Transgender

This is an essay written by a friend of mine; Jessica Zimmerman. She's doing year 12 at small Jewish high school;Leblier Yavneh College in elsternwick. She researched Transgender issues and wrote this in response to the many questions she was getting from her peers. Jessica feels that an important part of her crusade against queerphobia and heterosexism lies in educating others.
This is an insightful and informative essay, I was very impressed with it (and her incidentaly) and I know you will be to...

Transgender Issues-Identity and belonging

Jessica Zimmerman

“The American psychiatric foundation chatagorises gender dysphoria as a very serious mental disorder.”- Doctor“After my operation not even a gynecologist would be able to detect anything out of the ordinary about my body. I will be a woman. Don’t you find it odd that plastic surgery can cure a ‘mental disorder’’- Bree
This is a quote from Transamerica, a movie of which one of the central themes is tolerance, as well as the sideline issue of the daily struggles faced by transgendered individuals. Imagine waking up each morning and instead of critiquing your thighs or pimples you hate your entire body, everything about it is foreign. From a young age transgendered individuals face the challenge of waking up each morning as someone else, a challenge that cannot be overcome by a good chat or even a spiritual awakening.
To understand transgender, it is first important to make a distinction between ‘assigned sex,’ ‘gender identity,’ and ‘gender expression.’ Sex is an assignment based on one's chromosomes, genitalia, and secondary sex characteristics. Gender identity is how a person feels about themselves in relationship to or separate from the terms "man" and "woman." Gender expression is external--how a person presents him/herself to the world (e.g. with the way we walk, talk and dress.) In society there is a commonly assumed connection between the three, men and women are expected to act and feel a certain way. Transgender, in its broadest sense, encompasses anything that transgresses these gendered norms and expectations. It is the state of one’s ‘gender identity’ not matching ones ‘assigned sex.’
When we think of transgendered individuals the mind automatically turns to sex changes and cross dressers, however the issue of transgender is much more complicated, and can often have a massive strain on an individual’s ability to form and maintain relationships with others.
Sectors of the transgendered community which are often ignored are individuals who identify with both or neither of the two genders. Feeling that to be labeled as either exclusively male or female would mean unnecessarily suppressing a part of them. This form of transgender often leaves other people in a state of confusion in speech and in manner. Not knowing whether or not to refer to an individual as ‘him’ or ‘her’ and feeling ‘uneducated’ and in some cases ‘insensitive’ either way. This confusion stems from the pre-conceived notion that ‘gender identity’ and ‘gender expression’ are both bi-products of assigned sex’. When an individual fails to comply with this unwritten law, as in the case of the transgendered, conventional labels become invalid and therefore most people become confused.
Historically in main stream society there has been little room for a middle ground when it comes to gender identity. People, who do not identify with either gender label, identify with both labels or identify with the ‘wrong’ label face adversity not only within the work force and school environments but within the public eye.
There have been countless human interest stories, talk show episodes and media coverage’s on transgender, in specific those wishing to/having had sexual re-assignment surgery (defined as transsexuals). It wasn’t long ago that ‘Miriam’ a male-to-female transsexual featured in a self titled reality television series in which several men were competing for her affection, unaware of her sexual history. After finding out the truth many of the men who had previously fallen head over heels for Miriam looked at her with little more than disgust and dismay. Her birth sex and gender identity were not compatible, which led to negative attention; however ‘Miriam’ was able to shed light on a widely held view of aversion towards transsexual individuals.
More recently t here was an article published in the paper about a young transsexual child wishing to have gender re-assignment surgery, the court had ruled in her favour and there was societal uproar. Most posing the question “how could a child not even at puberty be able to make such a life altering decision, at such a young age how can anyone be sure?” What most people don’t understand about gender dysphoria (discontentment with the biological sex one was born as) is that Gender Identity Disorder[1] (GID[2]) comes in many forms, which can appear anytime ranging from birth to adulthood [3] and is separate from hormones which bring about changes during puberty and chemicals that cause sexual orientation.[4]
[1] Gender identity disorder (GID) is the formal diagnosis used by psychologists and physicians to describe persons who experience significant gender dysphoria
[2] The current edition of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems has five different diagnoses for gender identity disorder: transsexualism, Dual-role Transvestism, Gender Identity Disorder of Childhood, Other Gender Identity Disorders, and Gender Identity Disorder, Unspecified.
Transsexualism has the following criteria:
· The desire to live and be accepted as a member of the opposite sex, usually accompanied by the wish to make his or her body as congruent as possible with the preferred sex through surgery and hormone treatment.
· The transsexual identity has been present persistently for at least two years.
· The disorder is not a symptom of another mental disorder or a chromosomal abnormality.
Dual-role transvestism has the following criteria:
· The individual wears clothes of the opposite sex in order to experience temporary membership in the opposite sex.
· There is no sexual motivation for the cross-dressing.
· The individual has no desire for a permanent change to the opposite sex.
Gender Identity Disorder of Childhood has essentially four criteria:
· The individual is persistently and intensely distressed about being a girl/boy, and desires (or claims) to be of the opposite gender.
· The individual is preoccupied with the clothing, roles or anatomy of the opposite sex/gender, or rejects the clothing, roles, or anatomy of his/her birth sex/gender.
· The individual has not yet reached puberty.
· The disorder must have been present for at least 6 months.
The remaining two classifications have no specific criteria and may be used as "catch-all" classifications in a similar way to Gender Identity Disorder Not Otherwise Specified (GIDNOS).
[3] Gender identity disorder in children (GIDC) is usually reported as "having always been there" since childhood, and is considered clinically distinct from GID which appears in adolescence or adulthood, which has been reported by some as intensifying over time.
[4] There is a misguided notion that links transgender to sexual orientation, specifically homosexuality. However, the only thing that binds these two communities into one is their struggle for acceptance within mainstream society. This joint community is known as the LGBT/GLBT community (referring collectively to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender/transsexual people.)

[1] Gender identity disorder (GID) is the formal diagnosis used by psychologists and physicians to describe persons who experience significant gender dysphoria
[1] The current edition of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems has five different diagnoses for gender identity disorder: transsexualism, Dual-role Transvestism, Gender Identity Disorder of Childhood, Other Gender Identity Disorders, and Gender Identity Disorder, Unspecified.
Transsexualism has the following criteria:
· The desire to live and be accepted as a member of the opposite sex, usually accompanied by the wish to make his or her body as congruent as possible with the preferred sex through surgery and hormone treatment.
· The transsexual identity has been present persistently for at least two years.
· The disorder is not a symptom of another mental disorder or a chromosomal abnormality.
Dual-role transvestism has the following criteria:
· The individual wears clothes of the opposite sex in order to experience temporary membership in the opposite sex.
· There is no sexual motivation for the cross-dressing.
· The individual has no desire for a permanent change to the opposite sex.
Gender Identity Disorder of Childhood has essentially four criteria:
· The individual is persistently and intensely distressed about being a girl/boy, and desires (or claims) to be of the opposite gender.
· The individual is preoccupied with the clothing, roles or anatomy of the opposite sex/gender, or rejects the clothing, roles, or anatomy of his/her birth sex/gender.
· The individual has not yet reached puberty.
· The disorder must have been present for at least 6 months.
The remaining two classifications have no specific criteria and may be used as "catch-all" classifications in a similar way to Gender Identity Disorder Not Otherwise Specified (GIDNOS).
[1] Gender identity disorder in children (GIDC) is usually reported as "having always been there" since childhood, and is considered clinically distinct from GID which appears in adolescence or adulthood, which has been reported by some as intensifying over time.
[1] There is a misguided notion that links transgender to sexual orientation, specifically homosexuality. However, the only thing that binds these two communities into one is their struggle for acceptance within mainstream society. This joint community is known as the LGBT/GLBT community (referring collectively to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender/transsexual people.)

Although not medically linked the emotional struggles faced by transgendered individuals and homosexuals are often similar. In both cases many individuals initially face choices between the acknowledgement of their sexual identity and groups that they belong to such as their families and religions (this is even more pertinent in the cases of groups that are extremely conservative.) Although eventually the majority of families and individuals come to terms with members of their group being either homosexual or transgender, many do not and continue to face internal struggles with religious contradiction. Such hardship has been well documented in films such as ‘Trembling before g-d.[1]’
Ideally the world should be a place in which tolerance for all was as widely practiced as the hatred we currently see. A world in which our identity would not have to be compromised in order to feel a sense of belonging. However unfortunately this world does not exist, and as long as we as a people cannot recognise the trivialness of our differences, those that defy social norm will continue to struggle to find acceptance.
[1] Trembling Before G-d is a documentary built around intimately-told personal stories of Hasidic and Orthodox Jews who are gay or lesbian. The film portrays a group of people who face a profound dilemma - how to reconcile their passionate love of Judaism and the Divine with the drastic Biblical prohibitions that forbid homosexuality.

[1] Trembling Before G-d is a documentary built around intimately-told personal stories of Hasidic and Orthodox Jews who are gay or lesbian. The film portrays a group of people who face a profound dilemma - how to reconcile their passionate love of Judaism and the Divine with the drastic Biblical prohibitions that forbid homosexuality.