(no subject)

[patchwolf.livejournal.com]

Every once in a while, there's a story in the paper that shows we're making progress as a society...

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/04/13/1081838723546.html

Transgender symposium in Dublin (10th May)

[my-mundane-life.livejournal.com]

Apologies for cross-posting

Please advertise widely

TRANSGENDER SYMPOSIUM

'Remembering the Subject:
Towards an Embodied Queer Approach to Transgender'
Sally Hines (University of Leeds, UK)

'Desiring Difference? Transpeople's Intimate
Relationships and Queer Theory's Expectation of
Transgression'
Tam Sanger (Queen's University, Belfast)

Followed by a Wine Reception

WERRC Resource Room, 2nd Floor, Arts Annexe Building,
UCD

Monday 10 May 2004 @ 7:30 p.m.

This symposium forms part of The(e)ories Queer
Seminars

For further information contact Noreen Giffney (WERRC,
noreen.giffney@ucd.ie) or Michael O'Rourke (English,
tranquilised_icon@yahoo.com)

Everyone is Welcome
There is No Attendance Fee

13 yr old to undergo sex change

[tramliin.livejournal.com]

Teen to undergo sex change

Apr 14, 2004

A prominent bio-ethicist has called on the Australian government to intervene after the Family Court allowed a 13-year-old girl to begin a sex change process.

The decision has been handed down by outgoing Chief Justice Alastair Nicholson.

It is the first time an Australian child, who is biologically one sex, has been given legal approval to begin a gender change through hormone treatment because of purely psychiatric issues.

It means the child known as Alex will begin medical treatment involving the administration of reversible hormonal therapies to start what is colloquially described as a sex change process.

A further stage of hormonal treatment, with some irreversible effects such as the deepening of Alex's voice, the promotion of facial and body hair and muscular development, is allowed to start when Alex is about 16 years old.

Alex will not be able to undergo surgery until she is 18.

But bio-ethicist Nick Tonti-Filippini on Wednesday condemned the court's decision.

He said there was no evidence to suggest the sex-change process was beneficial for adults.

"There is no evidence of the benefits of the procedure in adults let alone a 13-year-old who is undergoing the changes of adolescence," he said.

"The court is endorsing an experimental treatment for a psychiatric problem.

"I would call on the commonwealth attorney general to refer this matter to a higher court."

He said the John Hopkins University in the United States had stopped a research programme which allowed people to undergo the sex-change process because the evidence wasn't there to support the procedures.

"Essentially this process will stop this girl from developing into a mature woman, surely it cannot be argued that this will do no harm," he said.

"She will not be able to normally biologically develop leaving her essentially a eunuch.

"This kind of dramatic treatment is not the way to go."

He said he was concerned by the impact of the decision on other adolescents who were having gender issues.

"Adolescence is fraught with difficulty for anybody and I would be concerned about the impact (this decision would have) on other teenagers."