Transmissions: Not disordered
Published 12/13/2012
by Gwendolyn Ann Smith
http://www.ebar.com/news/article.php?sec=news&article=68353But amid the cheers over the changes to GID, another addition to the text was discovered: the entry for transvestic fetishism was replaced by transvestic disorder. Ray Blanchard, Ph.D., a protege of Zucker and Bailey, penned this.
Blanchard's transvestic disorder goes beyond the old category in several ways. First it brings in Bailey's " ->-bleeped-<-" as well as "autoandrophilia" (deriving sexual pleasure by masculinizing yourself) as actual parts of diagnosis, canonizing the idea. It may seek to usurp the gender dysphoria category by claiming that someone (for example) born female who presents as male and is sexually active at any time is disordered.
It's almost the classic bait and switch. While we watch and wait on GID being modernized, we see a far more odious category slip in. Meanwhile, many are concerned that the loss of GID as a category could lead to a harder road in getting treatment. In an absolute worst-case scenario, a medical provider or insurance company could balk at treatment for something that is not viewed as a "disorder," potentially requiring transgender people to seek treatment under the highly stigmatizing "transvestic disorder." Never mind that treatment for such would not match what one may require: medical, not mental intervention – and certainly not reparative therapy.
