To the American
Psychiatric Association
and
The American
Psychological Association (for supporting The Psychiatric Association by
refusing to acknowledge the problem publicly)
and
HBIGDA/WPATH ( for their silent
support of the APA, and selection of these same individuals to work on the
Standards of Care )
Petition Rationale and Demands
There comes a time in history when a
class of people who have been misunderstood, oppressed, vilified, ostracized,
ridiculed, and abused by the institutions of society, due to profound
misunderstanding of the reality that humanity is much more rich, diverse, and
vibrant than the traditions of those institutions lead people to believe, must
rise up in unity against that
oppression and proclaim that they are
very much a part of the beautiful normal diversity of humanity, and must be
recognized as such in order for the institutions of society to sustain and
advance humanity as a compassionate and soulful thing.
Those institutions must recognize that
this class of people has special and unique needs, partly as a result of the
condition of their birth and partly as a result of the systematic oppression
imposed on them by society, that are medical and social in nature, and need
supported access to medical treatments and remedies to give them an opportunity
to function in life as the people they truly are.
So, WE, a coalition of people who
identify as Trans or Intersex people (including people who are
also known as transgender, transsexual, intersex, and several other terms used
to classify people based on being born with a condition where the gender of
their mind, psyche, or soul differs from their anatomical sex at birth, or,
their anatomical sex at birth was ambiguous) hereby proclaim this resolution
and support it with the thousands of people who have signed in protest to your
anti-transgender choices for the DSM-V Committee:
Whereas,
1) gender variation has been recognized
and often celebrated throughout human history, in diverse cultures around the
world, and we as a human race are at a crossroads in properly acknowledging and
respecting the existence of inherent genders that are unique and separate from
reproductive anatomical conditions of the body;
2) it is almost universally acknowledged
in all other arenas of humanity, that people's self identity, expression,
character, intellect, ability to achieve, heart, and soul take precedence over
their bodies, and that the condition of their bodies should not be used to limit
or define them against their will;
3) virtually all supposedly scientific
data used to categorize trans people as mentally disordered, is based on
foundational assumptions which stem from purely biased cultural attitudes
rooted in ignorance, tradition, and religious dogma that gender should solely
be determined by reproductive capacity, rather than from true objective and
scientific inquiry, based on unbiased and humane perspectives, that make no
such preconceived false assumptions;
4) the existence of untold millions of
Trans people around the world, in every culture throughout human history,
provides compelling evidence that the above biased assumption is prima
facie untrue;
5) ending debate about whether Trans
people are mentally disordered will properly shift scientific focus away from
the distraction of assigning false mental illness, and toward objective
research into how Trans people can be successfully identified in early
childhood so that compassionate and effective medical care, including social
therapy and hormonal treatment regimens, can be established and implemented in
order to facilitate the assimilation of Trans people into social roles that are
suitable to their natural inherent genders prior to adolescence
and puberty, and lead to improvements in
medical interventions for Trans people during later life stages so that their
bodies can be better aligned with their inherent genders, thus allowing
for healthier and stable lives;
6) Trans people must be recognized as
having a physiological condition rather than psychological disorder, thus
requiring medical intervention through surgical and endocrinological means, and
Trans people must have the right to determine what is needed to correct their
own bodies, to be consistent with their inherent genders, so that they can live
comfortable and meaningful lives, and socialize as they naturally need to;
7) surgical alteration of ambiguous birth
sex (intersex) performed on children without their consent, is unethical and
must be abandoned in favor of waiting for them to communicate for themselves
what gender they are;
8) anyone seen by the vast majority of
the Trans community as working against the truth of what we know about inherent
gender identity, cannot be placed in a position of defining the nature of
gender identities with any level of trust from the people who's lives they are
so profoundly impacting;
9) we are a coalition of doctors,
lawyers, therapists, scientists, educators, artists, other professionals, and
community advocates, who have lived our lives under extreme social stigma due
to being trans, and have unique perspectives and understandings of life as a
result.
This petition has been signed by over ten
thousand of us and our supporters. ( both internet and paper petitions ) Ignore
our reasonable
requests at your own risk, because we
will escalate our displeasure and disgust in more meaningful ways such as
continuing demonstrations in front of your offices. If this fails to obtain the
desired result of fairness we have other plans as well.
We are hopeful that merely seeing the
thousands of people (and their comments) and the fact this protest is WORLDWIDE
will make you reassess your poorly thought out choices for the DSM-V
committees.
The media, as you can see from the
submitted to line, are being notified as well.
Therefore, we, the members of this coalition,
declare that:
1. The classification of Trans people as
mentally disordered within the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) of the
American Psychiatric Association (APA) must immediately end; we will accept
nothing less: Trans people are representative of natural human diversity.
2. The APA must remove Drs Zucker, and
Blanchard and Dr Kafka
3. The DSM must have entries that
acknowledge forms of anxiety and stress that stem from living in a society that
tends to reject, stigmatize, and ostracize Trans people, which includes the
ever-present threat of violence. Social stressors such as these, require
compassionate therapeutic treatment that respects the rights of Trans people to
receive competent surgical and hormonal treatment to correct their body
conditions.( as per the AMA Resolution 122 )
4. Involuntary surgery performed on
intersex children to force gender upon them, without understanding how they
identify themselves, must immediately end, and be replaced with care that waits
for them to be able to communicate what gender they are, and allows them to
chose what kind of surgery, if any, they should have, when they are ready to do
so.
5. The qualifications and motivations of
anyone placed in a position to outline the care of Trans individuals, must be
closely examined. Their participation in any committee commissioned to
determine the classification of gender identity must be founded on the trust of
the Trans community: if their openly expressed beliefs are seen by the majority
of the Trans community as hostile to the reality that Trans people are a
natural part of humanity and not mentally disordered, they can not be trusted
to act in the best interests of the Trans community.
6. The Trans community, numbering in the
millions throughout the world, is competent enough to effectively communicate
to the medical and psychological communities who we are in regards to our true
genders, and therefore, what medical diagnoses and treatments are appropriate,
in order to correct physical conditions we are born with, according to those
inherent genders.
7. These changes must be realized during
this current revision process so that Trans people are not made to suffer
indignantly for another 15-20 years before the next opportunity arises to
comprehensively do so.
The Undersigned (More than 10.000 signatures by patients and experts all around the world,
among them, Dr.Torres
and Gendercare Gender Clinic)
Petition Coalition organized by Dr.
Kimberly Hyatt-Wallace - UK.
