With the announcement today that the US State Department will be issuing passports to pre-op transsexuals in their target gender', one more potential safety hazard has been removed for people "in transition".

It is also possible to obtain a limited-validity passport if the physician’s statement shows the applicant is in the process of gender transition. No additional medical records are required. Sexual reassignment surgery is no longer a prerequisite for passport issuance.
...
The new policy and procedures are based on standards and recommendations of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), recognized by the American Medical Association as the authority in this field.

(Disclaimer: I don't watch Family Guy very much - I may have seen one or two complete episodes, but I think I've managed to pick up some of what it's about. I managed to watch much of the episode in question thanks to copies - now pulled - floating around the web)

There's been a lot of complaining about how an episode of The Family Guy (Quagmire's Dad) is supposed to be transphobic because it depicts one of the characters (Brian, the family dog) throwing up after learning that the "perfect woman" he had sex with the previous night used to be a man.

Nobody's objecting to the implied beastiality - that a woman would have sex with a dog - "it's just a cartoon dog!". No, they're objecting to the dog being upset over having slept with a transsexual. And so many are afraid to say "It's a cartoon, a parody, and it pokes fun at transphobia" because they're afraid others will condemn them for "siding with the haters." Sheesh!

Everyone who hasn't been raised by wolves in the wild has at least some understanding of the term "transsexualism" and knows what a sex change, or sex reassignment surgery is.

(photo: Dr. Harry Benjamin, taken by Lynn Conway)

Sure, there are some misconceptions, but the term "transsexual" gets the idea across with a minimum of fuss. So why do some people want to be known as "suffering from Harry Benjamin Syndrome" instead?

"There ain't no such animal ...."

Before we get into that, let's make one point clear: Anyone who says they've been diagnosed with "Harry Benjamin Syndrome" (HBS) is a liar. There is no such medical disease, disorder, or diagnosis. Never has been, and it's a safe bet to say there never will be. I know, "Never make predictions, especially about the future", but if you read on, you'll see why I think this is a pretty safe bet.

Earlier this week, I wrote 50 excuses for those who don't "get" that you didn't choose to be a transsexual. There are still a lot of people who are under the misapprehension that transsexuals have made what they call a "lifestyle choice".

(image: Fact of life: Women need more closet space)

Sometimes, the only way to inject a bit of rationality into a discussion is by injecting a little levity into the conversation. Hopefully, they'll see the humour in it and get out of whatever rut their current mindset has them in.

But that's not what I'm addressing today. There's usually a kernel of truth behind any humour, and "50 'reasons' to get a sex change" is no exception. For the sake of convenience in this discussion I'll use male-to-female transsexuals as an example. Most of it applies, mutatis mutandis, to female-to-male transsexuals, as well as transgendered and cross-gender-centric behaviour such as cross-dressing, so make whatever substitutions you feel are necessary for your situation.

It was mid-morning, and aleady the parking lot at the shopping mall was hot and dusty. I was heading into the office, but I had to make a few stops at the mall along the way.

(image: one of the great things about being a woman is being able to just stuff everything I need in my purse)

First to Staples, to pick up a cork bulletin board and a few other odds and ends. Then, since it was right next door, some pastries to offer visitors with their coffee while they waited in the reception area. And finally, Canadian Tire to pick up a rather bulky storage cabinet that was on sale.

One of the nice things about shopping in the middle of a week-day morning is that the staff isn't thinking "Arghhh! 20 minutes more until my shift ends!" The stores are comparatively uncrowded, the week-day staff usually have more experience than the week-enders, and you can actually get help finding things.

The space where the storage cabinet normally be on display was empty, so I asked the woman doing inventory in the next aisle if she could see if there were any more in stock.

Like any woman, I like a bargain. And I like to shop, especially for clothes and shoes. Put me in a store with a sale and some extra money in the budget and I'm in heaven.

So you can imaging how elated I was when I saw these boots (click on the image for a larger picture) for 2/3 off at an end-of-season clearance sale last spring.

They're not made for walking in deep snow, obviously, but they're stylish, well-made, and they fit like they were made especially for me. It's true that I have at least a dozen pairs of boots, because up here in the frozen north, you really do need different boots for each season, but I find these ones really comfortable. They're just not all that practical when there's fresh snow on the ground.

The new DSM-5 proposals are available on-line. (more information on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual)

Proposed Draft Revisions to DSM Disorders and Criteria

Of relevance to TS and TG especially are two sections, The former "Gender Identity Disorder" is now to be known as Gender Incongruence:

Gender Incongruence (in Adolescents or Adults)

A. A marked incongruence between one's experienced/expressed gender and assigned gender, of at least 6 months duration, as manifested by 2 or more of the following indicators:

1. a marked incongruence between one's experienced/expressed gender and primary and/or secondary sex characteristics (or, n young adolescents, the anticipated secondary sex characteristics)
2. a strong desire to be rid of one's primary and/or secondary sex characteristics because of a marked incongruence with one's experienced/expressed gender (or, in young adolescents, a desire to prevent the development of the anticipated secondary sex characteristics)
3. a strong desire for the primary and/or secondary sex characteristics of the other gender
4. a strong desire to be of the other gender (or some alternative gender different from one's assigned gender)
5. a strong desire to be treated as the other gender (or some alternative gender different from one's assigned gender)
6. a strong conviction that one has the typical feelings and reactions of the other gender (or some alternative gender different from one's assigned gender)

A significant change both in terminology and approach

I think it important to note, given the long tortuous battles that have taken place in TS discussion groups, that there is no mention here of "primary" and "secondary", nor of "homosexual transsexual" nor "autogynephilia". For the purposes of DSM-V, those former distinctions in respect of types of transsexuality are not relevant. While each of those former "types" fit well within the factors set out above, they are not set out by name as it was simply not necessary to so do.

Nor is it part of the defined state that this condition be from birth. The critical time line is simply six months. While some may well have experienced the condition over years and perhaps decades, that is simply not the test proposed. Six months is the base time and anything over that may give one "bragging rights" but is not necessary for the diagnosis.

Since September of 2009, transsexualism has no longer been classified as a mental illness in France

Roselyne Bachelot-Narquin, the minister for health and sports, promised this last May. The official decree was published in September of 2009 in the official journal. France became the first country in the world to take this step.

"The day before the world Day Against Homophobia on May 17, 2009 the Minister for Health and the Sports, Roselyne Bachelot-Narquin had announced the declassification of the transsexuality from the category long-term illness # 23 “long-term psychiatric disorders"

-- from the official announcement

This is a historic advance. Transsexuals are no longer to be considered as suffering from a mental illness in France. The minister for Health published an official decree that removed "problems of gender identity" from the list of psychiatric illnesses. Overall, between 40,000 and 60,000 people will be affected by this decision, according to some associations estimates.

France becomes first country to make the move

The announcement that "France is the first country in the world to no longer consider transsexualism as a mental pathology", was welcomed by Jeol Bedos, the French liason to the IDAHO commitee (International Day Against Homophobia and transphobia). "It's historical", said Philippe Castel, spokesperson for the Interassociative lesbienne gay bi et trans (Lesbian, Gay, Bi and Trans Inter-association). "This was something extremely important and has been closely followed since it was initially promised" by the health minister, Roselyne Bachelot, on May 16th 2009, on the eve of World Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia, said the spokesperson.

WHAT: This is another in the series of articles I've be posting about sex, gender and identity that I originally wrote in 2005. Judging by the positive feedback I received then, they helped a lot of people. Links have been updated to reflect the changes of web resources over the last half-decade.

RULES: Any honest reply or question is welcome, and will be answered. Please note that this is a sensitive topic, and the people who are most affected are in many cases extremely vulnerable. Please show the same compassion for them as you would want for yourself or a loved one if the situation were reversed.

(photo: surgery - breast augmentation)

NOTE: Throughout these discourses, I will be using the term "sex" to indicate the determination of sex based on external genitalia, and "gender" for internal self-identification, what is usually referred to as "gender identity" in other works.

The most profound changes often just sneak up on us.

Last night I was with some friends for a pot-luck supper. At one point, some of us ended up in the living room doing karaoke (badly, which is half the fun),  when the woman next to me asked me to pass her the phone.  It took me a few seconds to find it on the end-table; I haven't used a "regular" cordless phone in years outside of an office.  I guess I've become so used to just using my cell phone that anything else is like "oh, right - that's 'sort of' a phone."

Times change, and we either adapt or we don't.  And sometimes, as with the phone or the Internet, some would argue that sometimes we adapt too well. But this isn't about changes in technology, but in social attitudes and expectations.