Diagnosing Difference
DOCUMENTARY / Timely film challenges gender identity disorder
Rob Salerno / Vancouver / Thursday, August 12, 2010
http://www.xtra.ca/public/Vancouver/Diagnosing_Difference-9037.aspxThe timely documentary Diagnosing Difference examines the medical community's ongoing practice of treating people whose gender expression is different from their birth-assigned gender as mental patients suffering from a disorder.
Since 1980, the American Psychological Association (APA) has included "gender identity disorder (GID)" in its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) — what some call the Bible of psychological treatment.
The DSM shapes how doctors treat those who identify on the trans spectrum (not all people who are gender variant identify as trans), and how gender is treated under the law and in social life.
