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Opening Doors to Transsexual Medical Research
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treatment, and legal
protection of individuals correcting the misalignment
of their brains and their anatomical sex, while supporting their transition
into society as hormonally reconstituted and surgically corrected citizens.
| This Year's Blond |
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| Opinion - Global Warning | |||
| Lisa Jain Thompson | |||
| Thursday, 30 March 2006 12:15 | |||
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Springfield, Virginia, USA. When did people born transsexual become so au courant? It seems that everyone who is everyone wants a pre-op/post-op written into their film or television show. One Academy Award nomination, and Actresses appear to be stumbling over them to portray a transsexual protagonist. We’ve always had The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, one of the first films with a well rounded transsexual lead character (albeit surrounded with cross-dressers and drag queens), but, for the mainstream, however marginally, that was it. One film of substance (and one of the few where an established male actor (Terence Stamp) was willing to portray a woman born transsexual), a handful of situation comedies (e.g., Friends, Ally McBeal) focusing, for the most part, on the reaction of uneasy straight males in the cast, and some early oddities played for laughs like Myra Breckinridge in 1970 -- but, for the most part, people born transsexual were invisible.
Washington, DC, USA. Science observes the universe, records what has occurred, and then develops a testable  theory that can explain those observations and make predictions on future ones.
Albert Einstein was very good at thi...Why the sudden interest?
We are documenting the physical differences between innate gender and outward sexual genitaliaOne reason is that the science is coming together. Research is identifying the underlying physical causes of transsexual birth. Medicine recognizes that the body’s outward appearance does not necessarily correlate with the mind’s conception of itself. We have come to recognize that sex is hardwired in the Every week it seems, a new discovery in A second reason, one that provides a strong conceptual framework to gradual acceptance, is the established medical protocols and course of treatment that govern a person born transsexual’s transition between male and female. Switching sexual organs and identity is not something that can be done as easily as putting on make-up, cutting your hair, or buying a new dress or tuxedo. The medicine has been maturing for over fifty years and the process is governed by a set of guidelines, rules, and procedures. These procedures serve as a “gatekeeper” to help insure the validity of a person born transsexual and facilitate a successful transition. Transsexuality is not the latest, fly by night scheme to lose weight or make your self rich. The people are real, the medicine is real. The science exists to back up the diagnosis, providing a growing social and legal legitimacy to people born transsexual.
The third reason, obvious to anyone who has seen a movie, watched television, or read a newspaper or magazine, is that the population of people born transsexual is growing and becoming more visible to society. When I was growing up, I knew of one transsexual person: Christine Jorgensen, who became a media sensation in 1952. She was treated as a sideshow. I knew of no therapists, no support groups, no endocrinologists, no surgeons skilled in sexual reassignment surgery (if the term even existed). {josquote}An individual born transsexual is no longer an island. No one has to feel he or she is the only one who feels the way they do.{/josquote} In most cases, they no longer need to hide who they are. The science, skilled surgeons, and public information networks are now established to enable the successful treatment of transsexuality. A fourth reason may be that, opposed to gay guys and cross dressers, people born transsexual are perceived as “safe.” They threaten no one (except perhaps those religions that have a literal faith in the perfection of their gods). They are not attempting to change societal structures or revolutionize legal entities. For the most part, people born transsexual simply want to fit in and get on with their lives once their sexual genitalia is corrected to fit the gender identity they have had since conception. Because there is no implied or inherent threat, transsexuality is accepted as the diagnosed medical condition it is and the person born transsexual, after receiving the proper treatment, becomes reasonably indistinguishable from the rest of society. But why now?Some of it has to do with physics: the number of people born transsexual has reached a visible critical mass. Everyone seems to know someone who, if not born transsexual themselves, knows someone who was. One could argue the number of people born transsexual has not changed, only their visibility has Society is no longer putting people born transsexual into prison or stringing them up on barb wire fences. We have become somewhat more enlightened. People born transsexual are a fact of life. The current public fascination with transsexual people will gradually disappear as society learns more about genetics and developmental biology, and when they come to realize that becoming a boy or a girl is not the easiest thing to do, nor is their a foolproof method that always gets it right the first time. Until that happens, people born transsexual will be the flavor of the month, at least until some other blonde catches the public fancy.
 Ms. Lisa Jain Thompson is a Co-Founder & Principal of TS-Si. She also serves as a Contributing Editor and columnist for the TS-Si website. She maintains another site, StarPoet.com, for her poetry and literary works.Ms. Thompson's signed articles contain her own opinions and do not necessarily convey an official position of TS-Si, its partners, or affiliates. Lisa welcomes your comments. Use the form below or email via her TS-Si Contact Page. We will not divulge any personal details or place you on a mailing list without your permission.
 The TS-Si News Service is a collaborative effort by TS-Si.org editors, contributors, and corresponding institutions. Sources can include the cited individuals and organizations, as well as TS-Si.org staff contributions. Articles and news reports do not necessarily convey official positions of TS-Si, its partners, or affiliates. We welcome your comments. Use the form below to leave a public comment or send private correspondence via the TS-Si Contact Page. We will not divulge any personal details or place you on a mailing list without your permission.TS-Si is dedicated to the acceptance, medical treatment, and legal protection of individuals correcting the misalignment of their brains and their anatomical sex, while supporting their transition into society as hormonally reconstituted and surgically corrected citizens.
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