My Life

Today's Battle

Over at MSNBC on Miss Universe Canada.

The comments are the usual mix. A lot which are rather vile though. "Freak", "Pervert", "It", etc.

@!$%# your political correctness. People pretending to be the opposite sex is disgusting. These people are sick. They need professional help.

Uh........yuck !

It isn't now,You can allow the disgusting creature in, I don't have watch it or have any dealings with it.

More evidence that Western society is on the slide down.

WELL , THERE GOES THE NEIGHBORHOOD ; where i'm from , we believe GOD doesn't make mistakes. and on that last day , that freak show will be seen as such.

All you are as the rest, are a bunch fudge-packers in disguise. You bunch of faggots make me sick.

Let the FREEK show begin!

It can enter every contest it wants. It can dress in all the female clothes it wants. It can have all the operations it wants. BUT, it will NEVER be a WOMEN no matter what it wants. NEVER!!!!!!!!

Freak. Once again a very small percentage of the population controls the rest. We have become afraid...... It will all be coming to an end soon then it is all moot.

I think this guy/gal if from Thailand. If so its no wonder. Often mothers push their young boys towards this kind of thinking because if they go through this sex change crap they then marry them off and the old man who marries them pays the family money. When you look at whats going on over there you see ALOT of sex tourist and what they call "lady boys". So he claims to knew he was a girl at age 4. This I doubt alot unless the parents where behind this thinking. One more example of the moral decline the human race has taken. Just because he has no penis and takes drugs dose not change the fact that he is a guy. I doubt this is even his real hair color. His birth papers say what? Will he go to the court to change his birth papers ? If so he will once more just be living a lie, a phony hiding behind the outer fake shell having for the rest of his life taking drugs to keep it looking like something nature never wanted.

Sick, disgusting and freakish !!!

So basically those of you that "approve" of this disgrace being "ok" and agreeing to let this obviously very, very, very confused soul compete against "real" women are suggesting that God didn't know what He was doing in His creation of "him." And yes, it's a "him," and always will be, no matter what he had a surgeon do to his body parts. God brought this boy into the world, yes, BOY, and I doubt very seriously He said "oops! I forgot to put a slit on that one and left a wanker on him too!" God doesn't make mistakes, face it dude, penis or no penis, now ur just a dude without a set of balls!

further proof that some people are not fit to compete in the human race!

And as much as I support the freedom and equality of gay people, I dont support this. Its a beauty pageant for women. Not Trannies.

That's just on the first few pages....

Facebook Security

From the Huffington Post :

WASHINGTON -- House Republicans blocked a measure Tuesday night that would have let the Federal Communications Commission prevent employers from forcing workers to reveal their Facebook passwords.

One problem if they do attempt to do this: they're likely breaking existing Federal Law, and certainly violating the Facebook Terms of Service.

From those Facebook Terms of Service:

3. Safety
3.5 You will not solicit login information or access an account belonging to someone else.

4. Registration and Account Security
4.8 You will not share your password, (or in the case of developers, your secret key), let anyone else access your account, or do anything else that might jeopardize the security of your account.
4.9 You will not transfer your account (including any page or application you administer) to anyone without first getting our written permission.

From MSNBC:

Frederic Wolens, a Facebook spokesman, wouldn't comment on the Maryland legislative proposals, but he said many of these school and employer policies appear to violate the site's terms.

"Under our terms, only the holder of the email address and password is considered the Facebook account owner. We also prohibit anyone from soliciting the login information or accessing an account belonging to someone else," he said in a statement to msnbc.com.

Employees should tell employers that they are not permitted by FB TOS to comply, and that to even ask is a violation of the TOS which will be reported to FB. Continued use of FB by an employer after making such a request, whether reported or not, may leave the employer open to civil and criminal penalties for unauthorised access of a protected computer, should there be any interstate or foreign communication on their page. Advise them to take legal advice on this.

It is permissible for an employer to ask that the account be handed over to them; but this requires written permission by FB.

http://www.facebook.com/legal/terms
Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (18 U.S.C. § 1030 et seq.)

The CFAA defines a “protected computer” under 18 U.S.C. § 1030(e)(2) to mean a computer:
...
which is used in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce or communication, including a computer located outside the United States that is used in a manner that affects interstate or foreign commerce or communication of the United States;

Criminal offenses under the Act
...
Intentionally accessing a computer without authorization to obtain:
Information from any protected computer if the conduct involves an interstate or foreign communication

Paging Dr Mengele

I'm working on getting a good idiomatic English translation of Streit um elfjährige Transsexuelle: Alex soll in die Psychiatrie - taz.de

But in summary.....

A Nurse decides (probably on religious grounds) that Transsexuality is due to parental upbringing, so the eleven year old child will be confined to a locked ward in a mental hospital - then, in the unlikely event she can pretend to be "cured", placed in a foster home, so her supportive mother will never see her again.

And the court agrees. No expert medical opinion is needed. The appeal has been rejected.

Moral of story: don't support your Trans child, or they'll be taken from you, given "reparative therapy", and you'll never see them again. If they live.

I think it unlikely they'll ever release her. Apparently the last girl given this treatment suicided as soon as she was given the opportunity.

I can understand why, if that was the only means of escape. European Catholic psychiatric establishments when aided and abetted by sympathetic courts have something of a reputation.

An appeal to a Federal court is underway... but apparently until then, she'll be given "masculinising" treatment to coerce her into accepting others' Reality, one completely contrary to medical opinion. Her mind will be damaged, not merely hurt.

It's not that the doctors at the clinic are evil. Merely grossly incompetent, ignorant, opinionated, and experimenting on children. They don't see themselves as heirs to another grossly incompetent, ignorant, opinionated medical experimenter, one Dr Mengele, but that's what they are.

UPDATE: While I was working on an idiomatic translation, this one became available. It's pretty good. From Scallywag & Vagabond

The case of an eleven year old child who goes by the alias Alex Kaminsky has once again stirred debate as to Germany’s stance towards gender neutrality, sex and clinical devices of purity, especially in light of its torrid history with respect to forced sterilization and aspirations towards racial purity.

At the heart of the matter can a young girl and her mother decide what is best for her daughter who biologically was not born a girl but wishes to pursue a female gender or are they obligated to subscribe to the courts view which at present allows open the possibility of the child being institutionalized whom according to human rights group now fear the child will be exposed to a type of redressing with the expressed intent of correcting what is implicitly perceived to be mental deficiencies of a the child.

The commotion came about as Berlin’s Kammergericht this past Thursday re affirmed a lower court’s decision allowing the state to institutionalize an eleven year old. At the time of the ruling, the child’s mother who had sought therapy for her child but to date has been inexplicably denied reiterated that she will now take her case to the constitutional court in an effort to allow her eleven year old to remain living as a female despite being born a male, something the mother supports.

The incident initially found itself in front of the courts as a consequence of the girl’s parents separating and being of different opinions as to how the medical treatment of the child should proceed, with state youth office mandating that the child should be treated in an institution before eventually being made available to a foster family.

Implicit in the court’s decision is the very real possibility that the child may now be preempted from pursuing her desire to live as a female, and exposed to a type of indoctrination that does not promote gender neutrality or choice. Also of concern is whether the child is too young to completely understand the ramifications of her choices and the technical legality that German law requires before one can have a sex change or at least begin the process of hormone adaptation to become one’s innate sense of gender.

To date the youth office has asserted that it believes the best interest of the ‘child ‘ would be achieved if it were removed from a sphere of influence that is predisposed to the girl asserting a female identity . This of course raises the question can a child’s ‘transsexuality’ be induced without the child resisting?

To date no reported incidents exist where a child was forced to accept a gender re alignment against their will, which has stirred the plaintiff’s lawyer to argue that a nurse which the youth office assigned has on the back of one single solitary hour long meeting been able to insist that the mother has sought to unduly influence the child in their choice of gender. The plaintiff’s lawyer has also expressed shock and reticence that to date their client, the mother and daughter have been denied the right to an expert report or therapy, something that the youth office is unwilling to yield to.

Come this Monday at 3pm, human right activists will protest on behalf of the child. Argue the group who go by the banner attache ‘Stop Alex forced into institutionalization at once’: “Institutions like the youth office and the Charité use force on humans through enforcement and psychological pressure! Each gender and each gender identity is a right, not a disease.”

Activists are particularly disturbed with the state’s view that the child might be mentally diseased and thus seeking to institutionalize it to ‘correct’ what it perceives to be mental deficiencies which would run counter with the notion that gender isn’t necessarily what one is born with but what one innately relates to and chooses.

Already a signature campaign as organized by British transsexual activist Katrina Swales is under way to challenge the court’s decision. Asserts Katrina Swales who to date has amassed over 9000 signatures: “This young girl gets taught that her feelings are wrong. She gets pushed into self denial more and more. Something that has already cost the lives of so many transsexuals.”

In light of the court’s current stance a deep mistrust amongst human activists has been instilled who fear clinical assessments may be adopting sterile dispositions towards gender choices and other aspects of human rights manifestations especially in light of a nation known to have had a torrid history with respect to gender rights, discrimination and what has to date been publicly left unsaid, previous ethnic purity aspirations.

Seems Plausible

Sex and Gender Evaluation TEST RESULTS

S.A.G.E. Test Results

Your Raw Score is: 660, which indicates that overall you are Feminine

Your appearance is Feminine

Your brain processes are mostly that of a Female person.

You appear to socialize in a feminine manner.

You believe you have major conflicts about your gender identity.

You indicated you are physically Intersexed to some degree.

ANALYSIS:

Since you indicated you were born with an Intersex condition, it is likely that this has caused you some degree of gender conflict because society in general is not accepting or understanding of gender ambiguity. Since it is difficult to live in a purely androgynous gender role, please check the most appropriate analysis below.

NOTES:

Your answers indicate you have altered your physical appearance to look like the opposite sex.
Your Answers indicate your psychological state has likely prevailed since you were quite young.

ANALYSIS AS Male:

Male to Female Transsexual, either post-operative or in transition

NOTES:

Your answers indicate you have altered your physical appearance to look like the opposite sex.
Your Answers indicate your psychological state has likely prevailed since you were quite young.

ANALYSIS AS Female:

No conflicts, you appear to fully accept your physical sex and gender identity.

NOTES:

Your answers indicate you have altered your physical appearance to look like the opposite sex.
Your Answers indicate your psychological state has likely prevailed since you were quite young.

AC360 - The 'Sissy Boy' Experiment

There's rather more on George Rekers in various posts on this blog over the last few years.

His attitude towards inconvenient facts is summarised below, from The Christian World View of Psychology and Counseling:

6. Scientific Method

We affirm that the scientific method is useful in carrying out the creation mandate of Genesis 1:28 to subdue and have dominion over creation when the investigators have Biblical presuppositions and when the Bible does not directly give us the answers we seek; that the use of the scientific method is entirely controlled by the presuppositions of the investigators and therefore the results are a pronouncement of faith rather than of scientific fact; and that the faith nature of the results of scientific investigation is evidenced by the investigators' proselytizing intent, that is, their attempt to transform man into their idea of what man should be. We deny that the scientific method can ever be applied in psychology without its being thoroughly determined by the presuppositions of the investigators.

And this is the resulr.

Similar, though far less harsh, methods are used by Dr Zucker in CAMH in Toronto. Her realises that he can;t "pray away the Gay", but he does claim he can "pray away the Trans", with only 15% of gender nonconformant kids ending up being Trans not Gay. "Gender Nonconformant" means exactly that, in most the degree is mild. They're not Trans in the first place.

As for George Rekers? From his website:

He earned his Ph.D. in psychology from the University of California, Los Angeles, his M.B.A. in executive management from Southern Wesleyan University, and his Doctor of Theology (Th.D.) degree from the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies of the University of South Africa.

Dr. Rekers has delivered many invited research presentations on child and family variables before committees of the United States Senate and House of Representatives, and has served as an invited expert for White House staff and several presidential cabinet agencies such as the Department of Health and Human Services.

He has delivered over two hundred invited lectures in universities and academic societies in dozens of countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and in Western and Eastern Europe.

Professor George served as one of the multidisciplinary experts for the legal team that successfully defended the state of Florida’s law prohibiting adoption of children by homosexually-behaving individuals all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, in the case Lofton v. Secretary of the Department of Children and Family Services.

Dr. Rekers is a past recipient of the NARTH Sigmund Freud Award for his research contributions on child gender identity disorder.

His work is still being cited as bona fide by Vanguard University's Psychology Department in their Parenting section. It is, after all, a Christian University.

HOW many sexes?

A comment on Billions of Sexes (Part 1) by Martine Rothblatt, on the Institute for Ethics & Emerging Technologies site

I differ from the author only on emphasis, and degree. However, these differences have important effects.

Let's start with the idea that there are male and female brains. They differ anatomically, and these differences correspond to different stereotyped behaviours, regardless of upbringing. This is most obvious in girls who have CAH, masculinised brains, and a male preference in play patterns, even though they have a normal female upbringing.

Now that we've established that idea, that it's objectively observable.. we have to tear it down. It's just the first step in Wittgenstein's ladder.

The brain is a complex structure, not a simple one. Any particular individual can have a more masculine anatomy in one area, a more feminine anatomy in others. The sexually dimorphic features have considerable overlap. Within any one area, few are unambiguously male or unambiguously female. The difference is statistical. Moreover, in the higher brain, hormonal balance plays a role in changing the brain's physical anatomy. Treat a male with female hormones, some of his brain structures will feminise. The brain is plastic in many areas, experiences and social environment causes physical changes, and much of what we call "gendered behaviour" is as the result of arbitrary socially constructed factors.

OK, understood that? Now discard it, it's the second step on the ladder.

The brain is not homogenous; different parts have different effects, and while some parts are plastic, others are not. While much "gendered behaviour" is a social construct, some is not, and is remarkably resistant to change. This is most obvious in Transsexual people, whose neuro-anatomy is female in some areas, male in others, and corresponds to neither in yet others. When the Lymbic nucleus is feminised, typically feminine emotional patterns are found, and these lead to a feminine gender identity. When the Superior Parietal Lobule (SPL) is feminised as well - as it often is - the "body map" is for female primary and secondary sex characteristics - breasts, vagina etc - and any mismatch with reality causes immense distress.

This also explains such observed phenomena as "phantom limb syndrome", and the widely variable emotional response to hysterectomy or mastectomy. Also too the variable response to any natural masculinisation of a female-at-birth body due to 5ARD or 17BHSD syndromes, which can cause a superficial "natural sex change".

What this means is that a binary model of sex and gender is merely a rough approximation. A better one is a trinary one, with male, female, and bigendered (approximately 1/3 in each category). But that still doesn't capture the multi-variance and fuzziness of the situation adequately. A small percentage won't fit either model, or indeed, any such gross over-simplification.

References (to substantiate my assertions):

Sexual differentiation of the human brain: relevance for gender identity, transsexualism and sexual orientation. Swaab Gynecol Endocrinol (2004) 19:301–312.

White matter microstructure in female to male transsexuals before cross-sex hormonal treatment. A diffusion tensor imaging study. - Rametti et al, J Psychiatr Res. 2010 Jun 8.

Prenatal hormones versus postnatal socialization by parents as determinants of male-typical toy play in girls with congenital adrenal hyperplasia” Pasterski VL, Geffner ME, Brain C, Hindmarsh P, Brook C, Hines M Child Dev 76(1):264-78 2005

Changing your sex changes your brain: influences of testosterone and estrogen on adult human brain structure by Pol et al, Europ Jnl Endocrinology, Vol 155, suppl_1, S107-S114 2006

Biased-Interaction Theory of Psychosexual Development: “How Does One Know if One is Male or Female?” M.Diamond Sex Roles (2006) 55:589–600

Gender change in 46,XY persons with 5alpha-reductase-2 deficiency and 17beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase-3 deficiency. Cohen-Kettenis PT. Arch Sex Behav. 2005 Aug;34(4):399-410.

I'm including this as a post because it summarises and encapsulates my conclusions so far. It's a bit more complex than this, but the 3 steps on Wittgenstein's ladder are enough.

Send Money. Send Lots of Money

From Christian Newswire:

"Christians are called to unite the GOP with Rick Santorum. This is because the Bible says that Mitt Romney opposes Jesus Christ and Christians. Romney is against everything the USA was founded upon," says pastor Steven Andrew, president of USA Christian Ministries.

"God promises to fix the economy if we vote for mature Christians (Exodus 18:21)," he adds. "God says that the economy declined for taking God out of government, 53-plus million abortions and homosexual sins," explains the pastor, who is also author of "Making A Strong Christian Nation."

"Christians understand God controls the economy because He says so in 2Chronicles 7:13-14. Do you believe God? He sends prosperity for obedience and famine for sins (Deuteronomy 28, Nehemiah 9:32-38, Leviticus 26)," he adds.

"God says Mormons are accursed. We don't want someone accursed in the White House," he adds. Galatians 1:9 says, "…if anyone preaches any other gospel…let him be accursed."
...
"God's issues or 'social issues' are the most important election issues because God rewards nations who obey Him", the author explains in "Making A Strong Christian Nation".

USA Christian Ministries is raising money to build a network of 1000 pastors to pastor the USA and a national TV program. To support this important outreach, see: www.usachristianministries.com/partner



But of course these are just a vocal minority, they couldn't possibly have significant influence in politics...



Yeah, Right.

Dear 15 year old me...

From Dear 15 year old me - how you can help.

If you are a LGBT adult, write a letter to yourself, but write it to the person you were when you were 15 years old. If you could go back to the kid you were then, what would you say? What advice would you give for surviving this time?

Dear 15 year old me

I can do nothing for you, the 15 yr old girl that I was, silently sobbing in your bedroom. Back when you are, in 1973, I know your parents wouldn't understand. I know from here in 2012 (though you don't, and perhaps that's for the best) that if you let your secret out, the standard treatment in your time is electroshock therapy, sometimes even lobotomy, cutting out pieces of your brain, so best keep quiet.

I can do nothing for you. But I can do something for all the girls like you that exist in my time. Knowing me, knowing you, the girl I was, I think that will make you smile amidst your tears. It's how I sooth the hurt that you're feeling, easing the path of others.

And you know what? It will take a long time I'm afraid, but you'll live happily ever after too, as they will. We have a better understanding now. We have something called the Internet, linking all the computers in the world - and every home has at least one now - to share information. The surgery is far better, the knowledge of hormones more extensive. We can't give girls like you the ability to have babies, not yet, but that's coming too. Too late for you - for us - but perhaps not too late for them.

It's no easier for other girls at 15 than it is for you, back in 1973, stuck with a male body that feels so terribly, fundamentally WRONG. But there is hope for them, as there doesn't appear to be for you, when you are. Well, after living for so many years, hoping even when there is no hope, you get to win anyway, to be yourself. You will learn what the word "happiness" means. It will be better than you can imagine, better than your wildest dreams. Against all the odds, you get to live happily ever after.

You have many years of hell in front of you. Far too many. But you get out anyway.

Today, in 2012, girls like you don't have to endure nearly so long. If they can endure, just for another thousand days, there will be help available for them. No child should have to endure what you are destined to endure, but you get through it. No child should have to endure even 1000 days of it, nor 1000 seconds for that matter. They do have to though, at the moment. It's changing, getting better, and I think in my - in our - lifetime, we'll see an end to it. The issue will be recognised earlier, and social acceptance of the obvious treatment will become unremarkable. That day is not here yet, which is why we, you and I, have to help them.

You and I just have to show the girls of 2012 who are your age, that there is hope. That it does get better, and by the time they're 25, their lives will be not much different from other girls their age. That's not some impossible dream, not just a possibility, it's an inevitability, if they just hang on. Meanwhile, they must lay the foundations of their future life, do well at school, be ready to make a fantastic success of life, and not fall into the traps of drug abuse or throwing away a life that at the moment seems worthless. We must show them that they must plan ahead, for the better times to come for them.

They may end up marrying boys, and having a family together. Or marrying girls for that matter - we've come a long way in understanding sexuality since 1973, and same-sex partnerships, while unusual, aren't regarded as unthinkable as they are when you are.

Dear 15 year old me, feeling so isolated and alone, back in 1973 you don't know that there are many like you. Boys and girls, born with the wrong-sexed bodies. Yes, there are boys too, born with female anatomy, and it's just as horrid for them as it is for girls born with male anatomy. Now in 2012, we do know though, and are doing something about it. There's still plenty of bullying (and worse than bullying) in schools, and not just from other kids. That's getting better though too. The trouble is, that's little consolation for all the 15 year old boys and girls subject to it today in 2012, so we have to show them that others have made it, and they can too. That it gets better, and not in ten or twenty years, but in just a few. That they should be busy preparing for that day.

I hope I've made you smile, dear 15 year old me. You get to be quite a woman, you know? You use the pain you're feeling now as an energy, to help others just like you, transmuting it into compassion. Writing letters like this one.

Love, and Hugs,
Zoe

p.s. I know you picked the name "Zoe" five years ago, and that you've never told anyone else. You won't for some time, but it fits you. If you recall your Ancient Greek, it means "Life".

Three views on Trans Children

Interview with Dr. Milton Diamond: research.cristanwilliams.com

They don't make it easy

Testosterone ampules, vital for Trans mens' health (if only to stop their bones getting brittle) has been quietly de-listed from the Australian Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS), resulting in a quadrupling in price, and ten times the price for those on low incomes with a Health Care card, entitling them to reduced costs on PBS medications.

Apparently it may be because Transsexuality isn't considered to exist as far as the Dept of Health is concerned (there are no drugs on the PBS for treating it), and for non-Trans and non-Intersex men, other alternatives are available. Intersex they're clueless about, and they apparently don't realise what a catastrophic effect this will have on Trans and Intersex mens' health.

This is suspiciously coincidental with the UK National Health Service (NHS) recently putting Testosterone on the "Red List" - meaning it can no longer be prescribed for Trans men (only non-Trans and non-Intersex) by GPs. They have to now obtain the scripts from specialised Gender Clinics - who have no budget for them, so can't provide them. Testosterone has thus been effectively de-listed in the UK too. This follows on from the UK NHS delisting of estrogen implants, which led to the last commercial manufacturer left in the world ceasing to make them last year. That too was based on substitutes being available for everyone except Trans and Intersex women.

Religious Dogma based on Scientific Ignorance

"The Earth is Flat, therefore it's OK to be cruel"

That's what the article Restricting Activities of Transgender Church Member | Ask Our Experts | Church Safety says, in effect.

Chromosomes are the structures on which the genes are carried, which, in turn, are the mechanism by which hereditary characteristics are transmitted from parents to off-spring. An individual normally has 23 pairs of chromosomes in his or her body cells; one of each pair being derived from each parent. One pair of chromosomes is known to determine an individual's sex. The biological sexual constitution of an individual is fixed at birth (at the latest), and cannot be changed, either by the natural development of organs of the opposite sex, or by medical or surgical means. As a result, a sex change operation cannot affect a person's true sex.

Taking things one at a time:
One pair of chromosomes is known to determine an individual's sex.
Counterexample: J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2008 Jan;93(1):182-9

A 46,XY mother who developed as a normal woman underwent spontaneous puberty, reached menarche, menstruated regularly, experienced two unassisted pregnancies, and gave birth to a 46,XY daughter with complete gonadal dysgenesis.

The biological sexual constitution of an individual is fixed at birth (at the latest)
Counterexamples : Bone marrow-derived cells from male donors can compose endometrial glands in female transplant recipients by Ikoma et al in Am J Obstet Gynecol. 2009 Dec;201(6):608.e1-8 & Transplanted human bone marrow cells generate new brain cells by Crain BJ, Tran SD, Mezey E. in J Neurol Sci. 2005 Jun 15;233(1-2):121-3 :
These show that a bone-marrow transplant recipient's entire bodies gradually become genetically identical to that of the donor due to cell turnover. Even the brain. Even the reproductive glands.

The biological sexual constitution of an individual... cannot be changed... by the natural development of organs of the opposite sex
Counterexample : Imperato-McGinley J, Guerrero L, Gautier T, Peterson RE. Steroid 5alpha-reductase deficiency in man: an inherited form of male pseudohermaphroditism. Science 1974 Dec 27; 186 (4170): 1213-5

In an isolated village of the southwestern Dominican Republic, 2% of the live births were in the 1970's, guevedoces (actually male pseudohermaphrodites). These children appeared to be girls at birth, but at puberty these 'girls' sprout muscles, testes, and a penis. For the rest of their lives they are men in nearly all respects. Their underlying pathology was found to be a deficiency of the enzyme, 5-alpha Reductase.

The original question:
A man who has surgically changed his gender to a woman is active in our women's ministry activities. Church leaders are increasingly uncomfortable with this arrangement because most of the women in the church are not aware of this person's true gender. Could we be exposed to legal risk by restricting—or even excluding—this person from women's ministry activities?

"This person makes us feel uncomfortable - can we safely shun and exclude them"? The "Church Leaders", not the congregation, are looking for an excuse. A perfect example of Lack of Charity.

1 Corinthians 13:2
2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.

Children and Adolescents With Gender Identity Disorder Referred to a Pediatric Medical Center

Children and Adolescents With Gender Identity Disorder Referred to a Pediatric Medical Center, Spack et al, Pediatrics. 2012 Feb 20

After establishment of a multidisciplinary gender clinic, the gender identity disorder population increased fourfold. Complex clinical presentations required additional mental health support as the patient population grew. Mean age and Tanner Stage were too advanced for pubertal suppressive therapy to be an affordable option for most patients. Two-thirds of patients were started on cross-sex hormone therapy. Greater awareness of the benefit of early medical intervention is needed. Psychological and physical effects of pubertal suppression and/or cross-sex hormones in our patients require further investigation.

This is the first study of a US cohort of children and adolescents with gender identity disorder.

And that is significant. Think about it. Until now, this was too "controversial" to do research on. There was no funding for it. All of the research until now has been in Europe, Australia, Canada, in fact everywhere except the USA.

SUBMISSION ON THE MARRIAGE EQUALITY AMENDMENT BILL 2010

SUBMISSION ON THE MARRIAGE EQUALITY AMENDMENT BILL 2010

Dear Committee Secretary,

I'm already in a legal same-sex marriage. We celebrated our 31st anniversary yesterday.

We married in 1981. In 1985 I was diagnosed at a Fertility Clinic as Intersex - thought to be male. My birth certificate says "boy", and I was legally male when married.

In 2005, after my body changed, I was re-diagnosed more accurately with "severe androgenisation of a non-pregnant woman". I am now legally female.

I have a letter from the former Attorney General, the Hon. Peter Ruddock, confirming that as our marriage was valid when contracted, subsequent changes of circumstances do not affect its validity.

While such natural changes are rare - less than 100 in Australia - they happen. More common are Transsexual transitions, which require medical intervention.

Some of us are married. A few of the stronger marriages survive, despite the enormous societal, social and personal pressures to end them.

Same-sex marriages exist, and have existed for decades. Society has not collapsed. Children of those marriages continue to grow up, indistinguishable from other children their age.

Marriage equality will be made available to all, sooner or later. So please, in the name of sheer human decency and common humanity, let it be sooner.

To make your own submission - for or against - please fill in the http://www.australianmarriageequality.com/senate-inquiry-submission-form/.

In case you're wondering....

Just gave my first lecture of the year today. And got reminded of just how much I enjoy teaching!

Pubertal blockade safe for pediatric patients with gender identity disorder

Pubertal blockade safe for pediatric patients with gender identity disorder

Pubertal blockade can safely be initiated in pediatric patients who experience gender identity disorder, according to researchers at the Canadian Pediatric Endocrine Group 2012 Meeting. With exposure to hormones such as estrogen or testosterone later in their adolescence, these patients will experience normal metabolic processes.

“If kids are persisting at puberty (My emphasis - ZEB) [about the need to be the other gender], they will almost always persist,” said Daniel Metzger, MD, FRCPC, a pediatric endocrinologist at BC Children’s Hospital in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and a clinical professor, division of endocrinology in the department of pediatrics, University of British Columbia in Vancouver.

Metzger spoke about the endocrine management of transgender youth and said pediatric patients who experience gender identity disorder require watchful management to reduce the risks for suicidality, depression, drug use and eating disorders, which are often secondary to gender identity disorder.

“These issues are frequently dealt with if patients can get on the road to transition,” Metzger said, noting that parental support is key in making the transition smooth.

Patients will undergo counseling and therapy if they express a desire to transition from male to female or female to male to ensure they are serious about their desire, he said.

“The effect of the puberty-blocking drugs is reversible,” Metzger said. “If they change their mind, they would come off the (puberty-blocking) drugs and enter puberty.”

Although pubertal blockade, such as gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonists, puts bone and mineral status on hold, youths can resume the process of building bone once they are exposed to estrogen or testosterone, Metzger said.

In response to Metzger’s presentation, Norman Spack, MD, an associate in endocrinology and co-director of the Gender Management Service Clinic at Children’s Hospital Boston, said not treating youths with gender identity disorder is beginning to be thought of as disregard for the Hippocratic Oath. Spack co-wrote guidelines on treating gender identity disorder published by the Endocrine Society in 2009.

“[These patients] often harm themselves if they are not treated because they are clearly in the wrong body,” Spack said. “The younger generation (of endocrinologists) who have grown up with gender-variant people is seeing this as a disregard for a human right.”

In addition, pediatric patients are continually being psychologically tested to affirm their choice because the administration of sex steroids will not produce effects that can be reversed, Spack said.

“It is not reversible when you do a hormonal flip and give boys estrogen and girls testosterone,” he said. “The Dutch experience has demonstrated that pubertal blockade does not preclude the ability of youths to have normal bone density.”

Reference : Metzger D. The endocrine management of transgender youth. Presented at: the Canadian Pediatric Endocrine Group 2012 Scientific Meeting; Feb. 9-11, 2012; Winnipeg, MB, Canada. (Link to article will be included when I can get it)

Finally, endocrinologists have plucked up the courage to state in public what until now they've only said in private. I (and they themselves) expect them to be pilloried for it of course, but lives are at stake.

Two Similar Cases

Letter to White House health conference organizers | THE INTERSEX NETWORK

Why did I want to attend this conference? I have never self-identified as a lesbian, gay, bisexual or transsexual, so what is my interest in this White House LGBT Conference on Health? It is because during my life as a late-virilizing intersex person, I have been misunderstood as, and persecuted as, at various times a lesbian, gay man, bisexual and transsexual.

I have had to fight to get a legal presence and a birth certificate that is congruent with my adult naturally-virilized masculine gender. My entire life has been one great battle just to be myself because there is no legal recognition for the millions of intersex people like me in this great country of ours! There is no recognition of the existence of intersex people even in the email sent to me about this LGBT conference!

See the 1982 Royal Nepalese Press Photo of me at the top of this letter. I am the taller bearded man near the center of the picture. Do I look like a normal woman to you? I was born looking like a normal baby girl but by the time I was a young adult my body had self-virilized, becoming hirsute and phallic. This natural late-virilizing intersex change was welcomed by me, because I always thought of myself as male and started calling myself David at the age of nine.

He went the other way. I still haven't been able to get my UK Birth Certificate corrected. But I've had fewer problems overall.

He chose the name "David" at age 9. I chose the name "Zoe" at age 10.

Like him, I've been called at various times a lesbian, gay man, and transsexual, often all three at the same time by the same person. The only one I identify with is the last, as it seems to me there's no essential difference between a natural or therapeutically-induced transition. He doesn't identify as Trans, I do, sorta, almost, even though it's not technically true. No matter.

What matters to me more is a court case a little less than two years before I was married.

In the marriage of C and D (falsely called C). (1979) 35 FLR 340 (1979) 5 FamLR 636 (1979) 28 ALR 524.

The circumstances here are more similar to my own, or at least, similar to my own in 1979. The Husband's condition was CAH (Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia) , presumably due to 21-hydroxylase deficiency. My own is CAH, due to 3β-Hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase deficiency (we think). Symptoms differ in detail, but are similar. I looked more male in some respects, he looked more male in others.

Now on to the judgement about this person's marriage.

The wife was contemplating immediately prior to marriage and did in fact believe that she was marrying a male. She did not in fact marry a male but a combination of both male and female, notwithstanding the fact that the husband exhibited as a male;
...
... marriage, according to law in Australia, is "the union of a man and a woman to the exclusion of all others, voluntarily entered into for life."
...
I am satisfied on the evidence that the husband was neither man nor woman but was a combination of both, and a marriage in the true sense of the word as within the definition referred to above could not have taken place and does not exist.

The circumstances of this marriage and ours are sufficiently similar that they are legally indistinguishable. I knew a bit less about my situation than he did, my severe abdominal pains happened at 22 as well though, and I still have the scar from bikini-line to breastbone from the surgery that cured it. But I wasn't told anything other than that my gallbladder and "anomalous tissue" had been removed for biopsy.

There is one crucial, and fundamental difference though. That marriage lasted 11 years, but was essentially dead before certified as non-existent by the court.

We've been married 31 years less a few days, and are still as much in love as we ever were. To legally nullify our marriage, we, and no-one else, would have to petition the Family Court, no-one can do that to us.

I still bawled my eves out when I read this case. Because the Judge was correct in his decision. I wasn't male, not in 1979, nor 1981, I just looked like it. Mostly. For most purposes I can be considered Trans, but not here, not for this one.

Whether the Law recognises our partnership is in the most important ways, irrelevant. We are married.

Dr Veronica Drantz' Presentation on Intersex

Intersex people

View more PowerPoint from Veronica Drantz

Coming Up For Air

Things are starting to stabilise, and next week I resume teaching. My Mother In Law has made a very good cognitive recovery, but there's still months of physiotherapy ahead so she can walk again unaided.

I've had time to de-stress a little, and unless another crisis appears, will be back to blogging regularly again soon. I hope. Remembering what happened the last time I said that.

As a change of pace, a tidbit from history I've been using to keep my mind refreshed and relaxed, ready for whatever Joker I get in Life's next hand. And now for something completely different. The markings on Austra-Hungarian aircraft in 1918.

This represents preprinted fabric from J. Backhausen & Söhne (sons) for the Oeffag factory and applied to the wings and horizontal tail unit of four late production 153. & about 1/3 of all the 253. series Albatros D type machines.

Further research shows that it was silk-screened, not printed (the rollers of the time weren't up to it); that there were two layers, one brown, one green, on a base fabric that could be any colour from light beige (undyed) to mustard-yellow; and that the registration was deliberately coarse, to give the effect of dark areas around the edges.

This was the effect, as near as we can determine from the black-and-white photos and a sample of the fabric that has survived:



This aircraft, "Number Six", Oeffag Albatros D.III 253-64, is shown in the picture below.



The fuselage is varnished plywood, a strip of "sworl" cloth glued on the top and covered with dope/varnish, and all wing and tail surfaces composed of this cloth.

The aircraft was usually piloted by Friedrich Hefty of the Flik 42J fighter squadron.

253.64 Albatros D.III (Oef) Flik 42J Friedrich Hefty

Hefty was wounded in the right foot by Italian anti-aircraft fire on 7 October 1915. He transferred to Flik 42J in the Isonzo sector of the Italian front in October 1917, scoring his second victory during the Battle of Caporetto. During 1918, Hefty formed a strong friendship with fellow pilots Johann Risztics and Ferdinand Udvardy. Amongst the airmen of Flik 42J, the trio became known as the Arany Triumviratus (Golden Triumvirate).

Hefty began marking the sides of his Albatros D.III with the number "6."

This particular aircraft was flown by Friedrich Hefty of Flik 42J, and it was forced down August 28th 1918 when being flown by Geza Keisz.

Doing this research on such an obscure topic hones my skills in wading through legal and medical databases, in search for clues in the Science of Sex and Gender.

But I also need to do some meditation, giving my motor skills some exercise, while the higher brain-functions relax and just exist. "Sometimes I sits and thinks, and sometimes I just sits". Sometimes it helps not to be self-aware of what one is doing, to let the unconscious mind take over for a while. The result? A model in 1/144 scale, 5.01cm (just under 2 inches) long.