Harry Benjamin and GID: Health Advocacy
Timeline
- 1970: William Masters and Virginia Johnson revise Freud's theories creating space for sex therapy to become a psychiatric specialization.
- 1973: The American Psychiatric Association (APA) changes the diagnosis of homosexuality from a disease to a condition.
- 1999: Brain material from the Netherlands Brain Bank shows that transexualism is a medical condition rather than a state-of-mind, creating a neurological rationale for gender identity disorder.
- 2008: Some FTM transmen begin to interrupt their hormone treatments in order to become pregnant. Many had top surgery, but decided to keep their reproductive organs.
Gender Identity Disorder
Gender Identity Disorder (GID), is a psychological diagnosis that labels trans individuals "mentally ill." For some, GID feels like an accurate diagnosis. Others see how a diagnosis of GID has helped them or other trans individuals to gain access to medical treatment (if only to cure their GID), and encouraged some health insurance providers to cover sexual reassignment surgeries. As a result, trans activists are torn about how to respond to GID.
Harry Benjamin Standards of Care
Lou Sullivan Changing Standards
Video: Lou Rejected by Gender Clinics - 1988
Video: Lou Battles Gender Specialists - 1989
