A Couple of Petitions:

I'm going to get a little bit more [formally] political than I normally do at this blog and as you to sign a couple of petitions which I feel are rather important to my rights as a transgender individual.

The first petition is from IFGE and is to the American Psychiatric Association asking them to drop "transvestic fetishism" from the next revision of the DSM. My thoughts of the clinical model of psychiatric disability in general aside, it's very clear how pathologising any man who wishes to put on women's clothes while at the same time trying to introduce "autogynephilia," which is used to deny trans women our womanhood should we *dare* to express any eroticism at all, is harmful to me as a transgender woman. Please sign this petition asking them to abolish the "transvestic fetishism" diagnosis from the DSM V. It shouldn't be a psychiatric "crime" to crossdress.

Sign the IFGE petition here!

The second petition is in response to the film "Ticked-Off Trannies with Knives" being included in the Tribeca Film Festival. This film, which is a self-proclaimed "transploitation" film, dredges up about every horrid stereotype about trans people imaginable for the purposes of a cheap laugh and a cheap thrill while at the same time invoking *real* victims of *real* violence, specifically Gwen Araujo and Jorge Mercado, to sell tickets in their trailer. It is beyond despicable. Please watch the trailer and sign the petition.

Watch the trailer here
Read GLAAD's response and sign the petition here

EDITED TO ADD NEW PETITION:

This petition is to try and stop some of the abuses going on regarding sex work in New Orleans where police and prosecution are using far-outmoded, felony laws to prosecute and brand sex workers with sex predator status. People who know me personally know I support commercial sex and, in particular, the rights of sex workers; yet however your personal stance may be regarding prostitution I hope that it is obvious why people who are interacting with other consenting adults, for whatever reason, do not deserve to be treated like rapists, child molesters, and other dangerous criminals.

In addition, the fact that this law is predominantly leveraged against people of colour and transgender people further underscore why action must be taken in order to realise equality.

Please sign the petition to help the sex workers of New Orleans here.

DSM V Proposed Revisions: Initial Reactions

The DSM V Proposed Revisions came out this morning which means that us, the general public, are finally able to get a little bit of transparency to what has been a traditionally very secretive process. I went and had a look this morning and, baring my commentary on the secrecy of the DSM V development process, I thought I would share some of my first impressions with some of the diagnoses that I find particularly close to home:

First, Transvestic Fetishism:

* Still requires the individual to be male. Still a hold-back from the DSM IV reinforcing the double standard of acceptable gender bending behaviour.

* Requires "significant distress or impairment." I suppose this is good in that it does not pathologize normal, healthy, nondistressing play. On the other hand, it reminds me of certain "reparative therapy" doctrines which hold that they do not treat homosexuality, per se, but "unwanted homosexuality." Ergo, the DSM V criteria pathologize the behaviour itself rather than stressing that the disorder lies in the discomfort.

* Here's a gem: specifiers towards whether the behaviour is fetishistic (towards the clothing) or from autogynephilia. TS Roadmap for more information regarding autogynephilia and why it is problematic.

Second, Sexual Interest/Arousal Disorder in Women and the same only in men.

* Homosexuality isn't a psychiatric disorder but apparently asexuality is.

Paraphilic Coercive Disorder. If you get off on fantasies of raping people you are psychiatrically disordered but only if:

* You are upset about said sexual urges. or...

* You have raped at least three people. (Rape one or two people, apparently it's okay)

* Also of note: as a DSM V diagnosis, what implications would this have in regards to the ADA. Would sexually motivated rapists be protected by the ADA?

Tourette's Disoder criteria was an improvement:

* Removed the criteria for maximum tic-free period. Tourette's waxes and wanes, this fix is good.

* However, criteria still require onset to be below age 18, which is completely arbitrary and for no real reason other than statistical observation. News flash: there are a lot of Tic Disorder NOS people out there who match a TS diagnosis perfectly except for age of onset.

Gender Incongruance (formerly GID) in Adolescents and Adults:

* Finally, "disorder" is not part of the name.

* Finally, in the eyes of psychiatry, you can be transgender without being gender binary. WIN!

* Finally, you can unquestionably be classified as transgender just by asserting your transgender feelings or stating your wish to transition.

* Not so great: some of the language ("other gender") fails to recognise transgender peoples' actual gender.

* Fail: it's still listed alongside the sexual disorders.

Gender Incongruance in Children:

* Criteria now state that the child absolutely must express a conviction that they are a member of the opposite sex.

* Not so great: Requires transgender children to be gender typical in regards to their target gender.

* Does not recognise nonbinary genders, which is odd given that the adolescent/adult version does.

Asperger's Disorder: It's being eliminated and being merged with vanilla autism.

* Win in terms of recognition that Asperger's is "real autism."

Dissociative Identity Disorder:

* Possible addition of "significant distress or impairment" clause. Cool!

I haven't had a chance to read all of the proposed revisions, just some of the ones I'm particularly interested in. I'll probably write more in depth about some of these changes on a later date or add to this as I read more of the draft DSM V. In the mean time, enjoy!

Edit: My previous claim that the DSM IV diagnosis of mental retardation will still be called "mental retardation" was due to my misreading of the proposed revisions. It was a mistake and has been removed.