Transgender and Psychological/social Gender Identity

Fifty years ago, nobody could ever have imagined how widely accepted transgender individuals would be in modern times. Countries all around the world had only ever known about the social distinction between men and women, which is known as ‘masculinity vs. Femininity’. However, now it is much more complex than that; as transgender and gender confused individuals are more widely accepted, it has become more of a case of sex vs. gender. “Sex is the biologically based distinction between men and women centring on sexual organs, while gender is the social and cultural rendering of masculinity and femininity.” (Oakley, 1972) And even though transgenders are accepted into society they still face inequalities such as not being accepted into a particular community, ostracised by families and friends,

Gender identity, as defined in Webster’s Dictionary is, “the totality of physical and behavioral traits that are designated by a culture as masculine or feminine” (Webster, 2014). The first words said in the delivery room are often “it’s a boy!” or “it’s a girl!” Intersex children, who fall in between the scientific gender spectrum for male or female, are put through genital mutilation surgery and hormone treatment to abide by one of the two categories. Children who are born with an intersex condition where reproductive or sexual anatomy that do not fit typical females or a typical male’s norms should not have sex assignment surgery performed. This should be decided by the child when they are mature enough to make that decision for themselves. This is morally wrong because the social and cultural need to place intersex individual’s into the category of one sex or the other can have negative impact on their mental and physical health and many of the surgeries done on intersexed infants were done more for the benefit of parents, healthcare practitioners, and society, than for the infant. In the long run, this surgery done at such a young age can cause an unstable quality of life filled with shame and a feeling of exclusion from society along with the possibility of losing sexual functions. I will be mentioning evidence of cases that demonstrate that it’s impossible for intersex individuals who have had sex reassignment surgery that it did not help them identify with the rest

Gender Dysphoria is usually defined by constant strong feelings of identifying with the opposite sex and displeasure with one’s own biological gender. These feelings can ultimately result in emotional distress or impairment. People who have been or are diagnosed with GD often feel that they are not the gender they physically see, but the one they psychologically or emotionally feel. For example, a person who has a penis and all of the physical characteristics of a male may feel that he should have been born a female, and

Chapter eleven focuses on sexual disorders and gender identity disorders. For this discussion I wanted to talk about gender identity disorder. For ordinary individuals they can describe themselves or identify themselves as either males or females since we are a child. But, there are some individuals who do not experienced this type of clarity. For some individuals it is a sense that their identity is different from the gender category which they were born with or that it is something that lies outside of the usual male versus female categories. These individuals are known as transgender experiences. It is something that we are seeing more and more of in society today. Many of these transgender individuals come to terms with themselves and they find

Gender identity is an extremely personal part of who we are, and how we perceive and express ourselves in the world. It is a separate issue entirely from sex or sexual orientation. There are dozens of dynamic and evolving terms related to how people identify. “Although Children are taught that their genes decree whether they will grow into men or women, people are not born socially or culturally female or male. Like race and ethnicity, gender can be thought of as socially constructed” (Marsiglia & Kulis, 2015, p. 196). I identify as female because I was taught as a child that I am female because of the genital parts I was born with. I also feel like I am a female. I do have my beliefs on what being a female or male entails.

When discussing transgendered people it is important to understand the difference between sex, and gender. “Sex is assigned at birth, refers to one’s biological status as either male or female, and is associated primarily with physical attributes such as chromosomes, hormone prevalence, and external and internal anatomy,” (APA Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Concerns Office). Sex is mainly important for medical reasons. A person can change their sex, through surgery and hormone therapy. “Gender refers to the socially constructed roles, behaviors, activities, and attributes that a given society considers appropriate for boys and men or girls and women” (APA Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Concerns Office). Gender and sex can coincide or they can be in conflict with each other. Someone whose gender identity matches the sex they are born with is called cisgendered. Cis- is a latin prefix, meaning “on this side”. Contrarily, trans- is a prefix meaning on the “other side of”. A person who is transgender expresses

They know it will not change throughout life. Even though children begin to see the difference of male and females, children born boys may feel and identify as girls and girls may feel and identify as boys. Parents might dismiss their child’s claim as a simple phase because of the expectations they have about their sons and daughters. However it is not a phase. Gender dysphoria, also known as gender identity disorder, is a condition of feeling one’s emotional and psychological identity as male or female to be opposite to one’s biological sex. Children with gender dysphoria are affected both psychologically and sociologically; however, with the proper diagnosis and treatment parents will have the knowledge to properly bring up a child with gender dysphoria. Psychologically a child may have suicidal tendencies, be depressed, have emotional problems, and have high levels of stress and anxiety. Sociologically a child tends to be alone, tormented by peers and frightened of never being accepted by

When people identify themselves as transgender, they are told they suffer from “gender identity disorder.” Gender identity disorder is defined as “a condition in which a person has been assigned one gender, usually on the basis of their birth, but identifies as belonging to another gender, and feels significant discomfort or being unable to deal with this condition” (Thomas, 2010). One of the leading symptoms of gender identity disorder is gender

After the depathologization of homosexuality, the DSM included yet another disorder known as gender identity disorder (GID) (Ross, 2009; Kamens, 2011). The following are some symptoms listed under this disorder: a strong cross-gender identification, continued discomfort with one’s biological sex, and that these disturbances cause clinically significant distress or impairment in all functioning aspects of life (Hozid, 2013). The populations that became stigmatized with this new diagnosis were the transgender and queer communities. Rather than focusing on the difficulty that the individual may be experiencing due to the mismatch between their biological sex and identified gender, the DSM-IV emphasized that it is gender variance that is the source of problems for the individual’s mental well-being (Ross, 2009). Again, society’s construction of what is “correct” oppresses those who do not find themselves belonging in the gender binary. With the rising momentum in the transgender movement, GID was removed from the DSM in the year of 2012 and renamed as gender dysphoria (Erickson-Schroth, 2014). While it appears that field of mental health was becoming more conscientious of its role in politics and culture, this relabeling is not without problems, nor does it serve as a real solution to issues arising in the mental health

Gender Dysphoria is defined by a person who emotionally and psychologically identifies themselves as the opposite sex. Transgender is the commonly used term to label individuals who are diagnosed with this disorder. They experience serious discomfort of the genitals they were assigned at birth. For example, if you were born as a male, later on in your toddler stages of childhood you’d feel uncomfortable playing with masculine toys or being part of the boys team in P.E. popular sayings would be “I have a girl’s mind but a boy’s body” Or “I was born in the wrong body”. Due to the lack of research and stubborn individuals in society who discriminate against transgendered people, children who have Gender Dysphoria are conflicted and misguided on

Transgender inequality is a big thing in the 21st century. The population consists of ,115 000 to 450 000 people. All those humans beings who have been fighting for their rights in this world, who try to be excepted for who they really are they should not be hiding their identity from others that will be discriminating them every time they come out of the shadows. They should be free to go out to do daily tasks and have the confidence of being themselves every day.

The transgender community continue to battle the acknowledgment of independent identity within society. The ongoing problem has been the continued gender crisis with mistaken the identity of transgender as the same as gay or lesbian sexuality. Gay is a term commonly used to refer to homosexuals, but transgender is the state in which a person’s gender identity does not match with his/her physical sex (Gay Couple Fertility Care, 2015, p. 1)". Transgender people may identify as heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, pansexual, polysexual, or asexual. It does not imply to any specific form of sexual orientation (Gay Couple Fertility Care, 2015, p. 1)".

The oppression of Transgender people is a serious issue in our society because they face harsh and, sometimes, violent discrimination, lack legal protection, and may be pushed to develop life-altering issues and decisions.

In recent years, a growing body of research and literature from a variety of professional organizations, such as the American Psychological Association (APA) and the World Professional Association of Transgender Health (WPATH), has attempted to better understand and meet the needs of transgender individuals and the clinicians who provide their care. This is reflective of a societal shift towards inclusion, as well as a growing number of transgender individuals on the caseloads of clinicians. The APA, for example, made changes to the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders in 2013 to reduce stigma and improve clinical care available to the transgender community. Specifically, the DSM-5, “changed gender identity

They are uncomfortable with their bodies and sexual organs. They often dress in the attire of the opposite sex and would rather be recognized in public as members of the opposite sex. Many individuals who are affected by gender identity disorder request for sexual reassignment surgery, or more commonly referred to as a sex change operation (Kenneth & Bradley, 2002).