->-bleeped-<-: The Infallible Derogatory Hypothesis, Part 2

[NicholeW.]

19 November 2008
Kelley Winters, Ph.D.
GID Reform Advocates
www.gidreform.org

http://gidreform.wordpress.com/2008/11/19/ ->-bleeped-<--the-infallible-derogatory-hypothesis-part-2/

Dr. Blanchard's taxonomy of " ->-bleeped-<-" and "homosexual transsexualism" follows a long tradition of dividing transsexual women into categorical buckets based on sexual orientation. A premise in American psychiatry/psychology has traditionally held that male-to-female transsexualism is a phenomenon of effeminate male homosexuality, while the label of "transvestism" is associated with heterosexual men. Hence, diagnostic nomenclature and research literature have for decades favored candidates for surgical transition care who would have heterosexual outcomes (i.e., transwomen attracted to men). [1]

In the 1960s, Dr. Harry Benjamin's defined two types of so-called "true transsexuals" as distinct from "->-bleeped-<-s" and "non-surgical transsexuals," based on Kinsey's scale of sexual orientation. Those attracted to men were labeled "high intensity," resembling Blanchard's "homosexual" label. Benjamin described asexual, "auto-erotic" and some bisexual individuals as "low intensity" or "nonsurgical transsexual."  He labeled transsexual women attracted to women mostly as "->-bleeped-<-s," [2] and the belief that those termed "->-bleeped-<-s" were not gender dysphoric or attracted to men held until the 1980s.

While Benjamin emphasized that his six types of MTF transsexualism "are not and never can be sharply separated," psychiatrist. Robert Stoller insisted on exclusive division of transsexualism from "transvestism."  Stoller considered a single episode of cross-dressing associated with sexual arousal sufficient to exclude a diagnosis of transsexualism [3] and therefore denial of access to transition medical care. (Like Blanchard today, Stoller conflated "association" with erotic causation in his literature.) This view was reflected in the DSM-III-R, [4] where concurrent diagnosis of Transvestic Fetishism and GID of Adolescence or Adulthood, Nontranssexual Type (GIDAANT) or Transsexualism were not allowed [5].




As usual, Kelley is thorough and absolutely on point. And her politics seems to be removed to the background moreso than other commentators.