by Matt LeGrand

Gender. It’s something you are born with right? I honestly never put much thought to it in the past; I have checked that little box indicating Male on countless forms and never once questioned that concrete, indisputable, unchanging fact of my life. Some people not only do question their gender but actually take the steps to change physically from one gender to the other. I can’t begin to imagine or even understand what it would be like to wake up every day as a genetic male with XY chromosomes, and feel so much distress that my identity is so fundamentally flawed that I had no choice but to transition to the other gender. Transgendered people do it, though, born male becoming female, or born female and becoming male. Many people would like us all to believe that transitioning from one gender to the other is a “choice,” and therefore the consequences of that choice are justly delivered.

I know that for me I would never choose to transition; on the other hand, I’m perfectly happy with the gender I have been born with. I fail to see how it is a “choice” for those that do undergo transition; no one would choose all the social stigma, judgment by society, rejection by friends and family, and being labeled sick, perverted, mentally ill or possibly all of the above. Those labels used time and time again against you, especially “mentally ill.” Once society defines a person this way, it’s easy to dehumanize them, discount and dismiss a person’s arguments and even basic rights. So no I can’t agree with anyone that would say transitioning is a choice. I would go further and argue a person that identifies as transgender is not mentally ill, at least no more than you or I. If a person is so in tune with who they fundamentally are that it is necessary for them to undergo the physical changes required with transitioning, and they are able to face the huge societal and social uncertainty, along with the potential rejection that can go with it, then that person has more mental fortitude than I could ever muster and deserves more respect for standing up for who they are than will ever be given.

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) is the American Psychiatric Association’s bible of sorts. It is revised occasionally and is currently in the final process of its fifth revision. This latest revision is about 15 years in the making and one of the significant changes is how transgender people are defined by the mental health community. The DSM-4 diagnosed transgender people with Gender Identity Disorder; the new DSM-5 will diagnose people who identify as transgendered with Gender Dysphoria. What is the difference in a name? The key word in the outgoing term is Disorder, which Merriam-Webster’s defines as: a physical or mental condition that is not normal or healthy. This implies that if a person is transgender, then they have a serious, unhealthy mental condition that should be corrected or fixed. To add to the negative connotation of Gender Identity Disorder, the diagnosis was categorized in a chapter covering Paraphilic Disorders, which included Pedophilia, Sexual Fetishism, Voyeurism, Zoophilia and an extensive list of sexual erotic interest. In practice this categorized people who were uncomfortable with their own physical appearance alongside sexual deviants and predators when being transgender has nothing to do with a person’s sexual desires or interest. This has given those who disagree with a person’s right to feel comfortable in their own skin ample ammunition to persecute and withhold basic civil rights from transgendered people the rest of us take for granted. Through the use of unfounded hypothetical situations and misinformation groups like the Traditional Values Coalition have waged political war on transgendered people’s rights where ever protective legislation is proposed. The Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) would provide protection against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity at the federal level, however groups like the TVC claim the following. “ENDA is radical legislation that hurts kids and forces schools to hire or retain transgendered teachers in every school district in America granting them protected minority status.” “Our children’s education and well-being should be more important than catering to the unhealthy psychological condition of a very small group of individuals. Children need and have a right to a psychologically stable and emotionally secure environment in which to learn.”(traditionalvalues.org) these statements make the obvious claim that transgendered people are dangerous to children, and present an image where America’s schools systems would be inundated by transgendered teachers putting children in danger. The reality is the law would simply provide the same protections to the LGBT community that are already in practice to prevent racial or sexual discrimination in the workplace. TVC has also fought venomously in California against a law signed earlier this year by the state’s governor, it allows transgender youth to participate in sports and use restroom facilities in their schools according to the student’s gender identity. TVC has painted a delusional picture where male students enter female restrooms and locker rooms at will as sexual predators putting female students at risk of imminent sexual assault. The reality is a teenage transgender student; male to female, has probably been treated with hormone replacement therapy causing the individual to develop physically appearing female and poses only imaginary risk to her fellow students. However, the risks to the student if forced into male facilities are very real; violence against transgendered youth simply targeted for being transgendered is hugely disproportionate versus the rest of the population.

Gender Dysphoria: how is this new diagnosis different from Gender Identity Disorder and why was a change necessary? Merriam-Webster defines dysphoria as: “a state of feeling unwell or unhappy.” So to be transgender is a state of feeling not a psychological illness. Also the DSM-5 gives Gender Dysphoria its own chapter, separating it from Sexual Dysfunctions and Paraphilic Disorders. The American Psychiatric Association explains its reasoning for changing the diagnoses as follows: “Need for Change. Persons experiencing gender dysphoria need a diagnostic term that protects their access to care and won’t be used against them in social, occupational, or legal areas.” This helps take ammunition away from those who would use a transgendered person’s medical diagnosis, which is necessary for treatment by health care providers, against them in so many aspects of their lives.

No one should have to live in so much fear, from losing their job to having their children taken from them, like a case reported in an article on addictiontreatmentmagazine.com: “…a custody case in Utah in which a woman stands to lose the children she fathered prior to her transition. Using her GID status (made prior to the DSM’s fifth revision), the opposing counsel is arguing that the woman be denied custody on the basis of a ‘severe, chronic mental illness that might be harmful to the child.’” Even with the new definition of Gender Dysphoria, people will still find cause and motivation to persecute the Transgender community, and until people as a whole stand up and agree to treat human beings like human beings, and judge people by the substance of their character and actions, this will for the most part fall on deaf ears. What’s the diagnosis for someone crazy enough to think something like that could ever happen in this world?

Matt LeGrand is a resident of Madison, Indiana. A father, student and soldier, Matt is a student at Ivy Tech Community College and is pursuing an Associates in Supply Chain Management and Logistics. Matt has served in the Army Reserve for eight years as a military police officer.

Works Cited

American Psychiatric Association. “Gender Dysphoria” dsm5.org, American Psychiatric Publishing, 2013. Web. 24 Nov. 2013.

“The ENDA Commmon Sense” traditionalvalues.org, Traditional Values Coalition, 2013. Web. 24 Nov. 2013.

“Transgender People No Longer Labeled Mentally Ill” Addiction Treatment Magazine, 26 July 2013. Web. 24 Nov. 2013.

“Disorder”Merriam-Webster.com, Merriam-Webster, 2013. Web. 4 Dec. 2013.

“Dysphoria” Merriam-Webster.com, Merriam-Webster, 2013. Web. 4 Dec. 2013.