What she said is so true, about transitioning later in life, and maby risking all that I have to become the woman I always knew I was inside. Her thoughts continue to occupy my mind and just speaking for myself in my later 40s is that when I was younger I never wanted to know the truth and when I was finally old enough and mature enough to accept the truth I wish I had known it earlier in life.

No answer and not much of a reply other than what she posted has left its mark with me.

OPEN

I guess what puzzles me is this reaction. . . er, or. . . what “stood out” in some people’s minds here. It almost seems like the blame is placed on the women themselves via:

“euphoria,” = a woman makes bad decisions during her transition. i.e. we loose our minds in a false and warped sense of feminine happiness.
+
“transition or die” (or transition AND die, it doesn’t matter) meme = We use (the threat of) suicide to justify why we HAD to transition, or it’s the transition that can cause suicide. It doesn’t matter. The mistake is on the woman. She transitioned, and it caused so much shit to happen around her she shouldn’t of.
+
If she had an honest gatekeeper = i.e. Women need to be watched or can’t be trusted to make sure no one with a good job and spouse makes others suffer by having to deal with transition. . . when good ‘ol fashioned repression mixed with some CD’in or gender queerin’ will suffice.
+
A woman Dr. serving the community is only “self serving.” ’cause of one, albeit strange and off-key, comment. ‘comon. really?

= This kind of tone smells a little of blame the victim and / or blame the community, imo.

um. . . where’s the focus on the shitty social forces that can keep some women in the closet, ostracize an out woman from their partner and family, drive them back to repression, depression and in this case, suicide? What about the shitty OP ed piece written about Christine’s presentation? What about the shitty vanity faire photo shoot? What about the professional sports world in the US that doesn’t even seem to be cool with anyone being gay? What about those?

I will say “the community” should lay-off their deep and impatient desire for another poster child. And some women may serve themselves well for checking their craving for validation through any media coverage of “their story.” It’s not gonna happen.

IME, You may find in a short time that you *own* the ability to maintain your privacy after the dust settles. And you may find life is just easier as whatever flavor of female you are.

Reading her quote in the context of the full article, it seems likely that Marci might feel like asking Christine to reschedule her originally scheduled gender reassignment surgery pushed her over an emotional edge. I see hints in Marci’s quote about the unintentional role she may have played in Christine’s rapid emotional decline even before her decision to de-transition. Like if only she could go back and NOT ask her to reschedule things would have turned out much better.

It’s very possible she overstates the importance of gender reassignment in the mental health of transitioners. On the other hand there’s not much in the story which indicates that choosing not to transition would have relieved Christine/Mike’s gender dysphoria either.

I do think the death Of Christine/Mike was shocking and media worthy. It is a point of honour for those of us working the area that our suicide rates should be minimised (0.95% or 2/211 of my patients at the time of writing). When I started in the field some 20 years ago, it was part of the TS urban mythology that the suicide rate was of the order of 10% at least. Some of these deaths were predictable and inevitable and that would lead one on to consider most carefully how best to protect the individual from her/himself.

What is most painfully apparent in some of these accounts is the superficiality of approach that is being related; as if glam clothes and big boobies are going to convince anyone of your essential “femaleness” when in truth it rests entirely between the ears. Where in 9 pages were the psychiatrists battling for Christine’s survival? Where were the compromises of partial reassignment being suggested. Could she have not found some such compromise with her wife if indeed love had survived the media frenzy.

Here in Australia we have rigorous testing and supervision of the transitions such that our critics complain that we are being gatekeepers but we are partners with our patients in their battle for female survival and that is a metamorphosis enjoining restraints. It’s sad to think of this tormented individual having so much resource and yet having to rely it seems on a handful of friends.

The quote about surgery from Marcia Bowers is so superficial that it is difficult to believe that it dripped off the pen of a noted medical specialist. It is so important that a realistic view of the limitations of surgery should prevail and that surgery and it’s contemplation is not always safe; the preservation of really good balanced judgment is of critical importance to the point where to back away should not be regarded as a defeat but more in militaristic terms “a strategic withdrawal”.

It’s all so sad and yet this turn of events must teach us all a little extra and that extra wisdom may be the most fitting memorial to Christine/Mike.

Dr Rosie Jones
Adelaide
South Australia

The part I found hard was the authoritative way that the author wrote about de-transitioning. I’m sure it’s something that is not all that well understood and something that is incredibly hard to go through – probably harder than choosing to transition because the support needs for a de-transitioner are non-existant. I mean, just pulling yourself off hormones has to really affect someone, and if that person has some form of depression it could be a ticket to hell. And I don’t know what training there is for psychologists/psychiatrists to help here.

Such a shame.

However, I do want to think that Dr. Bowers’ comments were well-intentioned if very badly phrased, and probably unconsciously biased by the fact that she tends to see only one type of trans person: those who opt for surgery.

I couldn’t agree more with your thoughts around the decision to transition. Personally, I cannot overstate my relief that my own gender identity issues are easily remedied. I’ll cheerfully accept a lower trans “status” (in the idiotic hierarchy that Darya correctly describes) in exchange for not having to seriously consider the awful question of transition.

I’m as old as Christine was, roughly and grew up when she did. I always find it ironic that the last thing to die in any male-identified person who chooses to live as a more or less female-identified person is a sense of hierarchy. TS vs. CD, New TS’s vs old TS’s, passable vs less passable, *true*TS’s vs. anyone who isn’t them. Bullshit. A little humanity, people.

I’ll leave it at that.