A few weeks ago, one of your columnists wrote about me in his column. I am referring to Michael Brown's column about the transgender caller on the Limbaugh show. As I identified in that the reader comments section, I was that caller, and I was very offended that, despite the fact that I am a transwoman, a female; Dr. Brown claimed otherwise. I spoke to him on his show, and he encouraged me to read one of Walt Heyer's books, as defense of his position that it is proper for him to deny that I am a woman. Having read the book, and written a through answer, I am submitting that answer as a submission for a guest column in your publication.
The Librarian, the Columnist, and the Bunk Book
I am a librarian with a Masters of Science degree and 20 years experience evaluating books for inclusion in library collections. There is a trust relationship between libraries and library patrons, that books found in a library have been selected because there is more useful information in the books than there is bad information. Although Walt Heyer makes some valid points, in my view, the validity is overwhelmed by the bunk, and I would not include Gender, Lies and Suicide into any library collection smaller than the New York Public Library. I believe that my analysis is borne out by the OCLC Worldcat database, which shows only two copies of any of Walt's books being owned by participating libraries anywhere in the world; and no copy of this newest book in a library anywhere. While these books may sell at Christian bookstores, because they tell the kind of stories that seem to validate Christian beliefs, they lack intellectual substance and validity.
Starting with Walt's valid points, he is absolutely correct that the medical-establishment does a very poor job of helping transgender people. Historically, the medical-establishment has been consistently wrong about major issues, and been proved to be wrong over time. For example, the medical-establishment once believed that it was impossible to be genuinely transgender and also homosexual. However, science has subsequently proven that gender-identity and sexual-preference are entirely separate issues. Thus, many people were badly served over a long period of time. There was also a long period of time where the medical-establishment believed in something called "autogynophelia", a condition that was described as a sexual fetish where a man is disqualified from being considered for transgender therapy because he can become sexually aroused by the idea of being a woman, a condition which the medical-establishment believed was often confused with genuine ->-bleeped-<-. The establishment believed that if one got sexually aroused by one's appearance as a woman, that person was a fetishist, not transgender. However, it was ultimately proved that what the establishment called autogynophelia can actually be a healthy and normal aspect of female sexuality, which is often referred to by natal-females as "feeling sexy." So again, a large number of patients were badly served, over a long period of time, by well-intentioned but wrong-headed professionals.
Walt himself admits that he was misdiagnosed as transgender, but was actually suffering from Disassociative Identity Disorder. While this is a good example of the folly of the medical-establishment at the time, it absolutely disqualifies Walt's case from being illustrative of the experiences of genuine transgender people. In my view, the problem with the medical-establishment is that too few of the so-called experts are actually transgender. Thus they lack genuine insight into the problem. However, now that educated medical professional experts who are themselves transgender, such as Dr. Marcie Bowers, have become more influential in the field; that situation may change. At this time, I believe the majority of transgender people pursue a transition that relies much more on self-medication and peer-counseling than professional counseling, and leads to better results.
Walt's best point is that changing one's gender is impossible. He is absolutely correct in coming to this conclusion. I can see why people like radio talk-show host Dr. Michael Brown take Walt's conclusion to heart, and refer to transwomen with male pronouns and gender-references. This view is, however, absolutely wrong. While Walt is correct that changing one's actual gender is impossible, he has used the wrong way to determine actual gender. Walt mistakenly asserts that one's true gender is the one defined by a person's external genitalia He fails to comprehend that one's true gender is defined by their innate sense of gender-identity. Thus, the impossible thing to do is to change one's gender to conform with society's expectation for gender to match plumbing, in defiance of one's innate sense of gender. To provide a specific clear example, I believed I was female until my parents insisted otherwise. I did my best to change my gender to male, in order to please them and conform to society. However, that course proved to be impossible to achieve, caused me a great deal of grief, and did substantial harm to people who were close to me, particularly to women that I married or was in a relationship with. When I ultimately accepted the impossibility of denying my true gender, that is the moment when I finally set foot on the path towards wholeness and mental-health, and discovered this entirely new thing commonly known as happiness, which I had previously never experienced. I tell people, "When living as a man, I was miserable, even though by objective measures (romance, career, wealth, status, friends etc.), I should have been happy. Now, living as a woman, by most objective measures I should be miserable, yet I live in a state of serenity and bliss."
The classic definition of transsexualism, "a woman trapped in a man's body" is pretty accurate. When we use that definition, the true gender of a woman trapped in a man's body, is female. The modern definition of a transgender person is better: "I'd rather be dead than spend another day living in the wrong gender," where the wrong gender is the one determined by plumbing. A truly transgender person is changing gender only from external perspective. A great pair of books about this was written by the wife of a transwoman: My Husband Betty and She's Not the Man I Married, by Helen Boyd. From Mrs. Boyd's perspective her husband changed genders and transitioned to Betty. But from Betty's perspective, she was always Betty. Betty simply stopped fighting not to be Betty. The transition period, from Betty's perspective, was not taking place internally as she became Betty; rather the transition was taking place externally, as Helen and the rest of the world gradually accepted Betty.
The modern definition of rather-be-dead ties directly to the main problem with Walt's book, but before I address that, I want to examine some of the so-called supporting information provided. There are significant problems with the scientific evidence, but what really destroys Walt's position is the personal anecdotes. Walt commits serious errors in interpreting the scientific data that he provides, and each of the people used as examples to prove his point actually disproves his point.
The scientific errors are glaring. One of the first thing a librarian evaluates, when deciding if a book is worthy of being included in a library collection, are the sources that the author used to build his conclusions. The first scientific citation is from 1989. Scientific studies more than 10 years old are considered to be obsolete. When a librarian sees conclusions being drawn from 24 year-old studies, that raises a big red-flag, although it is possible that there could be some value in the old study. So the use of this study, by itself, does not necessarily disqualify Walt's book or destroy his credibility. However there is another readily apparent red-flag: Walt quotes himself in his chapter-headings. Maybe it's because he can't find any bona fide experts who agree with his position.
But, when we move to the second study, not only is this also an old study, it is taken from Sweden, a nation with a substantially different culture and environment. The source is also improperly cited, which speaks to the author's lack of thoroughness and attention to detail. However, these are not the worst flaws related to using this study. Walt commits a cardinal-sin of scholarship with regards to the way he uses this study. He takes a single element of the study that supports his case, and ignores the conclusion of the study, because it is contrary to his ideas. The conclusion of the study that Walt cites on page 6 is that post-operative transsexuals need more counseling after the surgery, and more follow-up care to prevent suicidal ideology and actions.
Often, the glare of transsexuality blinds people to the most simple things; so it is often better to use a mundane but similar situation to illustrate a simple point. Since the 1950's there has been stability in the statistics recording the success of spinal surgery. Two years after spinal surgery, one-third of patients are better, one-third are the same, and one-third are worse. These statistics have been remarkably unchanging over the decades, despite significant advances in surgical techniques and practices. Yet nobody says spinal surgery is a wrong approach. What's important is that patients are making well-informed decisions based on their individual priorities. Patients are deciding what is right for them. Moreover, none of these spinal patients are released from the hospital, after surgery, considered to be fully cured, and not needing follow-up care, counseling, and rehabilitation. Yet this is exactly the case in gender-reassignment surgery. So, it should be no surprise that ill-informed doctors leading ill-informed patients towards transsexual surgery would often be wrong. Nor should it be a surprise that patients who get inadequate follow-up care recover poorly.
I used to work in a pet-store that had a book-department. One of the included books was Ferrets for Dummies. It was a running joke among the employees that while dummies could handle fish, rodent-pets, and perhaps dogs and cats; ferrets were not for dummies. No dummy should get a ferret, regardless of the existence of a book to the contrary. Transsexualism is similar. Anybody who is not committed to learning everything they can about the condition, and committed to making decisions based upon that knowledge; should not pursue a path of ->-bleeped-<-, much less transsexual surgery.
Based upon Walt's own words, Walt had no business being transsexual in the first place. On Page-7 Walt says that he thought, "all transgenders are happy." On Page-1, he admits that he was unaware that some transsexuals commit suicide after transsexual-surgery, because they are more unhappy than they were before. He should have known otherwise. Walt failed to do his due-diligence Walt bought the ferret, but he didn't even read the book first. He should have known that 1/3 get better and 1/3 get worse. He should have known that the surgery would not change his sex, but would neuter him. He should have known that an alarming number of post-operative transsexuals were committing suicide, at that time. He should have made an informed decision based on that knowledge. But he did not educate himself, and he paid the price.
So, while it is true that Walt was let-down by an ignorant medical-community, that was a long time ago, at the stone-age beginnings of entirely new science. While I feel sorry for Walt, he's crying over spilled-milk, and nothing about his case is applicable to the modern world - with one exception. Walt shares responsibility for his bad-outcome, because he was ill-informed and Pollyannish. That holds absolutely true today. I don't care what condition you have, you can't simply put yourself in the hands of doctors, make no effort to educate yourself on your own, and expect the best outcome.
Every example that Walt provides to support his claim that ->-bleeped-<- is wrong for everyone, every single example matches Walt's model. There are alot of unhappy ferret-owners, who didn't do their homework. These example-people were uninformed, which led them to take actions that were wrong for them. Thus, the experience of these people is irrelevant to well-informed and peer-counseled people such as me; and these examples are non-illustrative of healthy ->-bleeped-<-.
Walt's first example, other than his own example, says: no one in the medical field tried to stop me. It's a sick industry that needs to be stopped. You can get SRS almost as easy as buying a pack of gum.
This is classic narcissism, recognized all the way back to Aesop's fable about a thief and his mother. When the thief blames his mother for allowing him to turn to a life a crime, because, "She should have stopped me when I was young," even young children can see the absurdity of the thief's position. Take responsibility for your own actions! You are blaming other people for problems you caused yourself. Nobody tried to stop you because that's not their responsibility. Besides which, no, you can't get SRS as easily as you can buy gum. You have to get letters from two psychiatrists, survive the real-life test, and be smart enough to have gathered and saved enough money to pay for it. Your example illustrates how little grounding your self-image has in reality. You suffered from narcissism, not ->-bleeped-<-
In Chapter Eight, Walt provides six examples of people who are unhappy transsexuals, or who chose not to pursue transgender therapy. In each example, we can see, in their own words, why these individuals should not have been transsexuals. In no example, does anyone refer to their real-life test, where one is supposed to spend a year or more living in the target-gender, prior to surgery, in order to test one's ability to succeed in the target-gender. I suspect that the people in these examples did not make a strong commitment to a genuine real-life test, and that is the true reason for their bad results. Also, many people lie to their counselors, to make it easier, cheaper, and quicker to get the required letters. When you do that, you cannot expect good results.
What really drove the point home for me was the realization that it required eight hours on the operating table to make my genitalia appear to be female.
That's the first thing should have known. While it is commonly thought that a surgically-constructed neo-vagina is indistinguishable from the real-thing, that notion could not be farther from the truth. In the movie Transamerica, the transsexual character played by Felicity Huffman speaks about her expectations for her upcoming surgery. "Even my gynecologist won't be able to tell the difference," she says. Au contraire. In the words of Marcie Bowers, a board-certified gynecological-surgeon who also a transwoman, "If your gynecologist can't tell the difference, you need a new gynecologist" The truth is that any moderately competent internet-searcher can find videos of actual surgeries. These videos are sickening, but if you can't force yourself to watch one, you probably don't want to have the procedure. There are also thousands of pictures of post-surgical neo-vaginas. Except for the very best work of one Thai doctor (who is doing an entirely different procedure than everyone else), it should be obvious to anyone who does any research that the visual-appearance of a neo-vagina is not even close to the appearance of a normal female's vagina. Nor should anyone be under the illusion that a neo-vagina approximates the function of a normal vagina. In Walt's era, it was a given that transsexual women were non-orgasmic. It's only been in the last decade that surgeons even started to try and construct a clitoris, when doing the surgeries. Before that, most transwomen agreed that they got their sexual pleasure through their breasts, and that their neo-vaginas were of two kinds of value: A) it was better than having a penis there, and B) it gave their male lovers a clean place to screw them.
After 10 months of therapy, I know sadly now my problems were depression, unresolved sexual-abuse issues and transvestite fetishism.
Too bad you did not get the therapy first, huh? Or maybe you didn't put in the effort, or were not honest with your counselors. Transvestism is a fetishistic-perversion, by definition. You were not transsexual, you were an obsessed, sexually-addicted, pervert - and you paid a heavy price for it. For you, bottoming-out on your sex-addiction required the ultimate transvestism, actual transsexual surgery.
The hormones have made me feel up and down. One minute I feel moody, and the next minute I feel really happy.
That's the very definition of being a girl. If you weren't knowledgeable of that, and prepared for it, and desired it; you had no business becoming a girl. Ferrets are not for dummies.
There are no quotes attributed to the example of Alan Finch, who had transsexual surgery at age 21, and it was wrong for him. Walt neglects to mention that this took place in the 1980's, and is another obsolete and irrelevant example. Modern science now understands that the human brain is not fully developed until the age of 25, and the last things to mature are the areas of the brain that deal with having a realistic understanding of self and the ability to predict the consequences of one's actions. Thus, having irreversible surgery before one is mature enough to understand the consequences, is usually ill-advised, as it clearly was in Finch's case.
Many friends have said I am transsexual, however, I do not see myself as a woman. I have seen many transitions go through the surgery and say how happy they are, but they can't get jobs, they lose their families yet they still say they are happy.
You are right, if you don't see yourself as a woman, you are not transsexual or transgender. You are right, not to listen to your friends. If you don't understand how people like me are happy, despite lousy job/family situations; then you are not like me, and my solution would not be right for you; so don't do it. But don't think that gives you the right to tell me that I can't do it.
I now realize I have a gender fetish.
Exactly! You are not transgender. What we see, is in the most current examples, people are better informed, and avoiding making the wrong decisions that were made in previous decades. The fact is that these people have concluded that changing genders is not right for them, because in every case, they are thinking in terms of changing-genders, not in terms of correcting their body to match (as closely as possible) their true gender. Thus none of these people are genuinely transgender, and bear not in the least on the situations of people such as me.
It also needs pointing out that Walt is building conclusions from his own experience, and then building more conclusions from the faulty conclusions arrived at from his own experience. It is my understanding that Walt is wealthy. Right there, his situation is several standard deviations from the norm. Walt got soaked by his doctors, because Walt had money. This led Walt to the wrong conclusion that doctors make alot of money from transsexual and transgender patients. This could not be farther from the truth. The fact is that one of the systemic problems is that there is so little money to be made from treating such a small fraction of the population, that very few professionals are motivated to learn much about it, and thus; transgender people get poor medical care. Any greedy doctor who is capable of doing this surgery is going to be far to busy implanting silicone boobs and lifting faces to even see a transsexual patient. Only truly dedicated people work with transgender patients, although it is unfortunate that even these dedicated professionals do not have the time to become fully expert on such a small fragment of their practices.
It also needs pointing out that, surgery is not the treatment option that most correlates with positive outcomes for transgender people. HGR (hormonal gender reassignment) therapy has better outcomes than SRS (sexual reassignment surgery). In HGR, hormones significantly change the body. For many, this amount of change is sufficient to mitigate gender-dysphoria enough to make it a manageable condition. There is no doubt, scientifically, that hormones have significant effects on brain-function. When I taught an undergraduate psychology course, I taught these differences, straight from the textbook. So in HGR, trans people test how the change in base hormone impacts on their mood and feelings. If it's not right, they can stop. In my case, I didn't want to risk any irreversible changes until I was certain, so I started on a very low dose of hormones, while I did the real-life test. I slowly increased the hormones as I became more certain, so that by the time I had irreversible changes, I was certain I wanted them. Now, since I am educated on the science, certain about the changes, and am proven to be happy - I am qualified to decide for myself whether or not to have SRS. If nobody had SRS before they reached this state of enlightenment, nobody would have Waltish-regret.
Another important consideration is that SRS, what transsexuals call bottom-surgery, is not even the transsexual surgery that has the best outcomes. For transmen and transwomen, facial-reconstruction surgery, has the best outcomes, amongst surgical options. Top-surgery, speech therapy and physical therapy all have better outcomes than SRS, and are all essentially reverse able Fast-tracking SRS before less than 18 months is only for the small percentage of trans people who are in relationships where the couple needs the change, or where someone has extreme dysmorphia with their birth-plumbing. So really, Walt is trashing an outmoded treatment protocol, while demonstrating no knowledge of current best-practices.
Now, I am going to address the main-thrust of Walt's bad argument. Walt presents that there is something incredibly alarming about the fact that 41% of transgender people have attempted suicide at some point in their lives, and that this bad thing, which should be blamed on Meglomaniac Docs, who greedily administer quack cures for imaginary ailments. Moreover, even though he doesn't state it directly, Walt is implying that this large number of suicide attempts results from transsexual surgery. Walt's use of statistics to support his argument is an egregious misuse of statistical evidence, and the conclusions he draws are unfounded and illogical.
Of the 41% of transgender people who have attempted suicide at some point in their lives, it would be helpful to know, at what point in their lives did they make this attempt? Walt is implying that all these suicide-attempts were the result of people who were unhappy in their target-gender, when it is equally likely that suicide-attempts were the result of being trapped in their birth-gender, before they transitioned to a state of mental health. In my case, I never attempted suicide, before or since transition; but, before transition, I was fearless of risk, because I didn't care if I lived or died. I did things like abusing drugs and alcohol, jumping off cliffs into water, provoking bar fights for the fun of it, and driving 130 mph in my Camaro; that normal people considered suicidal. Now, I look back, and I can't believe I did those things; because now, I have a normal, healthy love of life that was lacking before. So I might say that I attempted suicide at some point in my life, but that point was before gender-therapy cured me, and thus, though I fit into the statistic Walt uses, my example is contrary to his point, and thus, Walt is misusing statistics, which thus fail to prove his point.
But, what is really alarming about Walt's misuse of statistics is the same cardinal-sin that he committed with the Swedish study discussed earlier. He takes one statistic from a huge report, and ignores the rest of the report and its conclusions. He doesn't even use the complete statistic, as taken from the original source material:
A staggering 41% of respondents reported attempting suicide compared to 1.6% of the general population, with rates rising for those who lost a job due to bias (55%), were harassed/bullied in school (51%), had low household income, or were the victim of physical assault (61%) or sexual assault (64%).
The full statistic illuminates the fact that these transgender people are not committing suicide because they are unhappy about being transgender, but because they are unhappy with the way they are treated because they are transgender. The same study reports some other telling statistics, that demonstrate this fundamental truth: Transgender people do not suffer nearly as much from intrinsic and internal problems, but from external problems related to the way they are mistreated by society. Here are some telling statistics from the same study, statistics ignored by Walt because they do not fit his false-narrative:
Respondents live in extreme poverty. Our sample was nearly four times more likely to have a household income of less than $10,000/year compared to the general population. The unemployment rate is twice that of the general population, as is the rate of homelessness. 90% report harassment, discrimination and bullying at work. 47% report losing a job because they were transsexual. 16% report being forced to work in the underground economy, selling drugs or doing sex-work, because they can't get other employment.
78% report having been harassed and bullied in school. 35% report physical assaults in school and 12% report sexual abuse. 57% report being rejected by family members. 63% report suffering a major act of discrimination, and 23% report suffering three or more different kinds of life-altering discriminatory events.
Fifty-three percent (53%) of respondents reported being verbally harassed or disrespected in a place of public accommodation, including hotels, restaurants, buses, airports and government agencies. 22% were denied equal treatment by a government agency or official. 29% reported police harassment or disrespect, and 12% had been denied equal treatment or harassed by judges or court officials.
Walt doesn't even allow the reader to consider the idea that the suicide-rate might be more related to poverty, harassment and rejection than it is to Meglomaniac Docs. When I review these statistics, it still amazes me that more people don't commit suicide. This is why Walt's book is not held by any libraries. Somebody donates it, you look it over and conclude it has no place in a library, and you sell it at the used-book sale. While I can understand why people such as Dr. Michael Brown use Walt's book as justification for their bigoted view that there is no such thing as a transsexual - such a view is only possible because of the way Walt consistently misleads his readers. This book is a perfect example of why professional librarians are necessary. The average person is easily taken-in by plausible-sounding bunk, such as Walt constructs. Librarians protect the general public from such charlatanry. Walt is the downside of anybody can create a webpage.
Here is the actual conclusion of the actual scholars who conducted this study:
It is part of social and legal convention in the United States to discriminate against, ridicule, and abuse transgender and gender non-conforming people within foundational institutions such as the family, schools, the workplace and health care settings, every day. Instead of recognizing that the moral failure lies in society's unwillingness to embrace different gender identities and expressions, society blames transgender and gender non-conforming people for bringing the discrimination and violence on themselves.
Walt is being slightly progressive. Instead of blaming the transgender people, he is blaming the problem on his mythical Meglo-Docs. But the blame falls squarely on the elements of, and the individuals in, the society which creates problems for transgender people. This group includes the perhaps well-intentioned types, such as Dr. Michael Brown, who spread dangerous misinformation, even if they do so unintentionally.
Here is the really important statistic from the study under discussion, which indicates that not only Walt wrong, but he is backwards. Treatment for ->-bleeped-<- does not cause suicide, it prevents suicide. In other words, if not for transgender treatment, more transgender people would commit suicide. This is why Walt Heyer must be discredited and debunked.
The vast majority (78%) of those who transitioned from one gender to the other reported that they felt more comfortable at work and their job performance improved, despite high levels of mistreatment.
This seems to be the closest that the study got to inquiring if respondents were happy. It seems logical that general happiness with the results of transition would be necessary for the improved work situation to occur. Had the study asked if they feel more comfortable and successful in their life, the number would be even higher than 78%. So it's a reasonable conclusion to say that, as a treatment, gender-transition is 2.5 times more effective at alleviating the negative condition than back surgery is at alleviating that negative condition; and is thus a very effective treatment.
Recall Walt's fourth example. I have seen many transitions go through the surgery and say how happy they are, but they can't get jobs, they lose their families yet they still say they are happy.
Despite all the downside issues society causes for transgender people, more than three of four transgender people are happy. That beats the general population. Transgender therapy saves lives. Living in the wrong gender causes suicide. But so does society.
This is why facial-reconstruction is the most effective surgical treatment for transgender people. It helps them be more accepted by society, and thus they suffer less from the myriad of problems society causes for them. That is really the cause of the suicides. Lack of acceptance by society. The message to Christendom is, if you want to stop transgender people from committing suicide, welcome them into your churches, your homes and your lives. Loneliness causes suicide.
