therefore, private women’s colleges can accept or reject anyone based on gender.  Such schools do not define what constitutes a woman but they do require that documentation submitted with the applicant’s application for admission “reflect her status as a woman.”   The writer, Kiera Feldman, opines that “it is worse than short-sighted to deny admission to any women who want to attend.  Founded in the spirit of advancing the rights of women, these schools should lead the way for society, and accept transgender women.”  Perhaps the issue will be moot in view of the fact that the number of such schools is down from 200 in 1960 to 46 today.

The Cutting Edge--May 18, 2014

By Barbara F. Anderson, Ph.D., LCSW

 Bradley/Chelsea Manning, the soldier convicted of leaking classified documents to WikiLeaks, was granted the right to a legal name change to Chelsea Elizabeth Manning by a Kansas judge.  This decision allows for official changes to Private Manning’s military records; however, it does not compel the service to treat her as a woman.  Therefore, she is not entitled to be moved to a prison with a women’s unit or receive counseling or hormonal or surgical treatment. (NY Times Apr.2014)

 In 2 more related articles about military practices affecting trans soldiers, it appears that there is more willingness to review policies.  The Report of the Transgender Military Service Commission, issued March 2014, considers whether Pentagon policies that exclude trans service members are medically sound.  The Commission, chaired by Joycelyn Elders, MD (former US Surgeon General) and Alan Steinman, MD, found the discharge of trans military personnel  “inconsistent with how the military regulates medical and psychological conditions, and arbitrary in that medical conditions related to transgender identity appear to be the only gender-related conditions requiring discharge irrespective of fitness for duty.” The Commission enumerates numerous examples supporting their findings and these can be accessed online by googling the Report of the Transgender Military Service Commission.

 In reaction to the findings of the Commission, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel stated that “the military should ‘continually’ review its prohibition on transgender people in the Armed Forces, calling into question whether the Pentagon’s ban may eventually be lifted, as was the ban on gay men and lesbians in the military.”  This story appeared in the NY Times May 11, 2014.

 

“For These Females, No Such Thing as Penis Envy” is an article on a recent study of the Brazilian insect, Neotrogla. In a case of sex-role reversal, findings are that females have penises that can erect and penetrate and males have vaginas.  Copulation lasts 40-70 hours during which time sperm is transferred from the male to the female.  “As soon as the females become adults, they may force weaker males to have sex with them just to obtain the fluid to produce eggs.”  Ain’t nature grand? (NY Times Apr. 22, 2014)

 Seamus Johnston, a transgender man, is being represented by the Transgender Law Center in his sex discrimination law suit against the University of Pittsburgh.  After having lived as a man for the 3 years he was a student at the university, he was summarily informed that he was no longer allowed to use men’s restrooms or locker rooms unless he obtained a new birth certificate or court order attesting to his male gender.  He continued to use the banned facilities following which the university “engaged in a campaign of persecution against him, having him arrested and criminally prosecuted and eventually expelling him, causing him to lose his full scholarship.”  The TLC’s defense maintains that laws prohibiting discrimination based on sex include protections for transpeople as well.  For more info on this case, go to www.transgenderlawcenter.org/archives  /10154.

 A new resource for consumers, activists, and. policy makers concerned with upholding the rights of transpeople is “License to Be Yourself.”  Addressing the dilemma faced when one’s passport, driver’s license or national ID card does not reflect one’s gender identity, it documents worldwide laws and policies that enable transpeople to change their identity on official documents.  To learn more, go to www.opensocietyfoundations.org/reports/license-to-be-yourself.

 

 

The Cutting Edge-April 14, 2014

Barbara F. Anderson, Ph.D., LCSW

 

“Neither Female Nor Male” is the title of an op-ed piece by Julia Baird in the NY Times, April 7, 2014.  Ms Baird hails from Sydney, Australia and is commenting on a recent Australian court decision addressing the desire for some individuals to decline to adhere to the binary system of gender.  At the center is an individual, Norrie May-Welby “who has been permitted to register as ‘nonspecific’ on official certificates.  Now, 52, Norrie was identified as male when she was born… but was drawn to the world of girls…. In 1989, Norrie underwent gender [sic] reassignment surgery.  But after a while being purely female did not seem right, either.”  The article goes on to say that she “began questioning the sex binary, and realized I didn’t want to dissociate myself from aspects of myself simply because they were labeled masculine…. I am both a man and a woman, I am not simply one and not the other.”

 In researching this subject, the author says that Nepal now issues citizenship papers with an optional category, “third gender.”  Germany became the first European country to allow parents of intersex children to mark their birth certificates with an X.  Various terms such as androgynous, neuter, intersex and transgender were considered by the Australian court but “nonspecific” was chosen to describe the situation of an individual unwilling to adhere to the binary system of categorization.

 Norrie is reportedly over the moon in view of her triumph in court.  She has held news conferences, posed on a rainbow-colored bicycle and then announced her engagement to her best friend, Samuel.  Unknown is whether she can marry Samuel in view of the fact that same -sex marriage is illegal in Australia.  Well, they’re not the same sex, are they?  What’s the problem?

 

Along the same lines, Facebook now offers users 50 different alternate opportunities to identify one’s gender.  Some of the options are non-binary, neutrois, androgyne, agender, gender fluid and neither.  This “gender project” was developed with input from Glaad in NY.  Facebook has not revealed how many users have departed from the standard choices of M & F.

 

The 2^nd annual Trans 100 event has just occurred.  Its purpose is to recognize trans persons who have had a positive impact on society.  Trans model, Carmen Carrera, as well as Alana Nicole Sholar, author of “Hung in the Middle: A Journey of Gender Discovery” were both recognized.  (See April’s edition of this column for a review of Ms. Sholar’s book).

 

The NY Times of April 12, 2014 featured an op-ed article, “The Trouble With Too Much T.” The authors, one a bio-ethicist, Katrina Karkazis and Rebecca Jordan-Young, a professor of women’s gender studies, highlight the unfairness of subjecting women athletes with higher-than-average testosterone levels to humiliating tests and treatment involving either surgery or drug therapy to reduce their hormone levels.  The authors cite studies which dispute the commonly held belief that T levels predict performance outcome on tests of speed, strength, or determination to win.  Instead they maintain that lean body mass better explains superior performance.