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Laura Acevedo Graduate Student, Chapman University, MFT Trainee San Diego, CA As a postmodernist, I believe that gender identity is not a disorder, whether one's identity conforms to social norms or not. I believe that it is an intolerant culture/society that is pathological, not a "variant" individual. It is my view that the treatment/therapy for so-called GID needs to address the problems of adjustment that result from living in a variant-hostile culture/society, not the readjustment of the individual to fit the culture/society. I advocate for the removal of gender identity disorder from the DSM as it is currently written. I don't consider that diagnosis to be therapeutic for clients, but rather a possible cause of harm.

Ana Adelstein, Ph.D. Licensed Psychologist (Georgia) 1640 Powers Ferry Road Building 7, Suite 300 Marietta, GA 30067

Margo Victoria Allen Lewisville, Texas Is it nature or nurture? From my own experience it HAD to be nature, a congenital condition. I was born in 1958, and the drug "diethylstilbestrol" or DES was given out like candy to women who were prone to miscarriage. I totally believe THAT is why I am TS. That being the case, the government should step up to the plate and MAKE the insurance companies do what is right. We shouldn't have to make special laws to protect certain groups of people from prejudice. If a person is classified as a HUMAN BEING...then, THAT should suffice!!

Rebecca Allison, MD, FACC, FACP Cardiologist, Phoenix, Arizona Board of Directors, Gay and Lesbian Medical Association American Medical Association, Advisory Committee on GLBT Issues www.drbecky.com This condition, which is one defining component of our lives, is not a mental disorder. It is a physical condition, a mismatch between brain and body. It is properly managed as are other physical conditions, with medical and/or surgical treatment. Any coexisting psychological conditions are secondary, a reaction to stress and conflict we experience from family, friends, or work. More of Dr. Becky's statement As a physical condition, this "mismatch" does not belong in a manual of mental disorders. It does properly belong in a manual of physical disorders such as the ICD, and should be removed from the DSM and placed in the ICD to allow for appropriate insurance coverage of relevant medical and surgical treatment. "It" also needs a new name. Both "gender identity disorder" and "transsexualism" carry too much historical stigma. This new name should reflect the physical nature of our condition. It should be logical and acceptable to a general audience, as well as a professional audience. "Gender incongruity" may be one option, but perhaps one of us will put forward the perfect name!

Rachel Anderson CEO - Executive Mentoring Firm Denver, CO geocities.com/rachelssoul As my journey continues, I become more passionate about this reform. I did not choose my gender gifts nor are they a result of my environment. It is rare to find that a diagnosis is actually contributing to stress, depression and vulnerability of the very people it presumes to describe. Before acceptance or tolerance can come from society, reform needs to come, based on current research and findings.

Nerissa Belcher I'm an ex-podiatrist and current nursing student. Douglasville, GA GID is a normal variant which would cause very little distress for most people given adequate legal protection, particularly to concern employment. It should only remain in the DSM to characterize the individuals with GID who have emotional distress due to GID despite adequate employment and other social factors. Care should be taken to distinguish individuals for whom the distress is not due to GID but due to religious indoctrination. In such cases their appropriate diagnosis should be under pathology related to religious issues

Elizabeth Bethea, M.S.W., Ph.D. Psychotherapist Co-President, PFLAG Boulder County, Colorado 3450 Penrose Place, Suite 240 Boulder, CO 80301 720-226-8010 I have always been categorically opposed to the stigmatization and mis-labeling of gender variant people as suffering from a psychiatric disorder and in need of adaptive therapy. I consider such labeling a subtle form of violence against the transgender community, and I wholeheartedly support the complete eradication of GID and TF from the DSM-IV. A healthy gender identity and its full expression is integral to human wholeness and should be supported and celebrated in all of its beautiful and diverse variations.

Graham N. de Bever Medical student wanting to specialise in Psychiatry South Africa Why do we 'need' to pathologise everyone who is different? Why is the public so uncomfortable in their own skin that difference in self-expression is taken as a personal affront? Transexuality is not a 'dysphoria' or a 'disorder' - it is a variance of the normal - nature creates all sorts of genders so why insist that only the [straight] 'male' and 'female' options are normal? Stop making life harder for transexuals and other gender-different [or 'gender-original'] people by labeling them with a psychiatric diagnosis!

Elizabeth Bhulem Community Activist

Marci L. Bowers, M.D. Obstetrician, Gynecologist, SRS Surgeon 328 Bonaventure St., Suite 5 Trinidad, CO 81082 719 846 4433 www.marcibowers.com

Cristin Brew Fairfax, CA I am presently working towards my MFT license and am actively involved in the LGBT community in the Bay Area. I have worked for 3 years with both adults and youth who identify as transgender and have become outraged at our society's obsession with the gender binary system. My sincere hope is that it will not be too long before diversity in gender identity and expression is celebrated and not pathologized!

Andrea Brown Ireland I believe that transsexualism should be removed from the DSM as a mental condition and all references to it should be disconnected from mental conditions such as paedophilia. I would like to see reform around the control freakery of psychiatrists who choose for the patient what their lifestyle is, where they work, what they work as, and where they socialise and live.

Gene Bujold Networking Consultant Las Vegas, NV www.hhplace.org/hhboard/index.php My wife is a psychologist. She looked up the terms in the latest DSM IV-TR, and discovered that the medical (psychological) literature tends to lump us into one of two very narrow categories, neither of which apply in my case, and which I sincerely doubt apply to most of the posters here on this board! And this despite the fact that this "phenomena" has been in existance, in abundance, since the 1700's (perhaps much earlier), with an outbreak in the 1970's, and resurgance between the 1990's and the present. It's against the fact that around the world, until the last 29 years, the wear of skirts or robes by men was the norm.

Sarah Burgamy PsyD student, Univ. of Denver (at present), B.A. in psychology, Dartmouth College, NH (2000) I am currently working on an ethics project addressing the inconsistencies in the ethics professed by the APA and the reality of what is listed as a "disorder" in the DSM IV and is stigmatized and submitted to rigid and stereotypic standards in the Harry Benjamin Standards of Care. As I am only one person, and still a graduate student, I am looking into joining with others working toward reform in order to add momentum to current efforts and hopefully have more of an impact as a member of a larger group of like-minded individuals.

Angie Canelli, MA Mental Health Therapist Seattle Counseling Service for Sexual Minorities 1216 Pine St., #300 Seattle, WA 98101 206-323-1768 www.seattlecounseling.org There HAS TO be a better way to help us get our needs met than to pathologize our identities.

Gerri Cannon Founder and Past Director of Tri Ess New England Past Director of Chapter Development for Tri Ess International Merrimack, NH While I was a Business Professional at Hewlett Packard, my being Transgendered was perceived by some Management and Human Resource people to be a medical problem that could be "corrected." After all, it is listed as a disorder, isn't it? This was the view of my manager when said to me, "You know, the company will pay to fix this condition." How we are treated by the medical community is a good place to start. "Labels" can be just as demeaning as the comments people make about our non-conformance to gender norms. It seems that when then next round of layoffs came, I became a liability at HP. I am now self employed and much happier being free to express my true self.

Leigha Cohen Electrical Engineer and Artist Princeton, NJ

Anna Conway Harrisburg, PA There need to be more sites and sources of information on this specific topic. I work in the mental health field and with GLBT teens - and entirely agree with the site. I am searching for information that perhaps I can use for youth - brochures, bibliographies, websites, etc. I am a graduate student working on my internship in an organization called Common Roads, which is a supportive agency for GLBT youth ages 14-22.

Lynn Conway, Professor Emerita University of Michigan www.lynnconway.com The Psychiatric profession's published estimate of the prevalence of intense transsexualism understates the actual numbers by about two orders of magnitude. Their gross understatement of numbers is clear evidence of how out of contact that profession is with the realities of the transsexual condition. If they are that far off in their published figures for prevalence, why should we believe anything else they have to say about the condition? -- more on this issue --

Denise "Dee Dee" Devereaux Co-President Elect, Board of Directors, First Unitarian Universalist Church Chair, Gay & Lesbian Unitarian Universalist Committee (GLUU) Director, Hate Crimes Project Vice-Chair, Amnesty International, New Orleans Chapter Secretary, Board of Directors, Lesbian & Gay Community Center Vice-President, Gulf Gender Alliance Director, Steering Committee, Safe Schools Project, New Orleans, Louisiana.

Lore M. Dickey, M.A. Graduate Student, University of North Dakota Leading scholars couldn't find a single person to write about keeping GID in the DSM. I agree - it should be removed. This also means that we need to educate the trans community, of which I am a part, as there is some amount of disagreement about this issue.

Sidney W. Ecker, M.D., F.A.C.S. Clinical Professor of Urology Georgetown University Medical School Washington, D.C., 20007 When R. J. Stoller in 1964 coined the term “gender identity” he realized that there were perinatal and prenatal factors besides genitalia and the psychosocial reinforcement of rearing that determined with whom individuals identified. Now 40 years later science is coming closer to understanding these factors. Psychologists have clearly drawn the distinction between behavior and identity realizing that identity maybe immutable as TGs mature. What is becoming clear from scientific evidence is that variant gender identity is strongly associated with the neural development of the brain in utero under the direction of our sex chromosomes and genes initially, which may be modified to some extent by the amount of sex hormones present throughout life. What is clearer in humans is that this cannot be changed by rearing, psychosocialization or psychiatry. I am working to gather and publish the scientific evidence that would provide a working scientific basis to remove GID from the DSM. I am an advocate for GID Reform.

Sarah Fox, Ph.D. President, Chrysalis Neurobiological Services Columbus, OH www.gendernet.org/sarah Although I once viewed the GID diagnosis as a necessary evil in the process of obtaining important medical interventions, I no longer feel that way. One does not need a diagnosis of nasal dysphoria to undergo rhinoplasty or adipose dysphoria to undergo liposuction. As a neurobiologist, I would still insist transsexualism is a disorder. However, it is not a psychological one. It is a medical disorder in which the brain and body are of opposite sexual differentiation. While the mind may be of the nonbirth gender, there is no reason to believe it is unhealthy.

Michelle Gagnon Honeywell Space Systems Quality Engineer 3923 18th St. N. St. Petersburg, FL 33714 www.geocities.com/transgender_world A non-op transsexual currently on HRT, I've been able to be quite successful in my career. Our medical and mental health community has historically viewed transgendered people in a sense, mentally ill. I have come to realize that I am no different than anyone else in my ability to become a successful and valuable member of my community. There are ways to deal with the negative effects of being transgendered, whether through therapy or HRT. Until the medical and psychological community recognizes this to be true, we will remain in this struggle to get the help we need and the peace we all can obtain through proper treatment.

Lisa C. Gilinger Attorney Santa Barbara, CA www.lisagilinger.com

Jamison Green, M.F.A. Author, Becoming a Visible Man (Vanderbilt University Press, 2004); Gender Diversity Trainer and Policy Consultant; Gender Education & Advocacy, Inc., Board Chairman; FTM International, Inc., past President. www.jamisongreen.com Gender Identity Disorder probably does exist, but most of the hundreds of transsexual people that I've met don't have it. It is time for GID reform so that transsexual and transgendered people can access quality healthcare without being subjected to the stigmatizing diagnosis of a mental disorder that is not their problem.

Dean H Hamer, Ph.D. Molecular biologist and author of The Science of Desire qwaves.com Gender identity - just like sexual orientation - is a natural variation, not a disease.

Terry Lee Harrington, R.N., N.P. I am a psychiatric nurse practitioner. I find the DSM, a waste of time, unnecessarily stigmatizing, and not a holistic way of viewing clients. DSM is a real money maker for the American Psychiatric Association because insurance requires providers to provide a DSM diagnosis for reimbursement.

Lisa M. Hartley, ACSW-DCSW Clinical Social Worker P.O. Box 1354, Derry, NH 03038 603-434-0888 With the increasing knowldege gained from hard research in the hypothalamus and in genetics, and with awareness of my own journey and the journeys of numerous transgendered persons, I believe that transgender is a physical issue missed at birth. As the medical personnel look at the genitals for designating sex identity and ignore the real origin of sex identity which is the brain, a tragic mistake is made at birth. The mistake is exacerbated by wrong gender socialization and cultural expectations for the individual. When the transgendered person develops awareness and understanding of the primary mistake and corrects it, the culture responds in many negative ways. It is the culture that suffers from dysphoria, not the transgendered person.

Mikayla Howden Owner, Director, TS Haven House 85 Community Drive, Penacook, N.H. 03303 603-219-2841 www.TSHavenHouse.net I believe that changing the DSM has been a long time coming and that we need to be recognized as human beings, not mentally ill individuals, because of who we are as Transsexuals.

Laura Hurn Singapore Gender identity is not a mental disorder. It is inconceivable that anyone would think that it was without having a political agenda of discrimination. Such acts of discimination should be outlawed in enlightened societies. I advocate the removal of GID and TF from the DSM and the ICD.

Joe Ippolito, L.C.S.W, Pre-Doc Candidate Philadelphia Trans-health Conference, Mazzoni Center, American Psychological Association Division 44 Philadelphia, PA I am a licensed clinical social worker (LCSW) and a 5th year doctoral candidate in psychology. Currently, I work part-time as a therapist for the Mazzoni Center and run a small private practice. Most of my work, both clinically and politically, involve working with transgender clients. As a mental health provider, I am required to work within a diagnostic framework, even though I prefer not to. My p ersonal feelings about GID reform includes revising how it is presented and defined in the DSM, rather then removing it completely. I feel this should incorporate non-pathological terminology and involve a multi-axis definition. This multi-axis definition should look at social, cultural, environmental, mental, emotional, physical/biological and economic components.

Andrea James Owner, tsroadmap.com www.tsroadmap.com The mental illness model of gender variance is the greatest hurdle we face in getting full rights. We can be accommodated by helping professionals without this stigma of psychosexual pathology. It’s time that gender-variant people look to the 1973 decision to remove homosexuality from the DSM. It is clear now that this was a pivotal event in the gay rights movement, and until the pathologization of socially unacceptable gender expression ends, we will not have equal rights under the law.

Olivia Jensen, Ph.D. Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences McGill University 3450 University Street Montreal, Canada H3A 2A7 +1 514 398 3587 travesti.geophys.mcgill.ca/~olivia A great advantage will accrue to us when we, finally, remove GID/TF from the list of psychiatric disorders. The cost of the medical-disease model is to our dignity. The very fact that our self-reliance and self-will are supposedly compromised by our "affliction" brings us to be seen as weaker or lesser people. The disease model is, in my view, seriously detrimental to our acceptance by the world. To be a transgendered person is not an affliction; rather, it is the most remarkable of blessings. It is affliction only in a personal inability to take charge of issue and realize an accomplished and successful life.

Ilene Jones Owner, Genderology.org Founding member, Genderology Association www.genderology.org Being the daughter of a transsexual and the spouse of a transsexual has given me a unique perspective on the lives and the minds of transsexual persons. Our society is but one of many and to assume that every person will fit into the social norm is absurd. To feel that every person who does not fit the social norm needs to be reformed to society is equally absurd. Our society should learn more tolerance for others, just as we should learn more tolerance for other cultures.

Matt Kailey Author of Just Add Hormones: An Insider's Guide to the Transsexual Experience (Beacon Press, 2005), Activist, speaker and trainer www.mattkailey.com Before the advent of the increasingly bulky DSM, many "mental illnesses" were simply personality traits. Mental health is a serious business and is woefully underfunded. The limited resources that are available need to go toward those who actually experience the debilitating effects of true mental illness. Having "gender issues" is a problem only because society makes it so. There is a generally accepted remedy for those living with this experience, but it has nothing to do with treatment for mental illness. Most of the "mental health" issues that trans people experience are due to society's nonacceptance of us just the way we are. We do not need the additional stigma of "mental illness," and we do not need to take from the dwindling resources available to those who truly need mental health services.

Dan Karasic, M.D. LGBT Advisory Committee of the San Francisco Human Rights Commission Attending Psychiatrist for AIDS Care, San Francisco General Hospital Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, University of California, San Francisco There are a lot of problems with the way psychiatry has viewed transgender folks. In labeling an identity as a mental disorder, as opposed to identifying symptoms in the same way we do for, say, major depression, anxiety disorder or other disorders in the DSM, the consequence of this is pathologizing and really hurting our clients. (Karasic & Kohler, 2000)

Scott Kerlin, Ph.D. & Dana Beyer, M.D. Co-moderators of the DES Sons online discussion network groups.yahoo.com/group/des-sons As co-moderators of an online network of persons assigned male at birth who were exposed to the drug DES (diethylstilbestrol) in utero, we are aware of the high incidence of gender variance now proven within our DES community. As persons subjected to one of the worst long-term medical errors in American history, from 1938-1971, we are especially attuned to the need for a fair and biologically-based categorization of all gender-variant persons.

Heidi Marie Kirsch Incoming freshman at Bennington College Gender Identity Disorder is not a "disorder," and anyone who thinks it is should do more research on the subject. I think society's expectations of what it means to be a girl or a boy are unreasonable. Every human being should be embraced...but people are still treated differently, and that is sad.

Peter Klevius http://klevius.info/sexsegregation.html?1104498467093 I'm a "straight" anthropologist and gender criminologist and I lost my "manhood" long ago and now propose using the concept sex segregation (see my site and From Klevius without love) as a means for deconstructing gender, femininity and masculinity. I have two happy "straight" "tomboy" daughters.

Arlene Istar Lev, CSW-R, CASAC Choices Counseling and Consulting 321 Washington Ave. Albany NY 12206 518.463.9152 www.choicesconsulting.com The DSM has a long history of diagnosing oppressed people with mental disorders. In order to receive medical treatments, transgender and transsexual people have historically had to prove themselves to be mentally "disordered"; in order to be granted civil rights, transgender and transsexual people must show the world that they actually quite sane. Approval for medical treatments must not depend on being mentally ill, but on being mentally sound enough to make empowered and healthy decisions regarding one’s body and life.

Patricia Susan Martin President e-transmall http://www.geekbabe.com/patti I have suffered throughout life trying to be something I am not, a man. I have tried to be the gender that I appeared to be at birth. I am now in transition and find so many blocks in my way due to the classification GID falls under. All that is needed is a small change of wording to allow us to be medically treated properly, so our insurances will cover part of or all of the transition. It is time to legitimize the medical necessity of sex reassignment surgeries (SRS) and procedures for transsexuals who urgently need them.

Deirdre McCloskey, Ph.D. UIC Distinguished Professor of Economics, History, and English, University of Illinois at Chicago 720 S. Dearborn St., #206, Chicago, IL 312-435-1479 www.uic.edu/~deirdre2 Taking the "diagnosis" out is a matter of civil rights. One could just as appropriately have a "diagnosis" for people with optimistic personalities or red hair.

Jodie R. Miller Graduate student, McNeese State University Lake Charles, LA Traditional psychology states that children and adolescents with GID adopt cross-sex behaviors and choose opposite-sex play partners due to maladaptive processes. Though these behaviors may open youth up to social ridicule and ostracism, the very fact that they avoid same-sex play activities and gravitate toward opposite sex-typed play and partners demonstrates their efforts to adapt to social distress. It simply does not seem correct to classify adaptive behavior that causes no harm to self or others as indicative of a disorder.

Sheila Mink Former Chairwoman, Board of Directors Gender Identity Center of Colorado, Inc. Certainly, those of us who are transsexual can find solace in the way that this very important issue is being dealt with via this web site! I continue to be saddened by how far we have yet to go, but gladdened by how far we have come towards letting the truth be known!

Rev. Linda Miskimen Ph.D. Retired, Doctor of Philosophy In Religion Bloomington, MN www.gscene.com First, I do not believe that HBIGDA works in the best interests of human-beings with GID. The DSM is nothing more than a political document, that is used for selecting who gets what conditions and what degree of medical care. There are members, people in power, who are practicing junk science, and it has not taken long for the religious right to jump on the band wagon. I have not seen one paper nor much come out of HBIGDA or APA to refute this junk science. To avoid taking a stand against junk science or the religious right's misuse of the Bible, medical organizations hide behind “do no harm,” which is doing harm.

Nancy L. Morgan, M.S., Ph.D. Organizational Consultant/Mental Health Outreach Specialist/Clinician Portia Bell Hume Behavioral Health and Training Center Concord, CA 94520 Phone: (925)825-1793 ext. 384 www.umi.com/products_umi/dissertations/disexpress.shtml Dissertation #3023373 I am the author of the first Ph.D. dissertation advocating GID reform. Defining normal gender behavior: Therapeutic implications arising from psychologists' sex-role expectations and attitudes toward lesbians and gays.

Michele O'Mara, LCSW Psychotherapist, TransgenderIndiana.com 6450 West 10th Street, Suite 7 Indianapolis, IN 46214 317.517.0065 www.TransgenderIndiana.com The numbers of men and women affected by gender concerns are signficant, and it seems to me that the stress of their gender differences stems not from how they feel about their condition, it stems from their discomfort around how they believe they are (or will be) perceived by loved ones and society at large. The stress of potential rejection for not being "normal" seems to contribute to the bulk of the stress I see with transgendered clients.

Pauline Park, Ph.D. chair, New York Association for Gender Rights Advocacy (NYAGRA) www.paulinepark.com I do not have a gender identity disorder. It is society that has a gender identity disorder. Removing the GID diagnosis from the DSM will help liberate thousands of transgendered and gender-variant youth from the psychiatric abuse to which they are currently being subjected as well as helping to advance a progressive agenda for social justice and social change. We must embrace a wholistic concept which recognizes transgender as simply a natural variant in gender identity. For a complete analysis of the politics of GID, read the closing keynote speech ("Transgender Health: Reconceptualizing Pathology as Wellness") that I gave to the Trans-Health Conference in Philadelphia (4.7.07): -link-

Sally Payne Birmingham, UK sallypayne.co.uk I have never understood why I should be classified as mentally deficient, just because I have suffered distress regarding my gender. My distress was so great that I went into deep denial for more than 40 years and did the usual things that a male would do, married, had and raised 4 children, ran a very successful business etc. This does not seem to me to be the actions of someone who is mentally deficient. I am now happily transitioning (non-op) and I object strongly to being classified as having a mental disorder. I help run the largest trans support group in the Midlands and give a lot of time and support to trans people - again hardly the actions of someone who is mentally deficient. I applaud your efforts to bring about reform.

Trey Polesky, B.S., MSW candidate More of Trey's Story I received a diagnosis of Gender Identity Disorder as a 9 year old child from a psychiatrist my parents took me to due to my distress about being a girl, desire to live as a boy, and aversion to female clothing, activities, and toys etc. Upon being given this diagnosis, it was recommended that I be sent to Forrest Hospital in Des Plaines, IL in order to "help me become more in touch with my feminine side." I was admitted to the psychiatric unit there for several months and was subjected to reparative therapy in which I was forced to grow my hair out (I was not allowed a haircut like the other children on the unit), I was forced to wear pink or purple dress or skirts 4 days per week, and part of my therapy was to read magazines such as "Teen" and "Seventeen" in order to learn how to dress and behave like a girl. At first I refused to follow my "treatment plan" but I quickly learned that by refusing, I was viewed as being non-compliant with treatment and lost privileges on the unit such as movie night, access to eating in the cafeteria with peers etc. I finally learned to fake my way out in order to be released, though the reparative therapy did nothing but shatter my sense of self confidence in who I was. Essentially, they taught me to hate who I was. To say that gender identity disorder does not stigmatize transgender clients is a huge slap in the face to my experience. It took me years to overcome the trauma and nightmares that I experienced after having been given that diagnosis and institutionalized against my will for simply being true to myself. Just because my gender identity is different from yours doesn't mean I am "disordered," it simply means it is different. Diversity should be embraced, not construed to be a disorder.

Stella Purvis Trans Editor, GScene Magazine 16 Locks Crescent, Brighton BN41 2AD United Kingdom www.gscene.com Normal variation rather than nosology and pathology.

Dr. Pega Ren Registered Clinical Counsellor (British Columbia, Canada) Board Certified Sex Therapist (USA) Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada 604-269-2692 www.smartsextalk.com I view my role in working with transgendered people as one of supporting them through their transition process to make it as smooth and painless as possible for them and those who love them.

Susan P. Robbins, Ph.D., LCSW, LCDC Associate Professor, University of Houston Graduate School of Social Work Houston, TX 77204-4013 www.susanrobbins.com The continued inclusion of GID and TF in the DSM serves to bolster psychiatry and related mental mental health professions by pathologizing human difference as psychiatric disorder. Removing these diagnoses from the DSM should be inextricably linked to the concepts of social justice and human rights. With the generous assistance of Arlene Lev, I have included a section on transgenderism and transgender identity development in the 2nd edition of my human behavior theory textbook that will be available in Summer 2005.

Kim Schicklang Germany www.mut23.org The DSM-IV stands in opposite to human rights and it's important to spread this message all around the world. A transsexual woman's sex of birth is female (with transsexual men vice versa), because her brain is female. The sentence "I am born with the wrong body" is true (the sentence is not a phenomenon of a psychiatric disease).

Julia Serano, Ph.D. Biologist, Univerisity of California at Berkeley Writer, Spoken Word Artist, Gender Activist Oakland, CA www.julieserano.com It is time for the psychiatric community to stop pathologizing healthy, sane transgendered people and instead focus their efforts on treating the people who truly suffer from the "gender disorder": those who become irrationally uncomfortable, upset or angered by other people's gender identity or expression.

Alexus Sheppard, B.S.E., D.D.S., F.A.G.D. Social Consciousness Practitioner Pleasanton, CA www.alexussheppard.com Who I AM is not (and never was) pathological. The DSM is, quite simply, incorrect and needs to be changed. Only when we take these matters into our own hands will the medical/psychological communities begin to respect and honor the true strength of our conviction.

Ms. Stephanie Shockley Field Services Representative / Founding Board Member - TransGendered Kansas City (Missouri Charter) and TransGendered Kansas City Union (Kansas Charter). Board Member Four Freedoms Democratic Club 207 Westport Road, Kansas City, MO 64111 http://transgenderedkc.org The time has come to boldly come forth to demonstrate the value and importance of individuals whose only real obstacle in life is an incongruous existence due to abnormalities in vitro.

Gwen Smith Columnist, Transmissions Founder, Remembering Our Dead project Founder, Transgender Day of Remembrance www.gwensmith.com The current GID and TF definitions do not serve those they purport to treat; it is high time these were reformed.

Debra Soshoux Attorney and Advocate, TransYouth Family Allies Sherman Oaks, CA The psychiatric/psychological profession must remove gender identity and expression from the DSM now. It's a false diagnosis that mistakenly focuses on the transgendered individual, identifying him/her as "disordered" when in fact the person is simply expressing who he or she is. The "disordered" element among us an uncomprehending public that demonizes and persecutes people innocent individuals just because they're different, refusing to acknowledge a now overwhelming body of medical and clinical evidence that identifies transsexuality as a birth condition.

Ingrid Swenson, MSW Mental Health Therapist Seattle Counseling Service for Sexual Minorities 1216 Pine St., #300 Seattle, WA 98101 206-323-1768 www.seattlecounseling.org There HAS TO be a better way to help us get our needs met than to pathologize our identities.

Wynelle Snow, M.D. Association of Gay and Lesbian Psychiatrists

Steve Toby Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist Richmond, CA 94805 510-236-1063 jtoby.homestead.com I tell transgender clients that being trans is NOT mental disorder and that our work together is counseling (not therapy) for the purpose of making sure, before I write a letter, that they are knowledgeable and making an informed choice. To those who say one has to have a diagnosis to get hormones and surgery, I reply that pregnant women get medical attention without having a DSM diagnosis.

Anne Vitale Ph.D., Lic. Psychologist D Street Counseling Group 610 D Street San Rafael CA 94901 414-456-4452 www.avitale.com I have long since considered the problem of sex/gender incongruity to be better described as Gender Expression Deprivation Anxiety Disorder. I have written extensively about my ideas on my web site http://www.avitale.com. I am currently writing more about this.

Rachael Wallbank Accredited Specialist Family Lawyer - undertook Re Kevin PO Box 1331 Burwood NSW 1805 Australia 612 9747 7944 www.wallbanks.com In the case Re Kevin, the court accepted that the only reasonable explanation for transsexualism is that it is a biological phenomena, a natural variation in human sexual formation and properly seen as part of the intersex continuum. Both adults and children with transsexualism suffer loss of human and legal rights whenever they are able to be written off as the products of mental illness or confusion. The time has past for deferring our human rights for the sake of the ignorance, sexual bias and plain fear of difference inherent in the association of transsexualism with the terms gender identity disorder and gender dysphoria and its inclusion in the DSM.

Lisa Wilson UK I was born a transsexual female and very early on (aged 13) recognised my condition and sought medical/surgical help. This help was denied to me and instead I was subjected to an extensive program of enforced social conditioning by psychiatrists the UK National Health Service over many years. This treatment was against my will, no doubt expensive to the taxpayer and in the end completely pointless. I was eventually cured through surgery & hormone treatment, just as I'd always known that would be the only solution. If a man has a rotten tooth he doesn't need a psychiatrist to 'explore the issue' with him over years, he needs a dentist. Likewise, a transsexual person needs a surgeon not a shrink. Take the shrinks out of transsexualism; we need our bodies fixed not our minds. I support reform of the Gender Identity Disorder and Transvestic Fetishism diagnostic categories in the DSM.

Miriam Stone Wilson, MSW, MA Clinical Social Worker, Psychotherapist 1914 N 34th St, Ste. 401, Seattle, WA 98103 www.miriamstonewilson.com While I recognize the need to provide means by which transgendered individuals can continue to safely access hormones and SRS, I support the removal of the GID/TF diagnoses from the DSM-IV in an effort to depathologize gender variance.

Kelley Winters, Ph.D. Founder, GID Reform Advocates gidreform.org It is time for medical policies which, above all, do no harm to those they are intended to help. -- bio --

Sachi Wilson Assistant Attorney General, State of Washington I do not mind having a reference to Transsexuality in the DSM, because even though it may not be psychological in origin, other conditions that are psychological may mimic it. I do think it would be better not to use Gender Identity "Disorder" or other term that indicates a dysfunction. When I first looked into transitioning 27 years ago, one shrink told my father and me that I was "very sick." I was intensely offended then and I am offended now at any indication that I or my trans sisters and brothers are sick or mentally ill. I am just trying to be myself, and to have the world accept me as a happy human female.

Madeline H. Wyndzen, Ph. D. Psychology of Gender Identity & Transgenderism www.genderpsychology.org In 1998 I transitioned from male to female. Today I have wonderful friends and the most perfect life-partner, Lisa. I recently completed my Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology. Someday I hope to teach college students and study how children learn and grow. I write essays about transgenderism to share with others what I have learned from being educated in psychology and growing up with gender dysphoria. I write personal accounts about my gendered experiences that use the metaphor of puzzle-pieces "all mixed up" to more fully capture my own experiences than the historical metaphors "woman trapped in a man's body." I also write academic essays about systemic biases in psychopathological research into Gender Identity Disorder and Transvestic Fetishism.

Jessica Xavier Gender Education & Advocacy Transgendered and transsexual people bear an intense, pervasive social stigma in western culture. Besides the modern western religions, the origins of transphobia lie in the psychopathologization of gender variance by science. The linchpin of this psychopathologization is GID. Therefore... It's time for the American Psychiatric Association to assume full responsibility for the human misery it perpetuates by providing a ready apologia for those who perpetrate acts of hatred against gender variant people. It's time for the caregivers to really start caring. It's time for GID reform NOW !

Teo Yother University of Hartford, PsyD program (ABD) King's College, BA, Psychology Training Consultant for health care professionals and educators on transgender issues, especially adapting care to be welcoming to trans clients. I have often wondered why what happens to my liver or kidneys is classified under one manual while what happens between my ears goes into the DSM. The sad truth: the politics of a turf war. I remember being told in graduate school that the DSM is the backbone of the American Psychiatric Association. As an FTM seeking medical intervention for what I am willing to see as a likely endocrine anomaly, the push to be diagnosed as mentally ill was alienating and insulting. The process by which one has to "prove" the need for intervention is unprecedented. Go out, try to live like a man for a few months and if you survive we'll get you some medical help. Thank god no one suggested I "prove" my need for antidepressants.