My Invited Comments on Proposed Revision of HBIGDA Standards of Care (1997)
In issue no. 9 of AEGIS News I took a look at helping professionals as part of the multi-issue Vision 2001: A Gender Odyssey. I expressed my concerns about the in-process revision of the Standards of Care of the Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association. I drew heavily upon statements made by Dr. Stephen Levine, chair of the revision committee. Dr. George R. Brown, a member of the committee, took exception to what I wrote. I published his comments as a letter to the editor in AEGIS News No. 10.
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No Regets: The Standards of Care (1991)
The Standards are a road map for service providers, telling them what they must do, at minimum, to provide competent care to transsexual people. To the majority of service providers, who are ignorant about transsexualism, the Standards can serve as a cookbook, giving them the necessary confidence to treat men and women they might not otherwise agree to serve.
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A Guide to the HBIGDA Standards of Care (1993)
In 1993 we developed this brief guide to the HBIGDA Standards of Care and sent it, along with the Standards, to people seeking information and support.
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The WPATH Standards of Care (2005)
My readers, please note—much changed with the introduction of Version 7 of the Standards of Care. This presentation, and any criticisms I may have had in the past, are obsolete.
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HBIGDA Standards of Care, V. 5 (1998)
I was a consultant for Version 5 of the Standards of Care of the Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association. They were published in 1998 and were replaced by Version 6 in 2001.
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HBIGDA Standards of Care (1990)
In my capacity as Executive Director and person-in-charge-of-the-mails at the nonprofit American Educational Gender Information Service, I mailed thousands of copies of the 4th revision of the HBIDGA Standards of Care to those seeking information. It was economically feasible to do so because the document required only three sheet of paper! Version 7 of the WPATH Standards of Care, released in 2011, is 112 page long!
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Do We Need Standards of Care? (1996)
Certainly, in my opinion, the Standards of Care give too much power to the mental health professional and not enough to the individual. Just as certainly, in my opinion, to scrap them in favor of the Emperor’s New Clothes Standards‑‑ excuse me, I.C.T.L.E.P. Health Law Standards, which are in fact no standards at all‑‑ would be a recipe for human misery and would jeopardize the availability of treatment for everyone.
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The 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.
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The Standards of Care: What Are They? (1990)
Most transsexuals, and probably most physicians and psychologists, don’t realize there is a set of minimum guidelines for hormonal and surgical treatment of transsexual people. These guidelines were developed in 1979 and were last revised in 1981. They are called the Standards of Care.
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Transition and Individual Choice (1999)
Much human misery is caused by the insistence of some people that things be done a certain way. Transsexuals have certainly suffered from such notions, which have been forced on them by helping professionals who were often neither helping nor professional. For many years, the coin of the treatment realm was subjectivism and caprice as transsexuals had their feet figuratively held to the fire by psychologists and physicians who required their transsexual patients to restructure their lives according to their often naive and sexist beliefs. It was not unusual for therapists to dictate to transsexuals the clothes they must wear, their occupations, the sex of their lovers, which surgeries they would and would not have, and even their names. If the patients didn’t comply, they were denied hormones and surgery.
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A Look at the WPATH Standards of Care (2011)
The WPATH Standards of care, born at a time when transsexuals were almost universally considered mentally ill, were devised as a path out of ignorance and subjectivism, and as such have been of immense value by marking a clear path to transition. I enthusiastically support them and I hope you will too.
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Another Look at the HBIGDA Standards of Care (1996)
The issue under discussion is whether the Harry Benjamin Standards of Care are restrictive. Obviously, something that places formidable obstacles to an individual doing what they want to their own body is an imposition on that individual. So yes, they are restrictive. But are they unnecessarily or arbitrarily so? That is another question.
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No Surgery on Demand (1993)
This article appeared in Transsexual News Telegraph as a counterpoint to an article by Christine Tayleur. Tayleur”s article follows mine.
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A Word from the Editor: HBIGDA (2002)
In this postmodern age in which more and more of us are strong and sure of ourselves, I’m no longer sure of the appropriateness of the Standards of Care, and I’m becoming more and more certain that it’s unethical to apply constraints to a class of people without solid evidence that they are needed.
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XV HBIGDA Symposium: Vancouver Highlights (1997)
Dr. Holly Devor set the tone for the conference by pointing out that gender variability is not prima facie evidence for psychopathology, but can be a healthy adjustment to restrictive gender roles. Dr. Devor brought many attendees to their feet with a call for HBIGDA to acknowledge and serve the many kinds of gender-variant people.
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Results of a Questionnaire on the Standards of Care (1995)
We prepared and distributed a questionnaire which solicited the opinions of transgendered and transexual persons about the HBIGDA Standards of Care. In this paper, we present some results of that survey and discuss some of the issues involved in imposing such standards on transexual bodies.
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