Call to Action to Urge Trans-Affirming Position Statements by the APA
Filed by: Kelley Winters
May 25, 2009 1:00 PM
http://www.bilerico.com/2009/05/call_to_action_to_urge_trans-affirming_position_statements_by_the_apa.phpOn May 18, I presented a paper to the Annual Meeting of the American Psychiatric Association on the diagnostic categories of Gender Identity Disorder (GID) and Transvestic Fetishism (TF) in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). Coauthored by San Francisco psychologist and community advocate Dr. Randall Ehrbar, our presentation stressed the need to address two issues in the upcoming Fifth Edition of the DSM. First, the GID and TF diagnoses inflict harmful stigma of mental illness and sexual deviance on all trans, gender variant and queer identified individuals who do not conform to their assigned birth-sex, either by inner identity or outer social expression. Second, the GID diagnosis fails to support the medical necessity of hormonal or surgical transition care for those transsexual individuals who need them. In fact, the current GID diagnostic criteria and supporting text contradict both medical and social transition.
