AEGIS Provides Protective Shield (1990)

Source: Announcing the Atlanta Educational Gender Information Service. (1990). Decatur, GA.

Source: AEGIS provides protective shield for transsexuals and transvestites. (1991, October). Renaissance News, 5(10), p. 12.

I believe this text from the community newsletter Renaissance News reproduces the text of the press release announcing AEGIS’ formation.

By the time the Renaissance article was published (October, 1991), AEGIS had been renamed The American Educational Gender Information Service and was a corporation.

Renaissance News, 10/91 (PDF)

AEGIS Provides Protective Shield for Transsexuals and Transvestites

The Atlanta Educational Gender Information Service (AEGIS) is a not-for-profit business which dis­seminates information to persons interested in issues of gender.

AEGIS provides free referrals to support groups and gender clinics as well as free referrals to physi­cians, psychologists, psychiatrists, social agencies and private social workers, ministers, and attorneys to those people not within range of a gender support group. A world­wide data base of helping professionals includes surgeons who per­form sex reassignment.

The organization’s publications include the Chrysalis Quarterly, published four times a year, a series of booklets to aid in gender transi­tion, and other publications in prepa­ration.

AEGIS works actively with oth­ers in the community, exchanging newsletters, information, and re­ferrals, and helping to organize cooperative projects and events.

AEGIS supports the “Standards of Care” of the Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association, Inc. and makes refer­rals contingent upon documenta­tion of adherence to these standards. In addition, AEGIS actively sup­ports the professionalization and standardization of services for transgendered persons, including the nonjudgmental and nondiscrimi­natory treatment of persons with gender dysphoria. AEGIS also ad­vocates respect for their dignity, their right to treatment, and their right to choose their gender.

AEGIS was founded by and is managed by Dallas Denny, M.A., a human service professional with knowledge of the professional lit­erature of gender issues and more than a decade of experience in the delivery of psychological services.

The first aegis was the shield or breastplate used by the Greek god Zeus and later by his daughter, Athena. Now, the word “aegis” means variously “shield,” “protec­tion,” and “sponsorship.”

“We will strive to live up to our acronym by at all times maintain­ing confidentiality and by helping transgendered persons make rea­soned and informed decisions about the ways in which they will live their lives,” Denny said.

For more information on AEGIS, write to P.O. Box 33724, Decatur, GA 30033, or call (404) 939-0244.