NHS - No Humanity Shown

I'm still bringing myself to write about the Clarke Institute in Toronto. But to give you an idea of the kind of things that happened, and are happening now, here's a tale of the National Health Service in the UK. It's what happens when bureaucracy goes mad, were rules become instruments of abuse, and where the review panels designed to stop such silliness abdicate their responsibility.

A Halifax woman must undergo a thorough psychiatric assessment before she can see a specialist about an ordinary urological problem. If she refuses then NHS treatment will be denied.

This is the stark ultimatum presented to Claire Eastwood, a woman who underwent private vaginoplasty treatment in Thailand a few months ago, having given up the struggle to obtain an NHS (National Health Service) GIC (Gender Identity Clinic) referral with Calderdale PCT (Primary Care Trust) after more than eighteen months of waiting.

And the Leeds Gender Clinic, who insist she undertakes their twelve page standard evaluation, refuse to wave her through to a specialist -- even though the medical treatment she needs may not even require surgery.

***

Claire Eastwood's problems with Calderdale PCT are nothing new. Her original campaign to obtain a referral to Leeds GIC for NHS gender treatment has been covered in the past by local newspapers in Yorkshire, and by the BBC -- all sympathetic to her plight. She wrote first hand for PFC News about her campaign involving the council's health scrutiny committee earlier this year:

Calderdale UK: Standing up to the West Yorkshire PCTs

Her problems started because she simply could not obtain even a referral to a gender clinic within a reasonable time via local health administrators. This is because of the PCT's fixed annual quota for referrals to the clinic, which it was unwilling to exceed.

Having failed to budge the Primary Care Trust's stand through a series of solicitors' letters and the threat of court action, Claire eventually decided to cut her losses in 2006 -- and used the money she would have spent on legal action to hop on a plane to Thailand. There she received both breast and vaginal surgery without fuss and at a fraction of the costs quoted for NHS services in the UK. Overall she is delighted with the treatment she received there.

Unfortunately, as can sometimes happen with any treatment, Claire developed a small urinary problem as her new vagina healed. Such problems can be dealt with by any competent urological specialist; sometimes without any further surgery. Doctors call these kinds of minor adjustments "revisions". And revisions are commonplace in the NHS, even for people whose original surgery has been privately obtained.

But Claire's Care Trust responded to her trip abroad by announcing in writing that any medical treatment on the privately operated parts of her body would have to be considered in future by their "Exceptional Cases Committee" -- for the rest of her life!

It's unclear whether the PCT contemplated any exceptions at all, such as malignant tumours or urinary infections threatening the patient's kidneys. The PCT didn't appear to distinguish. And, without evaluation, who is to tell whether a urological problem is potentially life-threatening or not?

Department of Health policy advisors are on record as stating that penalising private patients in this way goes against health service policy. Yet according to Claire, in a February public meeting about local healthcare, the Deputy Director of Public Health for the area said in front of visiting senior civil servants that he didn't think such lifelong exceptional case treatment for private patients was "unfair".

In this case, of course, the PCT would claim that it hasn't refused a referral. It's just that it insists any treatment should go via the Leeds Gender Identity Clinic. And, if the Leeds GIC were acting rationally then Claire's problems might end there.

After all, Claire isn't seeking Gender Reassignment Surgery. She's had that, and she's glad and happy that she did. She's not even seeking surgery of any kind. A GP has already diagnosed that she needs to see a specialist to evaluate and treat her urologial problem. Nobody knows yet whether that requires surgery or not. She's not depressed. She's not suicidal. She's not seeking something irreversible. She clearly doesn't NEED a psychiatrist!

Yet none of this seems to have penetrated the Leeds GIC's mechanical approach towards anyone coming through their doors...

In a letter dated 23rd March a clinician wrote to Claire from the Leeds GIC :

"...The team discussed your case today. In order for us to recommend you for a surgery consulation [..] WE HAVE A DUTY OF CARE TO COMPLETE A PSYCHOSOCIAL ASSESSMENT" (emphasis added).

The letter continues,

"It would be the role of [the consultant] to assess in depth the physical issues in relation to revisional surgery. As you have not been through any NHS assessment for gender reassignment it is our duty to ensure this occurs before we can recommend for any type of surgery"

"In order for us to complete this assessment we would need you to fully co-operate with our assessment process. However if you do not wish to engage fully in this type of assessment then this is of course your choice, and we would then have to discharge you from our service. If you do choose not to engage in this process you would need to approach another healthcare professional, eg your own General Practitioner, who would then need to put a case together for the exceptional cases panel"

And then the "Catch 22" is delivered...

"The exceptional cases panel would then have to make a decision as to if such a request would be considered appropriate from outside of a gender service. We have discussed your case with the commissioners who fully support the assessment approach of the Leeds Gender Identity Service."

The "assessment" supplied to Claire when she requested a copy is a twelve page document labelled "Initial Assessment" which asks questions such as :

* The patient's sexual orientation
* Their religion
* Their school achievements
* Where they live and the type of accommodation
* Whether they are employed or not and
* If they have any convictions or have been to prison

That's the Initial assessment, remember. The really invasive stuff comes later.

And remember this has to be answered in full by Claire in order to see a specialist because of a problem with urinating!

At the moment Claire's position is unresolved. Instead of being seen by a choice of urologist within NHS waiting time limits, like any other member of the public in this position, her case has first been assessed by non-clinical staff because of a policy they've chosen to impose on her in a discriminatory manner. Then she has been further mis-referred to psychiatrists to assess whether she lives in the right kind of house and is sane enough for a proper specialist to look at her problem. And, if she quite reasonably refuses forced psychiatric evaluation in this manner, her urinary problem will go untreated with possibly serious consequences for her health.

OK, maybe time to swallow pride, fill out the stupid forms, jump through the hoops, whatever. Except....

Claire herself if quite clear about the mutual interests which she alleges are being served. In a letter accompanying a copy of the GIC's assessment documents, sent to me, she writes,

"...The GIC benefits [..] because it is paid £1,500 for an assessment"
She adds,"Furthermore the GIC is only paid to do one type of work and
that is to assess psychiatric assessments that the [Service Level
Agreement] insists must be no less than six interviews in duration over
six months. If it doesn't assess you it isn't paid, so in the spirit of
placing the needs of the PCT and itself above that of its patients it
will assess your psychiatric state or discharge you if you disagree."

Yes, it seems that in order to have a urologist assess her physical state, they must first have a program 6 months long assessing.... well, a programme 6 months long anyway. Because they have a "Duty of Care" to make sure that... well, a Duty of Care for something. They can't actually say what. But it's so important that even assessment before treatment must wait 6 months, no matter how much worse that makes the physical problem.

Psychiatrists and doctors who have seen these details are in agreement that the process being operated is improper -- ethically and medically.
Above all, psychiatrists have no business placing themselves between a patient and a specialist in a situation that is outside of their remit.
It has been suggested by one observer that such action is most probably actionable as malpractice.

What Claire will do next is not certain. Every day that passes means her simple medical problem is going unattended and may, as a result, deteriorate. Yet she is also quite right to reject inappropriate care under circumstances amounting to professional duress.

This story will clearly run and run...

- Christine Burns

Par For The Course.

Also Par for the Course is for them to state that as the result of psychiatric assessment, they cannot recommend referral at this stage. My bet is that they would be unable to recommend referral because the problem is obviously not psychological in nature. No matter, the next step would be barred anyway. You see, when there is evidence of such Bad Faith, Malpractice and Transphobia, it's not Paranoid to expect the worst, it's merely prudent. Heck, it would be insane to expect any other outcome!

Australia has a different setup, less bureaucratic, but also with rather more expense to the patient. But despite my dire financial state, I took one look at it and said "no". My decision was made easier by the fact that the procedure that was optimal for me isn't performed here (or anywhere else outside of Thailand). I would have ended up with a "Barbie Job"- no actual female genitalia, there wasn't sufficient raw material to construct any using the normal techniques practised here.

And for those who have been following my blog, the megadoses of Antibiotics have cleared up the infection, but as my GP predicted, have made me feel absolutely rotten. Good job it's a holiday weekend, there's no way I'd be well enough to drive to work. Or even get out of bed, much.

Inhuman Monsters

I recently read an article, written over a decade ago, that had me in tears. While reading it, I couldn't help bit say over and over again "But these were children... how could they do this to them....".

Let me explain. There are two clinical centres noted for their inhumane treatment of patients with gender issues. One I've mentioned before, Charing Cross in the UK. A woman I was in Chonburi with at the Suporn clinic, a serving member of the British Armed Forces, was given an appointment to see one of the "experts" there. Nothing too good for her, you see, the MO thought he was doing the right thing.

The brutal physical examination by this "expert" left her split and bleeding. The trouble is, he really is probably the best surgeon in the UK. The others are even worse.

That's Charing Cross. But worse, far worse, so bad that it is spoken of with a shudder, is the Clarke Institute in Toronto, Canada.

The article is about kids with the wrong-shaped brains for their bodies - either transsexual or gay - who are given "aversion therapy" - tortured, basically. Many are "cured", and only suicide after treatment. This is considered a "success", and no, I am not joking. I genuinely believe that a small element in the Psychiatric profession, really bright people (you have to be unusually smart, even a genius, to qualify as a psychiatrist), are so used to being amongst comparative morons that they cease seeing their patients as human. No cruelty is too painful if it leads to a "successful cure", and besides which, most of the rabble are better off dead anyway.

I've seen the same sorts of attitudes amongst many elites. The Hackers who are bright and can cut code, but are nowhere near as good as they think they are. The ones whose talents are large, but whose egos are far larger.

In Software, all that happens is that projects are late and the product is buggy. But let such people loose in positions of power, and see what happens:

When Daphne Scholinski was fourteen years old, her distraught parents
had her committed to a psychiatric institute in Chicago. She had become
unmanageable, they said. She was doing poorly in school, experimenting
with drugs, defying her parents. And she would not do anything to soften
her behavior or appearance. Her hair was short, she liked playing
baseball, and she wouldn't wear dresses. At Michael Reese Hospital, her
psychiatrist gave her a diagnosis: Oppositional Defiant Disorder
complicated by Gender Identity Disorder. He placed Daphne on a behavior
modification program along with individual and group counseling
sessions.

Part of Daphne's treatment consisted of cosmetics therapy: Every day,
Daphne's treatment partner became her beauty consultant, applying
lipstick, rouge, eyeliner, foundation, and eye shadow to Daphne's face.
Professional counselors talked to Daphne about ways she could appear
more feminine. Daphne was asked about her sexual fantasies. Her
friendship with another girl on her ward was treated as a problem. When
she spoke of male friends, she was told she was making progress.

Daphne spent four years in psychiatric institutions, all because she was
"an inappropriate female," she says today. Her "treatment" didn't change
her feelings about dresses or baseball or hair length. It only made her
feel insecure, as though who she was wasn't acceptable to the world. It
only made her sad.
...
Daphne Scholinski, the girl who underwent cosmetics therapy, was released at the age of eighteen ("just when my insurance ran out," she notes dryly). She felt no different than when she was admitted, even though her mental health counselors declared her "cured." For years afterwards, she says, she was wary of the world and intensely unsure of her place in it. She came close to suicide. As she writes in her memoir of those years, The Last Time I Wore a Dress, "In the hospital, I lost my ability to trust myself. In any interaction, I'm always thinking, I must be the one screwing up." Far from changing her, Daphne's treatment only delayed her acceptance of herself as a gay woman, she says. She couldn't think of herself as a lesbian until she was an adult.

These days, she is mostly sad and bewildered that she had to endure treatment for Gender Identity Disorder: "I still wonder why I wasn't treated for my depression, why no one noticed I'd been sexually abused, why the doctors didn't seem to believe that I came from a home with physical violence. Why the thing they cared the most about was whether I acted the part of a feminine young lady. The shame is that the effects of depression, sexual abuse, violence: all treatable. But where I stood on the feminine/masculine scale: unchangeable. It's who I am."

That was at Chicago, where the behaviouralist theories if the time held that that should have cured her. Brainwashing.

But there's worse.

Parents who brought their children to Rekers had to agree to participate in the "curing" of them. "Kraig," a four-year-old who participated in the UCLA Feminine Boy Project, was also monitored in the clinic's play-observation room. Only this time, it was his mother who wore the bug-in-the-ear, listening for her behavioral cues from the folks behind the wall. While playing, "Kraig would have seen her suddenly jerk upright, and look away from him toward the one-way window," Burke reports (based on transcripts of his case):

His mother was being prompted, through the earphones, by the doctor. She was told to completely ignore him, because he was engaged in feminine play. Kraig would have no understanding of what was happening to his mother. On one such occasion, his distress was such that he began to scream, but his mother just looked away. His anxiety increased, and he did whatever he could to get her to respond to him, but she just looked away. She must have seemed like a stranger to have changed her behavior toward him so suddenly and for no apparent reason . . . He was described as being in a panic, alternating between sobs and "aggressing at her," but again, when his distraught mother finally looked at him and began to respond, she stopped mid-sentence and abruptly turned away, as if he were not there. Kraig became so hysterical, and his mother so uncomfortable, that one of the clinicians had to enter and take Kraig, screaming, from the room.

Kraig's treatment continued in this vein. He was also put on the "token system" at home. Inappropriate, feminine behaviors earned him a red token, masculine ones, a blue token. Each red token earned him a spanking from his father. After more than two years of treatment, Kraig's behavior had turned around. He was now described by his mother as a "rough neck," and he no longer cared if his hair was neat or his clothes matched. But when he was eighteen, after years of being held up (under a pseudonym) by Rekers as "the poster boy for behavioral treatment of boyhood effeminacy," Kraig attempted suicide, because he thought that he might be gay.

How could they? How could they? Sorry, maybe I'll write about the Clarke institute, their crackpot theories and Mengele-like treatment later, I just can't stop crying.

How COULD they?

Warning! Time Waster Ahead!

At the moment, I am flat on my back, taking huge amounts (about 3 grams/day) of antibiotics, trying to beat off a really nasty post-surgical infection.
You do all you can, use anti-bacterial soaps etc, but there will always be a certain proportion who get something like this. Now I deliberately took a risk, over-doing things in order to get a paper out in January, when I should have been resting. I thought that the malaise, pain and bleeding was a normal consequence of that.

Oops.

My GP was most unimpressed that I didn't see him before now - an emergency appointment, as I had a sudden bleeding attack at 5am, not the usual thimblefull, but a cupfull. Oops again.

Now between the painkillers, the anti-inflammatories, the 3 different antibiotics, the hormones, I am in no condition to do very much but lie here and let the air get at the wound. I tried doing some computer housekeeping, but after a while, I realised that took meticulous care, and I can't do that with fever spikes.

So I've been setting up online game accounts for my boy. And in the course of looking for such things, I found this addictive game : Desktop Tower Defence. You Have Been Warned.

Leaping Shampoo

When I was working in Hengelo, the Netherlands, with Hollandse Signaal Apparaten, every day I'd drive past the University of Twente. This University has a reputation in Computer Science and other engineering and scientific activities rather higher than its relatively modest size would indicate.
Now, Scientists of the University of Twente have won a prestigious place in the 'Hall of Fame' of videos about fluid-in-motion. They have made a video of leaping shampoo, in which they explain the so-called Kaye effect.

I have to say I find this one of the more convincing arguments for there being an Almighty. In any event, how wonderful to live in a Universe where such things are not just permitted, they are mandatory by Natural Law.

Question Answered

Regarding a Previous Post, I asked a not-so-rhetorical question:

There is no controversy, nor serious argument. But nearly 40% of Americans think there is. Why?

I got an answer from a dear friend of mine, and a Christian Gentleman in the finest sense of the phrase, old-fashioned though that term is. It fits.

Here it is:

Why?
And on the other hand, a lot of people aren't particularly rational or well-read--some people believe in astrology!--and that includes people who identify themselves as Christians. If you read Genesis, you'll see that chapter 2 or 3 says the EARTH brought forth the animals, which fits in with evolution tolerably well.
Some people don't recognize that parts of it are poetry, not literal history.
(On the other hand, some problems are probably translation problems--I suspect "the whole earth" should really be "the whole land" in several places).

And we're used to being lied to by experts pushing an agenda. I'm not familiar with the history of evolution and related hoaxes, but Piltdown Man was pretty prominent, and there have been others.
And the initial arguments weren't terribly convincing. "You see, a hundred zillion years ago, there was this chemical soup, and....uh...life happened. And then...it randomly got better. Grew eyes and feet and all that." That may not be a fair summation of the actual arguments but that's how it came across. There are no "evolution predicts this, let's see if that's what actually happens" so it doesn't come across as scince. Further, when half the scientists are arguing with the other half about, e.g., Punctuated Equilibrium, the public gets the idea these guys don't really know what they're talking about. And the ones who are most strongly in favor of evolution are also the most stridently atheistic--from one point of view that makes sense, but it hardly makes them look unbiased.
In addition, a lot of the people arguing for evolution don't actually show any evidence. They'll argue by assertion or by appeal to authority, but they don't show the fossil record, they don't talk about the DNA sequences. Or perhaps they do, and it just doesn't make it into the media.
There's a book by a Christian researcher who headed up the Human Genome project--can't think of his name at the moment--whose book makes a pretty good case for evolution.

Well Said.

I think the problem is that Religion deals with Certainties, Science deals with Doubt. Religion states eternal Truth, Science nothing but Lies-that-work-in-practice, approximations, models that we know are wrong or incomplete, yet are true enough to be useful.

Let's take the "Earth is Round not Flat" Theory. Every time you use a street map, you violate this principle, because locally, with small distances, the Earth really is Flat, the curvature is lost in the noise of hill and dale, valley and forest.
But the Earth is spherical at large scales, right? Well, it's more an oblate spheroid that is, a roughly spherical object definable by 2 different axes - something like a rugby or gridiron football. So it's not "spherical" at all.

There are alternative ways of specifying the dimensions of the spheroid other than by its major and minor radii a and b. The flattening, f, is defined by f=1-b/a, and the eccentricity e by e^2=1-b^2/a^2. For the WGS84 spheroid, a=6378.137 km and f=1/298.257223563. The eccentricity and flattening are thus related by: e^2=f(2-f)
From Ed Williams Spherical Geometry

So what's this "WGS84" bit? From a site on mapping:

North American mapping agencies are in the process of moving from the 1927 datum (NAD27), which uses the Clarke 1866 spheroid, to the 1983 datum (NAD83), which uses the GRS80 spheroid (identical to within a few mm to the WGS84 spheroid) derived from satellite geodessy. To further complicate matters, the 3-arcsecond digital elevation data compiled by the Defense Mapping Agency and distributed by the USGS uses an earlier satellite-derived spheroid, WGS72. The three spheroids differ not only in their major and minor semiaxes, but also in the location of the center of the spheroid relative to the center of mass of the Earth and in the direction of the x axis.

Platygeans could have a field day - those Atheistic Humanists can't even decide on what shape this so-called "Round Earth" is, let alone what size it is!

I'm old enough so that a lot of my work used in military systems used WGS-72, and it's still "good enough" for most purposes. Heck, a spherical Earth is good enough for most purposes, distances of around a hundred km.

Our understanding of evolution is like that. Until the discovery of DNA, and its role in Life-as-we-know-it, we didn't know anything about the mechanics. Even now, many of the minor details (like WGS72 vs WGS84) are unknown. But not unknowable. And WGS84 will be superceded in time as the need for even more precise measurements come up, and the Earth changes shape slightly due to tectonic forces.

The Defence of Marriage

Lisa Pryor in the Opinion pages of the Sydney Morning Herald:

The views I am about to express are not very fashionable. They are certainly not politically correct. But I believe what I am about to say must be expressed to protect the institution of marriage.

Too often in the media, currency is given to the theory that everyone should be allowed to marry regardless of gender, outlook and whether the two people are creating a suitable family environment in which to bring up children.

Well, it is time to ask some hard questions about this attitude. The only way we will save marriage is to reclaim the institution for the mainstream. Marriage is for normal people who want to raise children in a healthy and secure environment......

Please read the whole thing.

A Good Story for April 1st

From Newsweek:

A belief in God and an identification with an organized religion are widespread throughout the country, according to the latest NEWSWEEK poll. Nine in 10 (91 percent) of American adults say they believe in God and almost as many (87 percent) say they identify with a specific religion. Christians far outnumber members of any other faith in the country, with 82 percent of the poll’s respondents identifying themselves as such. Another 5 percent say they follow a non-Christian faith, such as Judaism or Islam. Nearly half (48 percent) of the public rejects the scientific theory of evolution; one-third (34 percent) of college graduates say they accept the Biblical account of creation as fact. Seventy-three percent of Evangelical Protestants say they believe that God created humans in their present form within the last 10,000 years; 39 percent of non-Evangelical Protestants and 41 percent of Catholics agree with that view.

It would be interesting to see how many of those who believed in the Creation also believed the Earth is Flat.
No, I do not wish to make fun or denigrate Evangelical Christians. I know too many who are really Good people to do that. I just find it hard to see how they can draw the line between the two beliefs, and believe in Creation (in accordance with the literal word of the Bible) while rejecting Platyheanism (which is also in accordance with the literal word of the Bible).

From Scientific Creationism, Geocentricity, and the Flat Earth :

The Genesis creation story says the earth is covered by a vault (firmament) and that the celestial bodies move inside the vault. This makes no sense unless one assumes that the earth is essentially flat.16 Isaiah wrote that “God sits throned on the vaulted roof of earth, whose inhabitants are like grasshoppers.”17 In the book of Job, Eliphaz the Temanite says God “walks to and fro on the vault of heaven.”18 That the earth was considered essentially flat is clear from Daniel, who said, “I saw a tree of great height at the centre of the earth; the tree grew and became strong, reaching with its top to the sky and visible to the earth’s farthest bounds.”19 This statement makes no sense for spherical earth.

The New Testament also implies a flat earth. For instance, Matthew wrote that “The devil took him [Jesus] to a very high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in their glory.”20 From a sufficiently high mountain, one could see all the kingdoms of the world -- if the earth were flat. Finally, Revelation refers to “the four corners of the earth,”21 and corners are not generally associated with spheres.

16. See any Jewish encyclopedia, under “Cosmogony.”
17. New English Bible (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1979), Isaiah 40:21- 22.
18. Ibid, Job 22:141
19. Ibid, Daniel 4:10-11.
20. Ibid, Matthew 4:8.
21. Ibid, Revelation 7:1.

Either the Bible is Literally (not Figuratively) True, or it isn't. How can so many Evangelicals Cherry-Pick?

The actual question asked is even more worrying: I'll quote.

---

12. Which one of the following statements come closest to your views about the origin and development of human beings? Humans developed over millions of years from less advanced forms of life, but God guided this process (or) Humans developed over millions of years from less advanced forms of life, but God had no part in this process(or) God created humans pretty much in the present form at one time within the last 10,000 years or so?

	God guided process	God had no part	Created in present form	Other/Don't Know
Current Total	30%	13%	48%	9%
Evangelical Protestants	18%	4%	73%	5%
Non-Evangelical Protestants	42%	9%	39%	10%
Catholics	42%	11%	41%	6%
Agnostics/Atheists	27%	45%	13%	15%

---

13. Do you think the scientific theory of evolution is well-supported by evidence and widely accepted within the scientific community?

	Well-supported	Not well-supported	Don't Know
Current Total	48%	39%	13%
Evangelical Protestants	25%	63%	12%
Non-Evangelical Protestants	57%	24%	19%
Catholics	58%	33%	9%
Agnostics/Atheists	73%	18%	9%

Now why am I worried about the second question? More worried than about the first? From Newsweek magazine 29 June 1987, p23: "there are some 700 scientists (out of a total of 480,000 U.S. earth and life scientists) who give credence to creation-science, the general theory that complex life forms did not evolve but appeared 'abruptly'".

Yet a substantial proportion of Americans believe that Scientists are somehow divided on this. Well they are, 680-odd on one side to every 1 on the other.

There is no controversy, nor serious argument. But nearly 40% of Americans think there is. Why?

What ARE they teaching in UK Medical Schools These Days

From the Daily Telegraph :

A survey of more than 1,000 GPs and hospital doctors showed that 70 per cent said that the NHS should not pay for every type of operation but there was no consensus on what the NHS should fund.
...
Eighty per cent did not believe that the NHS should pay for vasectomy reversal and 84 per cent said the NHS should not pay for gender reassignment surgery.

There's disagreement on whether the whole-of-life suicide rates amongst Transsexuals is 30% or 70%, or anywhere in between. Certainly the best, most scientifically credible evidence from the Scottish Office showed 50% of TS people had self-harmed before age 25, though the figures on successful suicide attempts were less precise. People who successfully suicide don't usually reply to surveys, and often don't leave any indication why they suicide.

It's also not in contention that gender reassignment has a greater than 97% rate of making the patient feel better. Very few treatments have that degree of success.

The cost of psychiatric treatment to try to keep these people alive over 10 years greatly exceeds the cost of surgery, so it's not as if any money would be saved.

One can only assume that either the Medical Schools are clueless about Transsexuality, or there is moral condemnation of such a degree that they think we should have treatment deliberately withheld, so we die. Unlike drug addicts, for example: only 44% of doctors thought that their treatment shouldn't be free.

Never attribute to Malice what is adequately explained by Stupidity - or its partner, Ignorance.

A Morale Booster

Here. One which any woman of any age would appreciate.

How come guys just become "ruggedly handsome" as they get older? It's Not Fair!

Things That Make You Go Hmmmm

The Top 15 Unintentionally Funny Comic Book Panels.

Firespawn!

If Only It Were So Simple

No wonder I faced such a credibility gap. It seems that there's a whole sub-genre of fiction to do with spontaneous sex-change, and always "men losing their manhood".

It's not so clean, simple, or quick when it happens in Reality. Most cases take years, at normal pubescent rates, I've not been able to track down a single reliably recorded case where it happened as quickly as it did for me, at least, not one where the patient survived.

Victory in Yogyakarta

People like me are Human.

Yes, I know that may sound obvious to many (and a contradiction to a few unlikely to read this blog), but that is what was decided at Yogyakarta, Indonesia this week.

I will quote from the Introduction to the Statement of Principles:

The international system has seen great strides toward gender equality and protections against violence in society, community and in the family. In addition, key human rights mechanisms of the United Nations have affirmed States’ obligation to ensure effective protection of all persons from discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. However, the international response to human rights violations based on sexual orientation and gender identity has been fragmented and inconsistent.

To address these deficiencies a consistent understanding of the comprehensive regime of international human rights law and its application to issues of sexual orientation and gender identity is necessary. It is critical to collate and clarify State obligations under existing international human rights law, in order to promote and protect all human rights for all persons on the basis of equality and without discrimination.

The International Commission of Jurists and the International Service for Human Rights, on behalf of a coalition of human rights organisations, have undertaken a project to develop a set of international legal principles on the application of international law to human rights violations based on sexual orientation and gender identity to bring greater clarity and coherence to States’ human rights obligations.

A distinguished group of human rights experts has drafted, developed, discussed and refined these Principles. Following an experts’ meeting held at Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta, Indonesia from 6 to 9 November 2006, 29 distinguished experts from 25 countries with diverse backgrounds and expertise relevant to issues of human rights law unanimously adopted the Yogyakarta Principles on the Application of International Human Rights Law in relation to Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.

This is not "new law". It is a clarification by legal jurists of States' existing obligations under Human Rights conventions that have already been signed and are the Law of the Land.

We are Human. Human Rights apply to us even though we are Transsexual or Intersexed. (Or Gay or Lesbian for that matter).

The experts agree that the Yogyakarta Principles reflect the existing state of international human rights law in relation to issues of sexual orientation and gender identity. They also recognise that States may incur additional obligations as human rights law continues to evolve.

The Yogyakarta Principles affirm binding international legal standards with which all States must comply. They promise a different future where all people born free and equal in dignity and rights can fulfil that precious birthright.

At least one Australian legal case currently being heard will be affected by this.

And in view of my passport woes, I'll quote Principle 22:

Everyone lawfully within a State has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of the State, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. Sexual orientation and gender identity may never be invoked to limit or impede a person’s entry, egress or return to or from any State, including that person’s own State.

States shall:
a) Take all necessary legislative, administrative and other measures to ensure that the right to freedom of movement and residence is guaranteed regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.

Later, it explains

Gender identity is understood to refer to each person’s deeply felt internal and individual experience of gender, which may or may not correspond with the sex assigned at birth, including the personal sense of the body (which may involve, if freely chosen, modification of bodily appearance or function by medical, surgical or other means) and other expressions of gender, including dress, speech and mannerisms.

This directly makes the odious section 89 in the Explanatory Notes to the Australian Passports Determination an explicit violation of the Law of the Land, and therefore arguably void and a legal nullity, not being within the powers of the Minister to decide. In any event, Australia is now obligated to take all necessary measures to remove its provisions.

I am now, under International Human Rights Law, officially Human. And yesterday, I wasn't.

It helps to have a sense of humour

I've said in the past that anyone who transitions had better have a sense of humour. It's a necessary survival skill.

With that in mind, I quote the Largo City Commissioners, who have just confirmed their initial, panicked decision.

From MSNBC:

City commissioners early Saturday finalized the firing of a city manager who is seeking a sex-change operation, despite pleas from dozens of impassioned supporters to save his job.

After a six-hour hearing, the commissioners decided to fire 48-year-old Steve Stanton after his announcement that he planned a new life as a woman. The move came after the commission voted 5-2 last month to suspend him with pay.

Commissioners contended Stanton was being fired because they lost confidence in him, not because he wants to be a woman.

“I think we’re pretty well convinced,” Commissioner Gay Gentry said. “You have to believe us, you have to trust us, it is not about transgenderism.”

I'm sorry, tears are rolling down my cheeks at that one.

Meanwhile, Stanton's plea for reinstatement, transition plan and "how to transition a work" documentation is available as a PDF File. I wish I would have had access to such a document 20 months ago, it's really well thought out, and a model for how to do it.

Too bad someone broke confidentiality to a newspaper, who published the whole thing a day before hey said they would. I'm sure the result was unexpected by them, most journalists have no idea of the persecution TS people usually go through.

I didn't, by the way. The firm I was contracting for could not have been more helpful, they went beyond the duties of a firm to an employee. I've had a Dream Run - and that's why I feel a duty to make it easier for others, if I can.

The Art of Rob Gonsalves

Found at Adventix Blog and available in this book.

The Perfect Adelaide Story

Over at Tim Blair's place, a tragic story, yet one that has provoked scorn and derision.

From the Courier-Mail :

A Former Adelaide choir singer who had a sexual relationship with a teenage transvestite has been jailed for at least nine months.

Matthew Scott Barrowman, 38, was found guilty in the South Australian Supreme Court of four unlawful sexual intercourse charges and two counts of indecent assault.

Barrowman, a former soloist with the South Australian Police Credit Union choir and a St John's Ambulance officer, was today sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison, with a non-parole period of nine months.

Justice Michael David said Barrowman's offences, over a five-month period in 2004, were committed against a boy aged 15 at the time.

"The victim presented at trial as female and although he was, and still is, biologically male, I am told that he intends to have gender reassignment surgery in the near future," Justice David said.

"Your victim was clearly a dysfunctional, disturbed person who had been thrown out of his home because of a number of problems, including his own confusion about his sexuality," Justice David told Barrowman.

"He had been in a relationship with another man and you befriended him after that relationship had ended."

Justice David told Barrowman the victim was a "willing participant in all the sexual behaviour and it is also clear that your victim was not without sexual experience".

"However, the law is clear that irrespective of that, he was of such an age that your behaviour was forbidden," he said.

Here's my comment:

Here’s a similar story. It’s about a girl who was born with a cleft palate. Now she looked terrible, with a hole in her face connecting her mouth to her nostrils. At school she was teased and tormented, bullied, and called a freak.

Home was no better, and just past age 12, she was thrown out on the streets, partly for being so ugly, partly for being so emotionally crippled. She had been made dysfunctional by all the years of torment, with a really poor self-image.

With no other means of income, she peddled her body to try to save for plastic surgery. You see, there’s a lot of Men out there who really get off having sex with freaks. She was lucky, and found a Sugar Daddy - but that relationship went sour.

She got really good with makeup and cosmetic putty, and looked normal, so at age 15, when she found another guy to look after her, she went for it.

But he got caught and sentenced to 6 months for having sex with a minor, and she got called “dysfunctional and vulnerable”. Meanwhile the headlines called her a “monster” rather than a victim of a congenital condition. The article got FARKed, and even was quoted with some scorn and derision on some right-of-centre blogs.

Of course in our society, those born with surgically-correctable congenital defects are given sympathy, not treated as freaks. Or are they?

Harry Benjamin’s Syndrome - a congenital Intersex condition meaning a male-pattern brain in a female body, or a female-pattern brain in a male body, and about 1/4 of the time associated with other congenital Intersex conditions, is about as common as having a cleft palate. Like having a cleft palate, it’s not a mental illness (though the persecution and ostracism, and the constantly having to conceal the symptoms can cause that), it’s a biological condition. Like having a cleft palate, it’s surgically correctable. Unlike having a cleft palate, it’s not so obviously diagnosed, and the treatment sterilises the victim.

Please read the Fark discussion, there are some accurate comments there.

Please also realise that some of us, even RWDBs, were born Transsexual. A very, very few of us are able to live with it. A tiny, vanishingly small percentage have other Intersex conditions meaning we partly transition anyway, without treatment.

And For God’s Sake, have some sympathy for a 15 year old girl who was thrown out of her home for being born the way she was, and driven batshit crazy by the persecution she’d received. You might spare a thought for the guy in prison too: because she was Jailbait, and I bet she was good at appearing legal. People like her end up dead, dead, dead if they aren’t convincing.

Savage Nation

The Savage Nation reaches more than 8 million listeners each week, according to Talkers Magazine, making it the third-most-listened-to talk radio show in the USA. Run by deliberately controversial "Shock Jock" Michael Savage, it delights in attacking Lefties and Moonbats, a sport I too enjoy.

Sometimes though....

When talking about a murder victim who was a post-op transsexual - like me - thius is what he said.

(quoting an article)it appeared the victim had been in the process of becoming a woman..."Yeah, process of becoming a woman -- psychopath... should have been in a back ward in a straitjacket for years, howling on major medication.
...
"You're never gonna make me respect the freak. I don't want to respect the freak. The freak ought to be glad that they're allowed to walk around without begging for something.

Just listen to him.

Of course the victim in question wasn't allowed to walk around begging in order to live. They were brutally slain.

I still am not used to being a 4th class citizen, and you know what, I've decided I'm not going to get used to it. Although I really don't want to be any form of Activist, this kind of thing must cease - or at least be no longer socially acceptable. As condemned as if the word "freak" had been replaced by the word "nigger".

Recent Reading

Anti-Semitism in France - amongst the ruling elite anyway.

Former French Prime Minister Raymon Barre has sparked an uproar within the Jewish community after accusing “the Jewish lobby” of making “a scapegoat” of Maurice Papon, a French senior official who signed deportation orders for hundreds of Jews in the Bordeaux region during WWII.

In an interview last week with France Culture, a state-run radio station, Barre also said that “opposing the deportation of Jews had not been a matter of “major national interest.”

Al Qaeda's increased use if Poison Gas in Iraq.

On February 20, five were killed and 140 sickened after a chlorine attack in Baghdad. On February 21, a chlorine attack in Taji killed 9 and made 150 sick. On January 28, 16 were killed in chlorine bombing attack in Ramadi. "Suicide car bombers have used chlorine against Iraqis in Al Anbar a total of five times since January 28," notes the Multinational Forces Iraq press release. Chlorine gas is readily available in Iraq as it is used for water purification and a wide variety of industrial uses.

Two chlorine bomb factories were discovered in Karma and Fallujah by Coalition forces on February 21.

The Steve Stanton Story, a support site, and an MP3 audio Interview.

Why I had a few problems with my electrolysis just before leaving for Thailand. The scabs were still there a month later, indicating severe damage. Oops.

Great Moments in the Annals of Psychiatry - you see, some Judeo-Christian Family First group is opposing granting human rights in Vermont to TS people on the grounds that we're Nutcases. Stop discrimination against TS people, and soon you'll be doing the same for Axe Murderers... that's their line. And yes, right now, Transsexuality is an intractable psychiatric condition according to the DSM-IV, the Psychiatric Diagnostics Manual. Of course, once you've had "the op" you're cured. But really, the whole thing is a farce. Gender Dysphoria is a symptom of an underlying neurological Interesex condition, not a psychiatric illness. As far as we can tell, anyway. And outlying cases like mine are inexplicable any other way. It's just an excuse now being used to justify our oppression.

According to every respected body of mental health experts such as the American Psychiatric Association, the American Psychological Association, the Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association, and both psychological diagnostic manuals DSM-IV and ICD-10, people with a "strong and persistent cross-gender identification and a persistent discomfort with their sex or a sense of inappropriateness in the gender role of that sex" suffer from gender identity disorder, or gender dysphoria.

So far, so good.

A significant number of sufferers choose to avoid gender norms, using partial surgical alteration and/or hormones to exhibit both male and female physical traits (i.e. "she/males").

Using the word SheMale is like using the word Nigger to describe African-Americans. It is used only in the Porn industry, which is probably where the author got it from.

Treatment includes both gender reassignment, (a very small minority) as well as counseling to enable the individual to stay within gender norms.

No one chooses to suffer a mental disorder. However, we question efforts which, under the pretext of equality, actually favor one mental disorder for protections to the exclusion of all others, such as depression, anorexia, kleptomania, etc.
...
[The Author] Stephen Cable of Rutland is president of Vermont Renewal.

..."a grassroots organization with the primary goal of promoting and defending traditional family and moral values based on the Judeo-Christian worldview that Vermont and the entire United States were founded upon." according to their website. You know, I agree with so much of what they say, it's sad to see them going astray like this. I can't blame them though when the Psychiatric establishment is 20 years behind the times.

I'm still not used to being a 4th class citizen, you see. Expected to hide my shame, my past. Expected to not make a fuss if I'm treated as subhuman.

Other required reading. I'm still playing catch-up in many ways. But I'm achieving good progress in this area. There are just so many, many things that I should have learnt from my Mother, my Sister, my Girlfriends at school, and learning the Theory now at age 49 seems surreal.

One final thing: one person has donated a considerable amount to help my medical expenses, but insists on anonymity. He is a committed and born-again Christian. So many who persecute us do so out of ignorance: and so many of those who help us do so because they try to follow Jesus' example.

Space: Good News, Bad News

Bad News first. From PhysOrg.com :

The chairman of the U.S. House science committee said Thursday that NASA is headed for "a train wreck" if the space agency isn't better funded to finish building the international space station and develop the next-generation spacecraft.
The White House has cut NASA's five-year budget plan by almost $2.26 billion in the three years since President Bush announced the "Vision for Space Exploration" plan to develop new spacecraft to go back to the moon and then to Mars, said U.S. Rep. Bart Gordon, D-Tenn. Gordon, chairman of the Committee on Science and Technology, spoke at a hearing in Washington on NASA's 2008 budget request.
...
Lawmakers on the House committee also said the five-year plan in the 2008 budget proposal shortchanges the space station by $924 million and doesn't fund an upgrade in the Deep Space communications network.

In a separate hearing on the other side of the Capitol, U.S. Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., and U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, pledged to try increasing NASA's budget by $1 billion. Mikulski also proposed holding a "space summit" between members of Congress and the White House to set a bipartisan agenda on space.

NASA's proposed budget for 2008 is $17.3 billion, a 3.1 percent increase over what the White House requested for 2007. However, since Congress didn't pass a budget for NASA last year, the 2007 funding level was kept the same as 2006's $16.6 billion, leaving the space agency with an expected $545 million shortfall.

Too many commitments; Too much existing infrastructure that needs upgrading just to maintain existing services; Too little money in the past, and no guarantee of even the requested and arguably insufficient funds in the future.

But this too shall pass. If not the US, China.

Now the good news, in the Long Term : from NASA :

New measurements of Mars' south polar region indicate extensive frozen water. The polar region contains enough frozen water to cover the whole planet in a liquid layer approximately 11 meters (36 feet) deep. A joint NASA-Italian Space Agency instrument on the European Space Agency's Mars Express spacecraft provided these data.

This new estimate comes from mapping the thickness of the ice. The Mars Express orbiter's radar instrument has made more than 300 virtual slices through layered deposits covering the pole to map the ice. The radar sees through icy layers to the lower boundary, which is as deep as 3.7 kilometers (2.3 miles) below the surface

Mars is a fixer-upper, and I doubt whether we will ever be able to live on its surface, unprotected. But under domes, yes, with that amount of water, it's a goer as a long-term colony, even with existing technology. It could be made self-sustaining.

So the talk about millions or billions, or the US or China, that will be trivial detail in a thousand years time. But this news will not. We can live there. We will live there.

Who Says Protests Never Work?

From Mind in the Qatar

31 Today

In hexadecimal, that is. It sounds better that way.

Well, I made it. My goal was to have my body largely corrected before age 50. Now there's still a few problems, in fact I've suffered from a few complications in the last week, stuff that should have happened in the 2nd month is happening in the 4th... but overall, things are going imperfectly, but very well indeed.

The plumbing works. So does the electricity, that's repeatable and, er, multiple too. I'm still learning. Not as much as I'd like to though, things that should have healed months ago haven't, and although I have excellent functionality, things are better left undisturbed for a little while, to heal.

My first, my very first, Birthday with a body that no longer feels strange and perverse.

And birthday gifts of flowers and bath oils. *SIGH*

The way things always should have been.

Well, better late than never!

Not Needed Yet

The ASPCR.

Give it 50 years though....

Celebrity Look-Alikes?

I wish!

Arms Manufacturers

We've had the mechanics for good prostheses worked out for some time. The motors, the materials., the control circuitry. What we haven't had is the link from the upstream nerves: we haven't decoded the complex multichannel AM/FM and chemical broadcast that conveys the information down the limb to, say, wiggle the toes. Or just the big toe. (Try wiggling just a middle toe - odds are you can't).

It's still in the labs - but as I blogged in January, less than a decade away.

Anyway, as the above film demonstrates, Drexel University's Engineer of the year Dean Kamen and his team have done it.

The next step is to perfect the feedback - so there is more than just crude feeling too. That's coming.

The Stupidity... It Hurts,,,,,

You see, they put in .002 cents, multiply by 1000, get 2.00 displayed on the calculator, and charge $2.00.... because that's what's on the calculator's display. 2.00

The Observer's Book of Daleks

The one without the Gannet. The Dalek Hierarchy. Though they missed out the Marsh Daleks that appeared in one Dr Who Annual.

Never mind, Dalek History is already convoluted and contradictory emough, thanks very much. Having working Time Machines would be likely to do that.

Make Your Own Battlestar Galactica Video

From the SciFi Channel, the BSG Videomaker Toolkit. The one thing they don't supply is the time needed to make one...

Cost/Benefit Study

It's a thought, anyway.

Geraldine

No resemblance to reality, of course. For me, it took 100 days, not 1. I don't look remotely as good, alas. The change was... incomplete... requiring surgical touchup and hormonal maintenance. And it was no Nightmare, but a wonderful, impossible Dream come true. Though I had nightmares about the events at the end for some time. What had so inexplicably come could just inexplicably go. Being on HRT helped calm those fears, and surgery finally dispelled them. No going back now, thank Goodness!


But yes, some of the beginning is spot on. I had my first date last week. With a guy. I'm not yet ready to blog about it, some things are too personal. But it looks like the predictions of everybody that I'd be straight are correct.

Tagged for Tunes

Calamity Jane has tagged me, thusly:

Take your iPod, you have to switch it to random and list (truthfully) the first ten songs + artists. If you don't have an iPod (like me) you will probably have to use your iMagination instead.

Answers on your blogs please and then you have to TAG another 5 peeps - let the fun begin. And that's an order.

No, a Vodka, Lime and Tonic, that's an order.

Well, I don't have an iPod as such, but I do have a neat little mp3player/memorystick/fm radio/memo recorder. Close enough.

1. Stay With Me - Shakespear's Sister
2. Ommadawn Pt2 - Mike Oldfield
3. Dr Who Theme Remix - The Prydonian Renegades
4. Tubular Bells Pt1 - Mike Oldfield
5. Dr Who Series 2 Theme - BBC Radiophonic Workshop
6. Tubular Bells Pt2 - Mike Oldfield
7. Dr Who Series 1 Theme - BBC Radiophonic Workshop
8. Hergest Ridge Pt2 - Mike Oldfield
9. Telstar - The Tremelos (1966) Tornados 1962 (thanks to reader J. for the correction)
10. Hergest Ridge Pt 1 - Mike Oldfield

Ummm - did I mention that I like Mike Oldfield's albums? And being fair, each of those tracks is 20+ minutes long, and contains several movements. The albums are Symphonies in all but name.

Now who to tag... Matt, Morgan, Lloyd, Nilknarf (she lost her Dad recently, so go over there and give her a virtual hug), and Bubblehead.

PhD Woes

Remember it's supposed to be Summer here. And indeed, temperatures in late February are usually around 25C, 85F.This was Canberra the day after a Freak Thunderstorm. That's not snow : that's compacted Ice from the hailstones. Many of which were golfball size or large, and which fell in such huge numbers that drauns and gutters were blocked almost instantly.
From a Newsletter of the Australian National University :

Just under 60 buildings across campus received major damage this week during one of the worst storms to hit Canberra in recorded history.

The freak storm cut a swathe from Belconnen to Civic late on Tuesday 27 February, pelting the area in large hailstones and heavy rain.

A thick layer of hail still carpeted the campus on Wednesday morning when University authorities began an extensive damage assessment and clean-up operation.

Water inundation was the most common cause of damage in many buildings, where gutters were blocked by hail and roofs gave way under heavy loads of rain. This resulted in extensive harm to ceilings, walls, carpets, computers, books and documents.

The School of Art, School of Music, Chifley Library, and the Research School of Information Sciences and Engineering, and Computer Science and Information and Technology buildings were among the hardest hit.
...
Given the number of buildings affected, staff were asked to remain away from campus and work at home until their building was cleared by safety inspectors.
...
ANU staff and private contractors began restoring the buildings and grounds the day after the storm. Facilities staff said while most buildings would be open again by next week, it would be weeks before all repairs were carried out.

From a list of damaged buildings :

Most buildings on campus have now been cleared for use from Monday 5 March 2007. NB. The follow lists cover the exceptions - those buildings that are either PARTIALLY OPENED or remain CLOSED.

PARTIALLY OPENED

The following buildings are partially opened – some sections as noted in the comments remain closed – though this may change over the next couple days.
...
CSIT bldg ( Major water damage to upper level and loss of skylights)

That's the Computer Science and Information Technology Building. Where my office was in Room N320 on the upper floor, right next to rooms which used to have skylights.

UPDATE : Latest communication on the subject:

It's clear that all staff and research students on the SW side of level
3 will need to move offices to allow repair and clean up work by the
contractors.
Clem, Eric, Malcom, Chuan, Denny, Derek Wang - rooms have been found and
your computers moved for you:
Clem - to Carol's office N213
Malcolm (& Brian) to N324 (ex Chris J, ex Brian)
Chuan - N214 - will be moved on Monday (thank you John Zigman)
Eric - has moved himself to N226
Denny and Derek - to N211 (still being set up by TSG)
(for phones and compupters - ask TSG)

Postgrads in N320 - minor damage, uncertain, no urgent move yet.
Tom Gedeon - possibly N243, not yet decided (no urgent move).
Paul Thomas - no urgent move.
- if you disagree with this assessment come and talk to me about it -
there are some spaces that you could move into.

Other staff and students on level 3 please wait until *Tuesday* if possible to return to your office - and even then, please await confirmation.

All academic staff: PLEASE do not come in Monday except briefly as needed to move belongings.
DON'T expect to work in your office on Monday!
When you do move belongings - please note any storm damage - there is a limited insurance cover even for personal effects. I do not know the details, but record everything relevant - preferably with photos.

So I'm going to keep my fingers crossed that the two special-purpose computers I've been building, and the copious written notes, are still OK. *SIGH*

The Shape of Things to Come

Not that long ago - 1997 - I gave an in-house training course to staff at EASAMS, and made a few startling to them but obvious (to me) predictions. That the Web was just beginning, that in 5 years time, most of the planet's computers would be connected. I predicted that if you wanted guaranteed emplyment, go into e-commerce, it was still in it's infancy.

Now a short film that makes similar predictions. The one area they have it wrong is the implications of complexity and the human brain. They don't actually say that AIs (Artificial Intelligences) will be cheap. But the implication is there.

That the hardware will exist, I have no doubts. That self-programming, learning software that learns the right things will exist is another matter. I'm very sceptical that we know enough about natural intelligence to grow artificial ones. And "growing" is the right word, not "manufacturing".

Anyway, enough if the introduction, in with the film.

In His Name

From the AP via the Bradenton Herald:

Steve Stanton loved this city he ran for 14 years. This week, he asked the city to love him back - to accept his plans to pursue sex-change operation and let him keep his $140,000 job as city manager.

It didn't.

Almost 500 people packed into City Hall Tuesday night for a special meeting to decide if they would accept Susan instead of Steve as their top official.

And while many spoke eloquently in his defense, more called for his ouster.

"If Jesus was here tonight, I can guarantee you he'd want him terminated," said Pastor Ron Saunders of Largo's Lighthouse Baptist Church. "Make no mistake about it."

Ah me. What to say. The Shakespearean "What Fools These Mortals Be"? Another case of "Father Forgive them, for they know not what they do".

Stanton, who is married, said he struggled with his secret desire to be a woman since childhood and hoped to "outrun it." In 2003, he began counseling to deal with his feelings and ultimately decided to pursue a sex-change operation.

In a memo to city employees last week, Stanton said he intended to "live as a woman for one year" as part of a process to prove he is ready for a sex change. He said he has only gone out in public as a woman a few times in cities far from Largo.

Regular readers will recognise the medical protocol involved here, the SOC - Standards of Care. At least 3 months of psychiatric assesment and monitoring before Hormones are OK'd, then somewhere down the track, at least a year of the Real Life Test. Living in the target gender, and doing so successfully, one of the criteria being able to successfully hold down a job.
For Susan, well, maybe she can be a waitress. Or do volunteer work, that counts too. Or even be a fulltime student, many decide to get academic qualifications at this time, like PhDs.

At Tuesday's meeting, there was nothing womanly about his appearance as he faced the crowd at City Hall in a dark suit and tie.

Stanton has not yet scheduled the surgery, but is undergoing counseling and hormone replacement therapy in preparation for the operation.

"I'm going to be embarrassed if we throw this man out on the trash heap after he's worked so hard for the city," said Mayor Patricia Gerard, one of a few Stanton chose to share his secret with before last week. "We have a choice to make: We can go back to intolerance, or we can be the city of progress."

Commissioner Gay Gentry praised Stanton, but supported his firing.

"I sense that he has lost his standing as a leader among the employees of the city," Gentry said. "We have need of an organizational leader that employees will follow."

Stanton left the room before the votes were cast, head down.

Gerard and Commissioner Rodney J. Woods - the first black commissioner in the city's 102-year history - cast the only votes in his favor.

I know the seven kinds of hell Susan's going through from the initial HRT roller-coaster (it takes 3 months for things to settle down - then they change your dose again, so te first 9 months of ramp-up are difficilt), from the stresses in her family... and then for them to do this to her... It's inhuman.
Now it could be that Susan is unable to handle her job under these conditions, that she'd have to take sick leave or even resign. There's provisions for such things in her contract. But she hasn't even started yet. Her being fired is nothing to do with what she's done, it's for what she is.

Then there's this little tidbit, from the St Peterberg Times :

But, he said, commissioners voted before getting a full understanding of what a transsexual must confront when this kind of secret is disclosed.

During the meeting, Stanton described the dismay of watching his professional reputation disintegrate in just seven days.

Until last week, he had served 14 years as the city manager, generally to good reviews. Last fall, commissioners raised his salary nearly 9 percent to $140,234 a year.

But on Feb. 21, the Times reported that Stanton was undergoing hormone therapy in preparation for gender-reassignment surgery - a plan known only to a small circle of people, including his wife, medical team and a few top officials at City Hall.

Stanton and his friends had written an eight-page plan to help make his decision known in June, when he said his 13-year-old son could be out of town and shielded from the publicity.

Instead, the news came out before he told his son. Outraged residents swarmed commissioners, demanding he be ousted.

"It's just real painful to know that seven days ago I was a good guy and now I have no integrity, I have no trust and most painful, I have no followers," Stanton said.

But he also indicated he does not plan to sue the city.

"In so many ways I am Largo," Stanton told commissioners. "It's like suing my mother."

"Outed". And before she had done more than start her Transition.

The Costs of Treatment

This post isn't about the financial cost of the hormones, or the surgery, the mandatory psychiatric and endocrinological tests, nor even the cost of a new wardrobe, or electerolysis for that matter. 400 hours at US $100 an hour for the latter is not unknown, and Facial Feminisation Surgery is around US $40,000 these days. Not covered by insurance, of course.

No, this is about the other costs, as exemplified by the Fine Citizens of Largo, Florida. I quote from the Associated Press, via the Sun-Sentinel :

LARGO, Fla. -- The City Commission of this small Tampa Bay community voted late Tuesday to begin the process of firing the city's top official -- less than a week after he announced plans to pursue a sex-change operation.

The 5-to-2 vote begins a three step process to remove Largo City Manager Steve Stanton, 48, the city's top official for 14 years. He confirmed rumors last week that he was a transsexual.

Stanton, who built a solid reputation as a forceful and energetic leader, hoped to keep his $140,000-a-year job as he underwent the gender reassignment process.

"It's just painful to know seven days ago I was a good guy and now ... I have no integrity," Stanton told the commission Tuesday. "My challenge here has always been that someday I was going to leave this organization. So I am going to do it with a smile on my face."

Stanton can appeal the decision. He will be placed on paid leave while the city begins the legal process to end his contract. The council must vote again to formally fire him.

Mayor Patricia Gerard and Commissioner Rodney Woods cast the dissenting votes Tuesday.

"He's done a great job for us," Gerard said. "He's done what we asked him to do and taken the heat over and over and over again and now we're going to turn on him."

Commissioner Mary Gray Black said Stanton's surprise announcement last week "caused stress, turmoil, distraction and work disruption" in the city. His contract says he can be fired without cause at any time.

"I do not feel he has the integrity, nor the trust, nor the respect, nor the confidence to continue as the city manager of the city of Largo," said Black, who introduced a resolution to fire Stanton on Monday.

About 500 people attended the 3{ hour special meeting at Largo City Hall on Tuesday to debate Stanton's fate. Dozens of people signed up to speak to the council, some praising Stanton and others saying the exposure of his secret life undermined his ability to lead the city.

City officials have received hundreds of e-mails about Stanton's announcement, most calling for his removal.

Commissioner Gay Gentry praised Stanton, but supported his firing.

"I sense that he has lost his standing as a leader among the employees of the city," Gentry said. "We have need of an organizational leader that employees will follow."

Largo is a city of about 76,000 about 22 miles west of Tampa.

Stanton, who is married, said he has not yet scheduled the surgery, but is undergoing counseling and hormone replacement therapy in preparation for the operation.

The city council had given Stanton generally good reviews for his management of the city's $130-million budget and roughly 1,200 employees. The council gave him an $11,000 annual pay raise in September, with Black casting the lone dissenting vote.

That's what happens to people like us. People like me.

Meanwhile, the Poll at the St Petersberg Times, which has run some editorials very supportive of Stanton, is now running at 3:1 in favour of crucifixion firing her.

Still, 50 years ago, they may have done the same thing if they found she had been "passing for white". Transsexuality - the new Black.

Opinion Shaping in Malta

Well, they replace the word "intersex" with "transgender" throughout, and inserted a typo or two. But Malta Today published a letter to the editor from me, The Truth about Transgender Issues the other day, in response to an opinion piece by Ms Anna Mallia.

I quote from Ms Anna Mallia’s opinion piece last Sunday: “It is true that a transsexual is a person who identifies himself or herself completely with the opposite sex, believing that the wrong sex was assigned at birth. It is also true that transsexuals think and feel emotionally in a way typically considered appropriate to members of the opposite sex, and may undergo surgery to modify external sexual characteristics. But it is also true that a transsexual did not go through menstruation, does not have reproductive organs, and as such cannot fall under the definition of ‘woman’.”
And what exactly is the definition of “woman”?
I experienced monthly bleeding when I was 12, though it was through my urethra as I did not then have a vagina.
“Then there is the uterus, the vagina, the breasts… all these render a person a female by gender. I am not a medical doctor, but I am sure that those who have had a sex change do not satisfy all these conditions, so why are they called ‘females’ in terms of the law?”
I have breasts, a vagina, but no uterus. I also have 46xy (male)
chromosomes. The author of this paper obviously isn’t a medical doctor, or she would realise that many women would not fit her restricted definition. For example, all those women who have various transgender conditions, all those women who have had hysterectomies or mastectomies. On the other hand, a few people who have been biological fathers would fit the bill!
Men are men, women are women, but about 1.7 per cent of people are neither 100 per cent male nor 100 per cent female. Categorising this minority is not an easy task in some cases, and it’s complicated by the rare conditions like 5ARD, in which a person’s apparent sex changes over their lifetime. It’s bad enough for such people to have to go through the psychologically distressing and often biologically dangerous natural changes without bureaucrats, and medically ignorant opinion shapers denying their human rights.
Other people with less spectacular transgender conditions such as Harry Benjamin’s Syndrome (transsexuality) or Mixed Gonadal Dysgenesis (pseudo-hermaphroditism) or any of the hundreds of other medical conditions: Turner Syndrome, Swyer Syndrome, Kleinfelter Syndrome, Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome, Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia… any of these people who have the courage to endure hormonal and often surgical intervention to make their bodies as consistently male or female as they can be should not be discriminated against in law.
I wonder if the author has had her genes tested recently? You see, there are many women who are genetically male, yet who have CAIS. There are even a few with other, more rare conditions, who have birth to children yet are genetically male. Many transgender women aren’t aware of their status until they go to a fertility clinic to find out why they can’t get pregnant.
I wonder if Ms Mallia would be happy to renounce her womanhood if she found that she too was an unknowing victim of one of these conditions?

Zoe Brain,
Australia

Moving the mountain, one spoonful at a time. And yes, I did have monthly bleeding when I was 12. It's still not certain whether this was from a resolved sinus, or a recurrent infection. 6 months ago, I would have bet on it being an infection, due to the ultrasound results. But from the slight peculiarities found during my surgery, it's now indeterminate. Story of my life really!

Thinking the Unthinkable

While watching the Secret Life of Brian ( below )

The thought struck me. This was 20 years ago. Can anyone imagine anyone today making Monty Python's Life of Ali? He's not the Prophet, he's just a Naughty Boy....

But if not, why not?

For that matter, where is the Festival of Light now, protesting against the anti-Christian and anti-Jewish hatred preached in so many mosques in the UK these days? Is it that they are united with other religious bigots, or is it that they prefer soft targets, and do not have the courage to put their lives on the line for their Faith?

Beautiful Daughters

The story of some extraordinary women putting on a play. Guaranteed to cause a few tears in all but the hardest hearts. A free Streaming Video in 5 Parts, also available for a few dollars through the iPod store.

I'm proud to be in irregular correspondence with some of these women.

The End of Mankind

A little game, where you play the next successor to the Black Death and Spanish Influenza - Pandemic - The End of Mankind. Agame not to be sneezed at.

In Case You Hadn't Noticed...

From the New York Times :

A truck bomb that combined explosives with chlorine gas exploded in Baghdad on Wednesday, and officials said it may represent a new and deadly tactic by insurgents against Iraqi civilians. It was at least the third such attack in a month.

A pickup truck carrying canisters of the gas, which burns the skin and can be fatal after only a few concentrated breaths, exploded near a diesel station in southwestern Baghdad. The explosion killed at least 2 people and sent 32 wheezing, coughing victims to the hospital, Interior Ministry and medical officials said.

You'd think that the use of Poison Gas - a Weapon of Mass Destruction - by terrorists against civilians might just rate a bit more publicity. Especially since it's the third time. They're still practicing, they haven't gotten the mixture and dispersion pattern right yet to kill hundreds and wound thousands. But give them time, and they will.

The bombing involving chlorine gas on Wednesday followed an explosion on Tuesday north of Baghdad of a tanker filled with chlorine that had been rigged to explode, killing 9 people and wounding 148, including 42 women and 52 children. At least one other attack with chlorine occurred, based on the American military’s statements issued to describe attacks in Iraq, on Jan. 28 in the Sunni-dominated Anbar Province, when 16 people died after a dump truck with explosives and a chlorine tank blew up in Ramadi.

The attacks seem to have been poorly executed — burning the chemical agent rather than dispersing it — but Iraqi and American officials said they see a pattern emerging, an apparent effort to bring a new level of fear and havoc to Iraq as a new security plan for Baghdad takes shape.

Oh sorry, they're not "terrorists", they're "militants", at least, according to the NYT.

26th Anniversary

It is my 26th wedding anniversary today. I don't know if it will be my last. Please wish us luck, and may the best happen, whatever that is. We're both just living one day at a time now.

Silicon Brains

From MIT's Technology Review :

An ambitious project to model the cerebral cortex in silicon is under way at Stanford. The man-made brain could help scientists understand how the most recently evolved part of our brain performs its complex computational feats, allowing us to understand language, recognize faces, and schedule the day. It could also lead to new neural prosthetics.

"Brains do things in technically and conceptually novel ways--they can solve rather effortlessly issues which we cannot yet resolve with the largest and most modern digital machines," says Rodney Douglas, a professor at the Institute of Neuroinformatics, in Zurich. "One of the ways to explore this is to develop hardware that goes in the same direction."

Neurons communicate with a series of electrical pulses; chemical signals transiently change the electrical properties of individual cells, which in turn trigger an electrical change in the next neuron in the circuit. In the 1980s, Carver Mead, a pioneer in microelectronics at the California Institute of Technology, realized that the same transistors used to build computer chips could be used to build circuits that mimicked the electrical properties of neurons. Since then, scientists and engineers have been using these transistor-based neurons to build more-complicated neural circuits, modeling the retina, the cochlea (the part of the inner ear that translates sound waves into neural signals), and the hippocampus (a part of the brain crucial for memory). They call the process neuromorphing.

Now Kwabena Boahen, a neuroengineer at Stanford University, is planning the most ambitious neuromorphic project to date: creating a silicon model of the cortex. The first-generation design will be composed of a circuit board with 16 chips, each containing a 256-by-256 array of silicon neurons. Groups of neurons can be set to have different electrical properties, mimicking different types of cells in the cortex. Engineers can also program specific connections between the cells to model the architecture in different parts of the cortex.

So we're ready to start making silicon brains, right?
Not exactly.
We have now invented bricks. We have yet to invent architecture.

"We want to be able to explore different ideas, different connectivity patterns, different operations in these areas," says Boahen. "It's not really possible to explore that right now." Boahen ultimately plans to build chips that other scientists can buy and use to test their own theories of how the cortex operates. That new knowledge can then be built into the next generation of chips.

Regular readers of this blog will realise just exactly how much we don't know about how the brain works. The idea of this piece of equipment is that scientists can try out various hypotheses about how bits of the brain function, and see how close to reality their models are. Then refine, and try again. Continue as needed.
Unfortunately it's not clear from the article whether any of the really complex stuff is being modelled. You see, the architecture merely describes electrical and data connectivity. As one commenter put it :

When a transistor models a neuron, it models parts of its electrical properties and perhaps also wiring pattern. But seldomly, it takes into account all of its intricate chemical and physical functionality. The temporal aspects stemming from deprivation of neurotransmitter, enhancement of synapses, gene expression leading to additional receptors and the like, are most often not inherent in the silicon models presently suggested and I would question whether they are part of Boahen's but will appreciate it if it is the case.

Exactly. We know enough about the electrical signals to know that they are both amplitude- and frequency-modulated, at least simple(!) pain signals are.

I can see this technology being useful for testing various hypotheses, and even modelling simple neurological structures in isolation, such as retinas. But unless there is significant computational capability built into the connections, not just the neurons, it will not be a particularly good model of what happens in any biological brain. "Not particularly good" may just be enough to be useful though. We shall see.

Science vs Faith Flowcharts

UPDATE: I will add that much of Theology more resembles science than faith : the experiments are usually gedankenexperiments, thought-experiments, working out the consequences if one particular scriptural interpretation was true, but are experiments nonetheless.

Testosterone and Ethanol

A dangerous combination. Rather than "Man bites Dog", here's a story from the ABC :

Man attacks shark

An Eyre Peninsula man is the talk of the town after catching a bronze whaler shark in his hands and wrestling it up onto a jetty.

Phillip Kerkhof from Louth Bay was at the local jetty when the 1.3-metre shark began chasing squid lures.

He says he climbed down a ladder and began to follow the shark in shallow water.

"I just snuck up behind him and eventually I went for the big grab and I fluked it and got him," he said.

"He's just thrashing around in the water but then he was starting to turn around and try to bite me and I thought 'well, it's amazing what vodka does'."

The only damage from the dangerous species was a bite mark to his jeans.

"It's not something I'd recommend to do. When I sobered up I thought about it and I said, 'I'm a bit of an idiot doing it'," Mr Kerkhof said.

Only in Australia.