Gender Dysphoria History

With the establishment of these gender identity clinics, and the financial backing of philanthropist Reed Erickson, a transsexual man, the health care needs of transsexual people gained increased attention and support. Despite this new attention, the clinics used Benjamin’s model of “true” transsexuals. This differentiation between “true” transsexuals and other gender variants became a serious and highly important diagnostic decision as gender affirming surgeries were irreversible. This resulted in many transsexual individuals to be denied access to hormones and surgery. Specifically, transsexual men encountered difficulties, as transsexuality was primarily seen as a male-to-female only transition. In fact, during the late 1960s the United States leading UCLA Gender Identity Research Clinic debated whether trans men should be considered transsexuals. Many trans men themselves did not label themselves as transsexuals as they only knew about other transsexual women (Meyerowitz, 2002; Beemyn, 2014).

In “Intro-How Sex Changed: A History of Transsexuality in the United States,” Joanne Meyerowitz writes about the beginnings of transsexuality. She beings the article by defining cross-gender identification, as “the sense of being the other sex, and the desire to live as the other sex” (Meyerowitz 432), while transsexuality, “being the quest to transform the bodily characteristics of sex via hormones and surgery” (Meyerowitz 432). According to Meyerowitz, transsexuality began in the early 20th century. Experiments on changing sex, began in europe on animals. Then in 1920, on humans. Joanne Meyerowitz writes that “the debate on the visibility and mutability of sex” began after Christine Jorgensen, an american who went to Denmark to get a sex change in 1950, became a media sensation in America. While professionals were figuring this out, people “who identified as transsexuals, transvestites, lesbians, and gay men” (Meyerowitz 433) were having the conversation and creating the language within themselves. This conversation on sex change, occurred alongside the sexual revolution in the 60’s, opening “the movement of the organizing of programs, clinics, conferences, and associations to promote study of and treatment for transsexuals” (Meyerowitz 434).

People with gender Identity crises do not feel their genitalia reflects who they are inside. They may feel a powerful drive to have their genitalia match their self-image opting for sex reassignment surgery. Gender expression is far more relaxed than it has been throughout our history in America, but it still poses a problems for some on a daily basis. Gender expression is one area where women have a social advantage over men. It is far more socially acceptable for a woman to dress masculine than for a man to dress feminine; although neither are without predigests.

Discussion of issues related to non-normative sexual and gender identities as related to mental health began in the 19th century (Drescher, 2010). Initially medical and psychiatric providers viewed issues related to gender identity as resulting from delusional thought processes (Drescher, 2010). As a result the concept of surgery as a solution to gender identity differences was viewed as unnecessary and ultimately an incorrect form of treatment (Drescher, 2010). In 1952 the first gender reassignment surgery was performed in Denmark on an American citizen (Drescher, 2010). The publicity in the American media that followed this surgery brought the concept of gender identity to the public eye. During the 1960s research about gender identity started to develop and it was the work of Money, Stoller, Benjamin, and Green that ultimately change professional and public concept of Gender Identity (Drescher, 2010). These four individuals were among the first to conduct clinical and academic research on gender identity and gender roles (Drescher, 2010). As a result of their research beliefs about non-normative gender identity shifted from a problem of the mind to a biological disorder that was fixed and should be treated with

In class, we have learned and discussed how during the period of adolescence, it is known that this is the period of time where individuals are finding themselves and figuring out where they belong. It is during this time where individuals are the most sensitive and personal problems tend to arise more commonly during this stage. A major issue adolescents struggle during this stage is gender identity and sexuality. Adolescents are trying to figure out who they are attracted to and how they perceive themselves to be. While the norm is to identify oneself as their biological gender, there are those who develop gender dysphoria. Gender dysphoria is a reoccurring feeling that one’s biological gender is the opposite of one’s sexual identity (Cole,

I must start out by saying that this story has brought tears to my eyes and is so incredibly disheartening. I am angry at the parents for making such, in my opinion, a terrible decision in turning their baby boy, into a girl. It breaks my heart for him in that he was never given a choice or a chance at living a normal, happy life. I am not an expert on how to fix a penis if it is burned off, but I have to believe there was a better way.

In general terms, I have never given gender identity much thought prior to this reading. Yes, I saw headlines about various people undergoing surgery to change their gender, but I did not consider all of the implications, and how it affects many people, other than the person who is receiving the surgery. Gender dysphoria affects social, medical, and even cultural perspectives, Yarhouse points out, when a child begins to show behaviors similar to the opposite sex, it places a lot of responsibility on the parents to how they should handle the situation. This leads off into how companies treat their employees who identify as transgender, and at various other places such as schools at all levels of education (Yarhouse, p. 15). As well as to how

What is gender dysphoria? Gender dysphoria is defined as “a mental disorder marked by a strong desire to be of the opposite gender and identifying oneself as a person of the opposite gender”,(Kearney) which is also known as transsexualism. To fully understand this condition, symptoms, causes, and treatment should be discussed. How does being transsexual affect them in the long run with or without therapies?

In the early 1980’s, “transsexualism” is an official disorder in the DSM-III and is eventually changed to “gender identity disorder” in DSM-IV. In 1987, the DSM-III0R reclassified gender identity disorders into four sub-types: Gender Identity Disorder of Childhood, Transsexualism, Gender Identity Disorder of Adolescence or Adulthood, and Gender Identity Disorder Not Otherwise Specified. In the early 1990’s many transgender rights activist groups are formed. In 1999, gender dysphoria becomes classified as a medical condition and not a state of mind

In the book, The Transgender Phenomenon, a study was conducted of ‘gender blenders’, by Ekins and King in 2006. This combined the ethnomethodological understanding of gender and also the norm of (binary) sex. They demonstrated how medicine has been fundamental for how the sex of individuals is defined.

Gender may well be the most defining factor in the spectrum of elements that comprise the human persona. In fact gender is so basic to our identity, most people mistakenly assume that our sense of being male or female is defined with absolute certainty by our anatomical sex. Contrary to popular belief, our sense of gender and anatomical sex are two distinct elements; each developing at different times in different parts of the body. While my research is limited to hormone replacement therapy involved in masculinizing a biological female, it should be noted that the psychiatric, psychological, and medical factors that contribute to cases of gender dysforia are major

Treatment options for gender dysphoria have evolved since the 1950s when the first sex reassignment surgery was performed. The evolution of this medical intervention has allowed for a complex arena of highly controversial criteria on which to base treatment options. The discussion of who should or should not undergo intervention drove further the discussion of whom is

In the E-book "Transgender History in the United States", Genny Beemyn looks back on the past of transgender visibility and discrimination in America, citing those who historically broke out of their traditional gender roles, and using these stories to prove that there have been gender questioning people for millennia. Beemyn also helps to differentiate crossdressing and being transgender. The author explains the discrimination these people faced, how they lived their lives, and the ways they hid their past identities. He supports this claim by first telling the story of Billy Tipton, a jazz musician from the 1980's. Beemyn explains how Tipton was defined female at birth, but lived his life as man, and even "...avoided doctors and died from

In this lesson, I will teach students the history of transgendered people as well as issues they face today. Charlotte Clark was the first transgendered woman to come out in 1755. In 1869, Karl Friendrich Otto Westphal published the first medical paper on transsexuality. In 1885, The Criminal Law Act made homosexuality illegal. People who crossed dressed or were transgendered fell prey to this law because they were thought to be homosexual. In 1870, two transgendered women named Stella Boulton and Fanny Park were charged with a felony – crossdressing. They were acquitted. In 1910, Magnus Hirschfield created the word transvestite. He founded the first clinic to help transgendered people. 1933, the Nazis attacked his

I have never been comfortable with the topic of gender dysphoria. Comer (2013) describes the disorder where a “…people persistently feel that a vast mistake has been made, they have been born the wrong sex, and gender changes would be desirable” (356). It is very hard for me to wrap my brain around the idea that a person would be unaccepting of the gender that they were born with. I found it very interesting to read some of the explainations that involve biological reasoning for the disorder. It helped me gain a little understanding about why some of the people might experience the thoughts about their bodies and genders. Comer says that children even as young as three years old can display hate towards girly clothing, prefer to be around boys,