DSM-V and "GID" (Gender Identity Disorder)

[pirate-poet.livejournal.com]

So I heard the other day that the DSM-V may not include "gender identity disorder" as the DSM-IV currently does. I heard it may happen in the next 5 to 10 years.

Does anyone know the likelihood of this actually happening?

(x-posted to genderqueer)

TS discrimination suit stands -- a victory for us

[pkbarbiedoll.livejournal.com]

http://www.breitbart.com/news/2005/11/07/D8DNNF482.html

The Supreme Court refused Monday to consider shielding employers from discrimination lawsuits by transsexuals, dodging a workplace rights fight.

The court's refusal to intervene leaves in place a victory for Cincinnati Officer Philecia Barnes, who was born Phillip Barnes.

( the rest of the story... )

(no subject)

[ftm-lawyer.livejournal.com]

Hey all; I guess this is where the obligatory intro goes; I'm a 22-year old FTM law student from Canada, pre-everything right now. I wrote this largely in support of an MTF friend of mine, and at least partially in response to my own experiences being perceived as a woman due to my female body.

My apologies, the following rant is a little unrefined and not yet complete; I wrote it in haste; I intend to continue to refine it when I have more free time. Then again, I don't really care that much at all. I know the subject is a well-known one, although I didn't see anything on it in the past several months at least (that's as far as I looked).


My icon is highly appropriate for my mood right now.

I read up on the *shudder* Michigan Womyn's Music Festival (because I don't get angry enough in my personal life obvioiusly). I know that the MWMF has come under fire from transpeople since 1991 at least when a transwoman was asked to leave the festival after her transness was disclosed to festival staff. I can't remember exactly when Camp Trans (a trans-focused festival set up just outside MWMF grounds) began (I think it was only a couple of years after the aforementioned incident), but to this day, transwomen are not welcome on MWMF grounds, and Camp Trans remains active to this day. This is part of their "Womyn-born Womyn only" policy; the official rationale is that transwomen have, having been born male, experienced male privilege before transitioning, and that they cannot possibly understand the pressures women face to the extent that biological women can. The underlying rationale (and this was often explicitly stated by Womyn-bornWomyn only proponents) is that transwomen aren't really women, and vice versa for transmen. These proponents argue that they *don't* hate transwomen, but that they instead pity them for not being able to be happy in their own bodies and to accept the gender that they *are*. I'm fairly certain that most of these people don't really hate transwomen, but then again, maybe I'm not. One person on the forums I lurked on said that if she saw evidence that a festival attendee had a penis (I dunno...a bulge? Why would she be looking there anyway?), she would make sure that person left as quickly as possible.

I was particularly irked by one post in which a very vocal proponent of the MWMF policy expressed their explicit opinion that transwomen are not and will never really be women, and transmen are not and will never really be men. Their reassigned genitals, according ot the poster, are simply surgically constructed and can never really be considered "female" for MTFs of "male" for FTMs. In the same post this person mentioned all the differnt types of women who are welcome in the festival, and specifically mentioned butch dykes who often resemble men (poster's words). She rightly acknowledged that many butchier people with vaginas can still identify as women, thus recognizing the variety of experiences women can have, yet still identify as women.

So......in recognizing the many different ways in which femininity can be expressed, the poster acknowledged that femininity is about more than genitals. She had to be saying this. She never once rejected the ideas of masculinity and femininity in her post. So she acknowledges that they exist (they were central to the topic, after all), and she acknlwledges that they take VERY different forms, yet she won't include people who identify as women in spite of male genitalia? So...on one hand, she acknlwledges that femininity is about MUCH more than genitals, and on the other hand, her refusal to allow the inclusino of transwomen in the festival demonstrates that she....reduces ggender to what kind of genitals people have? WHICH IS IT?

It's not the fact that the MWMF is not a fully inclusive space that bothers me. Lots of times groups need their own space. It's the hypocrisy and the ignorance on which this exclusion is based.

To conclude, right now, I am thoroughly ashamed that I still have a female body and *may* be perceived to be a aprt of a group of women who would follow this sort of hypocritical and traitourous logic and exclude one of their own (I am referring to transwomen, not to myself).**

Too angry to write anymore.

** I'm sure that some knee-jerk reactions will result where I will be called out on my apparent anti-woman(womyn?) prejudices and I will be told that Not All Women (or Feminists or MWMF attendees or whatever) Are Like That. You're intelligent people, I'm sure you can see past that to the bigger picture; if I need to explain it, there are bigger problems than this post.

x-posted to my personal journal

HELP!! Name change of a minor

[preludemaggot.livejournal.com]

i need help and i msure several of you HAVE indeed changed your name.

I live in Connecticut with my mother.. She has custody over me but my dad has visitation rights (divorced million years ago.. i was 2). i like.. NEVER see him because he lives in IDAHO which btw.. is number 48 out of the 50 states on the GLBT acceptance list (in other words.. they are closed minded).. When i go to petition for a name change (soon).. do i still need him to write consent (he probably would.. but.. ugh)? (such a bitch if i do)

Also... i know the courts get a little iffy on name change to a name of opposite sex... should i tell them the real reason for changing my name.. or should i make up some bullshit reason like "my great godmothers name was Rylee... bla bla"???

Your help is greatly appreciated..

-rylee


x-posted to several places

Behaviour of TGs

[radhika1.livejournal.com]

Hello! I wanted to know other people’s experiences who are in the same situation as I am. I am genderqueer. As I suffer from gender dysphoria, I have been quite different from others from young age. I have been intensly reserved, shy, hard to get along with etc. Among my peers, I would just stick to one or two and that will be enough for me. As long as I’m in their company I’d feel comfortable and content. Meeting new people doesn’t excites me much. I’ve even felt guilty about it when I fail to get along even with the nicest of persons. Maybe the reason for such behaviour is that uncomfortableness which I’d felt about my gender remaining unsure about my own identity of a boy or girl. I wanted to know whether others have gone through the same thing as I have, finding it hard to socialize with people, keeping themselves away from people etc. Any comments will be appreciated, as I really want to know about the experiences of others.