the old IT metaphor.......

It's better now. I am clueless as to how I coped before...the reset and puberty reboot into the other O/S seems completely bug free so far, I'm dammed if I know how to work it, but it seems very powerfull and the wetware likes running it overclocked......

I'm healing....

How you doing, attitude wise....

I was pretty slack when it came to sympathy for Transgendered people....how are you doing?

BOISE – The Idaho Department of Correction has settled lawsuits with two transgender inmates who castrated themselves after they were denied feminizing hormone therapy.

The terms of the settlements were not disclosed, but the department has changed its policy for identifying and treating transgender inmates. The policy now limits the time inmates must wait for treatment, specifies how they may be diagnosed, and clarifies when they qualify for hormone therapy.

Josephime Von Isaak sued the state in 2006, and Jenniffer Ann Spencer sued the following year. Both inmates, who were born with male anatomy but consider themselves female, contended they were subjected to cruel and unusual punishment because they were denied treatment for gender identity disorder.

Spencer was serving time on a 2000 conviction for possession of a stolen car and escape when she cut off her own testicles with a disposable razor blade in 2004 an apparent effort to rid her body of testosterone. Spencer survived the self-castration, and prison doctors prescribed testosterone replacement therapy – refusing to prescribe the estrogen Spencer wanted.

Isaak, who is serving a life sentence for second-degree murder, said she was also compelled to remove her own testicles with a razor in 2004 after the state failed to diagnose and treat her disorder. Even then, Isaak said in the lawsuit, she went without the estrogen treatment she wanted, and a year after self-castrating she amputated the tip of her penis with a razor blade.

The state cited Isaak’s birth gender and schizophrenia diagnosis when it denied her female hormones and a surgical sex change. In Spencer’s case, the state said a diagnosis of gender identity disorder wasn’t warranted and that Spencer had lied about living as a woman and taking birth control pills before her incarceration.

Isaak’s lawsuit was formally dismissed in the wake of the settlement Wednesday. Spencer’s lawsuit has not yet been formally dismissed, but both Spencer’s and the state’s attorneys signed a stipulated dismissal request that was filed in court Monday.

Shannon Minter, legal director of the National Center of Lesbian Rights and the attorney who represented both Spencer and Isaak, could not be immediately reached for comment.

Idaho Department of Correction spokesman Jeff Ray said he couldn’t comment on the details of the settlements because it was a confidential legal matter. However, Idaho Department of Correction Director Brent Reinke said the department changed its policy on transgender inmates to create a more detailed standard operating procedure.

“It gives the staff more clarity in the specific steps that we’re required to follow,” Reinke said. 

The old policy – six pages long and last revised in 2003 – calls for a Management and Treatment Committee made up of prison doctors and mental health workers to approve the diagnosis of gender identity disorder and to come up with a treatment plan. Inmates who come into the prison already taking cross-sex hormone therapy can continue the treatment, if approved by the prison committee.

The new policy says inmates must be given information about available treatment for gender identity disorder, that inmates can’t be harassed by staffers for having been evaluated for the disorder, and that they must be moved to appropriate housing units while they are evaluated. It also spells out that outside consultants may assist in the diagnosis and that a recommendation for treatment must be completed within two months of a gender identity disorder diagnosis.

Also under the new policy, if an inmate is taking cross-sex hormones when entering prison, the inmate will be allowed to continue unless another medical condition makes it unsafe or inadvisable to continue.

Four of the approximately 7,300 inmates in Idaho’s prison system are diagnosed with gender identity disorder, Reinke said.

When asked by Senator Orin Hatch (R-UT) whether President Obama’s proposed socialized healthcare plan will mandate taxpayer funded abortion, Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) admitted that it will require “any service deemed medically necessary or medically appropriate.” It now appears that the plan’s “medically appropriate” umbrella is far more expansive than most Americans could have imagined.

In addition to abortion on demand, the weight of the evidence indicates that cosmetic “gender reassignment” surgeries for both U.S. citizens and illegal immigrants who suffer from APA recognized “Gender Identity Disorder” (GID) may also be provided – free of charge – courtesy of the U.S. taxpayer. The current price tag for such a procedure can exceed $50,000. 

Page 972 of the House version of the bill (H.R. 3200) provides for “standards, as appropriate, for the collection of accurate data on health and health care” based on “sex, sexual orientation [and] gender identity.” The Senate draft indicates that the government will “detect and monitor trends in health disparities,” requiring the Department of Health and Human Services to “develop standards for the measurement of gender.” (i.e., officially recognize subjectively self-determined “transgender” or “transsexual” gender identities). It further mandates ‘‘participation in the institutions’ programs of individuals and groups from…different genders and sexual orientations.”

Matt Barber, Director of Cultural Affairs with both Liberty Counsel and Liberty Alliance Action commented: “There’s a gulf of difference between what Obama and liberals in Congress, and the American people deem ‘medically appropriate;’ especially when it’s ‘we the people’ footing the bill. To force Americans, against their conscience, to fund abortion on demand and to facilitate gender confusion by subsidizing the elective practice of genital ‘sex-change’ mutilation is unconscionable. 

“After hearing Sen. Mikulski’s ‘any service deemed…medically appropriate’ admission, I was prompted to dig a little deeper. I contacted the offices of Sen. Harry Reid, Rep. Charlie Rangel, Rep. Barney Frank and the House Subcommittee on Health. I asked, very simply, for ‘an assurance that the proposed healthcare plan will not allow taxpayer funded gender reassignment surgeries or hormone therapies.’ When faced with the bill’s relevant language, every staffer I spoke with either declined to answer or would neither confirm nor deny that such procedures would be covered.

Nice Pics...wonderfull story...

I know the look on the right..... its the I'm dying inside look....

Here

Hey, its all going great...

I was stuck on the social construction stuff and overlooked the healing bit. I'm healing, its nice. The breasts seem to belong.

The Bathroom Question.... The hatefull politics of TG issues

Transgender bathrooms coming soon???

Today at the State House there will be a hearing on House Bill 1728–An Act Relative to Gender Based Discrimination and Hate Crimes.

If this bill is passed public bathrooms across the Commonwealth will no longer be separated based on gender — male and female. Men will be able to use the lady’s room and women will be able to visit the men’s room. I suppose putting urinals in lady’s rooms is next....
This has led to the desired hysteria in the comments section, of course:
I wonder how all these bleeding heart liberal scumbags are going to feel when their young daughter is molested in a bathroom and the piece of dirt says he’s a trangender woman and he has the right to be in the woman’s room.This opens up so many bad doors.
Comment by disappointed again in Ma. - July 14, 2009 @ 8:00 am
It's also led to some voices of sanity and reason having a debate:
#

There are already laws such as this one in many other states and also in Cambridge, Boston, Amherst, and Northampton & there have been no complaints of men trying to use the ladies’ room in order to prey upon women. No one is trying to legalize criminal behavior in bathrooms with this bill. Yes, some people may be uncomfortable with the idea, but being uncomfortable has never been sufficient justification to deny other people their civil rights and equal protection under the law.
Comment by christie - July 14, 2009 @ 9:06 am

Wow…the bathroom argument still brings out the lunatics. The public bathroom argument gets dusted off every few years and has been used to defeat all kinds of legislation; Equal Rights Ammendment being the most notable.
The host continues to show that she will go to the bottom of the political gutter to find a wedge issue. I knew she was a tough politico, but not literally a gutter fighter.
Comment by rufuswithchakakhan - July 14, 2009 @ 10:02 am 

You’re an idiot. Have you actually read the bill? Do you have any comprehension of what it actually does? Of course not. You’re “the lone Republican” and that apparently prevents you from anything resembling meaningful policy analysis. Easier to phone it in and inflate bogus arguments that rile up your fan base.
Comment by Andy - July 14, 2009 @ 1:01 pm

Well, Andy, you seem to have read it so why don’t you enlighten us.
Comment by LibsWreckedMA - July 14, 2009 @ 7:31 pm 

#

@LibsWreckedMA - the bill adds the words “gender identity or expression” to existing legislation, along with the existing categories of race, sex, sexual orientation and religion.

That’s it.

Not a word about bathrooms in it.

The full text is available online for anyone to read at http://www.mass.gov/legis/bills/house/186/ht01/ht01728.htm

But those opposing it rely on people not reading it, and believing their, er, counter-factual, claims.
Comment by Zoe Brain - July 15, 2009 @ 1:04 pm

On to In My Arrogant Opinion - IMAO, a conservative blog that's usually quite good, even if it delights in being in-your-face. And this post: 
Just Checking
Posted by Frank J. on July 15, 2009 at 3:20 pm

In Massachusetts, east coast land of useless idiots, they’re passing a transgender right bill to make sure people can use the bathroom of whatever gender they personally identify with. Some people are protesting it (how could anyone find anything wrong with it?), and this passage jumped out at me:
Timothy Tracey, a lawyer with the conservative Arizona-based Alliance Defense Fund, told members of the Committee on the Judiciary that the bill infringes on the religious rights of those who believe that men and women are different.
It’s been a little while since my last biology class, but there is actually a scientific distinction of men and women too, right? Or am I the one who is confused
Not too bad, a bit of snark, but inviting a rational response. Unfortunately, some of the commenters are less rational. Some are merely snarky, some extremely funny, others... well, I'll let them speak for themselves.
BigRichardSmall says:
July 15th, 2009 at 4:12 pm
They tried this at the local University, calling them “Family Bathrooms”. When did we as a society start deciding the whole needs to accomadate the retarded few. This is the place that gave us the Kennedys, John Kerry, and was so liberal it made Mitt Romnney Pro-Choice, I predict it’ll pass.
...
Son of Bob says:
July 15th, 2009 at 4:23 pm
That’ll be great for the little girls in Massachusetts to have grown men hanging out in their restrooms, simply claiming they identify themselves as females. Sounds to me like they’ve got some real intelligent, responsible representatives in Massachusetts.
...
Live Free Or Die says:
July 15th, 2009 at 5:13 pm
As a Hater-of-all-things-Massachusetts, they deserve this to become law. “From Hell’s heart I stab at thee! For hate’s sake, I spit my last breath at thee!” “I blow my nose at you!” “I fart in your general direction!”>>>Teddy Kennedy,John Kerry,Bawny Fwank,Gerry Studds,Duvall Patrick,RedSux Fans,Bill Bellicheat,The Big Dig…..Nuking them is too merciful.
...
# Kat says:
July 15th, 2009 at 11:27 pm
This attitude is something that seriously bothers me about fellow conservatives.

I have many friends who are intersexed - they have a congenital condition that means they are not entirely male, and not entirely female. In one case, the person is a true hermaphrodite. In another, the person has a hormonal condition, combined with a dichotomy between brain and body. In a third, the person has Harry Benjamin Syndrome, where the brain is female, and the body male.

All of them are treated as second class citizens because of something they cannot control. It is legal to fire them from jobs because they are transgender. It is legal to keep them from renting or buying a home. Protections we take for granted are denied an entire group of people because of a medical problem.

And yet conservatives, the heralds of “personal responsibility” and “freedom,” sit back and make fun of them, call them “shim” or “shemale.” Accuse them of being paedophiles or sexual offenders.

I’m not going to quote studies or give stats. I’ll leave that to Zoe Brain. She’s much better at it than I. But I will say that this sort of intolerance is what gives Republicans and conservatives a bad name, and makes me rethink my political associations.

[Great idea. You now be for higher taxes and less freedom. -Ed.]
...
Kat says:
July 16th, 2009 at 10:36 am

Thank you so much for the Editor’s note! It makes me feel warm and fuzzy to know that just because I question something on the Right, I’m now automatically a Lefty, rather than simply a disgruntled conservative.

Yes, I do run with an odd crowd. They’re called humans. Some might be a bit weirder than others, but then, I’ve never claimed to be normal.

Zoe happens to be one of those humans. So her posts encompass more than just her biological oddities. She likes to post about pop culture every once in a while, and frequently has a different perspective on current events because of her background in science. So she uses big words. I understand them, do you?

A quote from her site: “It’s legal to persecute the transgendered in 37 states, but in 13 it isn’t. Yet in those 13 states, there have never been these mythical “bathroom issues”. Not once. Oh, perverts have used womens (sic) facilities as places to attack, rarely, but they’ve never tried to use the human rights legislation, either mentioning “sex” or “gender identity” as a defence. Not once in 33 years.”

All of you are assuming that it is a choice for trangendered men and women to be outcasts. That they want to be reviled, end up homeless (est. 40%) or murdered (est. 1 in 7). Stop and think for a moment what kind of hell they must be going through, to be trapped in the wrong body and want so badly to get out. Imagine if YOU were in that position, where your brain was telling you “I’m a guy” and your body looked female. Or, worse, that your body didn’t quite look one or the other, and your genes were a bit too messed up to be able to use that. Kleinfelter’s syndrome is where the chromosomes are XXY rather than XX or XY. Mosaicism is where some parts of the body are XX, others are XY. In both cases, there’s no clear answer. And this isn’t as rare as we’d like to think. Gender and Sex aren’t quite as cut-and-dry as we’re taught in high school biology.

I understand, this is a humour site, and most of you are cracking jokes because it’s funny. But it’s not funny to a lot of people. It’s a serious situation, and this sort of reaction does quite a bit of harm, because it encourages ignorance, rather than compassion and understanding for a weird and vilified medical condition. Would you make fun of someone with heart disease who needed a bypass? How about a woman who needed a hysterectomy because of a chronic condition? Why is being intersexed any different?

Sorry. This ended up a lot longer than I intended. It’s a topic I feel particularly passionate about.
...
DesertElephant says:
July 16th, 2009 at 12:57 pm
Woman trapped in man’s body, and vice versa, is Bullshit. Pure and unadulterated Bullshit. Man up, girly boy. Get a bit more feminine, uber-butch chicks.

Anyone that thinks they are trapped in the body of the opposite gender can go ahead and go to the place the DSM IV used to put them until the mental health community stopped practicing medicine and started excusing every sexual sickness and perversion as beyond the control of the person: a Loony Bin. They even have nice jackets that force you to hug yourself. Should make the super girly men and uber-butch chicks feel better about themselves.

I could give a rat’s ass about what you feel inside. Restroom assignment is an issue of human plumbing. Full Stop. Those with external fixtures go to the Boy’s room, those with internal to the Girl’s. If you can’t handle the ridicule coming from the other restroom occupants because you were born with a human spigot, but like dresses, buck up and deal with it. Screw the Tyranny of the Few and Aberrant.

I don’t advocate physically harming the mentally ill, but if they press the issue, forcing their will on a large number of folks, then I’ll laugh my ass off at the news report of the dude in the dress with the black eyes and fat lip.
My rebuttal was at length. As you can imagine. With just a soupcon of snark.
I may be aberrant - heck, “freakish” is closer. But at least I’m not a piece of ambulatory offal, a miserable failure at being human, who gets their jollies by seeing others beaten up because they “look funny”. As some do.
Not mentioning any names of course.
...the results are not just arrogant opinions, but ignorant ones like some expressed here. Arrogance is excusable when it’s informed. Ignorance is curable by education. But bigotry, that’s invincible ignorance married to implacable arrogance. Pride in stupidity, with more than a hint of cruelty, something more often found on the Left than the Right.
And anyone who wishes to argue that last point, I point to the misogynistic hatred directed by all too many on the Left at Sarah Palin for having the temerity not to abort a child with Downes syndrome. It's a matter of degree though, bigotry is egalitarian and equal-opportunity. 
at 7/17/2009 07:08:00 PM  
Labels: TS Human Rights 
13 comments: 
Anonymous T-Girl said... 

i don't know what to say.
Saturday, July 18, 2009 12:37:00 AM 
Laserlight said... 

"[B]igotry is egalitarian and equal-opportunity".

All too true. Even some people who have been oppressed themselves are all too eager to sling dirt at someone else. Bizarre.

Of course, it may be a case of "I'm insecure about my status and need to trash others to maintain my self esteem." Since I'm a well-built righthanded Aspie geek of Scottish descent and good luck with dice, naturally I could feel no such need.
Saturday, July 18, 2009 4:16:00 AM 
gopmom said... 

I testified as a concerned parent at the hearing on the 14th. For purposes of prejudging me, I'm a white, middle class, stay-home, Catholic, conservative, Republican wife.

My position has always been that this is a badly written law, vague, with no specifics or definitions of what "gender identity or expression" is. While I am concerned that the law could be abused by criminals I never indicated transgender people are criminals or that I am afraid of them. I said that I am afraid of the law being abused and expanded, to force businesses, business owners, property owners, churches and private schools to accommodate at will transgender people with little or no regard for privacy or modesty. I stated to the Committee that I commend their efforts, that no one should suffer any kind of discrimination or harassment, threat of violence or violence. But this is a bad bill, most likely unconstitutional.

My testimony is available on my blog, as are my additional thoughts and a whole slew of intolerant, hateful and false accusations in the comment section. I cannot tell you how amazed I am at the unreasonable attitudes and the absolute lies that are being spread about what was said at the hearing and what has been assumed about me based on my comments. But, as a diehard conservative, I am used to being crucified by those on the Left for my opinions, opinions the Constitution of the United States says I am entitled to but the transgender community claims I am not.

I'm curious as to how readers here will interpret my position (again, the law is bad, it needs to be rewritten) and the exchanges in the comments section.

http://www.gopmom.com/2009/07/transgender-bathrooms-and-other-such-nonsense/
Saturday, July 18, 2009 7:03:00 AM 
Zoe Brain said... 

gopmom - I'm going to your site now. But even before I do, may I thank you for the welcome breath of rationality you bring to the issue.

I believe you're wrong - but if so, it's up to me to answer your criticisms, because on the face of it, you make some excellent points that deserve to be answered in the same rational way.

Now I better go read your post. You see, you may be right and I be wrong. I'd appreciate a dialogue about this, because we need to learn from each other. Well, I need to learn from you anyway, you may feel differently.

Oh yes, welcome to the blog. Feel free to traipse through the archives, I think you'll find some things of value.
Saturday, July 18, 2009 12:36:00 PM 
Zoe Brain said... 

Hi GOPmom - and greetings to Wrench, and especially your daughter.

Comments are closed on your blog entry, so here's my initial response.

We are only responsible for our own actions, not all those of groups we by-and-large support. I'm conservative, but I feel no need to justify some of the hatred and bigotry shown by some such, such as Michael Savage. I vowed to bring up my child in the Catholic Faith, and even though I'm not a Catholic myself, nor even Christian, I take vows very seriously. But I do not consider myself bound to defend some of the Holy Father's utterances, and certainly not the evil of aiding and abetting Pedophilia within the Church. Neither will I hold some of the less savoury and idiotic actions by some on the Left against people who identify as liberals and progressives. I'd rather not go into details there for fear of being guilty of what I'm trying to prevent. OK, Ward Churchill is a waste of Oxygen, and Bill Ayers even worse. Sorry, couldn't help it :) 

Next, more light, less heat. Please no personal attacks. And while we're at it, no slurs about religious belief. I'm no believer, but I find talk about "some wacky 2000 year old , fake , invisible god" and the like to be designed more to hurt than elucidate. It's counter-productive too.

Finally - and this requires some faith (kind of ironic since I lack it) - assume the best in people until proven otherwise beyond reasonable doubt. Forgive them the occasional outburst too, we're all human. Do this for not just those who support your views, but especially for those who oppose them. While there are some mean-spirited and frankly evil people in the world, those with malefic intent and who are not bona fide, the most implacable of your opponents are ones who believe that they're doing the right thing, and trying to live up to some very worthy ideals. "Love thy neighbour as thyself" is something we're all trying to do. (OK, maybe not Fred Phelps, but nearly everyone).

We're all concerned about protecting children too. The fact that we end up on opposite sides of an issue does not mean the other side is evil. Neither does it mean there is some "moral relativity", with no good and no evil. We are working towards the same aims, but our methods differ, and some of those methods will be counter-productive and just plain wrong.

Often we have no good choices - just iffy ones and worse ones. Sometimes we have to choose between what is good in one way, and what is better in others - and those arguments can get very heated.

Before I go any further, are those rules acceptable? And if I don't always live up to my high ideals - please tell me. I'm human too.
Saturday, July 18, 2009 2:15:00 PM 
Zoe Brain said... 

Some points to ponder:

Is there any such thing as well-crafted legislation, or is the best we can hope for some ramshackle mess that works in practice?

If a bill is poorly-crafted, do we need to propose alternatives rather than just pointing out flaws - as all legislation has flaws and it's the degree that's important - or do we live with real problems while requiring unattainable perfection? 

Is it acceptable to have a bill that while in theory is fatally flawed, as long as it has a good track record (covering 10% or more of the population for 10 or more years say) with zero actual problems recorded? 

One example - the laws protecting freedom of religion. "Religion" isn't defined anywhere. Is Scientology a religion? What about the Cult of the Flying Spaghetti Monster? The Mennonites? The Exclusive Brethren? And as for religious practice - what about the use of hallucinagenic drugs in some rites? Human sacrifice? Surely such a vague law is, in theory, an open door to all sorts of abominations? Or do we rely upon a judiciary to interpret vague and messy laws in a reasonable way every day, as an integral part if the system, only tweaking the laws with amendments when things go awry?

Very often, the problem with defining a legal code is that there is a tension between being specific enough so that everyone knows what's what, and yet being general enough to cover a wide variety of different circumstances. Often when laws are too specific, absurdities result. Zero-tolerance policies in schools which deny any role of common sense have resulted in children drawing (on paper) pictures of guns being treated exactly as others were who drew guns from a shoulder-holster. Laws that are too specific are also often unenforcible, the more specifics, the more (rather than less) loopholes. See the US Tax code for example.

I'm not at all certain the law as written is unconstitutional, though IANAL. It's certainly on far firmer constuitutional grounds than other some other existing laws. But we can argue about that, adducing evidence either way.

Is it poorly-drafted, vague, and ambiguous? YES! Absolutely. I can't see how anyone could say it isn't. HOWEVER... that's not the important question. Is it any worse than other, similar pieces of legislation? Or the MA legal code in general? I don't think so, in fact, it's rather better than most in the penal code. Above average - though that's a matter we could and should debate. 

That's not enough to save it though. Because we need to look at the effect of similar laws. A very badly drafted law with no actual ill-effects is better than the most perfect piece of legislation that leads to undesirable, unforeseen and deleterious consequences.

But even that's not enough. It's important that the legislation actually and materially improves things, that it meets a real need, and doesn't just re-distribute injustice without diminishing it in total.

If anyone has cavils about what I say - that *all* laws are vague to some extent, and civil rights laws more vague than most - that's what's important is the effect, not some hypothetical misuse that's never actually happened - that there is a real problem that needs addressing - let's get those out of the way. Then we can debate whether the bill is *so* poorly worded and ambiguous that it needs mending with a new one.

I believe gopmom is unquestionably right - just that she's not right enough. And that we can have a rational debate on, giving evidence for and against. That will be an easy task for me, it's always easier debating with someone you like and respect.
Saturday, July 18, 2009 2:16:00 PM 
gopmom said... 

I appreciate you coming over to weed through the issue. We had to end the thread because the comments coming in from a reader were extremely offensive to me and to my family and the issue of the law itself was no longer the subject but rather my "obvious inefficiencies" as a human being. (That would be the family-appropriate way of explaining.)

I did offer constructive criticism - be specific, provide a threshold for determining "gender variance", offer specific protections or exemptions for private enterprises.

My position against this bill is based on this bill but also on how the judicial decision to legalize gay marriage in MA was used to infringe on the rights of others, namely the Catholic church. I foresee, based on what was said in testimony - "this will pave the way for additional rights to be afforded to TG people. Did you know they are banned from some churches?" Now, I call this a strategic mistake but I'm thankful it happened. The legislators physically recoiled at this as I assume they too understand what this attorney was saying - we are going to use this law to go after whoever we want. So, I ask you, is the intention of this law merely an attempt to "legalize" rights for TG people in the public sphere (rights that they already have, BTW) or is it the equivalent to a "gateway drug"?

I moved to MA five years ago from the mid-west and it is sometimes like living on another planet. I'm no hick, I've travelled quite a bit here and abroad (Aussies are always my favorite traveling companions - so much fun) but living in MA is unique. First of all, there is a lot of money here and it shows. Everything moves very quickly, except traffic. And people are anonymous yet aggressive. And they're mostly Liberals.

Quick story - Within a few months of moving here, I joined a mom's Bible study group at my daughter's school at the invitation of a new friend. Silly me, I actually had to go buy a Bible. At the B&N check-out, I present my Bible while wearing a "I stand with President Bush" button - it was November 2004. The clerk looked at me like I was gutting a small child right there in front of her. I said to her, as I flipped my hair - "Look, no horns." She looked me in the eye and said, somewhat in jest "I don't think I've ever seen a Republican before." I answered "We're everywhere." Well, to me it's funny.

But that's the point. There is an attitude here that there is no dissent, no opposition, no need for it. And they are visibly shocked when they are confronted by an opposing opinion.

After (sort of) debating this bill with a few people over the last few days, I can tell you that I have never been more determined to see a bill die. Again, a strategic error, sending your most belligerent and foul defenders out to do your PR but I'm thankful it happened. I think we all need to see exactly what we are dealing with.

Am I rabidly angry about my tax dollars paying for abortion in America and all over the world? Hell yeah! Do I resort to distortion of fact, personal attacks equivalent to a hate crime (you're a catholic) and obscenity? Of course not, I'm trying to win someone over. Duh.

Anyway, it looks like this specific bill is dead. The interesting thing is that this bill was proposed and debated a year ago and sent back for modification. They changed nothing just simply resubmitted it. Is this good faith legislation? Hopefully, the sponsors will get it right next time because as I said, after witnessing all the testimony and hearing all the stories of discrimination, harassment and violence, I do see the need for some sort of legislation. Not, however, at the expense of the other 95.5% of the population.
Saturday, July 18, 2009 11:32:00 PM 
Anonymous said... 

I thought the legislation was merely an amendment to previous legislation - namely to add "gender identity or expression" to the list of people that would have recourse through that law if they were discriminated against. If so, it seems somewhat disingenuous to argue against the law on the basis of it being 'poorly written'.

A. Non
Sunday, July 19, 2009 12:54:00 AM 
Boo said... 

gopmom- This is an interesting paragraph:

My testimony is available on my blog, as are my additional thoughts and a whole slew of intolerant, hateful and false accusations in the comment section. I cannot tell you how amazed I am at the unreasonable attitudes and the absolute lies that are being spread about what was said at the hearing and what has been assumed about me based on my comments. But, as a diehard conservative, I am used to being crucified by those on the Left for my opinions, opinions the Constitution of the United States says I am entitled to but the transgender community claims I am not.

The reason I find it interesting is because I went to the page and read the comment thread.

The word "disengenuous" definitely came to mind. 

There was a lot of nasty name calling in that comment thread. And almost all of it came from you. In fact, I got about 2/3 of the way down before encountering the first name calling from someone who wasn't you. 

I also failed to see the part or parts where people said you weren't entitled to your own opinion. Perhaps you could quote them for me? What I did see were many people expressing disagreement with your opinion. Said disagreement became rather heated, but only after you had dished out multiple personal insults in comment after comment. 

You baited for a fight, and eventually, after much more personal baiting, you got exactly what you wanted. That you wanted the nasty personal fight you eventually managed to stir up was fairly obvious from the beginning, titling the post "'Transgender Bathrooms' and other such nonsense" People's lives are not nonsense, gopmom.

You acted in an extraordinarily nasty way on your blog. Ok, fine. It's the internet. It's your blog. But please don't insult everyone's intelligence by coming here and pretending to be the victim, acting now as if you're above the very things you were doing so enthusiastically on your home turf. We can read. We won't buy it.
Sunday, July 19, 2009 5:39:00 AM 
sumptos devil s advocate said... 

gopmom,

I was reading this fascinating exchange between you and Bruce:

http://www.gopmom.com/2009/07/transgender-bathrooms-and-other-such-nonsense/comment-page-1/#comment-19622

I can see that Bruce's statement went way over your head. It's like playing chess and your opponent offers his queen as a sacrifice and you run up and grab it, and then he checkmates you next move.

Basically, is point was that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made a very similar comment to yours with regard to Iran, but it was an ironic comment: Iran has strict laws against homosexuality where a homosexual will be beheaded, so all homosexuals have to keep it deep down inside and suffer. That's how it appears, on the surface, that homosexuality is not a problem in Iran.

When you made that similar comment, that suggests that perhaps it wasn't that there aren't LGBT people in your school, family, etc., but that due to the local atmosphere they keep it deep down inside them, suffering in silence.

You went up and grabbed that queen with reckless abandoned.
Sunday, July 19, 2009 11:18:00 AM 
Anonymous said... 

So, I ask you, is the intention of this law merely an attempt to "legalize" rights for TG people in the public sphere (rights that they already have, BTW) or is it the equivalent to a "gateway drug"?"

This is a little disengenuous as well. Everyone has 'rights', but (at the moment) not everyone has recourse through the legal system to defend those rights if they are infringed. Adding "gender identity or expression" would have given gender diverse people legal recourse to defend their rights.

-qwerky
Sunday, July 19, 2009 2:25:00 PM 
Zoe Brain said... 

Finally - and this requires some faith (kind of ironic since I lack it) - assume the best in people until proven otherwise beyond reasonable doubt. Forgive them the occasional outburst too, we're all human.

So please, less heat, more light. Realise that those on both sides are human, and may react in an intemperate way - a way which can easily snowball. I don't see any great fault on either side, though I don't think either side is entirely fault-free either. Please don't sweat the small stuff, and follow 1 Corinthians 13:4-5

"4 Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,
5 Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;"

Think no evil and don't be easily provoked, OK? Please?

The New International Version puts it this way:
"4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 
5 It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs."

This bill really does just add "gender expression and identity" as an additional class to existing legislation. To the extent that the existing legislation is poorly worded, it is too.

This formulaic phrase, or words which are similar, has been found to work with zero problems in the jurisdictions listed here, which cover 38% of the US population. I'll only give the ones 2 years old or older, as it could be said that the others have been tested insufficiently. The laws are in force in places such as Lexington-Fayette County in Kentucky, El Paso in Texas, and the whole of the state of New Mexico - not exactly bastions and hotbeds of Liberalism.

This bill extends to transgendered people the same rights that Gays - and Christians for that matter - have enjoyed in MA for the last 10 years. It was only because so many Gays are Transphobic that it was removed from the original bill ten years ago.

It's really difficult to imagine a bill that would be better crafted. I invite critics to find a better solution, one which would give the minimal change to the existing laws, and make use of existing precedents to limit any silly misinterpretations and judicial activism.
Sunday, July 19, 2009 3:01:00 PM 
gopmom said... 

I really have nothing more to offer. I think I was pretty clear what my position was and why. (I suppose assuming I am just some ignorant, illiterate "hater" makes it easier to accept than the reality that I put thought into this, have an opinion and am willing to defend it.) I just find it completely hypocritical that because my opinion "is the wrong one" I'm free game. I cannot defend myself from what this law is supposed to protect against, because I'm already defined as public enemy #1?

All I will say in my defense is that Bruce comes around every once in awhile to bait me and I've found it easier to reply flippantly that to take him seriously. And I am aware of the treatment of homosexuals under Islamic regimes. There is a very interesting documentary out there about TS people in Iran - seen it? Very sad.

In the end, my family, my husband, my religion and my daughter were all attacked - most of these comments we deleted mainly because they came at the end and were bizarre, incoherent and offensive. This is why we shut it down. 

I come away from this very disheartened to learn that no matter what you say or believe, if you disagree with the LGBT community in anyway, you are never given the benefit of the doubt - you are just an intolerant bigot - ironically, what I've always been told by genuine bigots.

What is love? The kids have a clue...

'When my grandmother got arthritis,
she couldn't bend over and paint her
toenails anymore. So my grandfather
does it for her all the time, even when
his hands got arthritis too. That's love..'

Rebecca- age 8


'When someone loves you, the way
they say your name is different.
You just know that your name is safe
in their mouth.'

Billy - age 4


'Love is when a girl puts on perfume
and a boy puts on shaving cologne and
they go out and smell each other.'

Karl - age 6


'Love is when you go out to eat and
give somebody most of your French
fries without making them give you any
of theirs.'

Chrissy - age 6


'Love is what makes you smile when
you're tired.'

Terri - age 4


'Love is when my mommy makes coffee
for my daddy and she takes a sip before
giving it to him, to make sure the taste is
OK.'

Danny - age 7

'Love is when you kiss all the time..
Then when you get tired of kissing,
you still want to be together and you
talk more. My Mommy and Daddy are
like that.
They look gross when they kiss'

Emily - age 8

'Love is what's in the room with you
at Christmas if you stop opening presents
and listen.'

Bobby - age 7 (Wow!)

'If you want to learn to love better, you
should start with a friend who you hate,'

Nikka - age 6
(we need a few million more Nikkas on this planet)

'Love is when you tell a guy you like his
shirt, then he wears it everyday.'

Noelle - age 7

'Love is like a little old woman and a
little old man who are still friends even
after they know each other so well.'

Tommy - age 6

'During my piano recital, I was on a
stage and I was scared. I looked at
all the people watching me and saw my
daddy waving and smiling.

He was the only one doing that. I
wasn't scared anymore.'

Cindy - age 8

'My mommy loves me more than
anybody You don't see anyone else
kissing me to sleep at night.'

Clare - age 6

'Love is when Mommy gives Daddy
the best piece of chicken.'

Elaine-age 5


'Love is when Mommy sees Daddy
smelly and sweaty and still says he is handsomer than Robert Redford .'

Chris - age 7

'Love is when your puppy licks
your
face even after you left him alone
all day.'

Mary Ann - age 4

'I know my older sister loves me
because she gives me all her old clothes
and has to go out and buy new ones.'

Lauren - age 4

'When you love somebody, your
eyelashes go up and down and little
stars come out of you.' (what an image)

Karen - age 7

'Love is when Mommy sees Daddy
on the toilet and she doesn't think
it's gross.'

Mark - age 6

'You really shouldn't say 'I love you'
unless you mean it. But if you mean it,
you should say it a lot. People forget.'

Jessica - age 8

And the final one

The winner was a four year old child
whose next door neighbor was an elderly gentleman who had recently lost his wife.

Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy
went into the old gentleman's yard,
climbed onto his lap, and just sat there.

When his Mother asked what he had
said to the neighbor, the little boy said,

'Nothing, I just helped him cry'

Beautifull Daughters ~ the transgendered

Many transgendered women audition to be part of Eve Ensler's Vagina Monologues.

http://www.logoonline.com/video/shows/beautiful-daughters/95931/beautiful-daughters-part-1.jhtml

The women share with each other the hardships they faced as young children as well as the difficulty in finding love.

http://www.logoonline.com/video/shows/beautiful-daughters/95954/beautiful-daughters-part-2.jhtml

The women continue to share their difficult stories in making their life changing transitions.

http://www.logoonline.com/video/shows/beautiful-daughters/95957/beautiful-daughters-part-3.jhtml

The women prepare for the opening night of the play.

http://www.logoonline.com/video/interview/beautiful-daughters/95959/beautiful-daughters-part-4.jhtml

Looking for a fair shake of the sauce bottle for transgendered people is tough, this helps...

Darlene, 58, gingerly climbed the stairs to use the bathroom, past a framed box of ribbons and medals, military honors presented to David, the man she used to be.

Two years ago, David, a retired Air National Guard Lieutenant Colonel who served as a navigator and fighter pilot, told his wife, Mary, something he'd kept inside all his life. He was a woman in a man's body.

It tore through their 37-year marriage like shrapnel, and formed a chasm so wide between Darlene and her son that the young man now considers his father dead. They haven't spoken in two years. Darlene is forbidden from seeing her two grandsons.

Ask about the pain of thousands of plucks of electrolysis to remove hair, facial feminization surgery, breast augmentation and finally genital reassignment surgery, and Darlene explains professionally like an officer.

Mention her grandchildren or the pain she caused her wife and son, and tears stream down like rain.
Some of the less supportive comments needed answering. So I did. 
Posted by ZoeBrain on June 7, 2009 at 8:58 a.m.

Darlene isn't the only former fighter pilot I know who has transitioned. Officially, the USAF didn't have female pilots in combat in Gulf War I, but in fact, they did. They just looked male at the time.

Transsexuality is devastating, not just to the immediate victim, but the family too. Still, so are many other congenital conditions. So is Cancer. Though many cancers have a lower mortality rate without treatment. And cancer victims are not routinely persecuted as morally corrupt because of their condition.

There'll be some who won't believe it's a congenital medical condition, but a "lifestyle choice". The evidence of brain scans and autopsies says otherwise, as do some rather more simple tests. As Professor Ecker MD said in a recent presentation to the APA on the subject:

"We showed how Transgender Brains think, smell, and hear like the opposite sex."

And the MRI images and so on show why this is so. All the claims about "female brain in male body" turn out to be literally true. It's an intersex condition, like hundreds of others, where the body is neither wholly male nor wholly female.

See seminar s10 at the APA annual meeting:
S10. The Neurobiological Evidence for Transgenderism

1. Brain Gender Identity Prof. Sidney W. Ecker, M.D.
2. Transsexuality as an Intersex Condition Prof Milton Diamond, Ph.D.
3. Novel Approaches to Endocrine Treatment of Transgender Adolescents and Adults Norman Spack, M.D.

Lots of people commenting on this article are saying it's a waste of space, time etc. for such a minority. But they'd never dream of doing that for, say, Multiple Sclerosis - a condition that's not as common, and is arguably no more devastating to the sufferer and their family.

No preacher would rail against people with MS as having a morally corrupt lifestyle, and saying that they should be banned from employment by all God-fearing folk. And people with MS are not murdered at a rate 17 times greater than in the average population, nor have 6 women been shot in the head in Memphis in the last 2 years just for having MS. Police don't beat up people just for having MS, and no trial for murder has ended in acquittal because the defendant claimed that he didn't know the victim had MS, and when he found out, he just snapped.

Treatment for MS is not routinely excluded from health insurance policies. Neither is it specifically excluded in the Americans with Disabilities Act, nor from treatment offered by the VA for veterans.

So yes, I think this article is worthwhile. I'm also encouraged to see how relatively few comments there have been calling for a public lynching of the victim. The word is getting out there, slowly, and articles like this help inform the public.

And in return received an honour I will always cherish.
Posted by Darlene on June 7, 2009 at 5:49 p.m.

in response to ZoeBrain

Thank you.
Thank You, Darlene. For your courage and your service to us all. Of course, being an EWO in an F4 requires some courage too, and you served your nation then as well.

KRXQ Sacramento Radio Hosts Encourage Violence Against Transgender Children

Even by the flexible moral, ethical, and professional standards of American talk radio, the May 28th segment of KRXQ 98.5 FM Sacramento's Rob, Arnie, & Dawn in the Morning radio talk show makes for a sickening half-hour of ugliness and cruelty. For once, the focus was not LGBT adults, but minors. The hosts, Rob Williams and Arnie States, devoted the segment in question to a vicious diatribe against transgender children, some as young as five, focusing in particular on the case of one Omaha family raising a gender dysphoric child, and their decision to support her transition from male to female. 

Williams and States took turns referring to gender dysphoric children as "idiots" and "freaks," who were just out "for attention" and had "a mental disorder that just needs to somehow be gotten out of them," either by verbal abuse on the part of the parents, or even shock therapy. 

"Allowing transgenders to exist, pretty soon it becomes normal to fall in love with the animals," they said.

For his part, States bragged that if his own son were to ever dare put on a pair of high heels, States would beat his son with one of his own shoes. He urged parents whose own little boys expressed a desire to wear a dress to verbally abuse and degrade them as a viable response. "Because you know what? Boys don't wear high heel shoes. And in my house, they definitely don't wear high heels.

"I'm going to go, 'You know what? You're a little idiot! You little dumbass!'" States sneered, adding later, "I look forward to when [the transgender children] go out into society and society beats them down. And they wind up in therapy."

Or dead.

In light of the well-publicized suicides this year of the two boys who took their own lives because of bullying and harassment for "acting gay" (which, in the argot of modern North American teenagers, often refers to acting in a way considered unmasculine by their peers) the stunning lack of moral sensibility on the part of States and Williams is breathtaking. But it also points to the increasingly degraded landscape of talk radio. 

The causal link between Bill O'Reilly's obsessive baiting of abortion provider Dr. George Tiller on FOX and Tiller's murder on Sunday, May 31st as he was ushering in his Kansas City church, is currently being explored, an exploration particularly relevant in the case of Rob, Arnie, and Dawn in the Morning, and the potential violent fallout from their inexplicably rage-filled invective against not only transgender children, but even boys who err on the feminine side of standard adolescent behavior, behavior States and Williams consider unnatural because "men are hunters and women are gatherers."

I shudder to imagine the response of the late Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover's mother if she'd had the misfortune to hear the KRXQ broadcast.

"They were always saying [to Carl] 'You're gay, you must be gay, you act like a girl'," Sideaner L. Walker told the press in April, speaking of the dead son she had to cut down from the support beam he hung himself from after months of taunts from his peers---taunts that likely bore more than a passing resemblance to the invective used by States and Williams on their May 28th broadcast.

"I'm not open-minded once I look into sumpin'" one of the two men grunted at the beginning of the segment, their voices interchangeable. "I have every right to call you a freak and judge you on that. It makes me sick. 'Mommy, I'm a girl trapped in a boy's body,'" he simpered, mimicking an effeminate little boy. "I want to wear a dwess."

They berated co-host Dawn Rossi, who seemed genuinely horrified by the rising crescendo of ugliness towards the children and their parents from States and Williams.

"You're actually defending allowing people to become freaks?" they seethed. "A boy who wants to wear a dress is a freak. A nut." Comparing transgender children to "fat bastard kids on Maury," States and Williams urged advocates of transgender children to "stop hiding behind research and laws," whose authority they wholeheartedly reject. Braying with the certitude of the jubilantly ignorant, States and Williams revealed to listeners that "transgenders [sic] did not exist four decades ago," apparently unaware of the historical fact that transgender individuals have existed in every culture throughout recorded history, including in native American cultures where the "two spirited" were revered as teachers, healers, and shamans. 

By no objective standard are dumbed-down, Wal-Mart versions of O'Reilly like States and Williams journalists. Nor are they really experts on anything other than plunging the overflowing toilets of their listeners' psyches and selling the sewage back to them, repackaged as "insight," "common sense" and "plain talk" from fake-macho blowhards hiding behind radio microphones. 

One doesn't need a primer on transgender or transsexual history in order to appreciate the awesome brutality of the KRXQ shock-jocks' diatribe. All one needs is to know a child, any child. They're small, they're vulnerable, and their world is populated with gods whose divinity is derived solely from their adulthood and perceived authority.

States and Williams chose to use that authority to attack a segment of the childhood population who are more vulnerable than almost any other. Transgender children are at a point in their lives when they feel their own bodies are the enemy, and alien to them. Many of them go to bed praying that when they wake up their bodies and their inner gender will be aligned.

"If the kid ever gets to be eighteen," States snarled, "and says 'I still feel like a woman!' you say, 'Get out! Go be a freak! And understand, SON, that society will never accept you because we still have some moral judgment."

As disturbing as it has become to an increasingly enlightened segment of the mainstream American population to hear LGBT adults vilified and degraded in the media as the discussion over gay marriage and Don't Ask, Don't Tell reaches a boiling point, no one with even a passing acquaintanceship with decency could have been prepared for KRXQ's May 28th pageant of brutality towards transgender children. 

Who are, after all, children, first and foremost. Trusting, innocent, and vulnerable, they ought to be beyond the reach of the violent, hate-mongering adult rhetoric that is taken for granted in American talk radio. One needs no particular sympathy for transgender people to understand the prodigious boundary transgression of promoting contempt and disgust towards children,anyone's children, on a radio show. 

This should give serious pause to adults of every political, economic, and social background, whatever their stand on LGBT issues. It should be of particular concern to KRXQ's advertisers and their customers.

My little godson Michael is the light of my life. His father was a hockey player and his mother is a legendary beauty. He embodies the best of those two people to absolute perfection. It's been educational to watch his awareness of his own masculine gender assert itself in the last few years. His gender identity wasn't "learned," it came to him already hardwired, in the same way studies continue to show that a transgender child's gender is hardwired. And whatever else his struggles may be in later life, I personally doubt that gender identity is going to be one of them. 

But his gentleness and his vulnerability brings my protectiveness into hyper-focus. And if he wanted to wear a dress, or told me he was a girl, my instinct as an adult would be to protect him and try to understand him. 

I can only imagine the perfect horror of having someone like States as a father. But if anyone ever called my godson a "sick little freak," or a "nut," or a "freak of nature," or beat him with a shoe for being himself, I could not, and would not, be held accountable for my reaction, or my inevitable response. 

I know which end of the shoe I would be on if I ever met another adult who took the official Rob, Arnie & Dawn in the Morning child-rearing advice to heart after hearing it on KRXQ 98.5 FM Sacramento.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-rowe/krxq-sacramento-radio-hos_b_210637.html

The nature of the beast ~ a repost...

A letter I recently received from Dr Ecker, to whom many thanks:
Hi Zoe, 

Yes, we gave our presentation to 60 plus psychiatrists from the US, AU, FR, IT, EU, UK, Holland etc. 

We spoke for 2 1/2 hours on why cross gender identity was a normal inherited variation of humans. We showed how Transgender Brains think, smell, and hear like the opposite sex. We presented internationally accepted guidelines for hormonal treatment of transsexuals to be published Summer 2009. 

Here are my slides and with my participants' permission I shall send you theirs. We are now in print in the APA Syllabus and soon in the APA Journal this summer. I am checking if we were recorded. 

My greatest personal compliment came from Frank Kruijver, from Holland, whose research of the human brain in TSs started it all. He thought we have taken his work very far in our understanding of the human brain. Hope you can do something with this. Sid Ecker, M.D. 
I will indeed endeavour to "do something with this".

Starting with publishing it, broadcasting it as far and as wide as I can. This stuff needs to be known.

Dr Ecker is not a psychiatrist, he's a urologist, with very extensive clinical experience in observing the effects of hormonal treatment of a variety of patients, transsexual and otherwise. He has no particular axe to grind, but he has seen so much misinformation, he wants to set the record straight. To put some Science into the issue.

As the e-mail states, Dr Ecker was invited to give a presentation to the American Psychiatric Association as part of a seminar at their annual meeting. From their letter to him:
Symposium Title: The Neurobiological Evidence for Transgenderism

EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES:
The participants shall learn the current definitions of Transgenderism, Gender Identity, Gender Expression, Gender Role Behavior, Gender Dysphoria and Transsexualism and understand the Standards of Care (WPATH) for treatment. The neurobiological evidence for gender differences in the human brain and genetic inheritability of Transsexualism will be presented. Current US medical practices in the Treatment of GID in children, adolescents and adults will be discussed.

SYMPOSIUM ABSTRACT:
The topic of Gender Identity Disorder is one of great controversy in the world because of the diametrically opposite approach of treatment advocated in different medical centers. The prevalence and incidence of Transgenderism, which reflects the thinking and behavior of the opposite genetic sex, cannot be known because the non-dysphoric patient does not present for medical care for a multiplicity of reasons. What we can estimate and understand is the mild to severely dysphoric patient who seeks medical attention and is given a diagnosis of Gender Identity Disorder under DSM-IV-TR. The panel shall present the current scientific literature pertinent to our understanding of the concept of a male, female or transgender brain. They shall discuss the current research undertaken with Transsexuals, which lends evidence to genetic inheritance and biological causation. Finally they shall discuss the appropriate medical care that can help bring the patient’s physical being into congruency with their Brain Gender Identity. While treatment in the form of surgery or cross-hormonal medication has been denied to these individuals at certain prominent medical centers, the number of patients seeking help has increased. As more patients see the psychiatric community as a welcoming entity listening to their concerns, instead of trying to reverse or repair their Transgender thinking, they will be encouraged to allow psychiatry to join in the multi-disciplinary treatment of their condition. 

Title of Presentation: Brain Gender Identity

Abstract: 
Gender Identity is that innate sense of who you are in this world with reference to your sexuality and behavior, not necessarily corresponding to your genitalia and reproductive organs. Transgenders are atypical and “think” as the opposite gender. Certain areas of the brain have been shown to be sexually dimorphic. They are different in structure and numbers of neurons in males versus females. Protein Receptors for the sex hormones in different areas of the brain (limbic and anterior hypothalamic) must be present in sufficient numbers to receive those powerful hormones. There are androgen receptors (AR), Estrogen Receptors (ER), and Progesterone receptors (PRs). ARs or ERs are predominant at different times in different parts of the human brain. Hormone receptor genes have been identified in humans, which are responsible for sexually dimorphic brain differentiation in the hypothalamus. The groundwork in brain gender identity is gene-directed and takes place by forming male and female hormone receptors in the brain before the gonads and hormones can influence them. Multiple genes acting in concert determine our sexual identity. The human brain continues to make neurons and synaptic neuronal connections throughout life. This contributes to Gender Role Behaviors making individuals in the continuum of gender identity. Gender behaviors must be differentiated from gender identity (Hines). Gender Identity cannot be predicted from anatomy (Reiner). Brain gender identity is determined very early in fetal development, but gender expression, expressed as behaviors requires hormonal, environmental, social and cultural interactions, which evolve with time. One cannot deny the profound effects of Testosterone, Estradiol and other steroids on genital differentiation in-utero or their effects on behavior from birth or the physical and mental cross gender changes caused by exogenous hormones, but gender identity is determined before and persists in spite of these effects.

References:

1.DF Swaab, WC Chung, FP Kruijver, MA Hofman, TA Ishunina
Structural and functional sex differences in the human hypothalamus
Horm Behav. Sep, 2001; 40(2): 93-8. Review

2. DF Swaab
Sexual differentiation of the human brain: relevance for gender identity, transsexualism and sexual orientation
Gynecol Endocrinol. Dec, 2004; 19(6): 301-12. Review.

3.IE Sommer, PT Cohen-Kettenis, T van Raalten, AJ Vd Veer, LE Ramsey, LJ Gooren, RS Kahn, NF Ramsey
Effects of cross-sex hormones on cerebral activation during language and mental rotation: An fMRI study in transsexuals
Eur Neuropsychopharmacol. Mar 2008; 18(3): 215-21.

4.H Berglund, P Lindstrom, C Dhejne-Helmy, I Savic
Male to female transsexuals show sex-atypical hypothalamus activation when smelling odorous steroids
Cereb Cortex. Aug 2008; 18(8): 1900-8. 


A more complete list of his references is in this PDF file, at http://cs.anu.edu.au/~Zoe.Brain/BGI REF 3.pdf.

Now onto the powerpoint presentation itself: Brain Gender Identity, which I have mirrored at http://cs.anu.edu.au/~Zoe.Brain/BGI 3.3.2.ppt

I'll quote the first slide: 
Most of our information on the Neurobiology of sex comes from animal studies (Becker et al., 2005), but nearly all of what we know about variations in human sexuality, including hetero- and homo-sexuality, and disorders of gender identity (transsexualism) comes from clinical material, anecdotes or even fiction (the three overlap).
Herbert, J., (Brain, 2008)
And one of his meticulously reasoned conclusions, led to inescapably by the biology of foetal and post-birth neural development: 
Brain gender identity is determined very early in fetal development, but gender expression, expressed as behaviors requires hormonal, environmental, social and cultural interactions which evolve with time.
The Logic is immaculate, the conclusions obvious when presented so clearly.

While there are still pieces of the puzzle missing, and many details still to be determined, Dr Ecker has solved it - we now have the Big Picture, incomplete, but still recognisable. All the things I had observed and deduced had to be true on the basis of external observation, Dr Ecker now shows the chain of causality, what happens and when.

His exposition of the biology might even give me some clues as to my own anomalous situation, which genes and which proteins to look at - but this is of secondary interest to me. It's why I got into all this, but now I'm in, it's others I'm more concerned about.

Dr Ecker's first communication with me on the first of March was as follows: 
Hi Zoe, 

My name is Dr. Sidney W. Ecker, M.D., F.A.C.S. and it appears that I have made it to your informative blog. I would ask you to stay tuned for my Symposium at the American Psychiatric Association's 2009 Annual meeting in May as my abstracts and presentation is their property for publication at the moment.

http://pn.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/44/4/8

S10. The Neurobiological Evidence for Transgenderism
1. Brain Gender Identity Sidney W. Ecker, M.D.
2. Transsexuality as an Intersex Condition Milton Diamond, Ph.D.
3. Novel Approaches to Endocrine Treatment of Transgender Adolescents and Adults Norman Spack, M.D.

What I am trying to do is to logically sequence the scientific evidence to date that you quote and put it into an understandable form for my peers and eventually the public. My current Reference list for Brain Gender Identity is attached. This is certainly not "dogma" as Dr. Zucker claims, but like you I possess the ability and education to understand (biological) science. As a Urologist with a specific interest and expertise in Prostate Cancer, I have administered DES, Estrogens, LHRH agonists and Androgen Blockers to thousands of men for PCa. I make the analogy that these men voluntarily took female hormones to improve the quality of their lives much the same way TransWomen do. Do you need to fear death or be suicidal to take cross-gender hormones? Emphatically, No! Will they prevent eventual death in either scenario? No!!

After the meeting I shall send you my PowerPoint Presentation, but I must keep my powder dry for the moment.

You may publish my reference list, but I can't imagine anyone could access all these articles as I have from the National Library of Medicine's Reading Room. So we'll just have to wait to hear from the opposition and peer review.
Thanks for your Web blog.
Sid Ecker
Thank you, Dr Ecker. I'll help as much as I can.

20-year-old Sorrawee Nattee Crowned Most Beautiful Transsexual

http://www.asianbite.com/default.asp?display=2779

Sorrawee took the top prize at Miss Tiffany's Universe 2009 in the beach resort of Pattaya, beating off 29 other transsexuals and receiving a small Honda car, and 100,000 baht ($2,860) in cash on Friday night.

"I'm very excited," the 20-year-old from Thailand's southern Songkhla province said, touching the glimmering winner's crown with disbelieving fingers.

She appeared overwhelmed by hordes of photographers, camera crews and well-wishers, the scene played out before a live television audience of 15 million people.

In a nation obsessed with beauty pageants and famous for its sexual tolerance, this elaborate contest is taken every bit as seriously as the more traditional competitions.

The pageant had categories for Best Costume, Miss Photogenic and even Miss Unlimited Sexy Star. Dresses ranged from flowing white ensembles to shimmering red numbers and pink miniskirts. High heels were a must.

All contestants were born men, and organizers said they hoped to raise public awareness of transgendered issues.

When asked to name her hero, winner Sorrawee earned loud applause by naming her mother and father.

"She had smart answers and is very beautiful," Marut Sarowat, a television and stage director who was one of the judges, said of Sorrawee.

Everything goes well....

Gave up smoking. Hormones normalised at pre menopausal levels with no side effects. I feel quite different. normalised... it suggests I had it all right.

Starting to look "different". Next thing to dealing with that....

Court lets girl, 17, remove breasts

THE Family Court has allowed a 17-year-old girl to have her breasts removed so she can be more like a boy.

The teenager, code-named "Alex", was on court-ordered hormone medication from the age of 13 to prevent menstruation and breast development. She returned to the court in December 2007 asking for a double mastectomy to make it easier for her to pass as a boy.

The Chief Justice of the Family Court, Diana Bryant, decided it was in the teenager's best interests to have the surgery immediately rather than wait until turning 18.

The teenager had been diagnosed with "gender identity dysphoria", a psychological condition in which a person has the normal physical characteristics of one sex but longs to be the opposite sex.

Justice Bryant said: "In the end, it wasn't a particularly difficult issue because the only real issue was, 'Would he (Alex) have it at 17 or once he's 18?' Then, he doesn't need permission.

"So the issue was, 'Was there any likelihood he would change his mind in the meantime, and was it in his best interests to have it at that time?'

"Overwhelmingly, the evidence was that it was in his interests. And I made that order. I wanted to make it quickly so that he could have the operation straightaway."

But ethicist Nick Tonti-Filippini said mainstream medicine did not recognise hormone treatments and surgery as treatment for gender dysphoria. He said it was a psychiatric disorder qualifying under American guidelines as a psychosis because "it's a belief out of accordance with reality".

"What you are trying to do is make a biological reality correspond to that false belief."

The Chief Justice said Alex had not had any urgent plans to proceed with further surgery when he turned 18. She did not make Alex wait for the mastectomies until of age because the teenager had been living as a boy since the age of 13.

"Everyone was absolutely adamant that he wasn't going to change his mind. He was very comfortable . . . that he was going to continue on this path."

The written judgement is due to be published soon.

Justice Bryant said it was better for the teenager to have the surgery at 17 because this was an age where she would qualify for support from state social services.

This was also a crucial time in her development: "It's a year when he's really cementing his friendships with peers that will stand him in good stead for moving into university and the wider world, and it was very important to him that he be able to do that confidently as a boy."

Justice Bryant said having breasts constrained Alex socially. She had to avoid being hugged by friends, could not go to the beach and had to wear binding. "So it was quite an impediment to his social development, which everyone thought was very important." 

The decision was not irrevocable: "You can have prostheses and things. So if he changed his mind later on, it's reversible."
 

Justice Bryant said she heard evidence from medical experts and from Alex, her counsellor and an independent children's lawyer, and she called in the Office of the Public Advocate "because I wanted a contradictor". The vidence was overwhelmingly in favour of the surgery, she said. 

Mr Tonti-Filippini said he was also concerned that in previous Family Court cases involving gender dysphoria, the medical experts had been confined to a small group of Melbourne doctors who work with sex changes.
 

Mr Tonti-Filippini said a Melbourne man who had had sex-change surgery at 22 was now suing his doctors because he regretted the decision and felt they had not explored his doubts at the time.
 

The Family Court's 2004 ruling allowing Alex to take hormones provoked a debate about when children are old enough to make serious medical decisions. 

There was another furore about a Family Court ruling in 2007 allowing a 12-year-old girl code-named "Brodie", who also wanted to be a boy, to begin a course of puberty-suppressing hormones. The court was told 
that Brodie had threatened self-harm at the prospect of her periods starting.
 

It was later claimed by a relative that Brodie's mother had had postnatal depression and had "brainwashed" the child by buying her boy's clothing from the time she was a baby and fostering boyish behaviour. Brodie's father had opposed the hormone move.

I see a pattern here

T-girls reported co-morbid conditions ...

-a mild aspergers that was replaced with a some capacity for social intitution when hormone therapy began.

-quite severe bi polar disorder (temors from meds, alas)

-a pervasive hypersomnia that required dex-amphetamine 

-borderline personality disorders

The kicker was that all were left handed and three of the four were also quite brilliant.

As a bright transgendered left hander with adult ADHD I found this quite interesting.......

All had mothers who were a somewhat stressed over a long period over financial or relationship security when they were in utero....

The science is damn interesting ~ real deal

And a really useful and interesting one this time.

In the past, I've talked about how transsexuality being a "male brain in a female body", or the reverse, while true, is only an approximation. That it would be more accurate to say "masculinised brain in a feminised body", or the reverse.

That's partly because so many "transsexual" people have been shown to be not only neurologically Intersexed, but somatically intersexed in other ways too. But it's also partly because not all of the neurology need be affected to cause transsexuality, only parts. We're still finding out what parts, and to what degree they are cross-gendered.

Professor Italiano (to whom many thanks) has just drawn my attention to a new study. One that gives us more specific information than we've had in the past.

Regional gray matter variation in male-to-female transsexualism by Luders E, Sánchez FJ, Gaser C, Toga AW, Narr KL, Hamilton LS, Vilain E. in Neuroimage. 2009 Mar 30.
We analyzed MRI data of 24 male-to-female (MTF) transsexuals not yet treated with cross-sex hormones in order to determine whether gray matter volumes in MTF transsexuals more closely resemble people who share their biological sex (30 control men), or people who share their gender identity (30 control women). Results revealed that regional gray matter variation in MTF transsexuals is more similar to the pattern found in men than in women. However, MTF transsexuals show a significantly larger volume of regional gray matter in the right putamen compared to men. These findings provide new evidence that transsexualism is associated with distinct cerebral pattern, which supports the assumption that brain anatomy plays a role in gender identity.
So in some ways, the feminised brains of TS women more closely resemble a typical male pattern, but in one specific way, they resemble a typically female pattern.
The mean age (SD) of the MTF transsexuals was 46.73 (13.18) years with an age range between 23 and 72 years. Male and female control subjects were closely age-matched (males 46.57±12.45, 23–69 years; females 46.77±12.88, 23–73 years). Transsexual subjects were 76% dextral, control males were 93% dextral, and control females were 90% dextral, where handedness was determined based on self-reports of hand preference for selected activities. For study inclusion, transsexual subjects needed to self-identify as a MTF transsexual, report no history of hormonal treatment, and declare the intention ofundergoing estrogen replacement therapy. MTF transsexuals were evaluated to be free of psychosis according to a standardized diagnostic interview (Robins et al., 1989) and confirmed to be genetic males as defined by the presence of the SRY gene in their genome (Jordan et al.,2002). All control subjects had to pass a physical and neurological screening examination performed by a neurologist. 
A couple of remarks here:
Mean age between 45 and 50, so most of the TS women would be "late transitioners".
3/4 were right handed, compared to 9/10 in the control groups. Transsexuality is associated with ambidexterity, and to a lesser extent, left-handedness. That gives us a clue that laterisation of the brain is often affected.
Presence or absence of the SrY gene is not definitive as an indication that the TS women weren't Intersexed - either (46xx/46xy) mosaicism or Kleinfelter syndrome (47xxy) would be evaluated as "male".
Back to the paper...
...we detected significant differences between MTF transsexuals, males, and females in a large number of regions across the brain. More specifically, within the frontal lobe, we observed gray matter volume differences bilaterally in the superior frontal gyrus, close to midline and also at the frontal pole, as well as within the right orbital gyrus. Furthermore, we noticed pronounced gray matter volume differences bilaterally across the occipital and posterior temporal lobes, as well as in the parietal lobe, near the intraparietal sulcus, and closer to midline (left). Additional group effects on regional gray matter volume were detected subcallosally in both hemispheres at the brain midline. These regions constitute part of the basal ganglia (i.e., the caudate nucleus and putamen) and limbic system (i.e., the subcallosal gyrus, mammillary body, amygdala, thalamus and hypothalamus). Moreover, we identified two clusters indicating group differences on the basal surface of the right temporal lobe and left frontal lobe.
Ok, so the lymbic system is highly sexually dimorphic, something we already knew. What's interesting is the other parts of the brain, where sexual dimorphism has been inferred by fMRI imaging of blood flow, but relatively little work has been done on the physical structure.

Gosh I love this! It's a detective story, where we're being given clues. Moving right along... now comes the juicy bits.
Altogether, females had the largest gray matter volumes in all but two significant clusters, which were located in the left and right putamen. Here, MTF transsexuals had the largest gray matter volumes
More "typically feminine" than the usual factory model... or should we say that most women are less "typically female" than TS women? Less "strongly gendered" on average? You'd expect TS women to be more "strongly gendered" than average, as many would otherwise be able to cope with transsexuality without seeking treatment. But what about the rest of the brain? Many TS women show more typically male abilities in instinctive ballistics calculations for example.
For the remaining clusters, MTF transsexuals had the smallest gray matter volumes, but their data spectrum largely overlapped with that of males.
Fascinating! Not just more female than female in some areas, but slightly more male than male in others! I wonder, is this environmental? Would the same thing be shown in younger, "primary" transwomen? Or could it be that the anomalous hormonal wash in the womb bollixes things up in an even more complex manner than we thought? We're in the realm of conjecture here, so we can't say without a lot more study. One thing - there's a correlation between Transexuality and what has been described as "ultra male syndrome" - Asperger's. Might this "ultra-male" grey matter pattern be the cause? And could a change to a female hormone regime cause changes to it? I'd love to see this repeated not just for younger transitioners, but for those on various HRT regimes, and FtoMs too of course. There's so much we don't know, but now we may be able to find out!
Overall, our study provides evidence that MTF transsexuals possess regional gray matter volumes mostly consistent with control males. However, the putamen was found to be “feminized” in MTF transsexuals. That is, the gray matter volume of this particular structure in the MTF transsexual group was both larger than in males and within the average range of females. Interestingly, in a positron emission tomography (PET) study, it was demonstrated that the left putamen in a sample of MTF transsexuals (n=12), who had no history of estrogen treatment, activated differently to odorous steroids when compared to control males (Berglund et al., 2008). Taken together, these findings lend support to the hypothesis that specific neuroanatomical features are associated with transsexual identity, where the particular role of the putamen requires investigation in future studies.
All good science discusses the implications of the work, and what pitfalls might arise in drawing definite conclusions from it. And this work is good science.
Further research needs to resolve whether the observed distinct features in the brains of transsexuals influence their gender identity or possibly are a consequence of being transsexual.
Alternatively, other variables may be independently affecting both the expression of a transsexual identity and the neuroanatomy in transsexuals that led to the observed association between both. Some possible candidates include genetic predisposition, psychosocial and environmental influences, hormonal exposures, or most likely an interplay between these variables. In support of the influence of genetics and environment, multiple cases of variations in MTF transsexuals (Hare et al., 2009; Henningsson et al., 2005). Furthermore, both transsexualism occurring within families have been reported (Green, 2000) as well as studies on heritability in twins (Coolidge et al., 2002) and preliminary findings on specific genetic SC variations in MTF transsexuals (Hare et al., 2009; Henningsson et al., 2005). Furthermore, both genes and environmental demands have been demonstrated to determine brain anatomy (e.g., regional gray matter) (Draganski et al., 2004; Thompson et al., 2001). Finally, hormones have been shown to affect brain development (Arnold and Gorski, 1984), and neuroanatomical alterations in MTF transsexuals (Kruijver et al., 2000; Zhou et al., 1995) have been detected in cerebral structures shown to significantly change in response to hormonal exposure (Del et al.,1987; Guillamon et al., 1988).
No-one said it would be easy. And there may be many distinct etiologies leading to the same result. Perhaps sometimes the brain is cross-gendered ab initio, and sometimes it changes.

From my own experience, I can give the following data points. n=1 I know, but what can you do?
My sense of smell changed, and early, within weeks
I became able to read body language over a month. Many of my Asperger's symptoms disappeared.
My co-workers remarked about how, well, less dominant I became at meetings. Shy, even. Maidenly modesty, if you like.
Other aspects of my personality changed too, but over a longer period.
I recorded this at the time, before any of these study results came out. And published them on my blog... That would seem to indicate that hormones post-birth may activate an atypical predisposition. Certainly my brain got re-wired, something I found most disturbing! Now I might have a clue as to what changed neurologically, and to what extent.

And yet, despite all the changes, in many ways I'm still that 10 year old girl who picked the name Zoe, back in 1968. Just as thrilled at solving puzzles and finding things new.

http://aebrain.blogspot.com/2009/04/another-piece-of-puzzle.html

Keep the spirits up...

Thx. I is having a down day today, but a gallon of green tea with lemon and yet another attempt at tranquillity via "28 day Yoga for women" ~ finding yr core strength and inner beauty one day at a time ~ or some such...~ does help. A good cry is always a solid fall back option and thats now, working like, really well for me, at least.... as does reading about marines, truck drivers and corporate motivational speakers who suffer a complete nervous collapse and find themselves at "Fight( like a girl) club". Its a broad church that takes all kinds and I guess the putative autobiography is suddenly thematically sound and internally consistent...

Working it out ~ Diary

it turns out I'm textbook transgendered.....
............

Well, I really screwed up that last communication! I think I will try again, just for the record.
Regarding the conversation, it wasn't a one on one, it was a group conversation where I was regaling you all with some story or other about my life, speaking in high self-deprecation mode, as I do.
Your question can flying in from left field and I might have made some admissions, but I have a highly developed sense of shame and an enormous prudery when it comes to sexual minorities, so I shut it down with I"M NOT GOING THERE>
But the remark stuck in my mind, not that your asking the question was especially significant, but rather that as I have had an such enormous sense of confusion about the whole issue and figured, that, on reflection, had I been gay, straight, bisexual or damn whatever, I figured it would have been more balanced and mature to be honest about it and comfortable with it, so really with the hangover came the insight as to my actual and total cluelessness about my own nature.
As I told the doctors, the insight that I had terminal lung cancer would be preferable. I've got to deal with the fact that I swapping some peace of mind and personal comfort when it comes to my sense of myself with some....social exclusion.
Guys don't talk about their feelings and don't mix it up gender wise, so I truely am a major failure as a bloke.

So sorry for dumping that on you, but alas its all true, so all I can do is thank you for being, acidentially, part of a larger theraputic process, even if the motive was typical normative verbally competitive social blokey drunken snarkyness. ......

That's all. I've got to deal with the incredible ignorance, misunderstanding and perjorative nonsense that comes with the diagnosis, but I'm going to face it and life squarely going forward.

that's all.

 Its my own personal room 101 at the awful truth dept. Deep down I know its true and always been true..mum was massively stressed carrying me, botched the later half and threw me out almost seven weeks early to boot. Textbook case, stress induced fetal testosterone resistance, emotional palette; female, sensory system; female, body plan, male with subtle indications of underdone...shit, I want my money back!!! Where do I report for recall.
So I wasn't really surprised you were relunctant to engage on it. Bloody xxxxx small l's, prudes like the rest! ;-)
Its totally cool, I wasn't in the least put out at the time.it just made me think....and considering the way I put it to you...well tawdry is popular today. lets go with that, so sorry.
I'm engaged in a massive hack, sci fi  in real time. Gulp. But, there is nothing sus or vulgar or mid life kinky and twisted about it..the theory has it I will be keeping it real and will emerge a more intergrated unit, not a parody or the punch line of a real sick joke.

The bummer is it all this crap comes in an unresealable container..

So I'll beleive the redemption shit whens I see it... but, truly, thx so much for the reply!

Diagnosis confirmed

:I saw xxxx (again!) this morning. I gave him a slightly edited and spelling corrected (btw, its amazing how spelling words correctly, ergo,Hippocratic and facilitate; especially when combined with a pointed turn of phase, eg"gratuitously pathologising the transgendered" adds to ones credibility, hey) version of my update to you, which he appreciated. I guess it saved time with dead ends; we covered lots of ground.

Having a cute haircut, subtle but gasp, yes, painted nails and looking stylishly sharp in tastefull androgynous casual (well faded denim stove pipe hipsters, black shoes, tight long sleeved navy rashi offset with real (balinese/nepali/tibetan) silver bangles all toned down with da chinese"only on weekends am I a S&M punk" two tone black overzipped cloth jacket also seemed to have the desired effect; blew me right past the sargasso sea of "doomed to float here forever with the other gender wrecks" into the strong southwest winds of "there is nothing that much wrong", "hey, we understand each other, yes, imo,you have got it right, and btw, here is your referral to chemical engineering" Humbolt current."

So I havent changed my mind, no...

That is all. there is a lesson here.....yr got to be true to yourself...

The first and greatest victory is to conquer yourself; to be conquered by yourself is of all things most shameful and vile. 

Plato

Yes, I'm freaking out

Well, I've got over all the highs and lows. I don't like the idea of changing gender at all! Its terrifying. I'm smart with middle class prudish atitudes, I guess, really, and for God's sake (I don't beleive in her, btw) I don't like the idea of trying to find a way of authentically expressing my deep brain structures and body mapping, seemingly female, in the body of a 6'2'' middle aged man.
There is no way this is elective at all, I would not even consider this if it wasn't the only way for me to keep growing.
The only consolation I have is that a married truck driver of sixty I've met had a complete nervous collapse into depression and anxiety and after months of analysis it was realised that the only way out was to treat the core problem, gender dysphoria, so xxxx, built like a "brick shithouse" and without any natural easy charm of manner or clarity of feature is well down the road to "xxxx" a journey she has had to make without a break in the truck driving and under the gaze of the other truckies in the yard.
I think I might have preferred a highway accident then find the courage mustered by xxxx.
I told my vocational support counsellor yesterday, she had lots of questions and listened carefully and without judgement. After 45 minutes she said "congratulations" you have made an important breakthrough and you will have all my support.
I think working in resources might be out but, more likely I'll nursing old people or something like that.

I'll just have to consider her ways.

 

What a funny turn of the Karmic Wheel this is...

The joke is just so much on me, here. Its Incredible!  WTF kinda girl is going to emerge here will be the proof of the pudding, I guess.

How do I honour this undeniable inner femininity, preserve my self respect and become an authentic unit when I only got the body of a really tall middle aged man to work with. 

We will all just have to consider her ways as we go and if we cope, we cope, if we don't, we don't.

The poor little thing might find some comfort in the caring professions. Time will tell.