Sunday 31 May 2009

Australia's only sex-change clinic in major shake-up

The following is an extract from the Brisbane Times, 31 May 2009.

AUSTRALIA'S only sex-change clinic has been temporarily shut down and its controversial director forced to quit amid growing claims that patients with psychiatric problems have been wrongly diagnosed as transsexuals and encouraged to have radical gender reassignment surgery.

Fairfax has been told at least eight former patients of the Gender Dysphoria Clinic at Melbourne's Monash Medical Centre believe they may have been misdiagnosed. Some have tried to commit suicide while struggling to live as the opposite sex after the irreversible operations.

But as the clinic has limited patient follow-up, it is difficult to determine how many patients may have been adversely affected by the surgery.

Three former patients have recently taken legal action against Monash and the clinic's doctors.

Psychiatrist Dr Trudy Kennedy — who is being investigated by the state's medical board — says officials at Southern Health, which operates the service, told her she could no longer run the clinic she co-founded 34 years ago.

Full story here.

Thursday 28 May 2009

Rebecca Allison on GID reform at APA convention

On 18 May 2009, Dr Rebecca Allison gave a presentation at the annual APA convention in San Francisco, addressing the topic of whether Gender Identity Disorder should continue in the forthcoming DSM-V.

"IN CONCLUSION, I have used a common example from my practice of cardiology to illustrate that a diagnosis can be correctly made, and treatment can be successfully initiated, based on subjective symptomsas reported by the patient, without confirmation by specific diagnostic testing.

Using the example of microvascular angina as mymodel, I contend that the same principles may be applied to the condition I call Gender Variance (rather than Gender IdentityDisorder).

It is not necessary to achieve certain measurements on a diagnostic image of the brain to know that a physical condition exists and is treatable by physical (medical and surgical) measures.

The results of treatment are obvious and measurable. Hormone therapy works. Surgery to modify primary and secondary sex characteristics works. Transition works. Transition produces good outcomes, and outcomes matter.

In a perfect world, a diagnosis of Gender Variance, which does not carry the stigma of “disorder,” might exist as a medical condition in the ICD. Medical doctors could treat such persons with appropriate hormone management; surgeons could perform the operations essential for a normal life in the appropriate gender; and all such treatments would be covered by health insurance.

In a perfect world, psychiatrists and psychologists would appropriately manage the anxiety, depression, or other emotional conditions which occur in persons who have Gender Variance. These conditions would have appropriate codes in the DSM, but GenderVariance would not.

In a perfect world, psychiatrists might still treat persons WITH Gender Variance; but they would not treat persons FOR Gender Variance."

Full presentation here.

Thursday 21 May 2009

Philippines - Transpinay Rising

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Sunday 17 May 2009

France to delist transsexuality as a mental illness

On 16th May, the day before IDAHO, the French Minister of Health, Roselyne Bachelot, announced that the Haute Autorité de Santé (High Health Authority) had been requested to issue a decree delisting transsexuality as a long term psychiatric illness.

The Ministry of Health said that at present, transsexual people were eligible for care under ALD 23 – a psychiatric disorder of long duration – terminology which is very stigmatising.

The Ministry of Health continued that declassification would not mean withdrawal of medical care nor waiver of the medical diagnosis of gender identity disorder.

Full report in French from Liberation.

Saturday 9 May 2009

India: Koovagam Festival and Beauty Contest

The annual Koovagam festival has attracted transgender people from Singapore, Malaysia and all over India to Villupuram in Tamil Nadu, this May 2009.

The festival lasts 18 days and the focal point is the Koovagam temple where the presiding deity is Aravan, to whom the Aravanis get figuratively married.

At the opening, Radha, President of the Villupuram District Aravanis Welfare Association, and organiser N. Ramamurthy, told the press that for the fifth consecutive year the association, along with the Tamil Nadu AIDS Control Society, would run a beauty pageant for ‘aravanis’ – Miss Koovagam 2009.

The idea behind the competition was to increase self-esteem in the transgender community and encourage expression of knowledge, skills and talents in culture and the arts.

More than 2,000 transgender people took part in the competition and were tested on personality, HIV/AIDS knowledge, social concern and their services delivered to the community.

Miss Koovagam 2009 was won by Rekha from Madurai, second was Priya from Chennai, and third was Lalitha, also from Chennai.

More on the Koovagam festival.
More on the beauty contest with photo of top 3.

Friday 8 May 2009

Austria: SRS not required for gender change

On 27th Feb 2009, the Austrian Administrative Court ruled that SRS was not a prerequisite for male to female gender change.

The Austrian Administrative Court is the court of final appeal to determine if the government of Austria has handled an individual’s rights correctly.

This makes Austria the 6th country in Europe to decide that gender change is separate from genital surgery. The others are the United Kingdom, Spain, Hungary, Sweden and Finland.

The Commissioner of Human Rights of the Council of Europe stated the same view in December 2007 i.e. that gender change and SRS should be separate.

The applicant to the court in Austria had integrated into life as a woman. Without SRS, she had been required to produce identification documentation that said male. The applicant feared losing her job if she was forced to take an extended time off for recuperation from surgery.

Based on a report in German by Rechtskomitee Lambda

USA: Non trans guys seek work at TG job fair

The fifth annual Transgender Job Fair opened in San Francisco in early May 2009.

Volunteer Sherilyn Connelly estimated that about a dozen non-trans males had registered at the event to look for employment. Connelly said it was a “sign of the times” and that it didn’t bother her.

The event organiser, the Transgender Economic Empowerment Initiative, says that though the fair is marketed to transgender people, all jobseekers are welcome.

Full story by Ashley Harrell at SF Weekly.com

Tuesday 5 May 2009

IDAHO targets transphobia at UN and WHO on 17th May

The International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia will be celebrated this year again on May 17th. Like every year, the "IDAHO" (as it is usually called), will see actions and initiatives take place in many countries and contexts and on many different issues. All these activities and initiatives are a very strong signal to all, decisions makers, public opinion, civil rights movements, human rights defenders, etc. throughout the world.

This year, it was decided to put this emphasis on the burning and often neglected issue of transphobia.

The Day has already been officially recognised by Mexico, Costa Rica, France, the UK, Belgium, the European Parliament, etc. and the list keeps getting longer every year. This provides a forceful argument to engage initiatives even in contexts where authorities might not be supportive.

Why an appeal against transphobia and for gender identity respect?

At international level, IDAHO has identified as targets both the UN system at large and the World Health Organisation, which still officially classifies trans people as "mentally disordered".

But of course a lot of the struggle for trans rights takes place at national level, so this appeal also includes a section on the necessary national level policy changes.

More plus the appeal itself