Intro-How Sex Changed : A History Of Transsexuality In The United States

To a certain degree, seeing how these matters have progressed since the 1960s gives a good vantage to predicting where they will go in the future. In conclusion, I will look at the future of change on these matters, by examining what seems to be the "avant garde" regarding matters of sex and gender, the phenomenon of transsexualism. I hope an examination of transsexualism will point out some of the contradictions that still continue to exist in American ideas about matters of sex.

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).

that would soon become a movement. Incited by a Black trans woman, Marsha P. Johnson, and a

When people want to be theirself, doesn 't everyone deserve that chance at that much freedom? According to the national LGBTQ Task Force transgender people are not that lucky when it comes to the demographics of social media. On CNN website there 's an article that discusses how transgender people are twice as likely to be unemployed and four times more likely to live in poverty compared with the general population and these disparities are much greater for transgender black and latina woman said Emanuela Grinberg writer for CNN.

He had achieved the shock value not only with myself as the reader, but ultimately who he was addressing. Jamison had been an educator of trans people, speaking out to audiences of college students of all ages. His goal of educating the public stemmed from his own experiences with choosing to change genders as well as a broad overview of the ideas that surrounded transsexualism as a whole. He communicates well that his experiences do not encompass all transgendered people’s experiences and that transformation from male to female (MTF) is quite different from female to male (FTM) transformation. The societal complications from FTM are well examined from Jamison’s view. Many people believed that females that wanted to become males could

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

The testimonies of the transsexuals and would-be transsexuals were more than a kid from Wilkes-Barre was used to hearing. What was even more difficult to understand was how the psychiatrists in attendance seemed to be endorsing alternate lifestyles and even treating transsexuality as a normal variant of the human condition.

Things that have changed in the book over time included how J's mother got used to referring to J as a "him" after maybe five to six months which made J feel much more better knowing that his mother is much more accepting of "his" decision about who he wants to be. Although his dad is still slowly getting used to seeing and hearing about his old, new "son". Now that he's been taking testosterone for a while it's been easier for people to refer to him as a guy and use "his" and not "hers" anymore, which is a relief when he goes out in public. I think that in the beginning of the story J just told his parent that he is transgender out of the blue. His parents weren't really sure about what that meant so they were scared or stressed out and didn't want there little baby girl to change. But now that they have a little picture about what that means to be transgender after a few months it sunk in and they now know how testosterone works and what it really means to be transgender. It did take a few months but it did end up sinking in and now Carolina and if he's lucky Manny will try there best to keep an open mind about it and still love their little baby "boy" no matter what happens. In a result

The ultimate goal of every transsexual surgery was to pass as an accepted member of the gender of choice. For many people, this concept was met with hostility especially by the feminist community. Feminist theoreticians like Janice Raymond believed these "she-males" to be a threat to women's power and identity(340). She argued that, " all transsexuals rape women's bodies by reducing the female form to an artifact, appropriating this body for themselves" (340). All transsexuals wanted to be accepted by their newfound community which they so desperately wanted to be apart of. They wanted to be free of the stereotypes associated with their prior selves and be welcomed into the male or female community as a card-carrying member. But in order to do so, objectivity must come into play. For transsexuals, the most important thing is to "pass". "Passing means to live successfully in the gender of choice, to be accepted as a 'natural' member of that gender" (352). To be objective is to let go of one's prior gender role and accept the individual for what gender they embody currently. A person would need to forego a transsexual's prior history as male or female and decide to focus and embrace who they are now.

Kailey, M. (2005). Just Add Hormones: An insider’s guide to the transsexual experience. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.

It begins before a child takes their first breath, and it continues throughout their life. People are classified, we are classified. We are classified, categorized, ordered, divided, indexed and ranked. This lifelong occurrence classifies us in numerous ways, which influence, if not assign or destine, many aspects of the lives in which we live. The things that make up the people who we are, the things that make us, “us,” are often the same things that are exploited to categorize us. We are categorized by our race, religion, ethnicity, education, geographic location, disability, age, biological sex, sexual orientation and gender. We are categorized by who we identify as, who we are, our gender identity. We are categorized by who we who are attracted to, who we love, our sexual orientation. Who we are and how we are classified are unavoidably intertwined. As the person we grow to become, and the

Many may wonder what being a transgender person really is, a lot of people may see or refer to it as someone who has gone gender transformation, or is confused with who they are. The word transvestite is very much used when referring to a person who identifies with the opposite gender, the word 'Transvestite' itself originated in 1910 by the well known German sexologist Magnus Hirschfeld, who also founded the Berlin institute which was where the first 'sex change' surgeries took place. 'Transsexual' was not used until 1949, the word 'transgender' not until 1971, and 'trans not until 1996, but they all refer to the same thing. The idea of being transgender goes as far back as 1503 BC to the Egyptians. It was believed that their second

The history of transgender discrimination can be dated back to the formation of the colonies in the United States. During colonization, gender systems were created to establish cultural gender roles based on an individual’s sex determined at birth. In 1620, was the first recorded person who identified as being transgender in the state of Virginia (Beemyn, 2013). This individual described himself as being both a man and a woman, wore both men and women clothing, and created a man and woman name for himself/herself. Physical examinations were taken of this individual, and no clear sex could be determined (Beemyn, 2013, p. 1). During this

Christine Overall and Cressida Heyes are two authors who argue whether transracial surgery is legitimate under the condition of that transsexual surgery is acceptable. Their arguments are opposing to each other. Overall insists that both surgeries should be acceptable while Heyes does not agree with Overall. They both agree with that race and sex-gender are socially constructed. Thus, Overall has no problem with the concept of identity changes—for both sex-gender and race—however, Heyes argues that they are not constructed in the same way.

Recently, steps have been made that promote a bright future for the transgender community, but the history that these people have gone through is very dark. For centuries, societies across the world have rejected the rights of transgender people, forcing them to identify solely as the gender they were biologically assigned at birth, rather than the gender they personally identify as. In many historical instances, transgender people who had “come out” - or were “found out”- as being transgender have been taken to court and put under restrictions of law.