Comments on: SF: GID Protest 5/18/09

By: helenboyd

helenboyd — Mon, 11 May 2009 06:33:35 +0000

from what i know, the protest is focused on Zucker’ & Blanchard’s involvement in the DSM V.

By: dana

dana — Mon, 11 May 2009 03:48:25 +0000

I don’t get it. Are they against the inclusion of GID in the DSM, or is this to protest Zucker’s chairmanship of the work group? There’s nothing on the web site except the flier, so that’s no help in clearing it up. I’d guess it’s the former though, which is troubling. This isn’t analogous to listing homosexuality in the DSM, because homosexuality doesn’t require medical intervention. GID (sometimes? usually?) does. And as br2216 noted, there are benefits to having a specific diagnosis. If people are concerned about being stigmatized as mentally ill, then they should be protesting our culture’s attitudes about mental illness.

I want to echo br2216′s last statement. Don’t invite me to a protest. Attract me to a vision.

By: VivaZoya

VivaZoya — Mon, 11 May 2009 03:32:45 +0000

Well that’s upsetting.

By: br2216

br2216 — Sun, 10 May 2009 07:23:40 +0000

Protest what, in particular? I, for one, am grateful for insured access to my therapist, despite the stigma of being ‘pathologized’ in the DSM.

For better or worse, members of the trans community need access to the medical community. If GID is taken entirely from DSM, what remit does the APA have? And if the trans community is not under the umbrella of the APA, who in the medical community will champion the need for intervention?

There should be better than the status quo, no doubt, but who is articulating it? I don’t pretend to have the answers; just an aversion to protests that don’t offer better answers.