Mental Illness and Transgender People
The Huffington Post
By Joanne Herman
Posted: June 11, 2010 10:58 AM
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joanne-herman/lgbt-rights-mental-illnes_b_605595.html (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joanne-herman/lgbt-rights-mental-illnes_b_605595.html)
Many transgender people, me included, bristle at the notion that we are mentally ill. This was especially the case when Andrea Lafferty of the Traditional Values Coalition spoke out in April against allowing teachers who transition genders to retain their jobs:
"Why are we giving our schoolchildren over to people with a serious mental disorder?" ... "We have no problem with people with a serious mental disorder receiving help, but to give them an elevated status within civil rights, within law is very different."
The "elevated status" we seek is merely to not be fired from a job because of being transgender, a protection currently available in only 40 percent of the country.
The "serious mental disorder" she refers to is the diagnosis of Gender Identity Disorder in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) of the American Psychiatric Association, the catalog of mental disorders.
So any teacher that suffers from depression should be fired, too? Seems like we'd be loosing a lot of teachers if that were the case.
Yet another conservative talking without knowing all the facts!