Trans Depathologization: The Spark of Change
Filed By Mercedes Allen | October 30, 2012 1:30 PM
http://www.bilerico.com/2012/10/trans_depathologization_the_spark_of_change_1.phpor
http://dentedbluemercedes.wordpress.com/2012/10/30/trans-depathologization-the-spark-of-change/I watch a lot of news stories unfold, reading left-wing, centrist and right-wing media alike. In the course of a news story, issues ignite, blaze hotly and then smoulder into memory. After awhile, one develops some sense of when a campaign will spread like a prairie fire or when it will extinguish itself. The quest to depathologize transsexual and transgender people (or more likely just transsexed individuals) has smouldered for several years, but recently, something is happening. It reminds me of looking at a match at the moment of ignition. Flame shoots out in every direction, then chaos, and then it wraps itself up in whatever movement of air there is... or is blown out by it. This effort, this time, I think will ignite into a blaze -- with the only unknown being whether or not the World Health Organization will listen and respond.
There is a rejuvenated movement to have trans diagnoses removed from mental health classification, under the common belief that if transsexuality were no longer considered a mental illness (in the way that happened with homosexuality was in 1973), that it will lead to the level of acceptance that gay men and lesbians have attained.
This as something that has to happen. But if not done with care and consideration, it could become more chaotic than it needed to be, and burn more people than necessary in the process. Here's why, and what can minimize this.
