Protest DSM Revision in San Francisco
From the Transgender LJ community:
Please spread the word about the upcoming protest and rally at the American Psychiatric Association meeting in San Francisco.
Monday, May 18, 2009
Time: 6:00pm – 7:30pm
Location: Moscone Center 747 Howard St, San Francisco, CA 94103
Phone: 701-885-1125
Email: protestgenderdx at gmail dot comThe APA appointed Kenneth Zucker and Ray Blanchard to determine how trans people will be categorized in the next version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Metal Disorder (DSM-V). On the 18th, trans community leaders will be speaking on a panel:
“In or Out?”: A Discussion About Gender Identity Diagnoses and the DSM
1. The DSM-V Revision Process: Principles and Progress William E. Narrow, M.D.
2. Beyond Conundrum: Strategies for Diagnostic Harm Reduction Kelley Winters, Ph.D.
3. Aligning Bodies With Minds: The Case for Medical and Surgical Treatment of Gender Dysphoria Rebecca Allison, M.D.
4. The Role of Medical and Psychological Discourse in Legal and Policy Advocacy for Transgender Persons in the U.S. Shannon P. Minter, J.D.We need to stand up and be heard! This DSM-V revision will affect an entire generation of trans people and will be a historically significant factor in how our legal status is determined during the next 15 to 20 years.
Please join this Facebook event to help us plan the event. Questions? Contact Lore M. Dickey at the contact information above.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=519725212#/event.php?eid=187297865362&ref=mf
Do we know what the text of the revision is, yet, though?
z
28 Apr 09 at 6:22 pm
What we know is that at least some of the people working on the revision are extremely anti-trans, that at least one engages in reparative therapy against trans children and that another is involved with CAMH. We know that they deliberately obfuscate the true numbers of trans people to present transsexual occurrence as much lower than it really is (by at least an order of magnitude). We know that at least one of the participants defends the AGP/HSTS model for trans women that pathologizes trans female sexuality.
Lisa Harney
28 Apr 09 at 6:31 pm
The personnel is the political, too, so to speak: one lesson that comes hard to a lot of people is that you can and should predict trouble when decisions are going to be made by authorities with a history of trouble.
cericonversion
28 Apr 09 at 8:15 pm
What Lisa Harney and cericonversion said.
Yet another good reason for me to head back down to the Bay for a bit.
anarchafemme
28 Apr 09 at 8:43 pm
z: I’m not sure that any draft document has yet been published, but Kelley Winters wrote last week at her excellent GID Reform Weblog – link here – about the recent Annual Meeting of the Society for Sex Therapy and Research where -
Helen G
29 Apr 09 at 1:17 am
@Helen G: that’s just so busted. Hopefully everyone else on the committee will call it out, because this is bad for all trans/GQ/GNC people, and anyone without the most puritan of sexualities (look at the new, broader definition of paraphilia). Of course, I have absolutely no faith in anyone on that committee to do anything positive.
I wish the entire discipline of psychiatry would just vanish for so many reasons.
anarchafemme
29 Apr 09 at 1:37 am
I’ve looked at the text now, and I’m feeling sort of sick.
cericonversion
29 Apr 09 at 3:04 am
So where’s the mass protests from the sexologists of the world?
Considering the new definition even plain masturbation which sexologists have been saying was healthy for many decades seems to be fitting into their new paraphilia definition.
Seems they are making a ‘special pleading’ case to keep Gay off the list but sticking almost everything else possible in.
Eventually this will be a laughingstock of history. Like the person who said powered flight was impossible after the wright brothers had flown. It may well destroy the APA entirely I think.
But till then this could hurt a LOT of people!
Battybattybats
29 Apr 09 at 7:25 am
Okay, it’s time for another noob question.
One rants about this. One’s cis friends say “What can we do?” That’s a good question. What’s appropriate to suggest as an answer?
cericonversion
29 Apr 09 at 7:26 am