Charing Cross Hospital Gender Identity Clinic. Part I: 1818-1982

September 14, 2016, 12:46 pm

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The hospital was originally founded in 1818 with royal patronage as the Royal West London Infirmary, located behind Haymarket Theatre. Patient numbers forced a move to a site near the Charing Cross. Doctors were being trained from 1822, and from 1829 this was recognised by the

newly founded University of London. The hospital was renamed to Charing Cross Hospital in 1827. After a major rebuild in 1877, the hospital had doubled in size, and it was further extended in 1902. In 1926 the Royal Westminster Ophthalmic Hospital was merged in.

Pioneering surgery on intersex persons, mainly those with adreno-genital syndrome (now known as Congenital adrenal hyperplasia) was being done by Lennox Broster as early as the 1930s. In 1936 the champion shot-putter and javelin thrower, Mark Weston underwent two operations. Broster said: “Mr. Mark Weston, who was always brought up as a female, is male, and should continue life as such". A similar operation was performed on Mark’s younger brother, Harry, a few years later. In 1938, Broster was co-author of a book on the adrenal cortex and intersexuality.

Because of the wartime bombing, the hospital was in effect moved to Boxmoor, Hertfordshire in 1940.

Broster's work on the Weston brothers was reported in The News of the World, in 1943 after Harry committed suicide. This report attracted patients who would now be regarded as transsexual. However there is no evidence that such persons were accepted, and Clifford Allen, the psychiatrist who worked with him, specifically rejected surgical treatment for ‘transvestites’ (the term then in use).

Charing Cross Hospital moved back to central London in 1947, but it was decided to relocate, although it would take many years before the new building was ready.

In 1950 John Randell was appointed Physician for Psychological Medicine at Charing Cross Hospital, where he worked with Broster. By then ‘transvestites’ were being accepted. Randell wrote up 50 cases of “transvestism and trans-sexualism” for The British Medical Journal in 1959, and his MD thesis for the University of Wales, 1960, discussed 61 mtf and 16 ftm cases. This was one of the first higher degree theses in English on transsexuality.

In 1957 it was proposed to join Charing Cross with the Fulham and West London Hospitals.

Through the 1960s Randell was seeing 50 ‘transvestite’ cases a year, which rose to nearly 200 in the 1970s. By his own figures, he saw 2438 patients (1768 mtf, 670 ftm). He also spent half his time with general psychiatric patients. However he was not in favour of surgery until his patients who had had surgery abroad returned with positive evaluations. Even in the 1960s less than 10% of his patients managed to achieve surgery and only a third of the mtfs of those had vaginoplasty. However most gender surgery performed in the UK was done at Charing Cross.

1965 Lennox Broster died, aged 77.

The future Alice Purnell, a co-founder of the Beaument Society, had been attending the Charing Cross Hospital Gender Clinic under the care of Dr Randell, and in 1966 was offered surgery. However Purnell married a second wife instead.

Randell contributed a paper: "Preoperative and Postoperative Status of Male and Female Transsexuals" to Richard Green & John Money (eds), Transsexualism and Sex Reassignment, 1969.

The First International Symposium on Gender Identity was held at the Piccadilly Hotel, London, 25-7 July 1969. It was sponsored and organized by the Erikson Foundation and the Albany Trust. Arguments arose between the team from Chelsea Women's who regarded transsexuals as a form of intersex, and the team from Charing Cross Hospital who regarded them as having a psychological disorder. The Symposium did bring together the doctors working in the field. Randell’s name was mentioned several times in the press. The program for the symposium reported the situation in Britain as follows: “The treatment of transsexuals has also been undertaken by specialising teams of psychiatrists, physicians and surgeons but there is as yet no permanent gender identity unit”.

After reading about the symposium in The Times, Mark Rees, one of the future founders of Press for Change, contacted the Albany Trust, which passed him onto Dr Randell, at first at his Harley Street Rooms for a fee, and then at the GIC on the NHS.

One of Randell’s patients was the London school teacher, Della Aleksander, who had surgery with Dr Burou in Casablanca, 1970, and who would organise pioneering gender conferences in 1974 and 1975, and co-produce a BBC2 program on transsexuals in 1974.

1970 was notably the year of Corbett v. Corbett, the divorce trial litigated by Arthur Corbett, the heir apparent to the Rowallan Baroncy, against his estranged wife of seven years, the model, April Ashley. Dr Randell appeared for the litigant and testified that that he “considered that the respondent (ie April) is properly classified as a male homosexual transsexualist”. This opinion contributed to the verdict which redefined legal intersex as intersex, chromosomal, gonadal and genital sex at birth not being concordant, and that psychological aspects not otherwise to be considered. It was ruled that Lady Corbett was not a woman for the purpose of marriage, and the re-issue of revised birth certificates for transsexuals stopped immediately.

Randell published a paper, "Indications for Sex Reassignment Surgery" in.Archives of Sexual Behavior,1971.

The new Charing Cross Hospital, now located in the site of the former Fulham Hospital was formally opened in 1973. Initially it was called Charing Cross Hospital, Fulham, but eventually the ‘Fulham’ was dropped.

In the 1970s when numbers increased, still only 15% of patients achieved surgery. By then Randell was arguing that surgery could be appropriate and that psychotherapy did not work. Even then he restricted surgery to sane, intelligent, single and passable individuals. Passable implied conforming to Randell’s old-fashioned ideas of being ‘ladylike’, that many women had abandoned by the 1970s. Until the end he continued to refer to patients, including post-operatives, by the pronouns of their birth gender, and would tell a trans women, accepted for surgery, that ‘you’ll always be a man’.
By 1971 journalist/historian Jan Morris had been accepted in the program at Charing Cross, but withdrew as they insisted that Jan and her wife be divorced.

The future singer and actress, Adèle Anderson became a patient in 1973, the year that Randell’s one and only book, Sexual Variations, came out.

The model and Bond-girl, Caroline Cossey/Tula, was a patient of Randell, and was approved for surgery in 1974. Unlike other patients, Tula found him to be ‘absolutely charming’ (perhaps because she passed so well).

Rachael Padman arrived in England in 1977 as a Cambridge physics PhD student, and was quickly accepted at the Charing Cross GIC, and put on oestrogens.

Randell wrote an article, “Transsexualism and its management”, for the Nursing Mirror, also that year.

Rachael Webb, then a lorry driver, but who would become notorious in the press in 1983 when she used a £2,000 loan, available to all council employees, to pay for her operation (others used it as a deposit for a mortgage), became a patient at the GIC in 1978.

A 1979 episode of the BBC Inside Story documentary series was “George”, directed by David Pearson, about a pre-op transsexual. There was sufficient interest that this was expanded into a ground-breaking documentary, A Change of Sex, 1980, which followed the social and medical transition of Julia Grant (George) and also provided a snapshot of the Charing Cross Hospital Gender Identity Clinic. Randell is the unnamed doctor who shocked most reviewers by his attitude.

In 1980 the News of the World (12/10/80) claimed that Randell and his surgeon, Peter Phillip, had made London the ‘sex-change capital of the world’.

1981 Bülent Ersoy, Turkish singing star, had gender surgery at Charing Cross.

1982 John Randell died of a heart attack aged 64. Ashley Robin, who had retired after a heart attack, stepped in and became head of the GIC. Russell Reid became a consultant, and Alfred Hohburger joined, at first on a honorary basis.

Rachael Padman had GIC approved surgery in October, and her Cambridge PhD thesis was approved while she was in hospital.

L. R. Broster, Clifford Allen, H. W. C. Vines, Jocelyn Patterson, Alan W. Greenwood, G. F. Marrian, and G. C. Butler. The Adrenal Cortex and Intersexuality. London: Chapman & Hall Ltd., 1938.
“Two Sisters Turn into Brothers”. The Star, 25 August 1939.
“Were Once Sisters: Death Brings Strange Fact to Light”. News of the World, 2 Aug 1943. Reprinted in George Ives (ed Paul Sieveking). Man Bites Man: The Scrapbook of an Edwardian Eccentric. Penguin Books, 1981: 40.
John B. Randell. "Transvestitism And Trans-Sexualism: A Study Of 50 Cases". The British Medical Journal. 2, 5164, 1959: 1448-1452.
John B. Randell. Cross Dressing and the Desire to change Sex, MD Thesis, University of Wales, 1960.
R. J.Minney. The Two Pillars of Charing Cross: The Story of a Famous Hospital. London: Cassell, 1967.
John B. Randell. "Preoperative and Postoperative Status of Male and Female Transsexuals" in Richard Green & John Money (eds), Transsexualism and Sex Reassignment, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1969.
Program of the First International Symposium on Gender Identity: Aims, Functions and Clinical Problems of a Gender Identity Unit. 25, 26 and 27 July 1969. PDF
John B. Randell. "Indications for Sex Reassignment Surgery".Archives of Sexual Behavior, 1:2, 153-161, 1971.
John B. Randell. Sexual Variations. London: Priory Press. 1973.
John B. Randell. Transsexualism and its management, Nursing Mirror, 45-47, 1977.
David Pearson (dir). A Change of Sex. With Julia Grant. BBC TV. 1980.

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Charing Cross (51°30′26″N 00°07′39″W) denotes the junction of the Strand, Whitehall and Cockspur Street, just south of Trafalgar Square. It was the location of the most expensive of the Eleanor Crosses erected 1291-4. The cross was destroyed by order of Parliament in 1647, and after the Restoration, an equestrian statue of the first Charles Stuart was raised on the spot, and is still standing. A replacement cross was commissioned in 1865 by the South Eastern Railway Company and is still found in the forecourt of Charing Cross Railway Station. The site of the original cross is the official centre of London, and distances to/from London are to/from Charing Cross. The fact that Charing Cross Hospital later moved to Fulham complicates the issue.

The Wikipedia article on Boxmoor does not mention that it was the wartime location of Charing Cross Hospital.

The WLMHT GIC web site says: “The West London Gender Identity Clinic at Charing Cross Hospital (CX GIC) is the largest and oldest clinic of its type, dating back to 1966.” But what happened in 1966? Lennox Broster’s work with intersex persons dates back to the 1930s, and John Randell’s with transvestites and transsexuals dates to the 1950s. On the other hand the 1969 symposium reported “there is as yet no permanent gender identity unit”.

↧

Charing Cross Hospital GIC: Part II: 1983-Now

September 16, 2016, 11:30 am

≫ Next: Charing Cross GIC – addendum

≪ Previous: Charing Cross Hospital Gender Identity Clinic. Part I: 1818-1982

1983 Stephanie Anne Lloyd, marketing manager, was referred by a Manchester doctor to Russell Reid at Charing Cross GIC. Afterwards she would create Transformation retail shops for trans persons in Manchester and later London.

Ashley Robin, who had stepped in as the head of the GIC appointed Donald Montgomery as clinical physician in 1984, and retired in 1985.

1985 Christine Goodwin, bus driver, became a patient. She would later win recognition as legally female at the ECHR in 2002.

Two studies were carried out at the GIC by Charles Mate-Kole, Maurizio Freschi & A. Robin.

a) “We presented the results of a retrospective study of 150 patients and a second, randomised controlled study of 40 patients. We studied 150 male transsexuals at different stages of treatment: assessment stage (n= 50); waiting list stage (n= 50); and postoperative stage (n=50). The results indicated a significant reduction in neurotic symptoms and improved social state in transsexuals postoperatively compared with patients at the waiting list stage, who fulfilled the criteria for surgery but were awaiting operation, and assignment to an assessment group.”

b) We “compared two groups of male transsexuals who had been assessed and carefully selected for surgery. They were randomly assigned to one of two groups; the experimental group had their waiting time for surgery brought forward so that they were operated on within three months of fulfilling the criteria, and the control group had to wait for the routine two years before undergoing surgery. All the patients were equally matched for age, social class, number of years of clinic attendance, and several other variables that might affect outcome. The results suggested that after two years of follow up there were significant differences between the two groups on a number of psychiatric and social, variables, showing a significant advantage for the experimental group over the controls.”

11-12 December 1986. International Conference on Gender Identity was held in London. This was really a British conference, but the Clarke Institute, Toronto was represented, and thus the name. It was organised by Charles Mate-Kole, research psychologist at the GIC. “Addresses covered a broad range of themes from the literary style of transsexual autobiographies to the hepatotoxic effect of methyltestosterone, and from the work of the speech therapist in the team to the latest surgical development in phalloplasty which uses a radial artery flap to create the urethra. The present legal disabilities of transsexuals were discussed and an interesting paper on classification clarified the distinction between transsexualism and homosexuality yet noted the curious variants in the relationship of gender identity to sexual orientation.” The Mate-Kole-Freschi-Robin studies were presented.

In 1987 J Bryan Tully completed his PhD thesis, Accounting for transsexualism, based on 204 trans patients, most of whom were seen at Charing Cross GIC, and concluded that “here is a fundamental weakness in the imposition of psychiatric 'syndromes' on gender dysphoric phenomena. Rather, 'gender dysphoric careers' are proposed as fluctuating enterprises in the construction of meanings, some meanings being more fateful and workable than others”.

Grant Williams, consultant urologist at Charing Cross Hospital, wrote to the British Medical Journal in November 1987. “One gender reassignment operation takes the whole of one afternoon in the operating theatre. During that time, I could perform 10 cystoscopies or resect four prostates or do three vasovasostomies. Most people would feel that to pursue gender reassignment surgery in the current climate must be bottom of the list of medical importance. The hospital continues with this, although it is totally against the wishes of the division of surgery." Charing Cross GIC doctors Charles Mate-Kole, Donald Montgomery, James Dalrymple & Steven Hirsch wrote to the BMJ in reply: “He is unaware of studies done in our department, the results of which were presented at a conference in December 1986 at this hospital”. RP Snaith from St James University Hospital, Leeds, pointed out that while surgeons at Charing Cross oppose gender operations, “and this is understandable since this one hospital has undertaken the major proportion of this work for the whole of Britain. This unfair burden should be corrected, as I pointed out, by the establishment of regional services.” Williams resigned from Charing Cross the next year.

1988, James Barrett, joined the GIC

1989 Luiza Moreira/Roberta Close, the Brazilian model, had gender surgery at Charing Cross Hospital.

1990. 20-year old Jackie McAuliffe had a first appointment.

1993 psychiatrist Alfred Hohburger died.

1994 Richard Green, ex-colleague of Harry Benjamin, became Director of Clinical Research, and saw trans persons two days a week.

Donald Montgomery gave a presentation at the Gendys ’94 Conference in Manchester discussing the GIC from the doctors’ point of view. At that time the clinic was getting over 300 referrals a year, 80% mtf, of whom 20% had “some form of gender reassignment surgery within five years”. He presented a typology: “primary core transsexualism, secondary transsexualism, the heterosexual transvestite, the asexual cross-dresser, the female transsexual, the small - the very small - number of patients with a biological component”. He discussed other GICs: “We are by far the biggest in the UK if not Europe, if not the world, I think, in terms of patient referrals. There is a small clinic just for the Leeds/Yorkshire catchment area. Professors Goldberg and Linton used to have a clinic here in Manchester but I think all the Manchester patients are probably being referred to us at the moment. There are occasional psychiatrists scattered around the UK that have an interest in gender identity disorders, without professional back up on the whole. Dr. Christie Brown still has his clinic at Maudsley Hospital but I think it's probably running down rather than increasing. Dr. Dunleavy in Newcastle and his colleagues have a small clinic there. There is also the child and adolescent clinic at St. George's”

Jackie McAuliffe had surgery in 1995. Later she would work as a prostitute in Paddington Green and be featured in a docu-drama based in the area.

2000 The GIC approached James Bellringer to replace Mike Royal as the GIC’s surgeon. Royal provided on-the-job training,

Kelly Denise Richards, serving time at HMP Parkhurst for assault and robbery, was a patient. While still incarcerated, she had surgery and was transferred to a women’s prison.

In December that year it was announced that the number of NHS sex-change operations was set to triple, and that Charing Cross GIC would increase such operations from one to three a week at an extra £1 million per annum. Liam Fox, the Conservative shadow health secretary denounced the Labour Government of pandering to lobby groups.

2001 James Barrett became head of the GIC.

In 2003 the GIC moved into its new premises at 179-183 Fulham Palace Road. It was now part of the West London Mental Health NHS Trust.

2004 Charles Kane, businessman, in detransition, was, unlike his transition, a client of the GIC.

2004 In 2004 as the Gender Recognition Bill was proceeding through parliament, psychiatrist Russell Reid faced a complaint to the General Medical Council that he too easily accepted patients for hormone therapy and surgery. The complaint was brought by four of his colleagues at the Charing Cross Hospital Gender Identity Clinic, psychiatrists James Barrett, Richard Green, Donald Montgomery and senior registrar Stuart Lorimer on behalf of four of his former patients. Reid retired his NHS post the next year. In 2007 Reid was found guilty of Serious Professional Misconduct, mostly for failing to communicate fully with patients’ family doctor (a rule that many doctors are unaware of) and not documenting his reasons for departing from the HBIGDA Standards of Care guidelines sufficiently.

The same year David Batty of The Guardian interviewed the GIC surgeon James Bellringer and was told “The number who express immense gratitude is overwhelming”. However Persia West who researched a report on the needs of trans persons in Brighton and Hove (many of whom had been referred to the Charing Cross GIC) and found “The level of dissatisfaction with the Charing Cross GIC was very high, in essence concerning the time the treatment took and the manner in which it was given.”

2006 The GIC saw 498 referrals.

2011 A proposed conference, Transgender: Time to Change sponsored by the Royal College of Psychiatrists and led by Az Hakeem of the Portman Clinic, and featuring Julie Bindel, but with no input from any trans persons, was cancelled after the Charing Cross team criticized the emphasis of the meeting: “It now appears that the conference comes at trans issues from a very specific agenda, namely, to explore the validity or otherwise of gender diagnoses as medical and psychiatric phenomena. So long as this is the case, we feel we can’t support it.”

US physician Ted Eyton visited the GIC in 2013, and reported that it gets 1500 referrals per year from GPs. This rate has been doubling every five years. Charing Cross GIC gets about 50% of referrals in the UK. This was the same year as the Conservative-Liberal coalition proposed to demolish the main Charing Cross building, and to sell off 60% of the site to private developers.

2014 James Bellringer, who had been doing the majority of vaginoplasty work for Charing Cross Hospital resigned.

2016 The GIC saw 1892 referrals in 12 months.

The West London Mental Health Trust (WLMHT) announced:

“However, as WLMHT moves forward it is necessary to refocus the services that we provide. The Board has made a decision that the medium-term strategic focus for the Trust will be to develop mental health services, physical care and integration between the two.

“As a result, the Trust has come to the conclusion that patients requiring gender identity services would be better served in the long term by another provider, and has therefore served notice on our contract to NHS England.”

Doctors include:

1933-1965 Lennox Broster, surgeon
193?-194? Clifford Allen, psychiatrist
1950-1982 John Randell, Physician for Psychological Medicine
196? – 198? Peter Philip, surgeon
1982-1985 Ashley Robin, head of GIC
1982-1993 Alfred Hohburger, psychiatrist
1982-2005 Russell Reid, psychiatrist
198?-200? James Dalrymple, Surgeon
1984- ? Donald Montgomery, clinical physician
1985-1990 Charles Mate-Kole, research psychologist
1994- ? Richard Green, Director of Clinical Research
? -2000 Mike Royal, surgeon
2000-2014 James Bellringer, surgeon
1988- now James Barrett, head of GIC from 2001.

Philip Snaith. “Conference Report: International Conference on Gender Identity”. Bulletin of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, 11, March 1987: 81. PDF
Grant Williams. Letter to BMJ, 12 September 1987.
Charles Mate-Kole, Donald Montgomery, James Dalrymple & Steven Hirsch. “Gender Reassignment Today”. Letter to BMJ, 17 October 1978. PDF
R.P Snaith. Letter to BMJ, 12 December 1987. PDF
Charles Mate-Kole (ed). The state of transsexualism-proceedings of the International conference on gender identity. Schering Health Care, 1987.
Charles Mate-Kole, Maurizio Freschi, A. Robin. “Aspects of psychiatric symptomatology at different stages in the treatment of transsexualism”. British Journal of Psychiatry, 152, Apr 1988: 550-3. Abstract
Charles Mate-Kole, Maurizio Freschi. “Psychiatric aspects of sex reassignment surgery”. British Journal of Hospital Medicine, 39,2, Feb 1988: 153-5. Abstract
J. Bryan Tully. Accounting for Transsexualism. PhD Thesis, University of Brunel, 1987. Published as Accounting for Transsexualism and Transhomosexuality: The Gender Identity Careers of Over 200 Men and Women Who Have Petitioned for Surgical Reassignment of Their Sexual Identity. London: Whiting & Birch, 1992.
Charles Mate-Kole, Maurizio Freschi, A. Robin. “A controlled study of psychological and social change after surgical gender reassignment in selected male transsexuals”. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 157, 2, Aug 1990: 261-4. Abstract
Dave King. The Transvestite and the Transsexual: Public categories and private identities. Avebury, 1993: 39, 60.
Donald Montgomery. “The Charing Cross Gender Identity Unit”. Gendys ’94 Conference, Manchester. www.gender.org.uk/conf/1994/montg.htm.
D. Di de Cegli, James O. Dalrymple., L. Gooren, Richard Green, John Money, & Russell Reid. Transsexualism: The Current Medical Viewpoint. London: Press For Change. 1996.
Nicholas Rufford. “Sex changes on NHS to triple”. The Times, 3 December 2000.
David Batty interviews James Bellringer. “The number who express immense gratitude is overwhelming”. The Guardian, 2 August 2004. www.theguardian.com/society/2004/aug/02/socialcare.mentalhealth.
Persia West. Report into the Medical and Related Needs of Transgender People in Brighton and Hove. Spectrum, 2004. PDF
James Barrett. Transsexual and Other Disorders of Gender Identity: A practical guide to management. Radcliffe, 2007.
Deborah Blaustein. The Gatekeepers of Gender: A History of Transsexuality in the National Health Service (including a Case Study of the Gender Identity Clinic at Charing Cross Hospital). University of London, 2012.
Thomas Sissons. “Charing Cross Hospital has hardly been 'saved' - and the decision to cut its services will have a terrible effect on public health and medical training”. Independent, 18 February 2013. www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/charing-cross-hospital-has-hardly-been-saved-and-the-decision-to-cut-its-services-will-have-a-8493715.html
Ted Eyton. “Visiting the oldest Gender Identity Clinic in the World: NHS’ Charing Cross, London England”. Ted Eyton, MD, September 26, 2013. www.tedeytan.com/2013/09/26/16645
Joseph McCormick. “NHS trust confirms plan to replace surgeon responsible for majority of UK gender reassignment work”. Pink News, 1^st February 2014. http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2014/02/01/nhs-trust-confirms-plan-to-replace-surgeon-responsible-for-majority-of-uk-gender-reassignment-work.
“The 'Biggest Hospital Closure In NHS History'”. LBC, 29^th July 2014. www.lbc.co.uk/biggest-hospital-closure-in-nhs-history-to-be-confirmed-94553.
Kate Lyons. “Gender identity clinic services under strain as referral rates soar”. The Guardian, 10 July 2016. www.theguardian.com/society/2016/jul/10/transgender-clinic-waiting-times-patient-numbers-soar-gender-identity-services.
Joseph Curtis. “Transgender treatment clinics overwhelmed as number of referrals has soared by up to 28 times in a decade”. Daily Mail, 11 July 2016. www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3684173/Transgender-treatment-clinics-overwhelmed-number-referrals-soared-28-times-decade.html.
Nick Duffy. “NHS trust terminates Gender Identity Service contract amid trans health turmoil”. Pink News, 25^th August 2016. www.pinknews.co.uk/2016/08/25/nhs-trust-terminates-gender-identity-service-contract-amid-trans-health-turmoil

EN.Wikipedia TransActivist WLMHTGIC
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Deborah Blaustein’s University of London thesis sounds quite interesting. Unfortunately I was not able to find a copy.

Re the two Mate-Kole-Freschi-Robin studies: obviously transsexuals who have been granted what they need are less neurotic than those who are frustrated by being kept waiting year after year for no good reason.

For several of the doctors, eg. Richard Green, I was not able to find out when they came and left.
The Wikipedia page on the West London Mental Health NHS Trust does not even mention the Gender Identity Clinic, nor does the Wikipedia page on the Hospital mention recent attempts to close it and sell off the land.

Obviously the attitude of the staff is much better than it was in the 1960s under John Randell who insisted on using birth pronouns and telling trans women that they would always be men. However Persia West’s report shows that there is further to go. The proposal that Charing Cross GIC be discontinued and replaced by local GICs is possibly a good thing, if it is done right. However the track record of the Conservative government since 2010 does not bode well.

↧

Charing Cross GIC – addendum

September 18, 2016, 5:12 pm

≫ Next: Two New York plastic surgeons in the 1970s

≪ Previous: Charing Cross Hospital GIC: Part II: 1983-Now

There has been an article “Fifty years on: The Charing Cross Gender Identity Clinic and the funding of a category without parallel” published at Youth Trans Critical Professionals and again at Gender Trender.

The author is given as “Susan Matthews, UK Academic”, but does not list any academic qualifications.

The article gets off to a very bad start with one error after another.

“It [CXGIC] was founded in 1966”

I have already discussed this. Treating intersex patients, the clinic dates from the 1930s, treating transvestites and transsexuals, from the 1950s.

“at Johns Hopkins Gender Identity Clinic, the world’s first GIC founded the previous year” [1965]

Actually the UCLA GIC was founded by Stoller in 1964.

“The founding clinician at Charing Cross, Richard Green, came with an impressive academic pedigree, having worked with Money, collaborating on research on boys who demonstrated cross-gender behaviour.”

Richard Green was reported to be in London in 1966 and 1969. He very likely visited the existing Charing Cross clinic, but he certainly had no position there. He is not even mentioned in John Randell’s book. Also the Feminine Boy Project was still in the future: it was done in the 1970s.

“Up until the second half of the twentieth century, the word ‘gender’ referred to grammatical gender, a feature of language not human identity.”

Not this canard again! Obviously Matthews does not read 17-19^th century novels. Some examples:

Henry Fitzgeffrey 1620: “Now Mars defend us! seest thou who comes yonder? Monstrous! a Woman of the Masculine Gender.”
Susanna Centlivre, early 18^th century playwright reported that theatre managers 'treated her ... in the Masculine Gender'.
George Byron, Don Juan, 1824, having got his protagonist into female dress justifies using female pronouns: 'I say her because,/The gender still was epicene'.

Matthews then writes about John Money, lobotomy, John Money again, Bruce Reimer of course. She does not at all mention the Charing Cross doctors who worked with trans patients in the 1960s, ie. John Randell, Lennox Broster, Peter Philip. Come to that, there is also no mention of a certain Harry Benjamin. For Matthews, it seems, Money alone invented transsexualism!

Matthews writes: “For the Reimer case is open to many different readings. Zoe Playdon attributes the failings of UK gender identity clinics to this history”. This is a remarkable statement in that the details of the Reimer case would not be known for another 20 or 30 years. Certainly there is no mention of it in Randell’s 1973 book.

Matthews seems to think that Money was such an overwhelming influence that Charing Cross followed his lead: “The science of gender emerged from a tiny group centred on John Money and its findings were ethically compromised”. If this were so why cannot it be demonstrated from Randell’s writings?

Here is the bibliography from Randell’s book.

The only mention of Green or Money is the 1969 anthology, which would be included as Randell contributed a paper to it. However none of Money’s or Green’s writings are listed, nor are they in the index, nor are they mentioned in the text.

In the 1960s the UK was less dependent on US fashions. To take two contemporary examples, that is 1965-7, compare the anti-psychiatry of RD Laing to the Scientology fellow-traveller Thomas Szasz, or the radical difference between the psychedelic music of Pink Floyd and Soft Machine from that which came from San Francisco. John Randell, whatever else we may think of his attitude, was his own man, and no-one has argued that he was a disciple of Money.

Having ignored the history of the CXGIC, Matthews jumps quickly to the 21^st century, and as proof of Money’s influence she writes: “Echoes of the founding beliefs are still apparent in a 2011 paper by James Barrett, currently lead clinician at Charing Cross GIC. ‘Disorders of gender identity have probably always existed, inside and outside Europe’, Barrett writes, citing a 1975 study (Heiman).” Heiman is not in her bibliography. Comments about trans people being everywhere are found in every popular survey. May I suggest Oscar Gilbert’s Men in Women's Guise: Some Historical Instances of Female Impersonation, 1926 or many News of the World articles over the decades. To claim this as part of Money’s influence is to show that Matthews does not begin to understand what he had to say.

She spends most of the paper attacking Barrett and the fact that he has said different things at different times. He is wrong when he and other clinicians decide what to do ignoring the patients’ wishes, and he is wrong when he listens to the trans persons who come to the clinic and he accepts their self-diagnosis. “This claim is important, for if trans were a disorder (as in 1966), the work of the clinic would belong in a worrying tradition, one that harks back at the worst to lobotomy and calls up disturbing memories of the treatment of David Reimer. If trans has any links to body dysmorphia, to anorexia, or to self-harm, then it could not be appropriate to medicate or to offer surgery, however acceptable to the patient, however fiercely demanded.”

Having attacked Money for not listening to David Reimer’s self-diagnosis that he was not a woman, Matthews is still not willing to accept the equivalent self-diagnosis of trans persons. She connects trans and trauma: “Perhaps the most important voices are those of transitioners and detransitioners who are now beginning to explore what they see as a relationship between trans and trauma, challenging the constricting logic which demands that the complexity of human experience must fit the constructs of the gender narrative.”

Let us suppose that there is merit in Matthew’s linking of trans and trauma. She undermines her own case by distorting the history of the CXGIC and especially her (how shall we put if) Money-fication of its history and by paying no attention at all to the clinic’s pioneers.

↧

Two New York plastic surgeons in the 1970s

September 27, 2016, 6:17 am

≫ Next: A short history of male pregnancy

≪ Previous: Charing Cross GIC – addendum

Facial Feminization Surgery is sometimes said to have been developed by surgeon Douglas Ousterhout in 1982. Of course transsexuals had surgery to change their appearance before that date, although perhaps not in so systematic an approach. It was then referred to by the more general term "plastic surgery" but also as "facial contouring". Rhinoplasty (nose jobs) were the most common such operation. The same plastic surgeons often also did breast enhancements. Here are two New York surgeons who worked in this field.

Felix Shiffman (1925 - 2005)

Felix Shiffman was born in New York City, served in the US Army, earned a dental degree at New York University and a medical degree from Hadassah University in Tel Aviv. He practiced cosmetic surgery for over forty years from 1954 in New York City, and also owned an art gallery. He advertised his services to transsexual patients, particularly in New York Magazine, and was known for his rhinoplasties.

In 1974 Luis Suria, then aged 45, was in transition to female. She was an unlicensed school teacher, who had not worked steadily since 1961, but held sporadic employment as a commercial artist. She visited Drs Shiffman and Rish, mainly the former, in June/July 1974 and again in December 1974 and underwent injections of free silicone to acquire female breasts. By March 1975 Suria’s breasts were sore and she returned for treatment from Dr Shiffman, who referred her to Dr Dhaliwal who performed a bilateral subcutaneous mastectomy. Suria, shocked by the severity of the resulting wounds, checked out of the hospital against medical advice, and later developed a wound site infection which required another operation.

Meanwhile, in 1980 Dr Shiffman was advertising: “Specializing in Cosmetic Surgery and Facial Contouring for Transsexuals”. New York Magazine reported that his receptionist was giving quotes for silicone shots at $120 to $240 a unit, but when the magazine spoke to Shiffman, he denied doing silicone shots.

Luis Suria, having abandoned transition, became a born-again Christian, and, with psychiatric help, returned to being “a regular man”. He sued for malpractice and the case Luis Suria v. Felix Shiffman et al came to court in 1983. The plaintiff argued that Shiffman committed malpractice when he injected silicone into Suria's breasts in July and December 1974, that Dhaliwal committed malpractice in the performance of the mastectomy, and that Dhaliwal had improperly failed to obtain informed consent for the procedure. Suria maintained that consent was given for "incision and drainage” but not for a mastectomy. In contention Shiffman claimed that he did not treat the patient until December 1976, and that “symptoms were caused by injections of mineral oil administered by a transsexual friend”.

In November 1983, the jury found that in July and December 1974 Shiffman did commit malpractice which was a proximate cause of the plaintiff's injuries, that Dhaliwal did not commit malpractice but did fail to obtain plaintiff's informed consent, which failure was a cause of the plaintiff's injuries, that the plaintiff was guilty of negligence that was a cause of his injuries, that Shiffman was 60% at fault, Dhaliwal 15% and the plaintiff 25%, and that the plaintiff's total damages were $2,000,000. The trial court dismissed the claim against Shiffman on the ground that plaintiff's contributory negligence barred recovery and, reducing the amount of the verdict by 25%, the proportionate share of plaintiff's fault, entered judgment in the principal amount of $1,500,000 against Dhaliwal alone.

Both Dhaliwal and Suria appealed, objecting to the direction of a verdict in favor of Shiffman. Dhaliwal argued that he was a "successive tort-feasor" (a person who commits a second tort against the same previously injured party) and should not be held responsible for the entire damage award. The verdict against Shiffman was reinstated.

Suria talked of writing a book to help “those who are confused about their sexual orientation” (sic). His final award was $600,000.

In later years Dr Shiffman specialized in liposculpture, and as late as 1999, Shiffman was still doing breast augmentations.

In March 2000 Shiffman pleaded no contest to “practicing fraudulently; filing a false report; practicing with negligence and incompetence on more than one occasion and failing to maintain accurate records”, and surrended his medical license.

In 2001 Shiffman retired to Ormand Beach, Florida. In September 2003 he was involved in a car accident where a man pushing a motorcycle was killed. He died at age 79 shortly afterwards.

Sharon Churcher. "The Anguish of the Transsexuals". New York Magazine, 13, 25, June 16, 1980: 49.
“Suria v. Shiffman”. Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York, First Department, March 19, 1985. Leagle. Find a Case
“Former transsexual wins malpractice suit”. The Auburn Citizen, February 20, 1986. PDF
Jack Lechner. Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You. Crown Publishers, 2000: 95.
Felix Shiffman. Surrender of License. PDF
“Man On Road Hit, Killed By Car”. Orlando Sentinel, September 21, 2003. http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2003-09-21/news/0309210026_1_ormond-nova-beach-police.

Obituary

----------------

I couldn't find a statement that Suria actually got the $600,000 (almost $1,450,000 today).

Apparently Luis Suria v. Felix Shiffman et al has become case law with regard to successive tort-feasors.
_________________________________________

Peter Fries (? – 1981)

Peter Freis was a plastic surgeon on Park Avenue, New York in the 1970s. He advertised in New York Magazine, and did facial work and breast implants for mtf transsexuals.

He is said to have practiced 'closed capsulotomy' to break the capsular contracture, a reaction to breast and other implants. This was just brute force, squeezing the breasts till the scar tissue split.

His last nurse was Robyn Arnold, the girlfriend who was charged with, but not convicted of, the murder of Diane Delia. Fries died, by happenstance, a few days after Delia was killed.

Linda Wolfe. “The Transsexual, the Bartender and the Jewish American Princess”. New York, 17 Jan 1983: 30, 33. Online Uses the ‘Freiss’ spelling.

--------

While Wolfe mentioned “Freiss” in the magazine version of the Diane Delia story, he is not mentioned under either spelling in the reprint in her book The Professor and the Prostitute, and Other True Tales of Murder and Madness, 1987.

↧

A short history of male pregnancy

September 30, 2016, 9:44 am

≫ Next: The Rudy-Donald drag show.

≪ Previous: Two New York plastic surgeons in the 1970s

This is a convoluted tale consisting of three strands:

1. Doctors attempting to establish whether a cis man or trans woman could get pregnant with an ectopic pregnancy. The theory for how to do this was in place by 1985, but if any such pregnancy has been brought to term, it is not known to the public

2. Frauds and performance by cis men.

3. Trans men have quietly, and then less quietly, been getting pregnant all along, often with no aid at all from doctors.

1807

John Fubbister from the Orkney Isles was part of a Hudson’s Bay expedition that canoed 1800 miles up river arriving at Pembina Post on the Red River (in the future North Dakota) for Christmas. There Fubbister gave birth and was outed. AKA Isobel Gunn: EN.Wikipedia

1936

Nochmen Tenenbaum (born 1911) army sergeant, Warsaw, gave birth in 1936. GVWW

Early 1960s

David Kirby of Oxford University transplanted mouse embryos into the testes of male mice. See Teresi & McAuliffe, 1985.

Mid-1960s

Cecil Jacobsen of George Washington University Medical School transplanted a fertilized baboon egg into the abdomen of a male baboon. The embryo attached itself to the omentum (which hangs in front of the intestines). The embryo developed healthily, but was aborted after four months. This was done without external hormones. The embryo produced the hormones that it needed. However the results were never published. See Teresi & McAuliffe, 1985. See also EN.Wikipedia and book and film about Jacobsen. Jacobsen was a pioneer in amniocentesis, but later in life was convicted of using his own sperm in in vitro conceptions.

1970

Leo Wollman flew up to Toronto for the release of Dianna Boileau's autobiography. He rather dominated the event and predicted that transsexual women would be able to become pregnant within 10 years. This never came to pass.

1971

Novel: John Varley. The Ophiuchi Hotline. Dial, 1971. A science fiction novel set the future when alien technology enables persons to change sex and be fertile. Men become women to have a child, and then switch back. EN.Wikipedia

1973

Film: L'Événement le plus important depuis que l'homme a marché sur la Lune/ Niente di grave, suo marito è incinto/ A Slightly Pregnant Man, with Jacques Demy (dir), Marcello Mastroianni, Catherine Deneuve. France, Italy 92 mins 1973. IMDB EN.Wikipedia . A driving instructor becomes pregnant, and hormones in chickens are deemed to be the reason. He becomes a model for paternity clothing.

1978

Film:Rabbit Test, Joan Rivers (dir),with Billy Crystal, Roddy McDowell. US 84 mins 1978. IMDB EN.Wikipedia. A comedy about a sexually inexperienced man who becomes pregnant and gives birth to a daughter.

1979

Margaret Martin, a NZ cis woman, then 29 gave birth to a healthy girl in May, eight months after her hysterectomy, thereby establishing that ectopic [outside the womb] pregnancies were safe and feasible. Her gynaecologist, Peter Jackson told journalists that this proved that pregnant men were therefore possible. See Teresi & McAuliffe, 1985.

1984

Six trans women requested admission to the in vitro fertilization clinic at Queen Victoria Medical Centre, Melbourne. Their request was turned down. See Teresi & McAuliffe, 1985.

1985

Dick Teresi & Kathleen McAuliffe. “Male pregnancy”.Omni, December 1985, 8: 50-56 and 118. PDF Influential and inspiring article that summarized the work done to date. Afterwards Teresi got Bob Guccione, founder of Omni and Penthouse to put up $500,000 for Jacobsen to arrange a male pregnancy, but they then considered the mortality rates and dropped the idea.

Early 1990s

Trans man, Oleg (born 196?) Moscow: Four months into term his sperm-donor died suddenly of a leukaemia-related blood disorder. Oleg’s doctor feared that the baby would also be sick, and convinced him to have an abortion. Before they could try again, his wife died of a congenital heart defect. Oleg was considering getting pregnant again, as a way of honouring his wife’s memory. Discussed in David Tuller. Cracks in the Iron Closet: Travels in Gay & Lesbian Russia. Faber & Faber 1996: 161-4.

1992

Edwin Bayron, 32, Phillipines, a midwife, claimed to be hermaphroditic and six-months pregnant. He was able to fake the results of an ultrasound scan and two urine tests, such that the chief gynaecologist at the Bukidnon provincial hospital supported the claim. However this was a deceit resulting from his wish to marry his boyfriend. News article.

Intersex Karl Holzer, living as male, 31, Frankfurt, Germany, gave birth to boy in June. Weekly World News.

1994

Film: Junior, Ivan Reitman (dir), with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny Devito. US 109 mins 1994. As part of fertility research, a male scientist agrees to become pregnant. IMDB EN.Wikipedia Based on the theory in the 1985 Omni article.

Dick Teresi. “How to get a man pregnant”. The New York Times, November 27, 1994. www.nytimes.com/1994/11/27/magazine/how-to-get-a-man-pregnant.html. Follow-up by the co-author of the 1985 Omni article.

1998

Sam Dylan More. "The Pregnant Man - An Oxymoron". Journal of Gender Studies. 7, 3, 1998: 319-328. This article studies nine German trans men who have been pregnant, and found that they had to engage in significant identity and body work to mitigate the impact of societal pregnancy scripts.

1999

Matt Rice (born 1964) San Francisco, twice a lover of Pat(rick) Califia. Pat had undergone a hysterectomy some years before, but Matt had stopped taking testosterone because of related migraines. With the aid of sperm donated sexually by three male friends, Matt became pregnant, and as a bearded man attended birthing classes. Meanwhile Califia started transition. The son, Blake (born 1999), is autistic, and Matt is raising him alone. 2000 article by Califia in Village Voice

Lee Mingwei Taiwanese man in New York who exhibited his pregnancy. ”Curiously, the Web site has been up since 1999, and Mr. Lee is apparently still pregnant! Either the poor man has been in labor for nearly a decade (talk about a rough delivery!), or the story is a fake. Of course, Mr. Lee doesn't exist; the Web site is a hoax created as performance art by an artist named Virgil Wong.”

2005

Meryl Rothstein . "Male Pregnancy: A Dangerous Proposition". Popular Science, 07.31.2005. Online.

2006

Film: Jules Rosskam (dir). Transparent. US 61 Mins 2006. A documentary about 19 trans men who have been pregnant and are now raising the child. IMDB

2008-10

Thomas Beatie, (born 1974, completed top-surgery transition 2002, married 2003) Arizona, with an infertile wife, became pregnant via donated sperm and a syringe. He wrote an article for The Advocate about the experience, and was profiled in The Washington Post. He became a media sensation, and did an hour-long interview on Oprah. He gave birth to a daughter June 2008, a son June 2009 and a second son July 2010. Mr & Mrs Beatie were divorced in 2012-4 in a case that tested legal definitions of gender. EN.Wikipedia Not the first pregnant man, but the first publicised.

Film:Pregnant Man, Elizabeth Mcdonald (dir), with Thomas Beatie. US TV 2008. IMDB

William Leith. “Pregnant men: hard to stomach?” Daily Telegraph, 10 Apr 2008. www.telegraph.co.uk/men/active/mens-health/3354220/Pregnant-men-hard-to-stomach.html.

2010

J Wallace. “The Manly Art of Pregnancy”. In Kate Bornstein & S Bear Bergman (eds). Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation. Seal Press, 2010: 188-194.

2011

Yuval Topper (born 1988), Israel, top-surgery 2009, gave birth to a son in December 2011. Gay Star News. And a daughter in 2014. Jews News

Trevor MacDonald (born 1985) Manitoba, top surgery in early 20s, gave birth to a boy in 2011, and a second child in 2014. He was helped by La Leche League Canada, the breastfeeding support group. He applied to be a LLLC coach but was rejected as he does not regard himself as a mother. However LLLC set up an internal review and a year later expunged gendered language from its requirements. He founded in 2012 "Birthing and Breast or Chestfeeding Trans People and Allies which has 1700 members, and in 2014 formed a research team with funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research . The Star EN.Wikipedia

2012

AJ Kearns (born 1974) Melbourne, started transitioned at age 35. His wife had birth complications with their first child, so AJ postponed transition to give birth to their second child in 2012. The couple have since separated. Daily Mail

2013

Kayden Coleman (born 1985) Philadelphia, and his husband gave birth to a daughter in 2013. NY Daily News

Damien W. Riggs. “Transgender men’s self-representations of bearing children post-transition”. In F. Green. & M. Friedman. (eds.) Chasing rainbows, Demeter Press, 2013. PDF

2014

Alexis D Light, Juno Obedin-Maliver, Jae M Sevelius, Jennifer L Kerns. “Transgender men who experienced pregnancy after female-to-male gender transitioning”. Obstetrics & Gynecology, 124, 6, Dec 2014: 1120-7. Abstract News article

Freya Nobel. “'Male pregnancy' figures reveal how 54 MEN gave birth in Australia in the past 12 months”. Daily Mail, 19 November 2014. www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2836374/Male-pregnancy-figures-reveal-54-MEN-gave-birth-Australia-past-12-months.html

2015

Eve Shapiri. Gender Circuits: Bodies and Identities in a Technological Age. Routledge, 2015: 236-242.

Television:“From Daddy’s Tummy” Janine Cohen (dir), with AJ Kearn. Australian Story. AU ABC 30 mins 2015. IMDB

2016

Even Hempel (born 1981) US, gave birth to a boy in Spring 2016. People

Henry Steinn, (born 1997) Iceland, gave birth to a baby girl April 2016. Pink News

Fernando Machado , Ecuador, pregnant by his trans wife, gave birth in June 2016. Daily Mail

Rafi Daugherty (born 1983) Denver, gave birth to a daughter. JTA

Trevor MacDonald. Where's the Mother? Stories from a Transgender Dad. Trans Canada Press, 2016.

EN.Wikipedia(male) EN.Wikipedia(transgender)
____________________

There is also a book The Pregnant Man by Roberto Zapperi, Harwood, 1991, translated and revised into English by Brian Williams (original Uomo incinto, Cosenza, 1979). This book is not listed in Amazon. It is not about attempts or success of pregnancy in life, but in folklore and in psychoanalysis. It appears that he is totally ignorant of queer studies, but cites Freud, Ferenczi and Devereux instead as the latest research.

-------------------

So is a pregnant trans parent a mother or a father? Trans women with children are divided: some insist that they are mothers to their children, while others talk of their duties as a father, and allow their children to call them ‘Dad’. However trans women parents are, almost all, parents before transition. The trans men whom we list above had done most of transition before they became pregnant.

There are three factors:

1. Fathers impregnate, mothers gestate.

2. Mothers produce a single or a small number of DNA units surrounded by protein (eggs); fathers produce a large number of motile DNA units without protein and which cannot divide, but have a tail (sperm). Fish species of the Syngnathidae family, of which the best known is the seahorse, are said to exhibit male pregnancy. So why do we not regard the gestating parent as a mother? It is because it produces sperm, and receives eggs from the other sex.

3. Gender identity.

Obviously (1) and (2) would make a pregnant trans man a mother, however the current social construction is that (3) trumps (1) and (2). A valuable tenet of second-wave feminism was that gender is a social construction, and that received gender roles should be deconstructed. The more advanced position is that sex, as well as gender, is socially constructed. Male pregnancy is a step further and challenges the historical cultural baggage that we inherited along with the basic biology of making babies. The queering of everyday life continues.

↧

The Rudy-Donald drag show.

October 9, 2016, 12:46 pm

≫ Next: Transgender Lexicons: Raven Usher

≪ Previous: A short history of male pregnancy

I have featured this clip before, but it has a topical resonance again.

↧

Transgender Lexicons: Raven Usher

October 12, 2016, 4:57 am

≫ Next: 2 photographs from The Other Paris

≪ Previous: The Rudy-Donald drag show.

This is the first of a series on lexicons.

Raven Usher. North American Lexicon of Transgender Terms. GLB Publishers 2006.

Raven Usher (1982 – ) is a writer and transgender activist in Boise, Idaho. She was editor of Diversity magazine. She has a wife and three children. She explains: “I put this together during the time I was flexing my activist muscles”.

Why “North American”?

Presumably to avoid getting into European and Asian terminology, although there are entries for “Katoey” (“trans-variant people as the third sex. Originated in Thailand”) and “Ladyboy” (“Very young male to female pre-op TS. Term originated in Thailand”).

But on the other hand terms that reflect North America are missing. There are no Mexican terms such as “Muxhes”, “transformista”, “maricón” or “Los 41”. Likewise there are no terms from Quebec such as “travelo” or “travestie”, nor any from the New York Ball scene such as “realness” or “throwing shade”.

There is only one aboriginal term, the Lakota term “winkte”, but she does not tell us that it is Lakota. There are entries for “two-spirit” and ‘berdache’, but Usher does not seem to know that following the First Nation/American Native convention in Winnipeg in 1990, “two-spirit” replaced ‘berdache’ because it was offensive. She actually claims that ‘berdache’ is “Originally a Native American term”, when it fact it is derived from a Persian word for a boy-prostitute that was imposed by Europeans ignorant of the two-spirit traditions.

Words that have since gone out of fashion

None of the definitions acknowledge that word usages change over time, and this is most apparent in “tranny” which Usher simply defines as: “abbreviation – ‘transgender’ See also: t-gurl”. Of course the term had not yet been demonized in 2006, but should not the definition stress that even more than transgender, “tranny” is a bringing together of transsexual, transvestite and drag. The variant form “transy” is not mentioned at all, and the now fashionable variant “trans” is not said to be a variant of ‘tranny’. In fact ‘trans’ is defined as “abbreviation - A gender variant person”. Is this different, if so, how?

Usher also uses 'transgendered', but then most of us did back in 2006.

Sexual orientation

Usher has an entry for “sexual orientation”: “The sex a person is sexually attracted to. Sexual orientation is not a factor in determining transgenderism.” There are also entries for “heterosexual”, “homosexual”, “bi-sexual”, “straight”, "gay", “fag”, “asexual”. Some might say that these are not needed if they are not a factor. However most importantly e.g “heterosexual” is defined as “a person who is sexually attracted only to people of the opposite sex”.

But we are dealing with trans persons - which sex is opposite? An apparent gay man will usually become a heterosexual woman after transition. So is Usher doing as Blanchard and others do (to great annoyance) and defining sexual orientation with respect to birth gender whether it is changed or not. This issue is ignored, and the words “androphilic” and “gynephilic” that many of us use to get around the problem are not in the lexicon at all.

Cis and drag

The various ‘cis’ terms, although they have been around since the 1990s, are not included, and “genetic boy”, “genetic girl” are used despite the objections that have been raised against them. Usher is emphatic that drag queens and drag kings are not transgender, but offers no other term for the many trans women and a few trans men who went though drag performance and later completed a full transition.

Femmophile and fetish

There is an entry for “femmophile”: “A heterosexual male with a strong love of the feminine but may or may not be transgendered. See also: trans-variant”. Is this Virginia Prince’s ‘femmiphilic”? Why the spelling change? Of Prince’s jargon terms only “second self” is in the lexicon, but not ‘male woman’, ‘dual personality’ ‘girl within’, ‘whole girl fetishist”. So why a slight variation on one Princian term? Or to take a different approach, if the term is not Princian, why are gay transvestites not allowed to be femmophilic.

There is also no mention at all of autogynephila. The closest approach is fetish: “aka ‘sexual fetish’ A person who wears particular pieces of clothing of the a gender other than their own for sexual gratification. Fetishes are not transgendered”.

Pronouns

The only non-binary pronouns given are ze/hir. For some reason Usher refers to ze/hir as "Spivakian" without explaining what that is. I had to look it up: however Spivak’s proposed pronouns are e/eir. Ze/hir is more associated with Leslie Feinberg.

Conclusions

The final entry in the lexicon is: “50% rule: Statistic that states, '50% of all transsexuals will die by their early thirties. A small number die from violence, disease or other common causes. Most commit suicide.'” No citation is given for this claim. Even if it were true, it would be necessary to explain that those who commit suicide do so because of transphobia. This entry like this without citation and explanation should not be in a lexicon.

There is an ideology in this lexicon. That is not necessarily a bad thing, but it should be admitted in an introductory essay.

The lexicon is available on Kindle for less than $1.

The Inland Revenue Service Library has acquired a printed copy. I wonder what they make of it?

Amazon Blog

↧

2 photographs from The Other Paris

October 15, 2016, 1:26 pm

≫ Next: Nicky Kiranant (1983 - ) air hostess

≪ Previous: Transgender Lexicons: Raven Usher

The Other Paris by Luc Sante, 2015 is a recent book that tells many interesting anecdotes about Paris, but has very little to say about its trans traditions. Homosexuality is stuck in as the last part of the chapter on prostitution, and trans only passingly within that.

However it does contains two photographs of interest.

Note: the word 'pederast' was used in French without necessarily implying intergenerational relationships.

↧

Nicky Kiranant (1983 - ) air hostess

October 21, 2016, 10:40 am

≫ Next: René Goupil (1903 – 1973) transformiste

≪ Previous: 2 photographs from The Other Paris

Chaiya was the seventh child in an impoverished farming family in Lampang, Thailand. Chaiya was observed as effeminate and admired the local kathoeys but was warned that parents of kathoeys lose face. Chaiya helped plough the rice fields and looked after the water buffalo.

At age 15 Chaiya had an ID card, and moved to Bangkok. There he initially lived with his sister. He befriended kathoeys, took an evening class and found work in a travel agency, where he worked on a tour bus.

Chaiya took courses at Chandrakasem Rajabhat University, and entered and won the Miss Le Flore ladyboy beauty contest. From university Chaiya was able to get work as a flight attendant with PB Air, even though he had never been on an airplane before. Passengers commented about a female being allowed to wear the male uniform, and one wrote to the airline complimenting them on their open-mindedness. Chaiya was then requested to wear the female uniform.

This went well, and Chaiya started to dress female in her private life as well. She consulted doctors, and, for the first time, took female hormones. She obtained approval from the executive of the airline, and the operation was performed 31 December 2005. Although there were problems with internal bleeding and closure, they were dealt with.

She asked the airline executive for permission to enter the 2006 Miss Tiffany Universe contest held in Pattaya. They not only agreed: they sponsored her. She was featured in the media as a promising candidate, and became known as Nicky. The airline was complimented for its open-mindedness. She phoned her parents, and they came around to acceptance.

Like all other sao oraphet song in Thailand, Nicky still has a male ID card. This has prevented her from obtaining jobs at other airlines after PB Air went out of business in 2009.

Despite her media celebrity, Nicky was initially stealth with her boyfriend.

Nicky has since been employed by PC Air, which has also employed three other kathoey air stewardesses including the 2007 Miss Tiffany Universe winner, Thanyarat Jiraphatpakorn.

· “Equal opportunity employment”. Bangkok Today, 11 October 2006. Translated into English by Stephen Cleary. “World’s 1^st Ladyboy Air-Hostess”. Thai Blogs, July 19, 2007. www.thai-blogs.com/2007/07/19/world-s-1st-ladyboy-air-hostess.
· Susan Aldous & Pornchai Sereemongkonpol. Ladyboys: The Secret World of Thailand's Third Gender. Dunboyne: Maverick House, 2008: 189-223.
· Christina Wylie. “THE THIRD SEX: The life of a ladyboy in today’s Thai society”. Samui Holiday Magazine, www.samuiholidaymagazine.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=421:the-third-sex&catid=41:may-2012&Itemid=16.

_____________________________________________________

Nicky’s account in the Aldous/ Sereemongkonpol Ladyboy anthology does not name PB Air, and neither EN.Wikipedia nor TH.Wikipedia on PB.Air mention their sponsorship of Nicky.

The story of PB Air requesting that Chaiya wear the female uniform is in her own account in the Aldous/ Sereemongkonpol Ladyboy anthology, but is not repeated in the Bangkok Today or the Samui Holiday accounts.

↧

René Goupil (1903 – 1973) transformiste

October 23, 2016, 11:58 am

≫ Next: Another 4 trans persons with a more famous kin

≪ Previous: Nicky Kiranant (1983 - ) air hostess

René Goupil started out as a window-dresser, and then, from 1932, became a minor music-hall performer in Paris.

Late in 1933, he became director of the cabaret Le Fiacre, rue Notre-Dame de Lorette, where he also performed as clown and prankster, and evolved his act as a transformiste (female impersonator), a dame act featuring a character called Odette, and then O’dett.

A year later, he bought the theatre L'Abbaye de Thélème, place Pigalle, and turned it into a cabaret which he called 'La noce (The wedding)'. Goupil’s act mocked celebrities, and featured an old woman taking pratfalls, losing her glasses etc. O’dett became one of France’s best known transformistes. Mistinguett, friend of showbiz transvestites, was also a friend of O’dett.

O'dett and Charpini

Goupil was as out as a gay performer could be in the 1930s. In 1936, he recorded Le Tsoin-tsoin. The song was a play on the name of the town Bouffémont, in the Val d'Oise. The song kept returning to lines ending in the nonsense term tsoin-tsoin: “Il passe ses journées entières à Bouffémont - tsoin-tsoin” “Son seul plaisir dans la vie, c'est Bouffémont-tsoin-tsoin”. (See below.)

O’dett was in the 1937 French film, Cinderella. In 1938, Goupil renamed l’Abbaye de Theleme as 'Chez O’dett '. Edith Piaf performed here after the murder of her manager and mentor, Louis Leplée.

In January 1940, O'dett appeared as the star of a review at ABC, where he mocked Adolf Hitler as crazy. With the German occupation a few months later he prudently withdrew to the Zone libre of southern France, and when the Germans took over that in November 1942 he moved to Monte Carlo even though it was occupied by the Italians.

He returned to Paris after the Liberation, and by 1948 was performing again. In the 1960s he became an antiques dealer.

Martin Pénet. “L'expression homosexuelle dans les chansons françaises de l'entre-deux-guerres : entre dérision et ambiguïté”. Revue d’histoire moderne et contemporaine 4, 53-5, 2006: 106-127. Online.
Luc Sante. The Other Paris. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2015:134.

FR.Wikipedia DuTempsdesCerise
______________________________________________

Bouffémont is a homonym of ‘bouffé mon’. ‘bouffé’ is to eat extravagantly, perhaps excessively; ‘mon’ is ‘my’; and ‘tsoin tsoin’ is nonsense like ‘dong’.

‘Bouffémont-tsoin-tsoin’ thereby becomes ‘ to eat and eat my dong’ - a suggestion of fellatio.

There does not seem to be any connection between ‘bouffé’ and the English restaurant word ‘buffet’ which is actually derived from a French word for side table.

O’dett never became a performer at Madame Arthurwhich opened in 1945, although he was only 42 at the time. As was the style between the wars, O’dett’s act was more what we would call cod drag or dame drag rather than glamour drag, although probably no more so than that of Floridor or Maslova, the original Madame Arthur stars. And remember that across the channel, England's most popular female impersonatir was Old Mother Riley. Madame Arthur and then Le Carrousel was altered dramatically in 1951 when Coccinelle arrived. We should remember that Coccinelle was born in 1931: she was 28 years younger than O’dett. A new generation was arriving.

↧

Another 4 trans persons with a more famous kin

October 26, 2016, 5:49 am

≫ Next: Jill Monro (1951 – 1982) porn star

≪ Previous: René Goupil (1903 – 1973) transformiste

See also 6 trans persons with a more famous kin

Monica Jay was born in Berlin, but lived in London most of her life. She ran a Montessori nursery school. She and her husband had three children, but after a divorce she took in lodgers. Later she had an affair with her tenant, Gerald/ine Tilson, a manager in an electronics firm, who was a transvestite who introduced her to the trans subculture. She wrote up the experience as Geraldine: For the Love of a Transvestite, 1986, and it was later turned into a film Just Like a Woman, which turned Geraldine into an American. Monica became a phone counsellor for the Beaumont Trust, and for the Transvestite/Transsexual Support Group. Amazon TGTapestry IMDB EN.Wikipedia Monica also presented a paper, “Women and their widely differing reactions to their cross dressing partners” at the 1990 Gendys Conference.

Linda Nichols, from Boston, of Greek and French descent, was a lesbian separatist, but also a femme with long hair who wore sexy dresses. Nichols joined the US Army at age 29, and became butch, cut her hair to a crew cut and started wearing male clothing. He then started taking hormones and decided in a full change to Les Nichols. Les had surgery from Dr Biber in 1989, but insisted that he not lose any sensitivity at all, so Biber left his vagina intact. Later that year he met Annie Sprinkle at a New York FTM party organized by Johnny Science. They flirted but waited two weeks for his penis to finish healing. They became lovers and a film of their love-making was made by Johnny Science. Hustler IMDB

Robyn Deane, Richmond, Virginia, was, pre-transition, a husband and father to three, and brother-in-law to Bob McDonnell, Governor of Virginia 2010-14, a right-winger opposed to gay marriage etc. Deane and McDonnel had, met when they were 22 and began dating sisters from a large Northern Virginia family. Washington Post

Jack Strano, webpage, a trans butch musician, San Francisco, the life partner of Shar Renour, who is author of The Femme’s Guide to the Universe SFGate .

↧

Jill Monro (1951 – 1982) porn star

October 29, 2016, 11:52 am

≫ Next: Transgender lexicons: Chris Bartlett

≪ Previous: Another 4 trans persons with a more famous kin

Terri, originally called Teddy, was a Brooklynite of Italian descent. Her father died when she was young, and her mother practically raised her as a girl. As a teenager, Terri had a rhinoplasty and her chin reshaped, electrolysis, took female hormones and silicon enhancements. She trained and was licensed as a cosmetologist.

In March 1976 Terri and a friend hired a car, and then she and the driver, David Rice, exchanged numbers, and they started dating after she broke up with her previous boyfriend. Rice accepted that she was a bit different from other women.

“I am, believe it or not, a fairly straight kind of dude – I mean, I’m not, and never have been, gay. But then, I don’t think Jill was ever a man – she was just born with the wrong kind of equipment. I fell in love with her and together we sailed through the series of operations that would make us a ‘legitimate’ couple.”

David took out a loan for her to have further breast enhancement, and another loan a year later in July 1977 for sexual correction. The pain killers she took after the surgery added to the downers that she was already taking.

After surgery Terri caught David reading Cheri magazine, and felt that she was more beautiful than the model. They took some polaroids and sent them in. Cheri magazine invited them to come in, and a shoot was arranged. Terri took the name Jill Monro from Farrah Fawcett’s character in Charlie’s Angels. David had to write a monthy column sometimes under Jill’s name, and sometimes as Dave Zele.

Terri was quite open about her sexual past, and her appearance in the magazine was an eight-page
article, “The Gal With The Man Made Muff – The Incredible Saga of Jill Monro”.

“Most people didn’t believe that she was born male. Everybody thought that Cheri magazine was just doing a huge publicity stunt for the numbers, for circulation, for money… whatever you want to call it.”

Jill and David were introduced to Mark Stevens (1943-1989) who was established as a heterosexual adult-film actor despite being mainly gay. Annie Sprinkle refers to him as ‘straight for pay’. Mark and Jill threw theme parties at different clubs in Manhattan. Jill was in several adult films between 1978 and 1982. Late in 1978 Jill had a supposed marriage with Marc Stevens at a Greenwich Village disco. This became an eight-page spread in Cheri magazine.

In 1979 Jill and a female friend went to the nude beach at Rockaway Beach, and were busted for public lewdness. A good lawyer got them off, and the incident was turned into an article for Cheri magazine.

David became a photographer, and did rock music tours, sometimes did the camera work on Jill’s films, and was also her manager.

After a management shake-up at Cheri, David and Jill went over to High Society magazine. By this time she had progressed from cocaine on to heroin. This led to her and David living apart. She got less and less work as a model, and began turning tricks and ran ads in Screw and the Village Voice.

The drugs led to a decline and Terri died at age 31.

David Zele (David Rice). “The Gal With The Man Made Muff – The Incredible Saga of Jill Monro”. Cheri magazine, March 1978.
Hazel Gravy. “Jill Monro’s Surgeon Tells: How To Become A Woman”. Cheri magazine, May 1978.
Dan Zele (David Rice) “All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Tits: The Story of Jill Monro”. Cheri magazine, July 1978.
Jill Monro & Jane Compton. “Beach Blanket Bust-O”. Cheri magazine, February 1979.
“The Wedding of the Decade”. Cheri Magazine, April 1979.
George Petros interviews Annie Sprinkle. “Has a hands-on fetish for Trans guys”. The New Transsexuals, 2012. www.georgepetros.com/writings/tnt/Annie-Sprinkle.htm.
Interview with David Rice. “Who was Jill Monro?: The Story of New York’s First Transsexual Porn Star:. The Rialto Report, 16 March 2014. www.therialtoreport.com/2014/03/16/who-was-jill-monro-the-story-of-new-yorks-first-transsexual-porn-star/

IMDB

_______________________________________________________________________

Some of the dates don’t jive. IMDB lists Jill in the film White Fire, as 1976, before she met David Rice, before correction surgery and before she chose the name.

Jill’s movie period was 1978-82. Compare to Sulka’s prime years 1980-3. Jill was different from other trans porn stars in being post-op before getting into adult movies.

↧

Transgender lexicons: Chris Bartlett

October 31, 2016, 10:39 am

≫ Next: Leah Cahan (Schaefer) (1920 – 2013) singer, psychologist

≪ Previous: Jill Monro (1951 – 1982) porn star

Chris Bartlett. What does ‘queer’ mean anyway? The Quick and Dirty Guide to LGBTQIA+ Vocabulary. Create Space and Kindle, 2016.

Chris Bartlett is a heterosexual cis man in Colorado with a degree in business studies. He has written a series of ‘quick and dirty guides’ on a number of different subjects, mainly US elections but also BrExit, “Leaving America”, Olympic disasters – and this guide for LGBTQIA+ allies. Amazon Page

He intends this book to enable non-LGBTQIA+ persons to understand queer persons by means of simple definitions, a few case studies and a timeline. Amazon contains several 4 and 5-star reviews to the effect that he has succeeded in this endeavour. To that extent, good luck to him. This review, however, is not of the book from that perspective, but from a trans perspective.

He does not explain who his informants are, but they seem to be a group that embraces non-binary and gender queer, and are probably young in that there is little awareness of changes in usage over time. In a way, what he is attempting is probably so difficult, skating as it does on terminological fashion that is constantly changing, that to do completely successfully would be impossible.

Chapter 1 – What is LGBTQIA+

He starts with:

“Most readers have probably heard or seen the acronym LGBT and are aware it stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender (although they may mistakenly believe the “T” is for “Transexual," a word that is considered offensive).”

So we already have a problem. Many of us, here, are in fact transsexuals or post-transsexuals. I certainly find it offensive for an outsider to tell me that the word is offensive.

A few pages later he tells repeats and expands:

“Some may assume that this ‘T’ stands for ‘Transsexual,’ but that term is used with decreasing frequency and is considered offensive. Still others may think that this ‘T’ has something to do with ‘Transvestitism,’ but that is incorrect — and a topic for a completely different book.”

This does not stop him from bringing in show-biz transvestites: Lily Savage, RuPaul and Freddie Mercury. There is no discussion about whether ‘drag’ and ‘tranvestism’ are the same or different.

Chapter 2 - Transgender and Intersex

Bartlett makes the standard distinction between the two, but does not mention that many of the pioneer generation of trans women such as Roberta Betty Cowell made dubious claims to be intersex. The one and only intersex person mentioned is Georgia Ziadie whom Bartlett refers to only by her marriage title, Lady Colin Campbell. This is an odd choice in that Ziadie is not involved in the movement for intersex rights, and there are those who think that her intersex status is similar to that of Betty Cowell.

A major event in the history of intersex was the abandonment of the word ‘hermaphrodite’ and its replacement by ‘intersex’. A major problem was the distinction between ‘true hermaphrodite’ and ‘pseudo-hermaphrodite’ with the implication that the latter were somehow not ‘true’. Therefore I was disappointed to see Barlett uncritically using ‘true gonadal intersex’ which brings back the old problem. This from a man who thinks that ‘transsexual’ is offensive.

Many intersex persons have objected to the term ‘disorders of sex development’ finding it offensive, and it has not been accepted by most intersex activist groups. Bartlett does not even mention this controversy, but does use the term in passing without even putting it in quotes.

He moves on to transgender. [gender dysphoria] ”is becoming a regularly used term in medicine and popular culture." He seem to be unaware that the term "gender dysphoria" was introduced by Norman Fisk in 1973 because 'transsexual' had lost its medical connotations, and he wished to re-pathologize the condition. That is why many of us avoid it.

Chapter 3 - Gender Fluidity and Nonconformity

This is the chapter where Bartlett seems to be most at home.

[Gender] “is a social construct and is not determined solely by sex but rather as a how a culture has reacted to sexual differences” and “due to the socio-political imbalance between sexes, women's gender has been constructed by men, or as a man’s ideal image of women”.

He lists six gender-neutral pronouns, but not my preferred ‘ae’. He gives elementary sentences on how to use such pronouns, but again remember the specified audience.

Chapter 4 – Tackling Judgment and Prejudice

Bartlett gives quite adequate definitions of homophobia, biphobia, transphobia, internalized homophobia, and discusses their social impact. He then gives a list of offensive words.

“Language plays a big part in this process. The following words and phrases have historically been used to isolate and hurt members of the LGBTQIA + community. There was some hesitation to include in this text language which has so often been used to demean members of the LGBTQIA + community. Ultimately it was deemed responsible to include this section because this book is directed towards well meaning people who have no desire to disparage others. The author encourages readers to use the below knowledge to be an advocate for the correct usage (or non-usage) of this vocabulary.”

His list of offensive words includes ‘transexual’, ‘tranny’ and ‘she-male’. The first of these was expected from the comments made in Chapter 1. As usual, ‘tranny’ but no mention of ‘transy’. Nor is there a mention that ‘tranny’ was quit acceptable until only a few years ago.

Chapter 5 – Relationships in Which Only One Person is Transgender

Bartlett discusses both married persons who transition, and a transitioned trans man who needs to tell his lover of his past. This chapter is quite well done.

Chapter 6 – Gender Identity, Sexuality and Popular Culture.

This chapter is mainly a time-line of events from 1930 to 2015.

Despite that most of the discussion above has been trans, intersex and non-binary, most items in the time–line are gay male and bi male. There are no lesbian entries, and no trans-male entries. The trans entries are Lili Elbe (with the usual misinformation), Stonewall (but without the trans persons), Holly Woodlawn in Trash, and “Walk on the Wild Side”, David Bowie in a dress, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Boy George, the group Queen, Lily Savage, RuPaul, Caitlyn Jenner, Jaden Smith.

The Australian soap opera Number 96 is mentioned for its first gay character, but that Carlotta was in it in 1973 as the first trans playing trans is not mentioned.

Showbiz transvestites Lily Savage and Rupaul are included, but showbiz transsexuals Christine Jorgensen, April Ashley, Coccinelle, Carlotta, Tula, Claudia Charriez, are not.

My Conclusion:

‘transsexual’ is not an offensive term

↧

Leah Cahan (Schaefer) (1920 – 2013) singer, psychologist

November 11, 2016, 8:57 am

≫ Next: Harry Benjamin’s first 10 cases: a disambiguation

≪ Previous: Transgender lexicons: Chris Bartlett

Leah Cahan was born in Milwaukee, and raised in Chicago. She was the daughter of an Orthodox rabbi who had escaped the pogroms in Lithuania.

Intending to be a music teacher, she started singing at age 15 at Central College (now Roosevelt University). After college she was in The Barries, a female trio. They lasted five years, sang on NBC radio in New York, were among the first artists to record for what became Capitol Records, and had a hit record with the Johnny Mercer, “San Fernando Valley”.

She lived in California and learned folk songs. Back in New York she was part of The Wayfarers, and became the first wife of jazz legend Hal Schaefer who was then in the group, and became known as Lee Schaefer.

After her second divorce Leah tried analysis, but after her father died, she slipped into a period of depression while living on unemployment pay.

A second session of analysis in 1953 led to her accepting the suggestion that she herself become an analyst. She was accepted at Columbia Teachers College, and then Columbia University, where she earned an MA and then a doctorate.

A third marriage at this time resulted in a daughter.

For her doctoral thesis she chose the topic of female orgasm. It was then 1961, and the ongoing work by Masters and Johnson had not yet been published. She was given permission by Ernest G. Osborne(1903-63), the head of her department who supervised her thesis until his early death. Leah was also advised by Margaret Mead. She quickly realized that understanding orgasm required understanding a whole life. She interviewed 30 white, middle-class women who were unaffected by the then just-beginning women’s movement. They talked about their first reactions to menstruation, their adolescent sexual encounters, their first sexual act, and how they feel about orgasm and adult sexuality. One finding was how each woman in the study had a negative reaction in childhood to the idea that her parents had sex. Many of the women had never talked to anyone in such detail before.

Leah 1974

The thesis was completed in 1964, and Columbia suggested that a commercial publisher would be appropriate, but it took until 1973 until one was willing.

After graduation, Leah was credentialed as a psychotherapist. After she had built a practice using the name Leah Schaefer, and had established a reputation in the field, she was contacted by Wardell Pomeroy, a co-author of the Kinsey Reports. Pomeroy had been working with Harry Benjamin as a therapist to assess ‘true’ transsexualism. Schaefer was chosen because of her ability to be non-judgmental. Pomeroy was preparing to move to San Francisco, and wanted her to take over his work with transsexuals, which she did. She continued to work with transsexuals for the rest of her life, progressing from evaluation to general therapy.

She was the first women president of Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality (SSSS), 1978-1979. She worked with Connie Christine Wheeler. They interviewed Harry Benjamin in 1979 about the history of the SSSS, he took to them and trusted them with his files. They read all the 1500 or so files, and started meeting regularly with him to discuss what they found.

In 1983 they presented a paper “The Non-Surgical True Transsexual: A Theoretical Rationale”, an elaboration of Harry Benjamin’s Type IV, the person who cross-lives but does not desire gender confirmation surgery. After Benjamin’s death in 1986, Wheeler and Schaefer became the custodians of Harry Benjamin’s professional archives.

Schaefer was president of HBIDGA 1991-5 (before it was renamed WPATH), and was involved in the writing of several editions of its Standards of Care. In 1995 Schaefer and Wheeler published their seminal work, “Harry Benjamin's first ten cases (1938-1953): a clinical historical note”.

Schaefer donated the Benjamin archives and her own archives to the Kinsey Institute in 2007.

Leah 2007

Nancy Gonzales, who met Schaefer in 2008, summarized her work with transsexuals:

“She takes issue with the terms ‘gender dysphoria’ or ‘gender identity disorder’ in referring to these individuals' circumstances. She feels that it's pejorative and inaccurate to classify this condition as a pathology. In her professional opinion, most of the presenting problems they have stem from the stigmatization they suffer. She believes that transsexualism is a birth anomaly and maintains, as do a growing number of scientists, that transsexualism is a naturally-occurring variation in humans and is part of a person's inborn psyche.”

Leah Scheafer died aged 92.

The Barries & Johnny Mercer. “Someone’s in the kitchen with Dinah”. 1944
Paul Weston & his Orchestra, The Barries & Johnny Mercer. “San Fernando Valley”. 1944. Lyrics
The Wayfarers (Hal Schaefer; Elka Sylvern; Lee Schaefer; Paul Bain). Wandering with the Wayfarers, LP RCA Victor, 1957.
Lee Schaefer & Jim Hall. A Girl and a Guitar. LP United Artists, 1958.
Lee & Hal Schaefer. Finian’s Rainbow and Brigadoon Remembered. LP United Artists, 1959.
Leah Cahan Schaefer. Sexual Experiences and Reactions of a Group of 30 Women As Told to a Female Psychotherapist. Ed D Thesis, Columbia University 1965. Revised as Women and Sex; Sexual Experiences and Reactions of a Group of Thirty Women As Told to a Female Psychotherapist. Pantheon Books, 1973.
Leah C Schaefer . "Frigidity."Modern woman. Charles C Thomas, 1969: 165-177.
Edward M Brecher. "Leah Cahan Schaefer". The Sex Researchers. a Signet Book, 1971: 184-202.
Lindsay Miller. “Woman in the News: Dr. Leah Schaefer: A Lot More Than Just Sex”. Washington Post, 7/28/1973. Online.
Suzanne Lowry. “Come as you are”. The Guardian, July 5 1974. Online.
Leah C. Schaefer & Connie C. Wheeler. “The Non-Surgical True Transsexual: A Theoretical Rationale”. Eighth International Symposium on Gender Dysphoria, Bordeau, September 16-19, 1983. Abstract Revised as "The nonsurgery true transsexual (Benjamin's category IV): A theoretical rationale."International Research in Sexology (Sexual Medicine) 1 (1984).
Leah Schaefer. “TV Relationships”. The tv-ts Tapestry, 43, 1984: 30-3. Online.
Connie Christine Wheeler & Leah Cahan Schaefer. "Historical overview of Harry Benjamin's first 1500 cases."Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association, Tenth International Symposium on Gender Dysphoria, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 1987.
Connie Christine Wheeler & Leah Cahan Schaefer “Harry Benjamin's first ten cases (1938-1953): a clinical historical note”. Archives of Sexual Behavior 24:1 Feb 1995. Online at www.helen-hill.com/pdf/hbfirst10cases.pdf. Revised as the Afterword to Randi Ettner. Confessions of a Gender Defender: A Psychologist's Reflections on Life Among the Transgendered. Evanston, IL: Chicago Spectrum Press, 1996.
Jamil Rehman, Simcha Lazer, Alexandru E. Benet, Leah C. Schaefer, and Arnold Melman. "The reported sex and surgery satisfactions of 28 postoperative male-to-female transsexual patients."Archives of sexual behavior 28, no. 1 (1999): 71-89.
Stephen B Levine, George R. Brown, Eli Coleman, Peggy T. Cohen-Kettenis, J. Joris Hage, Judy Van Maasdam, Maxine Petersen, Friedemann Pfaefflin, and Leah C. Schaefer. "The standards of care for gender identity disorders."Journal of Psychology & Human Sexuality 11, no. 2 (1999): 1-34.
Anne Lawrence, Yvon Menard, Stan Monstrey, Jude Patton, Leah Schaefer, Alice Webb & Connie Christine Wheeler. "The Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association′ s Standards Of Care For Gender Identity Disorders, Sixth Version."World Professional Association For Transgender Health, 2001.
Leah Cahan Schaefer & Connie Christine Wheeler. "Guilt in cross gender identity conditions: Presentations and treatment."Journal of Gay & Lesbian Psychotherapy 8, 1-2 (2004): 117-127.
Ellen Michel. “A Season of Recognition for KI Donor Dr Leah Schaefer”. Kinsey Today, November 2007. www.indiana.edu/~kinsey/about/images/schaefer-newsletter.jpg.
Nancy Gonzales. “When October Goes: My Day with Leah Schaefer”. NCFR, 2008, www.ncfr.org/members-stories/when-october-goes-my-day-leah-schaefer.
Dana Beyer. “Remembering Dr. Leah Schaefer, the Sweet Singer-Turned-Psychiatrist Who Healed a Generation of Trans Women”. The Huffington Post, 01/30/2013. www.huffingtonpost.com/dana-beyer/leah-schaefer-trans-women_b_2569123.html.

Discogs
____________________________________________________________

I don’t know why there is no mention at all of Leah Schaefer in Joanne Meyerowitz’ How Sex Changed: A History of Transsexuality in the United States.

Leaf Schaefer started her career as a psychologist while married to her third husband, but using her first husband’s surname.

Schaefer and Wheeler discuss Benjamin’s Type IV as it is usually taken to be, that is as a cross-living, non-op person. However in Benjamin’s 1966 book, as I have discussed, a Type IV is defined as “’Dresses’ as often as possible with insufficient relief of his gender discomfort. May live as a man or a woman; sometimes alternating.” Benjamin’s typology actually erases full-time non-ops, as well as gay and female transvestites and gynephilic High Intensity Type VIs.

Randi Ettner, psychologist and author of Confessions of a Gender Defender, 1996, is Leah’s niece. The book has, as an Afterword, a rewrite of “Harry Benjamin's first ten cases”.

The backing singers here are The Barries

↧

Harry Benjamin’s first 10 cases: a disambiguation

November 14, 2016, 11:14 am

≫ Next: Otto Spengler (1876? – 194?) businessperson.

≪ Previous: Leah Cahan (Schaefer) (1920 – 2013) singer, psychologist

Connie Christine Wheeler & Leah Cahan Schaefer “Harry Benjamin's first ten cases (1938-1953): a clinical historical note”. Archives of Sexual Behavior 24:1 Feb 1995. Online at www.helen-hill.com/pdf/hbfirst10cases.pdf. Revised as the Afterword to Randi Ettner. Confessions of a Gender Defender: A Psychologist's Reflections on Life Among the Transgendered. Evanston, IL: Chicago Spectrum Press, 1996.

Wheeler & Schaefer use pseudonyms to refer to 8 of the 10 patients. However most of the patients are now discussed in trans histories either under different pseudonyms or by their real (ie. post-transition) name. In their revision for Ettner’s book, they used quite different names in some cases. These are marked CGD. Names used in Benjamin’s The Transsexual Phenomenon are marked HBTP. The usage in How Sex Changed by Joanne Mayerowitz is marked JMHSC, and that of Susan Stryker’s Transgender History as SSTH.

(Page references to HBTP: eg p32/13 mean p32 in the 1977 Warner edition and p13 in the PDF)

Actually Benjamin’s first trans case was Carla van Crist in the mid-1920s. Apparently Benjamin simply suggested that she go to Magnus Hirschfeld in Berlin, which she did. She was half-German. Presumably Benjamin never started a file on her, and later, in the 1950s, when asked about her was unable to remember. The lack of a file meant that Wheeler and Schaefer did not know about her.

Otto Spengler

Otto, whom Benjamin regarded as a Type II Fetishistic Transvestite, made a hobby of meeting sexologists and being mentioned, but not always named, in their publications. He met Magnus Hirschfeld, and was described in Bernard Talmey’s 1913 article "Transvestism: A contribution to the study of the psychology of sex", where he is referred to “Mr S” and “First patient". George W. Henry, in his Sex Variants, 1948, also discusses Otto, but under the name of Rudolph von H. HBTP discusses Otto anonymously on p51/23, but mentions that Talmey had described the case, which permits identification. JMHSC and both versions of Wheeler and Schaefer use the name Otto Spengler.

Sally Barry

Sally was Benjamin’s first case that he helped through to surgery. She was discovered by Alfred Kinsey who referred her to Benjamin. In HBTP Sally is discussed anonymously p106-7/49 and in detail p299-307/141-2 where she is referred to as “H.”. Wheeler & Schaefer refer to her as Barry (as a forename) and then as Sally. JMHSC refers to her as Val Barry (Barry as a surname). SSTH denies her the dignity of a name and refers to her as the “mayhem” case (referring to a legal provision that prevented surgery in the US). In CGD she is called Van for the male phase and Susan afterwards.

Carol

Real name Barbara Ann Richards, and then Mrs Barbara Wilcox. JMHSC refers to her by both these names; Richard Doctor’s biography of Virginia Prince simply calls her Barbara Ann Wilcox. In CGD she is renamed to Barbara. She was an early pioneer who petitioned the Superior Court of California to change her name and legal gender - in 1941!!

Christian

Real name Lauren Wilcox. Barbara’s spouse: first wife and then husband. Barbara took the media spotlight, and Lauren transitioned quietly. JMHSC refers to him as Lauren Wilcox. In CGD he also became Lauren.

Doris

This person’s real name was Louise Lawrence. She published under the pseudonym of Janet Thompson. She is surprisingly not mentioned, except as the writer Janet Thompson, in HBTP, despite all the work that she and Benjamin had done together. Wheeler & Schaefer call her Doris. JMHSC and SSTH refer to her by her real name. CGD calls her Louise.

Frank

Frank saw Benjamin in 1951 at age 35. Two years later Benjamin referred him to Albert Ellis, and did not see him again until 1972. “after 20 years of vacillating, I am no longer interested at all in a sex-change”. In CGD he is referred to as Emory.

Christine Jorgensen

Everybody calls her Christine Jorgensen.

Harold

Christine Jorgensen's first referral to Benjamin. Harold saw Benjamin on only three separate occasions, over a period of 26 years, 1953-70. It is not known if Harold ever did transition.

Inez

This seems to be Clara Miller, one of the autobiographies in the appendix to HBTP by REL Masters, and called C in the Biographical Profiles. In CGD she is renamed Vera.

Janet

This person appears in HBTP paperback as the last four photographs, and is discussed anonymously p137/63. She is sometimes referred to as the tattoo woman because Benjamin did not give her a name. CGD renames her as Claire.

↧

Otto Spengler (1876? – 194?) businessperson.

November 18, 2016, 4:52 am

≫ Next: Senior's home for Waria in Jakarta.

≪ Previous: Harry Benjamin’s first 10 cases: a disambiguation

(I wrote a less detailed version of this in April 2009. This revision incorporates details from sexologists Talmay, Henry and Benjamin.)

Otto’s family were German. Otto was the 13^th of 14 children. The first five died of cholera. The youngest also died young. His father died when he was four, and from then he slept with his mother in her bed until he was 14. He was her Nesthäckchen, the youngest living. He was girlish in appearance and his dressmaker sister used him as a dress model. He often wore girls’ shoes and dresses as a child.

A first experience with a woman at age 18 resulted in a gonorrhea infection. He emigrated to the US at age 19 (1895?).

A casual gift of theatre tickets to a young woman led to him being approved by her mother, and to marriage. They had two daughters and a son. Otto wore female clothing at all opportunities and wore female underwear under his male clothing at other times. He built up a wardrobe of 70-100 dresses. All the family knew of his dressing. He went to many masquerade balls in female dress. The younger daughter called him her papa-lady. He kept his hair long, but pinned up. He did not go to a barber for over twenty-five years, despite his wife’s urging. Nevertheless he became a successful businessman.

Back in Berlin Otto applied to the police for a permit to transvest, but without success. He transvested in public anyway. Magnus Hirschfeld said that he was an inverted lesbian, and he joined a Berlin lesbian club that tolerated transvestites.

He was a member of Hirschfeld’s Wissenschaftlich-humanitäres Komitee (Scientific-Humanitarian Committee), and corresponded with Hirschfeld. In May 1906 Spengler gave a lecture on sexual intermediates to the German Scientific Society in New York – this is the earliest known lecture on the subject in New York.

In 1912 Otto was propositioned by a friend who found him in female clothing. He did not get any satisfaction from the encounter, but found it interesting.

An account of Spengler and a few other transvestites was the first such to be presented to doctors in the US. This was in a lecture by the sexologist Bernard Talmey to the New York Society of Medical Jurisprudence in December 1913, and published the next year in the New York Medical Journal. Spengler is not named, but simply referred to as ‘Mr S” and “first patient”.

In 1916 the five-year-old daughter of Otto’s neighbor was sent out to buy milk and was raped and murdered. The janitress tattled to the police about Spengler’s dress habits and he became the prime suspect. A search found blood-stained clothing (from his wife’s most recent period) and for four weeks he was under constant supervision. He had an alibi from a servant, and the police offered the servant $2,000 to change her story, but she remained loyal. It was established that the blood was menstrual, and the investigation was discontinued. The crime was never solved.

Spengler had corresponded for many years with the Oswego, New York transvestite doctor, Mary Walker, and attempted to secure her collection of pictures and letters when she died in 1919.

He had become a medical patient of Harry Benjamin who in 1928, at Spengler’s request , prescribed the newly developed progynon (later known as estradiol), an estrogenic hormone, and x-ray sterilization of the testicles. This was Benjamin’s first transgender case.

Shortly afterwards, Otto’s wife and son left him. The son had become the youngest press agent on Broadway, but died of tuberculosis at age 21.

Spengler suffered a financial loss in the Depression, but continued with a mail-order business and press-cutting service. He boasted that he had sold to the Prince of Wales, and to the Soviet Government.

In 1931 when Magnus Hirschfeld visited New York, Otto was noted in the audience and was pleased to be referred to as a typical transvestite. Spengler himself quoted Talmey’s article in a letter about himself to the New York Evening Post in 1933.

Spengler is one of the transvestites profiled in George W Henry’s Sex Variants, 1941, where he is given the pseudonym Rudolph von H. Shortly after that Otto was in a street accident, and was taken unconscious to hospital. When his underwear was discovered, the examining physician wrote into the hospital record: “patient is obviously a degenerate".

When George Henry (or one of his assistants) interviewed Otto, he was 64, blind in one eye because of cataract and glaucoma, and living alone in a small dingy apartment cluttered with figures and portraits of women and with forms to display dresses. There is no record of his passing.

*Not the German political philosopher.

Otto Spengler. Monatsberichte des Wissenschaftlich-humanitären Komitees, 5, 1906. Reprinted in 151. Jonathan Katz. Gay American History: Lesbians And Gay Men In The U.S.A. A Discus Book, 1978: 575.
Bernard Simon Talmey. "Transvestism. A contribution to the study of the psychology of sex", New York Medical Journal, 21 Feb 1914, pp.362-368. Incorporated into his Love, a Treatise on the Science of Sex-Attraction: For the Use of Physicians and Students of Medical Jurisprudence. New York: Practitioners' Pub. Co, 1915: 298-307. Partially reprinted in Jonathan Katz. Gay/Lesbian Almanac. Harper & Row. 1983: 344-8.
Otto Spengler. Letter to the Editor. New York Evening Post, February 15 1933.
George W. Henry. Sex Variants: A Study of Homosexual Patterns. New York: Paul B. Hoeber 1948: 487-98.
Harry Benjamin. The Transsexual Phenomenon. Warner Books Edition 1977: 51.
Harry Benjamin. “Introduction”. In Richard Green & John Money. Transsexualism and Sex Reassignment. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1969: 1-2.
Leah Cahan Schaefer & Connie Christine Wheeler. “Harry Benjamin's first ten cases (1938-1953): a clinical historical note”. Archives of Sexual Behavior 24:1 Feb 1995: 3. Online at www.helen-hill.com/pdf/hbfirst10cases.pdf.
Jennifer Terry. An American Obsession: Science, Medecine, and Homosexuality in Modern Society. University of Chicago Press, 1999: 111-2, 259-260,
Joanne Meyerowitz. How Sex Changed: A History of Transsexuality in the United States. Cambridge, Ma, London: Harvard University Press, 2002: 46, 298n105.
Pierre-Henri Castel. La métamorphose impensable: essai sur le transsexualisme et l'identité personnelle.Gallimard, 2003: 51, 54, 465, 466, 472.

-----------------

There seems to be no record of Spengler’s birth year. I am using the 1948 edition of George W Henry Sex Variants. However the first edition was 1941. In the undated interview with ‘Rudolph von H’, it is stated that he ‘is now sixty-four years old’. For the book to be published in 1941, the interview cannot be later than 1940. Therefore I have presumed a birth year of 1876.

Various books on homosexuality, more than listed, mention Spengler’s May 1906 lecture in Chicago, and some treat him as a gay-rights pioneer (despite the lack of homosexuality in his life), but do not at all mention his transvestity. Of particular note is Terry’s book which writes about Spengler’s lecture in one chapter, and then about Rudolph von H in another, but does not mention that it is the same person.

Spengler would seem to be the first recorded trans person to take artificial hormones.

Did Spengler have a female name for himself? At a guess, yes. However it is not recorded by Talmey, Henry or Benjamin.

Benjamin discusses Spengler within the section The Fetishistic Transvestite. Except for Progynon, Otto seems to have stayed as such until old age. Like many trans persons in the early 20^th century, the question arises: if modern technology were then available, would he have progressed into womanhood? That could be argued either way, but despite being the first patient to receive external estrogen, he never started living as female, unlike say Danielle O’L also in New York in the 1930s.

Castel says that Benjamin first met Spengler in 1938, Wheeler & Schaefer say that they met in the 1920s, but that HB became his doctor only in 1938; in Sex Variants, Spengler says that he was then 52, which would seem to be 1928. Benjamin in Green & Money, 1969, says the ‘early 1920s’. As Progynon was developed by Adolf Butenandt and his future wife, and was first on the market in 1928, 1928 or 1929 is the most likely date for Spengler’s treatment by Benjamin.

Harry Benjamin, 1965: 51, knows of Talmey’s discussion of Spengler, but does not seem to know of Henry’s.

Wheeler & Schaefer say that Spengler married at age 26, but Spengler interviewed by Henry says 19.
Wheeler & Schaefer say: “Magnus Hirschfeld informed Otto that he, Otto, was in fact also the inspiration for his famous work published in 1910, Transvestism (English translation, 1991)”. They give no page reference. I have looked in both the 1991 translation and the German original and fail to confirm this.

Wheeler & Schaefer say: ” Otto's transvestism was described by Talmay in his medical book entitled Love as a "sexo-aesthetic inversion of a pure artistic imitation, occurring in highly artistic, honorable, moral, inconspicuous, nonoffensive individuals who would never commit wrong when masquerading". Actually, speaking not of Spengler in particular but transvestism in general, Talmay says that it “is a sexo-esthetic inversion of pure artistic imitation. Hence it occurs mostly in artists and in men of letters, i.e., in persons endowed with a highly developed artistic taste. Such persons are, as a rule, disgusted at the sight of the organs of the sex to which the individual by anatomical configuration belongs, while such sights offer to the homosexual individual additional charm and piquancy.”

Books in which one would expect to find at least a mention of Otto Spengler, but is disappointed:

Charlotte Wolff. Magnus Hirschfeld: A Portrait of a Pioneer in Sexology. 1986
George Chauncey. Gay New York. 1994

The original version of this article was 18 April 2009. A few weeks later, a blogger by the moniker of Tianewu stole my text and posted it as her own work.

↧

Senior's home for Waria in Jakarta.

November 23, 2016, 5:17 am

≫ Next: Transgender lexicons: Jack Molay

≪ Previous: Otto Spengler (1876? – 194?) businessperson.

Featured in today's Guardian: www.theguardian.com/cities/video/2016/nov/23/waria-old-age-home-trans-jakartans-mama-yuli-video.

↧

Transgender lexicons: Jack Molay

November 27, 2016, 12:25 pm

≫ Next: Books on gender variance in 2016

≪ Previous: Senior's home for Waria in Jakarta.

Transgender lexicons:

Virginia Prince
Raven Usher
Chris Bartlett
Jack Molay

Jack Molay. A Creative Crossdreamer Vocabulary: Reflections on Transgender. Amazon Digital & Blurb, 2015.

Jack Molay is from the ancient Hanseatic city of Bergen. His writings, starting in 2006, were originally, but ambivalently, about autogynephilia, the concept bequeathed by Kurt Freund and Ray Blanchard that disparages gynephilic trans women. Molay transvalued what is useful in the concept and came up with Crossdreamer:

“the act of dreaming about being ones target sex or getting aroused by the idea of being ones target sex. Crossdreamer is a subcategory under the wider umbrella term ‘transgender’ … Crossdreamers may be assigned male or female at birth. Their sexual orientation varies. There is no clear and distinct boundary between crossdreamers and other transgender people.”

This book, most of which originally appeared on www.crossdreamers.com is in the form of a dictionary or lexicon. There are in fact three parts:

1. The Creative Crossdreamer Vocabulary;
2. Words that do not belong in a crossdreamer vocabulary;
3. Appendix: Transgender Dictionary.

We will take these in reverse order.

Appendix: Transgender Dictionary.

Unlike the main Vocabulary, this section has several words per page. Quite a few of the terms here are also found in the Creative Crossdreamer Vocabulary, but with a different emphasis. This is mainly a dictionary in the standard sense of attempting to define how other people (other trans persons) use words.

As in other lexicons that we have considered, it is light on history, for example She-Male, described as a derogatory term used in pornography, is defined: “A genetic male who has physical characteristics of both male and female. This term should never be used for a real life non-op MTF transsexual (to whom it may refer).” In addition to ignoring RuPaul, this of course ignores how the term was used by and about Christine Jorgensen and Coccinelle. Only later was the term appropriated in pornography. The definition also denies the choice of the term to trans women working in pornography.

Jack defines Gender : “(1) In social studies: the socially constructed roles, behaviors, activities, and attributes that a given society considers appropriate for men and women. (2) In biology: the state of being male or female. The biology of gender is a scientific analysis of the physical basis for behavioural differences between males and females. “ But then defines Transitioning: “Wikipedia defines this as the process of changing genders - the idea of what it means to be female or male. I am using the term for the process of changing ones biological sex, arguing that an M2F transsexual woman is a woman/has the female gender both before and after the transition (see also sex reassignment surgery).” There is a serious equivocation here. What a transsexual woman has before and after is not the socially constructed roles, etc. Everybody has that. What she has before and after is a gender identity. The HBS people repeatedly conflated gender and gender identity, and it is part of their legacy that many today make the same conflation.

He defines Transgenderist as per Virginia Prince’s usage, as promoted by Richard Docter and IFGE, but does not mention that Vivian Namaste uses the term with no Princian connotations at all. He does add the useful comment: “Some deny that transgenderists exist, arguing that they are either misled transsexuals or ‘autogynephiliacs’. The term must not be confused with ‘transgender’, which is an umbrella term for all gender variant people.”

Jack has an excellent section on the different types of Separatists: 1) Classic transsexuals 2) HBS 3) transkids (Blanchardian) 4) Princians 5) truscum.

Words that do not belong in a crossdreamer vocabulary

This section has only four entries: Autoandrophilia; Autogynephilia; Homophobia; Transphobia.

The section header is of course a rhetorical flourish. We very much need to talk about these four to be able to counter them.

There is a honest evaluation of crossdreamers:

“Many crossdreamers are transphobic in the sense that they express strong negative feelings about transgender and transsexual people. This may come as a surprise to outsiders, as it is pretty clear that crossdreamers themselves are transgender (in the wide sense of being gender variant). Some are even transsexual.

The explanation for this paradox is found is normally found in their upbringing and social conditioning. They have been brought up to believe trans equals perversion. Now they try to dismiss any doubts about their own sexuality and identity by dismissing all those who may undermine their self-image.”

It is a pity in a way that there is no discussion of Anne Vitale’s concept of Gender Deprivation Anxiety Disorder, which would fit in well here.

The Creative Crossdreamer Vocabulary

Normally in a dictionary, neologisms are avoided in that the point of the book is to record other persons’ usages. However the point of this book is to articulate the Crossdreamer philosophy, and to that end there are many new words, most of which are considerately marked with a *.

However let us first look at the words that appear both here and in the Appendix: Transgender Dictionary.

Separatist. The heterosexual male-dressers (a la Virginia Prince) has been moved to (1), and an extra category added: “6) Some crossdreamers believe their cross-gender erotic fantasies are purely fetishistic, and that they therefore have nothing in common with transsexual people. Alternatively: They believe all trans people are fetishists, and fetishists only. The operative phrase here is ‘We are normal men/women with a sexual kink’.

Transsexual, a one-paragraph entry in the Appendix, is now a full-page essay. It mentions the therapies available, and that “most of them are deeply anchored in one, fairly distinct, sex identity”. He continues: “transsexual men and women are different from many other transgender people, some of whom may be more ‘gender fluid’, and concludes: “It seems to me that many, if not most, transsexuals have been crossdreamers, in the sense that they have had sexual fantasies about having sex as their target sex. There is simply no other way for them to fantasize about having sex. But note that not all crossdreamers are gender dysphoric. Moreover, not all gender dysphoric crossdreamers transition.”

Some of the new words are not Jack’s and thus are not marked with a *. This include Transgifted (proposed by Esther Pirelli); Quackaphilia – for the attraction to quack theories such as autogynephilia (proposed by Felix Conrad), Cistem – the social naturalness of non-transgender (proposed by Christine Marie Jentof).

Some of the new terms:

Ambiviolence – those who attack in others what they are afraid of in themselves.

Creative Crossdreaming - using artistic creativity to express and understand the crossdreamer self, and to engage in crossdreamer erotic fantasies.

Crossgrief – “a deep and intense feeling of grief and sorrow from that comes from the realization that your real life is in some way misaligned with your inner life”.

Dark Crossdreamers– “Dark crossdreamers are people who have managed to suppress their transgender side completely. They are not even aware of splitting (i.e. a mental compartmentalization of their other side). … The existence of dark crossdreamers makes it impossible to determine how large a proportion of the human population is actually crossdreamers (or transgender, for that matter).”

Hormony – “The feeling of peace, calm and harmony transgender people often feel after starting taking the hormones of their target sex. This applies to transsexuals, but also to other male to female and female to male crossdreamers who take such hormones in order to get relief from their dysphoria.” Jack does not mention that this usage is a reversal of the joke that Harry Benjamin made when he met Sigmund Freud in the 1930s.

Ideofluster - “words used to describe him or her cease to make sense. This can cause much confusion and uncertainty, and may lead to an identity crisis.”

Normailien - “they try to adapt to the gender identity and the gender roles their friends, families and colleagues expect of them”.

Splitter – “crossdreamers who split their minds in two, leaving one part for the inner sex and one for the outer.”

This is just a sample that I have selected.

There is narrative power in the Crossdreamer vision. It deconstructs the barrier between trans and cis, and perhaps unifies transsexual, transvestite, drag and dreamers more so than the word ‘trans’ does. It especially allows for the fact that we each dream of gender in our own way, and find different solutions. The transsexual path is not for all.

This book is short and an easy read. It will repay being visited more than once.

↧

Books on gender variance in 2016

December 7, 2016, 5:04 pm

≫ Next: Dana Rivers (1955 - ) teacher.

≪ Previous: Transgender lexicons: Jack Molay

$£¥ €=Excessively overpriced books.

Note, of course, the high correlation of high prices and being published by Routledge.

I would like to mention Transgress Press which has a growing catalogue of books about trans topics, and has several trans persons on its board and staff.

$£¥ € Walter Pierre Bouman, Annelou LC de Vries & Guy T’Sjoen (eds). Gender Dysphoria and Gender Incongruence. Routledge, 2016.
Trystan Cotton. Below the Belt: Genital Talk by Men of Trans Experience. Transgress Press, 2016.
$£¥ € Lucas Crawford. Transgender Architectonics: The Shape of Change in Modernist Space. Routledge, 2016.
Anne Givaudan. Singular Loves. Kindle, 2016.
Lee Harrington. Traversing Gender: Understanding Transgender Realities. Mystic Productions, 2016.
$£¥ € matthew heinz. Entering Transmasculinity: The Inevitability of Discourse. Intellect Ltd, 2016.
A King. Gender is Fluid and not fixed at birth: A look at Gender Dysphoria - Previously known as Gender Identity Disorder. Kindle, 2016
$£¥ € Yolanda Martínez-San Miguel & Sarah Tobias (eds) Trans Studies: The Challenge to Hetero/Homo Normativities. Rutgers University Press, 2016.
$£¥ € Tobias Raun. Out Online: Trans Self-Representation and Community Building on YouTube. Routledge, 2016.
Eve Shapiro. Gender Circuits: Bodies and Identities in a Technological Age.
$£¥ € Jemma Tosh. Psychology and Gender Dysphoria: Feminist and Transgender Perspectives. Routledge, March 2016. Routledge, 2015.
ROC Tree. 50 Questions NOT to Ask a Trans Man. Kindle,
$£¥ € Carlo Trombetta, Giovanni Liguoti & Michele Bertolotto (eds). Management of Gender Dysphoria: A Multidisciplinary Approach. Springer, 2016.
$£¥ € Francisco Vazquez Garcia. Sex, Identity and Hermaphrodites in Iberia, 1500–1800. Routledge, 2016.
Morgan Mann Willis. Outside the Xy: Black and Brown Queer Masculinity. Riverdale Avenue Books, 2016.

Spiritual

Christina Beardley & Michelle O’Brien (eds). This Is My Body: Hearing the Theology of Transgender Christians. Darton Longman and Todd, 2016.
Vaughn Roberts. Transgender: Christian compassion, convictions and wisdom for today's big questions (Talking Points). Kindle, 2016.
Megan Rohrer. Transgender Children of God. Lulu, 2016.
Rhiannon Tibbetts. Listening to God's Healing Love Song: As Heard by a Downhearted Transgender Woman in an Uplifting Major, (Heavenly) Transgender Key. Kindle, 2016.

See also autobiographies by Michael Dillon, Lei Ming and Upasaka Devamitra.

Legal & Imprisonment

Ally Windsor Howell. This is Who We Are: A Guide to Transgenderism and the Laws Affecting Transgender Persons. Ankerwycke, March 2016.
$£¥ € Ally Windsor Howell. Transgender Persons and the Law 2nd Edition. American Bar Association, May 2016.
Andrea Pelleschi. Transgender Rights and Issues. Essential Library, 2016.

Arts

Donald Albrecht. Gay Gotham: Art and Underground Culture in New York. Skira Rizzoli, 2016.
$£¥ € Simone Chess. Male to Female Crossdressing in Early Modern English Literature. Routledge, 2016.
Laura Horak. Girls Will Be Boys: Cross-dressed Women, Lesbians, and American Cinema, 1908-1934. Rutgers University Press, 2016.
$£¥ € Maki Isaka. Onnagata: A Labyrinth of Gendering in Kabuki Theater. University of Washington Press, 2016.

Guidebooks

Thomas E Bevan. Being Transgender: What You Should Know. Praeger, 2016.
Hannah Lane. Transgender Voice Workbook: A voice course for MTF trans people. Kindle, 2016.
Sky Logan. Transgender Transition: Introduction. Kindle, 2016.
Sky Logan. Transgender Transition - Quick Start Guide. Kindle, 2016.
$£¥ € Z Nicolazzo. Trans* in College: Transgender Students' Strategies For Navigating Campus Life and the Institutional Politics of Inclusion. Stylus Publishing, 2016.
Katherine Reilly. The Road to Femininity: A New Life for a New Woman. Akakia Publications, 2016.
Veronica Vera. Miss Vera's Cross Gender Fun for All. Greenery Press, April 2016.

Transphobic

Alex P. Serritella. Transgenda - Abuse and Regret in the Sex-Change Industry. Bookstand Publishing, 2016.

Trans Children

Michele Angelo & Alisa Bowman. Raising the Transgender Child: A Complete Guide for Parents, Families, and Caregivers. Seal Press, 2016.
Stephen A. Brill & Lisa Kennedy. The Transgender Teen. Cleis Press, 2016.
Diane Ehrensaft. The Gender Creative Child: Pathways for Nurturing and Supporting Children Who Live Outside Gender Boxes. The Experiment, 2016.
Mya Vaughn. Transgender Youth: Perceptions, Media Influences and Social Challenges. Nova Science Pub Inc, 2016.
Hillary Whittington. Raising Ryland: Our Story of Parenting a Transgender Child with No Strings Attached. William Morrow Paperbacks, 2016.

Couples

Lyn Merryfeather. You've Changed: An Evocative Autoethnography. FriesenPress, 2016. About the lesbian wives of trans men.
$£¥ € Carla A Pfeffer. Queering Families: The Postmodern Partnerships of Cisgender Women and Transgender Men. Oxford University Press, 2016.

Cross Dreamers

Transcender Lee. Woman Incognito: Transsexual Without Transition. Transcender Lee, 2016.
Felix Conrad. How to Jedi Mindtrick Your Gender Dysphoria, 2016.
Felix Conrad. Is a Transgender Woman a Woman? 2016.
Felix Conrad. Quantum Desire: A Sexological Analysis of Crossdreaming, 2016

AutoBiography

Lisa Alexandra. Becoming Lisa: A Transgender Journey. CreateSpace, 2016.
Buck Angel. Buck Wild West. Kindle, 2016.
Michael Dillon/Lobzang Jivaka (Jacob Lau & Cameron Partridge eds). Out of the Ordinary: A Life of Gender and Spiritual Transitions. Fordham University Press, 2016. LamdaLiterary Decades after Liz Hodgkinson’s biography, we finally get his original account.
Paula J Coffer. Sandbox to Sandbox: A Walk in Confidence. CreateSpace, 2016.
Rubi Danish. After Life As A Shemale Prostitute. CreateSpace, 2016.
$£¥ € Upasaka Devamitra. Confessions of a Transvestite Buddhist: A Quest for Manhood. Achilles Publishing, 2016. Review
Katie Rain Hill. Rethinking Normal: A Memoir in Transition. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2015.
Makie Hoolboom & Chase Joynt. You Only Live Twice: Sex, Death, and Transition. Coach House Books, 2016. Review LamdaLiterary
Daliah Husu. I Am Woman: Surviving the Past, the Present, & the Future. CreateSpace, 2016. YouTube
Jazz Jennings. Being Jazz: My Life as a (Transgender) Teen. Crown Books for Young Readers, 2016.
Liam Klenk. Paralian: Not Just Transgender. Troubador, 2016. Webpage
Edward Leighton. Daryl is offline: Memoirs of a twice-disabled transman. CreateSpace, 2016.
Everett Maroon. Bumbling Into Body Hair: Tales of an Accident-Prone Transsexual. Lethe Press, 2016. Webpage
Melanie Phillips. The Transition Trilogy. Kindle, 2016. The daily journals of her transition, previously available online.
A Revathi& Nandini Murali. Revathi: A Life in Trans Activism. Zubaan Books, July 2016. Webpage, Second book by A Revathi.
Trevor MacDonald. Where's the Mother?: Stories from a Transgender Dad. Trans Canada Press, 2016. The noted Manitoba trans dad. Webpage YouTube
Lei Ming with Lura Frazey. Life Beyond My Body: A Transgender Journey to Manhood in China. Transgress Press, 2016. Webpage Finds solace in a Christian church in China.
Liz Roberts & Alison Mau. First Lady: From Boyhood to Womanhood: The Incredible Story of New Zealand’s Sex-Change Pioneer Liz Roberts. Upstart Press, 2015. Review, Extract
Leslie Richelle Scott. Outside In, Inside Out: A Transgender Journey. Lulu, 2015. Newsarticle Newsarticle
Anastacia Tomson. Always Anastacia: A Transgender Life in South Africa. Jonathan Ball Publishers, 2016. Newsarticle

Biography

T. Buburuz. Lady Chablis Trivia: 220+ Questions Inside! Kindle, 2016.
$£¥ € Sara Davidmann. Ken. To be destroyed. Schikt Publishing, 2016. Schwulesmuseum Family archive reveals that Ken, a Scottish optician in the 1950s was trans.
Susan Faludi. In the Darkroom. Metropolitan Books, 2016. Faludi’s father, at age 76, moved back to Hungary and after a forced-femininity phase, had surgery in Thailand.
$£¥ € Marty Gitlin. Chaz Bono. Rosen Young Adult, 2016.
Kirk Frederick. Write That Down! The Comedy of Male Actress Charles Pierce. Havenhurst Books, 2016.
Ian Halperin. Kardashian Dynasty: The Controversial Rise of America's Royal Family. Gallery Books, 2016. DailyMail“The real reason Caitlyn Jenner IS considering returning to being a man ... Kardashian biographer says Christian belief that it would be sinful to date women is behind gender struggle”. TheWrap
$£¥ € Jeff Mapua. Lana Wachowski. Rosen Young Adult, 2016.
$£¥ € Erin Staley. Lavern Cox. Rosen Young Adult, 2016

GLBT history

Stuart Feather. Blowing the Lid: Gay Liberation, Sexual Revolution and Radical Queens. Zero Books, 2016. Features the political drag of the early 1970s in London. Review
$£¥ € Patrizia Gentile, Gary Kinsman & L Pauline Rankin. We Still Demand!: Redefining Resistance in Sex and Gender Struggles. UBC Press, 2016. The Canadian story. Paperback edition in 2017.
Clayton J Whisnant. Queer Identities and Politics in Germany: A History, 1880-1945. Harrington Park Press, 2016.

Photography

Mark Seliger. On Christopher Street: Transgender Stories. Rizzoli, 2016.

Written by a trans person

$£¥ € Aoife Assumpta Hart. Ancestral Recall: The Celtic Revival and Japanese Modernism. McGill-Queen's University Press, 2016.

Previously Announced for 2016:

$£¥ € Michel J Boucher. Transgender Representation and the Politics of the Real in the United States. Routledge, delayed to December 2017.
Michael Brownstein. Medical Maverick: 35 Years of Transgender Surgery. Transgress Press. 2016 - disappeared
Donna Gee. Why Is My Dad Not Answering Her Phone?CreateSpace, 2015. Preview - disappeared
CN Lester. Trans Like Me: A Journey for All of Us. Virago, 2016. - disappeared
Bruce D Smith. Yours in Liberation: The Queer Life of Trans Pioneer Lou Sullivan. Transgress Press. Delayed

Announced for 2017:

$£¥ € Eric Anderson & Ann Travers. Transgender Athletes in Competitive Sport. Routledge, 2017.
Corona Brezina. Coming Out as Transgender. Rosen Publishing Group, 2017.
$£¥ € Domitilla Campanile, Filippo Carla-Uhink & Margherita Facella (eds) TransAntiquity: Cross-Dressing and Transgender Dynamics in the Ancient World. Routledge, 2017.
$£¥ € Lynne Carroll & Laurn Mizock. Clinical Issues and Affirmative Treatment With Transgender Clients, An Issue of Psychiatric Clinics of North America. Elsevier, 2017.
Laura Erickson-Schroth & Laura A Jacobs. "You're in the Wrong Bathroom!": And 20 Other Myths and Misconceptions About Transgender and Gender Nonconforming People. Beacon Press, 2017.
$£¥ € Eyler. Transgender Healthcare. Springer Publishing, 2017.
Declan Henry. Trans Voices: Becoming Who You Are. Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2017.
Ephraim Das Janssen, Phenomenal Gender: What Transgender Experience Discloses. Indiana University Press, 2017.
$£¥ € Jon Ingvar Kjaran. Constructing Sexualities and Gendered Bodies in School Spaces: Nordic Insights on Queer and Transgender Students. Palgrave Macmillan, 2017.
Rebecca T Klien. Transgender Rights and Protections. Rosen Publishing Group, 2017.
Wenn B Lawson & Beatrice M Lawson. Transitioning Together: One Couple's Journey of Gender and Identity Discovery. Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2017.
Amanda Lepore & Thomas Flannery. Doll Parts. Regan Arts, 2017.
$£¥ € Lynda Johnson. Trans Gender, Sex, Place, and Space: Geographies of Gender Variance. Routledge, 2017.
Susan Meyer. Health Issues When You're Transgender. Rosen Publishing Group, 2017.
Matthew Mills & Gillie Stoneham. The Transgender Experience: Voice and Communication Therapy from the Inside. Jessica Kingslay, 2017.
Janet Mock. Firsts: How My Twenties Helped Me to Redefine Realness. Atria Book, 2017.
$£¥ € Candace Moore. Marginal Production Cultures: Infrastructures of Sexual Minority and Transgender Media. Routledge, 2017.
Elijah C Nealy. Transgender Children and Youth: Cultivating Pride and Joy with Families in Transition. WW Norton, 2017.
Kate Norman. Socialising Transgender: Support for Transition. Dunedin, 2017.
Barbara Penne. Transgender Role Models and Pioneers. Rosen Young Adukt, 2017.
$£¥ € Christina Richards. Trans and Sexuality: An existentially-informed enquiry with implications for counselling psychology. Routledge, 2017.
Leonard Sax. Why Gender Matters, Revised and Updated: What Parents and Teachers Need to Know About the Emerging Science of Sex Differences. Harmony, 2017.
Sara Woods. Identifying as Transgender. Rosen Publishing Group, 2017.
$£¥ € Jolene Zigarovich. TransGothic in Literature and Culture. Routledge, 2017.

Announced for 2018:

Michael R Kauth & Jillian Shipard (eds). Adult Transgender Care: An Interdisciplinary Approach for Mental Health Professionals. Routledge, 2018.

↧

Dana Rivers (1955 - ) teacher.

December 11, 2016, 2:58 pm

≫ Next: Trans & Intersex Sportspersons 2016

≪ Previous: Books on gender variance in 2016

David Warfield was raised in California. After school he joined the US Navy, where he did a lot of drugs and alcohol. He was a baseball coach and a white-water rafting instructer. David had three wives and a daughter.

At 35 he became a teacher in Antelope, outside Sacramento, California, and won awards for providing inspiration to at-risk teens in what became the award-winning Media Communications Academy. He was awarded an $80,000 grant for his program, won the school's award for the teacher who most inspires students and received a standing ovation from the district's staff at its annual meeting in 1998.

Warfield started transition to Dana Rivers early in 1999 with the intention of returning to school in September as Dana. This was supported by the school, and other teachers read a letter from Dana to their classes, and Dana was interviewed by the school newspaper. However all of four (out of 1500) parents complained that their religious and moral standards had been violated when Dana explained herself to students. They were supported by the Pacific Justice Institute (a right-wing activist legal organization that would be designated a hate group in 2014 by the Southern Poverty Law Center). The PJI threatened the board with lawsuits if they did not try to fire Dana. At a school board meeting a parent said that her 16-year-old daughter was traumatized from hearing about transexualism. However the daughter stood up and told the board that her mother was wrong.

Dana was fired by the school board. Her students protested her suspension with frequent phone calls to the local radio station and marched to the state capitol. Three school-board trustees were threatened with election-recall petitions in protest. Dana was honored with a $10,000 grant from the Colin Higgins Foundation for courage in the face of discrimination. She sued the school board and settled for $150,000 – they also agreed to drop all charges and expunge Dana’s record of all reference to the dismissal. They agreed to use only her new name in all record keeping, and to support her future employment as a teacher by giving to prospective employers an accurate history of her teaching career. Thus she had permission to return to teaching at a different California school.

Dana completed surgery in June 2000. For three years she was a trans activist appearing on various media including Oprah. People magazine named her one of the 25 most intriguing people of 1999, and Jane magazine named her one of the Gutsiest Women of the Year. She met with Congressman Barney Frank who later dropped trans persons from the campaign for employment non-discrimination right (ENDA) for supposed tactical reasons. There was talk of a book and a film, but they never happened.

Dana then moved to San Francisco and found employment teaching social studies and history at a county jail Charter School.

In November 2016, an Oakland female couple, 56 and 57, and their 19-year-old son, died after being stabbed and shot. Their garage was set on fire. Rivers was arrested outside, covered in blood. She was charged with murder, arson and possession of metal knuckles.

Evelyn Nieves. "After Sex Change, Teacher Is Barred From School". New York Times, Sept 27, 1999. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C02E4DC1E3FF934A1575AC0A96F 958260&pagewanted=all.
Margot Hornblower. "He? She? Whatever!"Time, Oct 3, 1999. www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,917 1,31822,00.html.
Clare Howell interviews Dana Rivers. Queer Resources Directory, 7 Dec 1999. http://www.qrd.org/qrd/trans/1999/interview.with.dana.rivers-12.07.99.
"Bigotry Becomes Teacher's Pet Peeve". Colin Higgins Foundation. 2000. www.colinhiggins.org/courageawards/profi le4.cfm.
Carol Keys. Hostile Climate 2000: Report on Anti-Gay Activity. People for the American Way, 2000: 45, 91-2.
Sheila L. Cavanagh. "Teacher Transsexuality: The Illusion of Sexual Difference and the Idea of Adolescent Trauma in the Dana Rivers Case". Sexualities, August 2003, 6,3-4: 361-383.
Indrani Sen. Human Rights of Minority And Women's: Transgender Human Rights. Isha Books, 2005 :91.
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Heesoon Jun. Social Justice, Multicultural Counseling, and Practice: Beyond a Conventional Approach. Sage Publications, 2009: 153.
Stuart Biegel. The Right to Be Out: Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity in America’s Public Schools. University of Minnesota Press, 2010: 53-5.
“Former Sacramento teacher, once disciplined over gender change, arrested in triple homicide”. The Scaramento Bee, November 16, 2016. www.sacbee.com/news/local/crime/article115107563.html.
Veronica Rocha. “Former teacher who sued over sex-change firing faces charges in Oakland triple homicide”. Los Angeles Times, November 16, 2016. www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-dana-rivers-oakland-triple-homicide-20161116-story.html.