The Problem (1991)
They tell me I’m a genius, and I suppose maybe I am, for I’m the only one I know who has singlehandedly changed herself from a boy into a girl. Laura Ann Sykes, Nobel winner in the new category, Self‑Initiated Sex Change. Thank you, thank you.
Read MoreViolence Against Transgendered Persons: An Unrecognized Problem (1992)
In 1991 and 1992 the nonprofit American Educational Gender Information Service campaigned against violence toward transgendered and transsexual people. This was years before Remembering our Dead and the Day of Remembrance. No one was talking about the problem. We did.
Read MoreThe Shark in the Swimming Pool (1993)
Confronted, Willis claimed the increasing tensions within the group were the fault of the various group members, and certainly not his. He was insistent he was not the problem.
Read MoreReading at Outwrite Bookstore (1997)
I did several readings by invitation at Philip Rafshoon’s Outwrite bookstore in Midtown Atlanta. HOn 27 April, 1997, I read Chapter 3 from my novel The Problem.
Read MoreDangerous Curves: The Trouble with Injectable Silicone (2014)
Today silicone injections are occurring in epidemic proportions. Typically, large amounts (liters, sometimes) are administered by non-licensed and usually non-medically trained “practitioners” who use big-bore needles to pump large quantities of non-medical grade silicone into virtually every part of the body.
Read MoreDismantling the Gender Binary (2015)
This are the notes for my keynote delivered at Transgender Lives: The Intersection of Health and Law, Farmington, CT, 25 April, 2015
Read MoreThe Campaigns Against Transsexuals: Part I (2013)
Today I’m talking about a remarkable—and successful—plot to end sex reassignment in the United States. Yes, right here in River City! The year was 1979.
Read MoreCurrent Concepts in Transgender Identity (1998)
Current Concepts is an edited textbook; I was privileged to be the editor. The text consists of emerging ideas about trans* issues authored by physicians, psychologists, sociologists, anthropologists, historians, and advocates, many with decades of experience in the field. The work is in part an homage to Richard Green and John Money’s 1969 edited text Transsexualism and Sex Reassignment, which established early treatment protocols. Both Green and Money contributed chapters to Current Concepts. Of Current Concepts, Of just how much things have changed, Green wrote in his chapter, “I am struck at the outset that the biggest change with this new text may be that it is edited by a transsexual.”
Read MoreComing of Age in the Land of Two Genders (1997)
I was honored to be asked to make a contribution to this book of autobiographies of famous sexologists.
Read MoreDiscovering Who You Are (1991)
Much has changed since I wrote this series of booklets in the early 1990’s. Not only have I become older and hopefully wiser, but there has been a revolution in the way gender identity issues are viewed. The term “gender dysphoria,” with its implication of mental illness, does not accurately describe the transgender process for all of us, and for most of us, we are only dysphoric for a relatively short time.
Read MoreDeciding What to Do About Your Gender Dysphoria (1991)
Much has changed since I wrote this series of booklets in the early 1990’s. Not only have I become older and hopefully wiser, but there has been a revolution in the way gender identity issues are viewed. The term “gender dysphoria,” with its implication of mental illness, does not accurately describe the transgender process for all of us, and for most of us, we are only dysphoric for a relatively short time.
Read MoreA Word from the Editor (Chrysalis, 1991-1998)
Here are the Word From the Editor/Publisher columns from the various issues of Chrysalis.
Read MoreAn Interview with Dr. David Gilbert (1992)
Dr. David Gilbert is a plastic surgeon and microsurgeon who is co‑founder of The Center for Gender Reassignment in Norfolk, Virginia. His wife, Deborah, is a registered nurse, and Coordinator of the Center. Plans were to interview both Dr. and Mrs. Gilbert at Southern Comfort, but Mrs. Gilbert became ill shortly after arrival, and was still under the weather on Sunday afternoon, the last possible time for the interview. Dr. Gilbert, who was obviously worried about his wife, nevertheless gave us what we believe to be the finest interview on sex reassignment surgery which has ever appeared outside, and perhaps inside, the pages of a medical journal.
Read MoreHow NOT to Get Rid of Unwanted Hair (1997)
One day, no doubt, some ingenious soul will figure out a safe, fast, painless, and inexpensive method of permanent hair removal. When that happens, those who have had electrolysis will of course be miffed because newcomers will not have to go through the same pain and expense they did. But until that day, it is only those who have had electrolysis who have thrown away their razors.
Read MoreDoes Laser Electrolysis Work? (1997)
Is it possible for coherent (laser) light to kill hair? Certainly. Has anyone yet devised a laser treatment system which kills hair permanently and safely? Perhaps. Has anyone demonstrated permanent hair loss with laser electrolysis. Not yet, at least not to our knowledge.
Read MoreAdvisory: Polycystic Ovary Syndrome in FTMs (1997)
This is one of several medical advisories issued by AEGIS after being vetted by our 30-member advisory board. It was released in August, 1997 and re-released in 2002 by Gender Education & Advocacy, Inc., the renamed AEGIS. It also appeared in August, 1997 in the premiere issue of AEGIS’ Transgender Treatment Bulletin, accompanied by an article on PCOS by Jamison Green.
Read MoreAEGIS Recommends Breast Self-Examination (1995)
AEGIS recommends that all MTF transsexual and transgendered persons who have experienced significant breast development from hormonal therapy and all FTM transsexual and transgendered persons who have not had mastectomy/chest reconstruction do a breast self-examination on a monthly basis.
Read MoreAEGIS Advisory on Vaginoplasty (1996)
This is one of several medical advisories issued by AEGIS after being vetted by our 30-member advisory board.
Read MoreAEGIS Online News (Some Single Posts, 1995-1996)
In May, 1995, when I was Executive Director of the nonprofit American Educational Gender Information Service, I compiled and transmitted what I believe was the first transgender-specific online news feed. It was called AEGIS Online News. The News initially went out to several hundred AEGIS members and other subscribers as a plain text file over the fledgling internet.
Read MoreTranssexualism: Religious Aspects (1978)
In the 1970s the Erickson Educational Foundation produced a series of booklets about transsexualism. Rights eventually came to my nonprofit American Educational Gender Information Service, and, in the early 1990s, we reprinted and distributed this and some of the other booklets.
Read MoreButcher John Ronald Brown (2002)
Three thousand miles away Dallas Denny read of the case and immediately recognized Brown’s handiwork. Denny called Stacy Running, the San Diego Assistant District Attorney, and told her assistant about apotemnophilia, a fetish identified by psychologist John Money, in which an individual is sexually turned on by missing limbs and sometimes wishes to become an amputee.
Read MoreWhy Did He Cut Off That Man’s Leg? (1999)
Dallas Denny, an Atlanta-based transgender author and activist who periodically posts warnings about Brown on the Internet, says that among transsexuals he was known as “Table Top Brown” for his willingness to operate in kitchens, garages and motel rooms.
Read MoreCobb Judge Denies Transgender Name Change (1999)
Cobb County, as Charles Dickens might have said, is a ass.
Read MoreDeath From Silicone Injections in South Georgia (2004-2005)
In this century police and prosecutors have begun to pay attention to deaths from illegal injections of silicone. They occur with depressing regularity.
Read MoreLetter to the Editor, Femme Forum (2001)
In her interview in the October issues of Transgender Community News, Jane Ellen Fairax dodges the question of Tri-Ess’ exclusionary membership policy by making it appear that it is the focus of the organization which is under attack. No one, to my knowledge, challenges Tri-Ess’ focus on heterosexual crossdressers and their female partners
Read MoreAsk Dr. GenderFixIt (Tapestry No. 108) (2005)
Let Dr. GenderFixIt answer your embarrassing questions in a public forum!
Read MoreThe Politics of Diagnosis and a Diagnosis of Politics (1991)
This is one of my most-cited articles.
Read MoreVirginia’s Ordeal (2000)
This year Virginia was invited to be the keynote speaker at S.P.I.C.E., a conference for the female partners of heterosexual crossdressers. A condition was placed on her participation, however— she would be required to attend the conference as “Charles.” She agreed to this, she told me, because she had something important to say to the wives.
Read MoreYour Editor Spouts Off
Mark Twain once said it’s better to keep silent and let others think you’re a fool than to open your mouth and have everyone know for certain. He didn’t say anything about telling the whole country by way of an ignorant letter to a newspaper.
Read MoreThe Literature of Gender Dysphoria: A Survey (1994)
This is an early review of the literature. I did not use the term gender dysphoria after 1994.
Read MoreComputers and Me (1999)
My relationship with computers has been a long and productive one. I feel rather less harshly toward Microsoft today than when I first penned this.
Read MoreGeorge and the Dragon (1994)
Most of my attempts to write stories for children have turned out disasters. I like this tale, however, and hope you will, too.
Read MoreA Peculiar Fixation (Ongoing)
Several years ago I made, as a mental exercise, a list of the various motor vehicles I’ve owned. I was amazed to discover that in forty-some years of driving I had acquired, driven, and sold or otherwise disposed of more than 30 automobiles (the current count is 33 and one pickup truck) and some 17 motorcycles. When I compared my automotive experiences with acquaintances of a like age, I discovered most had owned far fewer vehicles—some as few as three, some as many as six. None had owned more than a dozen. I began to suspect I was a rare bird.
Read MoreHot Stuff (1987)
Hot Stuff is based on a real incident. In 1979 more than 20 pounds of enriched uranium turned up missing at a nuclear fuel-enrichment plant in Erwin, Tennessee.
Read MoreTraining Paraprofessionals to Make Data-Based Training Strategy Decisions (1986)
A number of studies have shown teachers can be successfully trained to collect and analyze data daily using trend and error analysis techniques and to make resulting educational decisions that lead to improved student performance. Effects have tended to be positive across a variety of academic tasks and a variety of handicapping conditions, as well as across a range of educators and a variety of settings. However, the use of data-based instructional decision-making has not been widespread.
Read MoreMy Major Area Paper, Vanderbilt University (1994)
This is my major area paper for the Ed.D. at George Peabody College of Vanderbilt University.
Read MorePica: Some Suggestions for Future Research (1987)
Pica is the purposeful ingestion of objects generally considered nonedible. This was one of my papers for qualifying exams.
Read MoreNeeded: A New Literature for a New Century (1997)
Much of the existing literature addresses in detail questions which no longer seem relevant. For instance, many studies have been designed to determine the ways in which transseuals vary from controls (i.e., “normal” individuals), and a great deal of effort has been expended in attempts to “manage” transsexualism and transsexuals themselves. Meanwhile, other, more important, questions remain unaddressed.
Read MoreThe HBIGDA Standards of Care: Results of a Survey of Consumers (1994)
We present a preliminary analysis of the data for approximately 300 questionnaires. The find the majority of respondents believe there should be Standards of Care and support the various safeguards (like the real-life test) of the HBIGDA Standards.
Read MoreTerrorism: Why Does it Frighten Us So Much? (1998)
Think the nineties made the sixties look like the fifties? Just wait. We’re all going to get even more seriously crazy as soon as 2001 rolls around. Hell, we may just jump the gun and do it at 2000. And if the past behavior of the U.S. government is any predictor, we can expect increased restrictions on our freedoms to travel, own guns, say what we think—which will just piss everyone off even more, and lead to more berserker rages and anonymous bombings.
Read MoreCodename ANGIE: The AEGIS National Gender Identification Explanation Card (1991)
In 1991 transsexual and transgendered people were routinely arrested when identified on the street. In some places anti-crossdressing or anti-masquerade laws were still on the books—and even when they weren’t, police officers would sometimes haul in transpeople on general principal. Happily, this situation was rapidly changing, and, after discussion with others at the IFGE conference, AEGIS decided not to release the ANGIE card.
Read MoreHeteropocrisy: The Myth of the Heterosexual Crossdresser (1996)
Because of their steadfast denial of the true nature of their members, many organizations for heterosexual crossdressers are at bottom hypocritical organizations—heteropocritical organizations, I would say. Their mission statements are at considerable variance with the actual nature and needs of their members. They exist to serve heterosexual crossdressers, but many of their members identify as something other than heterosexual males. They serve only by turning a blind eye to the actual needs of their members, and by excluding many who would help them to serve their focus population of heterosexual crossdressers.
Read MoreNormal and Abnormal Stereotyped Behaviors in Humans and Infrahumans (1986)
All vertebrates exhibit rhythmic, repetitive behaviors. Some of these behaviors are normal and functional, but others are abnormal and non-functional. When the behaviors are abnormal, they are called stereotypies. Studies of normal rhythmic behaviors and abnormal stereotypies in both human and non-human animals are discussed. The importance of comparing normal and abnormal rhythmic behaviors in both human and non-human animals is stressed.
Read MoreYou Make Me Sick! (2004)
The existing medical and psychological literature of transsexualism has many problems. Its themes, its assumptions, and its language make it nearly impossible to discuss transsexuals or transsexualism in a healthy way. It is on the whole profoundly disrespectful of transsexual people, who are portrayed as sexual stereotypes, ridiculed for their manner of dress, and insulted in a variety of other ways both overt and covert. It actively promotes a model disempowering to transsexuals, who have been expected to surrender their autonomy to mental health professionals and then disavow their transsexualism by disappearing into the woodwork and passing as nontranssexuals after their gender transitions.
Read MoreThe Impact of Emerging Technologies on One Transgender Organization (2001)
In this paper I talk about the transition of the 501(c)(3) American Educational Gender Information Service from a brick-and-mortar provider of information to an online entity.
Read MoreTransgender Identities and Bisexual Expression: Implications for Counselors (2007)
I’m awaiting permission to post the text and book pages here.
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