Autism and Hormones

Something I'd missed, a Press Release from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, dated August 24 2005. Well, I was kinda distracted then, and it's not exactly daily reading for me at the best of times. :

Gender politics aside, every biologist knows that men and women truly are different.

Social disorders such as autism constitute one area where those differences come to the fore: around 80 percent of all autism cases, for example, occur in men. Social play behaviors also differ greatly between the sexes—just about everyone agrees that young boys play "rougher" than girls.

Early in human development, critical brain proteins known as steroid receptors lay most of the groundwork for ensuing sexual destinies. The receptors bind to hormones such as testosterone and estrogen and set in motion gender blueprints for a lifetime.

To understand why autistic children have trouble engaging in social interactions, researchers have long observed "rough-and-tumble" play—the propensity to bite, wrestle or pounce—in juvenile rats. Scientists were convinced that testosterone solely dictated the onset of such behavior.

But researchers at UW-Madison have now made the surprising finding that estrogen-and even dopamine, a neurotransmitter-also play critical roles. The work, which appeared online Aug. 16 in the journal Endocrinology, may one day help diagnose new autism cases and potentially pave the way for new hormone-based therapeutic approaches that counteract the social difficulties of autism, says senior author Anthony Auger, an assistant professor of psychology.

"Our work points out an overlooked mechanism that controls social play behavior," says Auger. "Now if we work to understand how these biological mechanisms control social behavior, we can discern which points of the various pathways are involved in the disruption of social interactions."

Male rats are likely to engage in rough-and-tumble play almost 13 times as frequently as females, says Auger. But when the UW-Madison team treated newborn females with estrogen, they bit, boxed, pinned and pounced as frequently as the males after reaching juvenile age. The estrogen effectively "masculinized" the females, Auger says.

To the scientists' surprise, a similar result took place when they treated the females with a mimic of the neurotransmitter dopamine, a chemical messenger in the brain that regulates emotions and feelings of pleasure.

The UW-Madison study results imply that many factors, beyond steroid receptors and sex hormones, may be interrupted during the onset of social disorders, Auger says. Consequently, he hopes to focus on the potential role of another group of proteins - known as growth factors - in social play behaviors.

Other scientists who participated in the study include UW-Madison doctoral student and lead author Kristin Olesen, zoologist Catherine Auger and research specialist Heather Jessen.

These are all parts of a puzzle. You see, despite Autism as being seen as a "male disease", it also aflicts a greater than expected number of TS women. That is, people who are genetically and somatically male, but neurally at least partially female. There's even a special Yahoo Support Group because so many people have both Autism or Aspergers, and Transsexuality.

There is known to be a statistically significant correlation between Asperger's Syndrome and Gender Dysphoria but the nature and implications of the link are unknown. Having both of these conditions is quite a plateful and gives us special challenges.

To put it mildly.

Interestingly enough, when my metabolism went hormonally berserk, I lost the minor symptoms I had of a mild case of Asperger's, indicating that the problem may be at least partially hormonal, as well as connected with congenital neuroanatomy. We just don't know, like so much else to do with the brain, gender, and hormonal influences.

Just Four Weeks Ago

Sometimes it's so very easy to forget. I don't think of myself as abnormal, certainly not a member of an oppressed minority. Yes, I have some legal problems to do with well-meaning but poorly-enacted laws, but generally most people just treat me like any other woman. Those few that know of my unusual history generally don't care, or if they do, treat me with aditional compassion, rather than contempt.

It's all so very ordinary, it's easy to get lulled into a false sense of security. And that is when the situation gets dangerous - when you stop being afraid. When you let your guard down, and start to think of yourself as being just the same as anyone else. Like this woman did.

Dear Friends:

I am writing this letter to give you a snapshot of how I was assaulted, ridiculed, humiliated and wrongly incarcerated while celebrating a successful taping of the Cristina Show. This events took place on March the 10th in the city of Miami.

Many of you have received previous emails from Monica Taher, Spanish media Director from (GLADD). Detailing the progress GLADD has made in continuing the dialog with Spanish Speaking Media regarding how they depict out lives.

Many Media outlets continue to perpetuate stereotypes and sensationalize our lives. It has been a long process but I am a firm believer that the only way we can influence change is by being involved in the process of creating this change. We cannot sit back and expect change to Magically happen.

For this reason whenever there is an opportunity for me to be involved in how the media depicts my reality as a transgender women I am the first one to sign up.

On March the 10th I was a panelist for an upcoming Cristina Show, a Spanish speaking International show that reaches millions of Spanish speaking homes in the US and Latin America. The taping of the show went very well, the questions were relevant and focused on the complexity of the transition process. They also discussed discrimination and rights of people of trans experience. The panel was very diverse composed by both ftm, mtf. it also included A 15 year old Argentinean Transgender woman who was supported by her entire family.

After a successful taping there was much reason to celebrate, Little did I know that my celebration would not last long

I went to a popular Miami club called Space, Accompanied by a friend Viktoria Ventura "previously with LLEGO." we had a drink, danced and enjoyed the scene, needless to say the club was packed.

About 40 minutes later while going to get a second drink we were making our way though a very crowded club headed toward the bar. I was pushed by a man when I turned around he began yelling "fuck that's a man" To several of his friends, who then joined him in the name calling as the pushing continued.

He then physically assaulted me. It seemed like security was just behind us, because before the attack continue, security came to the scene and grabbed him. He was still calling me "You fucking fagot." Even though he was restraint by security personnel.

I panic in pain dazed from the attack, screaming to Vicktoria "he broke my nose." I was also concerned about my safety because I did not know if the other individuals who accompanied him might also attack me in retaliation, after seen their friend taken by security.

I decided to follow the security while they where escorting the man to the first level, telling them in bits and pieces what happened and how this man had attacked me unwarrantedly. I made it very clear to the security guards that i had intentions of filling charges for assault Since I was physically attached and I had not retaliated. When we got to the office there where other men in uniform, I assumed they were also security guards.

I ask them to call the police since I wanted to press charges against the man that had just assaulted me, To my surprise they informed me they were Officers with the Miami Police Department. One of them was a sergeant. I would find out later the sergeant was also a bigot.

At that moment he ignored me and proceeded to ask the man that had attacked me what happened, I was furious at his apathy towards me, but remained calm.

As he continued to ignored me he asked the security Guards who escorted the man who attached me "WHAT DID HE DO?" Referring to me. I felt disrespected by his comment. I reached in my purse for my California, ID" which states my gender as female, hoping this would redirect focus to the assault and not my gender. I try to tell the police about the assault, however it was difficult since their focus continued to be on my gender, snickering back and forward. Things were taking place quickly. The sergeant Looked at me with a smirk on his face and told the security guard next to him "He has nice tits."

At that moment I realized that things were not going to be in my favor. Two security guards grabbed me by the arms and began escorting me down some stairs towards the entrance of the club. It was clear that they were escorting me out of the club however my concern was still ensuring documentation of my attack. I continued questioning their behavior, repeating that "I was assaulted," questioning why I was being escorted out of the club if in fact I was the victim of a crime. '

All the things that transpired after my assault where violations against my rights and negligence by the police. I was forcefully detained by security for no reason and then placed in the back of a police car. At that moment it was clear to me they were arresting me, however I could not think of what they would charge me with since I had not committed a crime. During this ordeal I used restraint, I was never disrespectful to any of Police Officers or Security Personnel. I was humble but firm in the wrong doing on their behalf.

I made it clear to the sergeant that I was going to do everything in my power to ensure that this does not continue to happen and that they would se me again. That the oath they took to protect and serve includes me, and that their discrimination and bigotry would not go silent.

While being transferred to the car would take me to county jail. The sergeant told one of his colleagues as my dress was lifted "yes that's a man, but I would fuck him in his ass" As they all laugh. The humiliation was endless.

The only way I could let my anger and frustration out was by crying, at that moment I was so powerless. I have been fighting this kind of injustice for years, yet I was a victim. And none of my many surgeries, speaking abilities, beauty or charm I have been told I posses could make this people look at me even as a man. Because even though they did call me a man, I can assure that if two men would have involved in a physical altercation both would have been arrested yet I was a victim of an assault and I was the only one incarcerated.

You would think my ordeal would had been over but it continued while being processed in the local county jail. I was stripped and search paraded for all to view and laughed at. I continued to weep in anger and despair, I would spend the next 18 hours afraid for my safety questioned about my gender, asked improper questions and sexually molested.

I was assaulted, ridicule, mistreated and incarcerated because who I am. As incredible as it may sound my sense of true self is offensive to even the people that take an oath to protect and serve us.

However I take an oath to my self and the rest of my community that I will continue to do anything and everything in my power to expose this bigotry, hate and perpetuate mistreatment by people in law enforcement and their apathy to crimes fueled by hate associated with our gender or sexual orientation.

At the present time I am continuing to work with the support of Ron Brenesky from "Unity Coalition's" a local organization in Miami along with Monica Taher that has been a great support. Currently Ron is contacting the local agencies trying to categorize this as a Hate crime.

Under Florida law Transgender Individuals are not recognized. So much work ahead for our community. However I am only one person lets continue to ensure that we all grow from our experiences by supporting our own. Don't be silent lets let them know that there is many of us and we have each others backs. Remember none of us are immune to acts such as this. I will be going to court in Miami in April for a false trespassing charge.

I with your support want to send a clear message to the club and the police department that this kind of mistreatment will not be tolerated. And if this type of neglect, discrimination and violation of our rights by Police officers in Miami is an ongoing practice the time to put a stop to it is now.

PS: Even though this was a very traumatic time my spirits are high and I am looking forward to continuing to fight this. My nose is a little to the right and the bruises in my arm are gone, other wise I am all good. I thank God that I am here and that things did not escalate more.

Many men and women have lost their lives to crimes fueled by hate. On March the 10th at 1:35 am this kind of hate fueled a man to strike me simply because I was a transgender woman.

Thank You,

Maria Louise Roman

I have to remember that some things can't be hidden. Maria is a very beautiful woman, as you can see for yourself. She has had surgery and appearance enhancements, years of training and speech therapy, things I will never be able to afford. Was it her height that gave her away? Or perhaps her shoulders? Or her hands? Plastic surgery can't disguise everything.

Good luck finding any report of this in Mainstream Media. Her attacker wasn't charged, of course.

I have some good and dear friends living in Florida. I had hoped to visit them one day. But I must remember that circumstances have changed over the last year, and I'm no longer considered fully human by many. I mustn't let my fear paralyse me, or even interfere with my life overmuch. I just must be careful where I go, who I talk to, and what I do. It's not safe to forget to be afraid.

Wish me luck, I haven't got the hang of it yet.

Iranian Wonder Weapons

From IRIB News :

Tehran, April 4 - Islamic Republic of Iran Tuesday test-launched a flyer boat in the Persian Gulf waters.

The futuristic boat was tested during an ongoing massive wargame which Iran has launched in the Persian Gulf waters since Friday.

The military boat was designed by the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps which along with Iran's Army Naval forces and Basij organization forces are holding the marine wargame.

The high-speed boat which has a rare maneuvering power is capable of missions everywhere in the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman, the scope of the massive wargame.

The radar-evading flyer has such a design that it capably embarks on different missile firing with a highly accurate aiming, even on move.

The domestically-built boat possessed by few countries has been made by experts of Iran's Ministry of Defence.

Here is the Fox News Picture of the spectacular new weapon.



Coincidentally, here is a Russian 2-seater Ekranaplan, the ESKA-1, powered by a M63 motorcycle engine. Vintage 1973.

Storm Squall in a Teacup

From the ABC :

Iran has test-fired a sonar-evading underwater missile that can outpace any enemy warship, a senior naval commander told state television on Sunday during a week of war games in the Gulf.

Western nations have been watching developments in Iran's missile capabilities with concern amid a stand-off over the Iranian nuclear program, which the West says is aimed at building atomic bombs.

Iran says the program is only civilian.

State television in Iran earlier described the missile as the world's fastest.

"This missile evades sonar technology under the water and, even if the enemy sonar system could detect its movement under the water, no warship could escape from it because of its high velocity," Revolutionary Guards Rear Admiral Ali Fadavi said.

"The Islamic Republic is now among the only two countries who hold this kind of missile. Under the water the maximum speed that a missile could (usually) move is 25 metres per second, but now we possess a missile which goes as fast as 100 metres per second," he told state television.

The commander uses the word "missile" in Farsi, rather than "torpedo".

"The boats that can launch this missile have a technology that makes them stealthy and nobody could recognise them or act against them," he added.

Iran's ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Aliasghar Soltaniyeh, says the missile test should not worry the world.

He says that, to his knowledge, the weapon could not carry a nuclear warhead.

To His Knowledge. Pardon me if I'm less than impressed.

This beastie looks very much like the export version of the VA-111 Shkvall (Squall in Russian) underwater rocket. Whether bought from Russia, second hand from China, or reverse-engineered I'm not sure, but almost certainly the writing on the side is in Cyrillic not Arabic.

It's quite a clever idea : instead of ploughing through the water, it creates it's own "bubble of cavitation". Try to move a flat disk the size of a saucer, flat side on, at 300 km/h through the water, and you'll find it makes a low-pressure cavity behind it, quite a big one. If behind the saucer you put some gas jets to shape the cavity, you can stick quite a large rocket in it. So the power needed to propel the thing isn't the usual power needed for a 3-ton torpedo, it's the power needed to propel a saucer. That's quite a lot, of course, you really need a huge rocket, but still it's a neat trick. Quite in keeping with the Russian tradition of Weird Weapins Systems, some spectacular failures such as the flying tank, some good ideas badly executed, such as their pioneering of paratroops, some winners like anti-ship cruise missiles.

As for sonar detection - well, rockets are not exactly known for being very quiet. The problem, if any, is that it's too loud, it may swamp sensors more accustomed to listening for very subtle variations, much as a microphone designed for detecting a piccolo at the back of the theatre might not perform very well if a hundred jackhammers were being used instead.

It's not exactly a "secret weapon", having its own entry on wikipedia.

Early models were unguided - fire and hope they run straight. Later models had an autopilot, so although they had no actual homing, at least you had some assurance they'd go in a straight line, hopefully towards the target. It's thought that the latest production models did a "sprint and drift", zipping out to the general target area, getting a swift course update, then going full bore again.

OK, so what is it used for? Well, with a smallish nuclear warhead, it's a good anti-sub weapon. If you detect an incoming torpedo from a previously undetected enemy sub in a particular direction, fire one of these to its maximum range in that direction, and odds are the enemy's in a world of trouble - as is the incoming torpedo. Of course, the odds of your own sub surviving may not be that good either: but probably better than sharing your personal space with a Mk48 torpedo marked "made in the USA".

The usual quoted range though is only 7 km, about 4 miles. So to use it against ships, you have to be uncomfortably close, and if it only has a conventional warhead, it won't be much good against subs. This is because of back-pressure : at too deep a depth, the rocket is fighting lots of external pressure, won't work as well, the cavity is more difficult to form, and it just won't work. Without a homing mechanism, and without knowing the depth the target sub is at, the odds of a hit are slim.

So why was it invented? I speculate as follows: at one time, the USSR had a submarine class called the Alfa (Projekt 705). These subs were small, very, very fast, very, very noisy and insanely dangerous to operate. I speculate that their tactics would have been to say "damn the torpedos" - which they could largely outrun - and come in at high speed, caring not a whit about stealth, go to periscope depth, fire a brace of shkvals, and maybe escape during the resultant confusion.

It might have worked : but they used Liquid sodium (or possibly lead-bismuth later) as a coolant. They had to, to get the low weight and high speed. Well, you know from high school chemistry what sodium does in contact with water. It does the same sort of thing to most metals too. Liquid sodium is hellishly corrosive, and highly radioactive liquid sodium leaking from the coolant system was such a problem, even the Russians gave up trying to make this idea work. It wasn't just the number of crews it killed or injured, it was that after each month-long patrol, the boat would have to spend years getting decontaminated so they could try to make it work again.

Series production of the Project 705 boats began in the mid-1970s, and the program ended in 1983 with the sixth production unit. Eventually four of the seven Project 705s were lost due to reactor failures. One boat was retired by the end of 1987, and four others were decommissioned in 1990-1992.

So now it's a weapon for small, fast attack boats and shore installations, so hordes of fast torpedo boats would sally forth against a carrier group, and the few that survive to get within 4 miles fire these things off. Once in the water, they'd be difficult or impossible to intercept, and you'd only have a minute to change course, just as if a normal torpedo had been fired at 1 mile. Fire enough in a converging pattern, and some would hit.

Russia has openly offered the Shkval for sale at international arms shows in recent years. Though few in the West have witnessed the Russian Shkval missile in action, several expert sources have seen a marketing video distributed to potential buyers. As one described the scene: "First of all, you only see the Shkval from the rear; you don't get to view the front of the torpedo where all the interesting stuff is--the cavitator, the ventilation ports, and so forth. The scene opens with the Shkval being launched off a patrol boat. After it drops below the surface there's an extended pause, when without warning, there's a bright flash in the water and you sense some commotion underneath the waves. After a short time, a triangular trail of bubbles starts to appear at the surface and moves off into the distance at a good pace. Meanwhile, not much else happens until all of a sudden, you see a little explosion way off on the horizon, followed by the delayed report. It's pretty amazing to see how far the thing has gone in such a short time."

Then you have a 3-ton piece of ironmongery hitting the ship at 300 km/h. Then the warhead goes off, but the real problem is any unburnt rocket fuel. That burns hot, and water won't put it out. Having a few hundred liters of this stuff sprayed about your ship is Not Good, especially for a carrier with lots of fuel lines, bombs and such.

Of course, if you have a little handling accident on board the launcher, things could get unpleasant. This may be the cause of the loss of the Kursk

So providing the USN sends its carriers to within spitting distance of the shore, this would be a problem. Too bad they lurk a hundred km or more off the coast, surrounded by a picket of destroyers, cruisers, and aircraft, each one capable of taking out ten or more torpedo boats without raising a sweat. Now a diesel sub might do it - but as long as the CV keeps its peed up to 20 knots or so, the diesels can't keep up and remain quiet. If they go noisy, they die.

As for firing these from a shore installation - there's a far cheaper and easier way of delivering over 4 miles not just one big chunk of explosives that's difficult to intercept or evade, but hundreds of smaller chunks, far faster, more accurately.

Perhaps you might have heard of it. It's called a "gun".

So overall, it's a Storm, or rather, a Squall in a teacup.

Role Model

Back in April 18, 2005, I blogged about the South Park Character Generator. Well, now it's been updated to version 2.

Of course, an update of this software is by no means the greatest change since then. April 18th was just 16 days before my whole life was turned upside-down in a way I never guessed was possible. It's less than a year away, and yet it seems a lifetime ago.

But somehow, my life appears to be on a pre-ordained course.

Contrast this page with this one. And my BSc was a double major : Computer Science and... Pure Mathematics.

Well, that character always was a role model, I picked the name at age 10 because I so identified with her, rather than Jamie. He wore the skirt, she wore the trousers, just like I did back then.

Near Misses in 2002

The various objects big enough to detect that came close enough to Earth to be of concern in 2002.

Round Two

To:
Andrew Barr
Chief of Staff
John Hargreaves MLA
Minister for Disability, Housing and Community Services
Minister for Police and Emergency Services
Minister for Urban Services
ACT Legislative Assembly

From:
Ms Zoe Ellen Brain


Dear Mr Barr,

I wish to bring to your attention the following letter, dated 23 March
2006, reference 06/1072, MC06/1210

----
Dear Ms Brain
I refer to your e-mail correspondence to the Prime Minister, the Hon
John Howard MP, received on 10 January 2006 concerning the recognition
of marriages where one of the parties is a transsexual person. He has
referred your letter to me for reply as I have the portfolio
responsibility for the Marriage Act 1961.

Whether or not a marriage is valid is determined at the time the
marriage takes place. If the parties to a marriage are a man and a woman
at the date of the marriage them, if there are no other grounds for
invalidity, the marriage will be valid. Events that occur after the date
of the marriage cannot affect that validity, so if one of the parties to
the marriage changes their gender the validity of the marriage is not
affected. If the two parties wish to remain married they are able to do so.

As you have stated in your letter, the legislation in the States and
Territories which provides for a change in the birth registration for
appropriate individuals who have changed their gender can only be used
by people who are unmarried. Registration of births is a matter for the
States and Territories and it is not appropriate for me to comment on
their legislation. You may wish to raise your concerns with the ACT
Attorney-General, Mr Jon Stanhope MLA.

I hope this information is of assistance to you.

Yours Sincerely,
Phillip Ruddock
-----

To remind you of the relevant section of the ACT Births, Deaths and
Marriages Registration Act 1997 : A1997-112

24 Application to alter register to record change of sex
(1) A person may apply to the registrar-general for
alteration of the record of the person's sex in the registration of the
person's birth if-
(a) the person is at least 18 years old; and
(b) the person's birth is registered in the ACT; and
(c) the person has undergone sexual reassignment surgery; and
(d) the person is not married.


The relevant passages in the Hon Phillip Ruddock's letter are as follows:

"Whether or not a marriage is valid is determined at the time the
marriage takes place. If the parties to a marriage are a man and a woman
at the date of the marriage them, if there are no other grounds for
invalidity, the marriage will be valid. Events that occur after the date
of the marriage cannot affect that validity, so if one of the parties to
the marriage changes their gender the validity of the marriage is not
affected."

If I construe this letter correctly:

1. Under the Commonwealth Marriage Act 1967 the act or event of
contracting into a marriage can only be performed by a man and a woman
together. The situation of an existing valid marriage is unaffected by
any subsequent change of either partner's gender. Thus a "same sex" (act
of) marriage is invalid under commonwealth law, but a "same sex"
(condition of) marriage is valid, barring any other reason for invalidity.

2. Thus whether a state or territory recognises a change of gender or
not can have no effect on the validity of an existing marriage under the
Commonwealth Marriage Act 1967 (as amended). What a state or territory
legislature decides to do or do not do as regards gender recognition is
immaterial and a nullity as far as the Commonwealth Marriage Act 1967
(as amended) is concerned. It has been made unequivocally clear that
according to the Federal Attorney general, no gender change after the
date of marriage can affect such a valid marriage.

Hence as the result of this clear statement by the Federal Attorney
General, the ACT Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Act 1997 Part
4, Section 24, 1 (d) is not required for consistency with the Federal
Marriage Act 1967 as amended.

Furthermore, the aforementioned Section 24,1,(d) appears to be
inconsistent with the over-riding Commonwealth Sex Discrimination Act
1984, Section 6 (1).(a) and (2)

Section 6
Discrimination on the ground of marital status

(1)
For the purposes of this Act, a person (in this subsection referred to
as the discriminator) discriminates against another person (in this
subsection referred to as the aggrieved person) on the ground of the
marital status of the aggrieved person if, by reason of:

(a) the marital status of the aggrieved person; or
(b) a characteristic that appertains generally to persons of the marital
status of the aggrieved person; or
(c) a characteristic that is generally imputed to persons of the marital
status of the aggrieved person;

the discriminator treats the aggrieved person less favourably than, in
circumstances that are the same or are not materially different, the
discriminator treats or would treat a person of a different marital status.
(2)
For the purposes of this Act, a person (the discriminator) discriminates
against another person (the aggrieved person) on the ground of the
marital status of the aggrieved person if the discriminator imposes, or
proposes to impose, a condition, requirement or practice that has, or is
likely to have, the effect of disadvantaging persons of the same marital
status as the aggrieved person.


In view of this clarifying letter, and the inconsistency, I urge that as
a matter of urgency, ACT Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Act
1997 Part 4, Section 24, 1 (d) be repealed in its entirety.

...

Yours Sincerely,
Zoe Ellen Brain BSc MInfoTech(Distinction)

From the Attorney General

A letter just received from the Attorney -General, the Hon Phillip Ruddock MP, Dated 23rd March 2006.

Dear Ms Brain
I refer to your e-mail correspondence to the Prime Minister, the Hon John Howard MP, received on 10 January 2006 concerning the recognition of marriages where one of the parties is a transsexual person. He has referred your letter to me for reply as I have the portfolio responsibility for the Marriage Act 1961.

Whether or not a marriage is valid is determined at the time the marriage takes place. If the parties to a marriage are a man and a woman at the date of the marriage them, if there are no other grounds for invalidity, the marriage will be valid. Events that occur after the date of the marriage cannot affect that validity, so if one of the parties to the marriage changes their gender the validity of the marriage is not affected. If the two parties wish to remain married they are able to do so.

As you have stated in your letter, the legislation in the States and Territories which provides for a change in the birth registration for appropriate individuals who have changed their gender can only be used by people who are unmarried. Registration of births is a matter for the States and Territories and it is not appropriate for me to comment on their legislation. You may wish to raise your concerns with the ACT Attorney-General, Mr Jon Stanhope MLA.

I hope this information is of assistance to you.

Yours Sincerely,
Phillip Ruddock

It most certainly has been of assistance. "Events that occur after the date of the marriage cannot affect that validity". This means that I now have advice that a change of gender after a marriage has been contracted cannot be contrary to the Marriage Act, an argument put forward by the ACT Attorney General as an excuse for why the law is framed as it is. No matter what they do or don't do, the validity of the marriage is unaffected by events subsequent to the event of marriage itself.

If I interpret it correctly, this is a very important document indeed.

Now to contact John Stanhope..... and maybe light a few fires...

You have to love a country where someone can write to the Prime Minister, and actually get a reply that's not just a form letter.

Mais Oui

From the Times :

When M Seillière, who is an English-educated steel baron, started a presentation to all 25 EU leaders, President Chirac interrupted to ask why he was speaking in English. M Seillière explained: “I’m going to speak in English because that is the language of business.”

Without saying another word, President Chirac, who lived in the US as a student and speaks fluent English, walked out, followed by his Foreign, Finance and Europe ministers, leaving the 24 other European leaders stunned. They returned only after M Seilière had finished speaking.

The meeting was furnished with full interpretation services, and anyone in the room could speak or listen in any of the 20 official EU languages. Embarrassed French diplomats tried to explain away the walk-out, saying that their ministers all needed a toilet break at the same time.

English the language of Business? No Shit. Mais Oui though.

Dreams

"Australia looked like this precious blue stone, surrounded by an ocean of a different shade. I saw it all through a storm, and I am still dreaming about it,"
- Valentina Tereshkova

Funny, because I look up at night, and I still dream of being in orbit.

Oh well, maybe one day. After all, stranger things have happened...

There But For The Grace of God Go I

There's an 8 MB Realplayer download that might explain much about my situation, available as a zip file.

I left England in 1968, at age 10.
I was so innocent then. I was so lucky I didn't tell anyone.

The practices as depicted were universal in Australia when I was 15. They were still the norm ten years later.

The actor playing the Charing Cross psychiatrist had it exactly right. I experienced a bit of that the day after I went fulltime in July, the aversion therapy too (minus the injections). The psychiatist in question had been in the business (practicing in England) for decades, and his methods were exactly those depicted in the film.

Nietzche was right : what does not kill us makes us stronger. It was touch and go for a while there though, it wasn't being told how disgusting I was, it was being told how I was ruining my little son's life. If I'd have believed him, and he had me more than half convinced for a while, I was ready to go, knew how to do it, how to get the pills. Never before or since have I had even momentary "suicidal ideation". It only lasted for a few minutes, but although I was in no danger of actually doing anything self-destructive, it was a terrifying experience to be seriously contemplating it.

The psychiatrist later apologised, and stated he didn't know to what degree he'd upset me.

How many other women have been killed in this appalling way? I know the therapists are doing their best, but does nothing penetrate that unbelievable arrogance? Have they no conception of how little they know, and how dangerous those games they play are?

Psychiatry is still more an art than a science. Psychiatrists do far more good than harm, and they're getting better all the time. But I have to say, when it comes to Transsexualism, the state of knowledge of many medical practitioners, psychiatrists included, is terribly primitive. It's not anyone's fault, we're learning more all the time, and we've come such a long way. But oh my stars, we have such a long way to go!

Download the movie, view it, and weep. That's the way things truly were, and I'm afraid, still are to some extent.

Alien Loves Predator (Drink Warning)

Do not read the cartoon below while consuming any beverage you don't mind having sprayed nasally over your keyboard.

You have been warned.



From AlienLovesPredator.com

PhD Progress Report

Conditions are Perfect for Optimal Productivity.

Transsexualism, Transamerica, and Australian Law

High-Profile Lawyer Rachael Wallbank spoke about her legal situation in an article in the Age. Her experience are different from my own, but the parallels are striking.

Lawyer Rachael Wallbank turned 50 on Saturday. Among those sharing the family law specialist’s milestone were her grown children, Rebecca, Kate and James. They often refer to her as Rachael, but still think of her as — and sometimes still call her — Dad.

I answer to "Zeddie", but yes, "Daddy" too. I always will.

The lives of people with transsexuality, and their emotional, medical and legal battles have entered the mainstream’s consciousness with the release of firsttime writer-director Duncan Tucker’s groundbreaking film Transamerica, starring Felicity Huffman in a critically lauded role. Huffman scored a Golden Globe in January for her performance and was favoured to win a Best Actress Oscar on Sunday for her role as Bree, previously known as Stanley, who was born with transsexualism.

Unfortunately, very few people in Australia will get the opportunity to see this film. Transamerica is appearing at the Dendy Cinemas - all four of them - and at a handful of speciality cult theatres such as Electric Shadows. There's one of the Village chain showing it, in Victoria, and one of the Greater Union chain in New South Wales. The dominant Hoyts chain isn't showing it at all. Not exactly huge coverage for a major Oscar nominee film in a nation of 20 million people. One would almost think that the film was too hideously embarressing for everybody to have it shown.

Wallbank was also impressed by Bree facetiously telling her psychiatrist how funny it is that cosmetic surgery can "fix" a psychiatric condition: a reference to the continued treatment in some medical and cultural quarters of transsexualism as a mental disorder, sometimes referred to as "gender dysphoria".

I found that scene particularly poignant too.

Wallbank’s views are noteworthy, and not only for the cause of the estimated 5000 Australians who live with transsexualism. Her efforts in the Family Court on behalf of her clients "Kevin and Jennifer" — not their real names — who wed in 1999, established marriage rights for couples where one partner has already had sex affirmation surgery.

Kevin’s sex had been "reassigned" in 1995. The full court of the Family Court affirmed the marriage in 2003, dismissing the Commonwealth’s objection that Kevin could not qualify as a husband because he was born with female genitalia. In doing so, the court significantly rebuffed the Howard Government’s views about who should be allowed to marry.

In Re Kevin is a very important milestone in case law. In particular :

"The words 'man' and 'woman' when used in legislation have their ordinary contemporary meaning according to Australian usage and that meaning includes post-operative transsexuals as men or women in accordance with their sexual reassignment."

Well, Hurray for common Sense.

This is exactly the opposite of opinion in many other places, for example West Virginia.

Fears that West Virginians who undergo gender-reassignment surgery might test the state’s ban on same-sex marriage prompted changes to the state’s vital records system that the House of Delegates unanimously passed Tuesday.

Among its numerous provisions, House Bill 4565 had originally allowed a court order to change a birth certificate following such surgery. But the House Government Organization Committee amended it to block such a change, even if approved by a judge.

Since birth certificates are used to obtain marriage licenses from county clerks, some committee members cited the 2000 state law that defines marriage as being between a man and a woman.

"The question was, could they use a new one to get around the law," said Delegate Ron Walters, a Republican. "That raised some eyebrows."
...
Only three states — Tennessee, Idaho, and Ohio — refuse to provide residents with a new or amended birth certificate after gender reassingment surgery, said Shannon Price Minter, legal director of the California-based National Center for Lesbian Rights.

Minter, whose group also studies and advocates on transgender issues, called West Virginia’s legislation "very cruel and irrational."

"That is no more defensible than passing a law that is meant to harm someone with any other medical condition," Minter said Tuesday. "What is the harm if a transgender person who has completed sex reassignment surgery then decides to marry a person of the other gender?"
...
The West Virginia Family Foundation worked behind the scenes on the bill, executive director Kevin McCoy said.

"We think all of that is part of the homosexual agenda’s attempt to get away from the recognized, traditional, male-female relationship," McCoy said.

Minter said transsexualism is wrongly equated with homosexuality.

Oi Ve.

The depths of ignorance shown there are truly breathtaking.

Back to the Age article:

In essence, Wallbank helped to advance the understanding that sexual identity — as manifested in transsexualism — is biological and innate and not a psychological disorder or chosen.

Her case on behalf of Kevin and Jennifer introduced influential scientific expert evidence about "brain sex" into Australian common law. It means that the common assumption that genitalia automatically determine if we are a boy or a girl has been overthrown. Rather, as Wallbank puts it, sexual identity is "determined between the ears, and not between the legs".

But there are still many battles to be won. Wallbank likens Kevin and Jennifer’s actions to those of Rosa Parks, the woman who sparked the US civil rights movement by refusing to stand for a white man on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1955.

I still think this is hyperbole, at least in an Australian context. But seeing the West Virginian story above, and many, many others like it, maybe not.

In the journal Nature in 1995, a team of endocrinologists and sexologists published a landmark paper that established the "brain sex" concept and challenged the gender dysphoria model.

In Kevin and Jennifer’s case, two of those experts, Dutch professor Louis Gooren and American professor Milton Diamond, gave evidence accepted by the court that some people are born with a brain that recognises them as a member of the sex opposite to that indicated by their chromosomes, genitals and gonads at birth. This is the proposition the Family Court of Australia recognised, concluding that transsexualism is a biological variation in human sexual formation, rather than a psychological disorder.

This proposition is contentious - the evidence for this is poor. But the other side was able to produce not a scintilla of evidence to refute it, nor even a shred to support an alternate hypothesis. In the three years since the ruling, nothing but supportive evidence has been found, though little enough of that.

Wallbank, however, says her own sex affirmation as a woman never stopped her being a father. James was five when his Dad "transitioned" from Richard to Rachael. As a little boy, James tried to correct the occasional stranger who referred to Rachael as his mother, telling them she was his father.

Yes, I know that feeling. My son Andrew had nearly turned four when the changes to Daddy's body became too noticeable to ignore, and had just turned four when I started transition (it's supposed to be the other way around, start transition then get changes, I know). I now answer to "Zeddie", but to "Daddy" too. I always will.

Wallbank thinks they (her children) had to mature sooner than their peers. But she does not think they have experienced any significant emotional difficulties as a result of her affirming her identity as a female and as their father. "I loved being a father. I really liked that role, and I still do."

Yes. I thought I'd have to give that up, and it was the one thing about the whole male schtick I really valued. I'm so glad that I can be a woman, and yet still Daddy too.

Becoming Rachael, in the mid-’90s, was tough, despite her children’s ready acceptance.

It's not exactly easy in the 2000's either. I'm incredibly lucky, I've had it far easier than anyone else I know. Of course "easy" is a relative term in a situation like this, "hard" is always fatal, quite literally and with no exaggeration.

While Wallbank has experienced her sexual identity as fixed, her sexuality or sexual orientation appears more fluid. She loved and was sexually attracted to her wife when they were married but, in transitioning to Rachael, a "light went on", and she became attracted to men. Some might describe this as bisexuality, but Wallbank says she wanted to have a sexual relationship with a man because she could do so with a female body.

(Zoe squirms in embarresment)
Yes, well, ah, um. This is the one area of transition I haven't gotten my head around yet. I don't want my sexual orientation to change, but it's happening anyway. I just have to accept what is. For a terribly strait-laced, conservative, slightly homophobic person like me, coming to terms with myself as being Lesbian was difficult enough, and I'm still not sure I fully accept that in anything other than an intellectual sense. It was a stumbling-block that kept me seeing myself as male, for how could I possibly be attracted to the same sex? Well, now there's far too much evidence that I've always been female for me to deny it, it doesn't pass the "giggle test". And now, like most women, I find guys really kinda interesting, and that is terribly distressing and confusing for me. How could something as fundamental to my personality as sexual orientation change? Still, I've seen greater and more fundamental changes elsewhere. Maybe it was always inside me, just repressed (though that doesn't ring true for me, I know what repressed parts of my personality feel like, and this doesn't feel the same). Maybe it's just a matter of proteins leaving receptors in my brain, the timing would support that.
We can't control who we are. We can control what we do about it though. At this point in time, celebacy looks good. Of course, my feelings may change after surgery, I'm told they usually do.
I have a lot to learn about Sex. Oh, I know the theory, but I can assure all my readers that having the wrong gendered body really makes the whole thing most uncomfortable. Cuddling, Lovemaking, close and loving intimacy is wonderful, but Sex on its own is not joyous, or natural, certainly not relaxing, it feels all wrong.
Still, there's something screamingly funny about a woman being both a 47 year old Father, and a terribly innocent, sexually inexperienced and repressed Virgin.
Discovering what is appropriate for me will be quite a challenge, one I have absolutely no idea how to face. I know this isn't Rocket Science, that I can do.

You may now laugh. I am.

The estimate of 5000 people with transsexualism in Australia is low, Wallbank says, as an unknown number suffer in silence, harm themselves or take their lives. Even trying to talk to a medical practitioner about such lifelong feelings is fraught with potential rejection and ignorance. "To be seen is sometimes to be destroyed," Wallbank says.

Oh Yes. One day I will blog about the first time I saw my family doctor (she's a fantastically good paediatrician) and told her of my problem. It didn't go well. Not al all. She did her best, but to say she was out of her depth is to put it far too mildly.

If pop culture is now making a mark — alongside internet home pages and blogs by people with transsexualism announcing themselves to the world

Hi There!

— the law is far from satisfactory in the eyes of many.

A person whose anatomical sex has been "reassigned" or rehabilitated by surgery can get themselves a new birth certificate under NSW or Victorian law. But people who get married first — as an opposite-sex couple according to genitalia — and then have the same treatment cannot have their legal sex changed unless they get divorced. Otherwise, state authorities believe, same-sex marriage would be effectively sanctioned.

So should two women ever end up married to one another through a medical oddity, one of them must be legally male. And this is supposed to protect the sanctity of marriage? Such a grotesequerie, a perversity, a nonsense can only bring the law, and the institution of marriage, into disrepute. Not since the days of Ancient Egypt, and Hatshepsut the transvestite female Pharoah has such an absurdity been seriously proposed as being "the law".

As well, Australian laws differ significantly from state to state, creating "needless inhumane uncertainty and confusion", Wallbank says.

Oh and it gets worse when someone was born in the United Kingdom, and is resident in the Australian Capital Territory. As I'm finding out.

You have to laugh.

The Laws of Magic

Sturgeon's Law says that 90% of everything is Crud. My addition would be if you're lucky, because it's usually more like 100%.

However, sometimes you can find interesting and useful nuggets of truth in a midden-heap of nonsense. A case in point is Isaac Bonewitz' "Laws of Magic", many of which are astoundingly quite useful for any Scientist or Engineer, no matter how, um, sceptical we may be of the whole neopagan edifice of Sturgeonosity.

Consider the following:

The Law of Knowledge

Essence: Understanding brings control; the more that is known about a subject, the easier it is to exercise control over it.

What is this, but the principle underlying scientific research with technological applications?

The Law of Cause & Effect

Essence: if exactly the same actions are done under exactly the same conditions, they will usually be associated with exactly the same "results;" similar strings of events produce similar outcomes.

Repeatability of experimental results is an essential requirement for the Scientific Method to work.

The Law of Synchronicity

Essence: Two or more events happening at the same time are likely to have more associations in common than the merely temporal; very few events ever really happen in isolation from nearby events.

Finding correlations between synchronous events, then determining any causal link : Did A cause B, B cause A, were both A and B caused by some event C, or is it all a coincidence - is a Science in itself, dealt with by the practice of Statistical Analysis.

The Law of Contagion

Essence: Objects or beings in physical or psychic contact with each other continue to interact after separation.

See Quantum Entanglement : "...measurements performed on one system seem to be instantaneously influencing other systems entangled with it.
...
Quantum entanglement is closely concerned with the emerging technologies of quantum computing and quantum cryptography, and has been used for experiments in quantum teleportation."

The Law of Personal Universes

Essence: Every sentient being lives in and quite possibly creates a unique universe which can never be 100% identical to that lived in by another.

See the Many Minds interpretation of Quantum Mechanics.

The Law of Infinite Universes

Essence: The total number of universes into which all possible combinations of existing phenomena could be organized is infinite.

See the Many Worlds interpretation of Quantum Mechanics.

The Law of True Falsehoods

Essence: It’s possible for a concept or act to violate the truth patterns of a given universe (including an individual’s or group’s part of a consensus reality) and yet to still be "true," provided that it "works" in a specific context.

Anyone who has worked with physicis will have used Newtonian physics within its appropriate domain, Special Relativity when that's appropriate, and General Relativity in special cases. All are equally "true", inasmuch as they're all approximations to Reality which are good enough to work with within limited domains.

The Law of Perversity

Essence: also known as "Murphy’s Law," "Finagle’s Law," etc.: if anything can go wrong, it will — and in the most annoying manner possible.

Is there a single Engineer out there who doesn't have a deep and abiding Faith in this one?

The Laws are worth a read, anyway, if only as an intellectual construct that shows that some people have very different beliefs than others.

48 Not Out

Today, I had by far the Very Best Birthday Present Ever.

Andrew's now nearly 5, and when I told him today was my Birthday, he wondered why there was no cake. But he promised me one the next time I had a Birthday.

He then spontaneously started singing:

Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday Dear Zeddie,
Happy Birthday To You!
Hip Hip HURRAY Hip Hip HURRAY Hip Hip HURRAY!

So there I am. We still get to play Daddy games, I have everything I had before, and so much more now. I get to cuddle him and kiss him goodnight, and hold him next to my breast. Zeddie, that's me.

See what I mean about "Best Birthday Present Ever"?

Next Birthday, my body won't be so uncomfortably anomalous too. But that's a small matter in comparison. Motherhood, or as close as I could get to it, was always more important to me than Femininity.

Walking Papers

Regular readers of this blog will be familiar with the circumstances described below, but this letter is very important to me.

I have been seeing Zoe Brain since 12 December last year. She is a 47 year-old woman with a gender identity disorder who is undergoing transition.
Zoe is married to Carmel and they have a four year-old son, Andrew, who is just starting preschool. This year Zoe is commencing a PhD in Computer Science.

On first meeting Zoe, she described having an epiphany of the fact she wanted to become a woman in May 2005 and dressed in women's clothing for the first time on 7 July. She said thare had been some unsuaual hormone-related changes occurring to her body before taking hormone therapy which had perplexed the issue. During these months Zoe told me her mood would fluctuate and she became distressed and depressed. Since I have seen her, Zoe's mood has been normal, although she has been very happy about undergoing transition.

There is no past psychiatric history, though Zoe reported mood swings occurring every month, though not severe enough to reach clinical awareness.
There is no history of overdoses or self harm, and she has never taken any psychiatric medication.
...
On reviewing personal history, it is clear that there had been issues of gender dysphoria not acknowledged (or repressed) since puberty and during their marriage.

On mental state examination Zoe presents as a woman and "passes" well.
There is no evidence of psychosis or any mood disturbance apart from reactive euphoria when discussing her change.

I consider Zoe has a gender identity disorder which is fuelling her desire for hormone treatment and surgery. I do not think there are any other conditions such as personality disorder, psychosis, schizophrenia, or mood disorder implicated.

Yours Sincerely

Dr Emma Adams MBBA FRANZCP

To Dr Suporn Watanyusakul MD
CC Prof A.W.Steinbeck MD BS Syd PhD Lond. FRCP Lond. FRACP
CC Dr S Jamieson Cert. Fin d'Etudes Medicales (Geneva)

My "Walking Papers", addressed to my prospective surgeon, my endocrinologist, and my General Practioner.

Stating that I'm officially not sane, but only bonkers in a very particular way that can only be cured by hormones and surgery. Almost like a purely medical condition, like a hair lip.

Desktops of the Future

Free Game Spot

Google Mars

For all your Arean Search needs.

Brain Swapping

From The Scientist :

For more than two decades, Evan Balaban has honed his skills at manipulating embryonic tissue samples using tiny instruments of his own making. He can cut a small access window into a quail's egg, and using a scalpel no wider than a human hair, excise a few hundred thousand cells from the bird's developing central nervous system. This is only the first step of the intricate process required to place this minuscule brain into another animal's head. Some of these surgeries end in untimely death for brain-transplanted embryos, but Balaban says he has elevated the typical survival rate from less than 20% to more than 60%.
...
brain swapping is "really working at the right level for answering a lot of interesting questions about brain development and behavior," and techniques are improving all the time. Not until two or three decades ago did biologists understand brain circuitry well enough to make good scientific use of brain transplants, though they have been technically feasible since H.G. Wells' time. Since then, researchers have swapped the brains of various species of frogs and salamanders, as well as ducks, in addition to the quails and chicks that Balaban uses. He plans on trying it on songbirds too.

Transferring brain tissue between embryos has enabled Balaban to examine how birds with implants from different bird species innately prefer the other species' songs. "You [can] make chicken that prefer the quail sound, even more than normal quail do … as if in the chicken, the cells seize more behavioral control," he remarks. Another of his creations, chickens that bobbed their heads up and down like quail while crowing, provides further proof, he says, that some habits are innate rather than learned and can be traced to specific brain structures.

Balaban's work focuses on how nature and nurture blend together to create a seamless set of brain circuits. Other brain-swappers have focused on how brain structure makes males and females different, or how dysfunctional circuitry manifests itself in congenital abnormalities such as epilepsy.

Balaban estimates that there are four or five active brain-swappers worldwide and sees growing interest in the work among molecular biologists.

Emphasis added by me.

Some psychiatrists should really get out more. Do a bit of research outside their immediate discipline. They might find out all sorts of things.