RadFem BS:

I find it amusing to watch RadFems and their TS Separatists lapdogs tie themselves into knots over trying to make the case that gender does not exists and that therefore, gender identity is BS.

Let me succinctly state what gender identity is: One’s subjective experience of their physical sex.

It seems that the RedFem’s favorite debate tool is equivocation. They simply assert that there is only biological sex and that everything else is a cultural construct. The problem is that this simplistic view denies the reality of consciousness; that is, that brain-based sense of self which experiences physical phenomena – the “I” which experiences having a body with primary and secondary sex characteristics. Gender Identity is what we call it when the subjective “I” experiences having primary and secondary sex characteristics. It’s the subjective experience of one’s physical sex and when there’s not a congruence between one’s physical sex and gender identity, the subjective “I” experiences what we call “gender dysphoria.” For cisgender people, their gender identity, their primary and secondary sex characteristics and their sex assigned at birth all align. Gender Expression is usually what RadFems conflate with and assert to be gender identity.  Gender Identity has nothing to do with culture; gender expression, however, has everything to do with culture.

A beautiful note from Dr. Milton Diamond:

Dear Cristan,

Thank you very much for this material.  I hope you are, at some time, going to put all this material, along with the previous material you sent me, into a book of all your compilations.  They are extremely valuable not only to me but to the many researchers who strive for accuracy.  Your work has certainly opened my eyes and corrected for me many misconceptions.

Keep up the GOOD work.

Aloha,

Mickey

I was very touched by an email I recently received from Dr. Diamond. We went on to talk more about my research and set tentative plans to do a followup interview to this one. Dr. Diamond has been very kind and immensely supportive and I think I’ll always be grateful to him for his support.

Wikipedia Rewrite:

Currently, the transgender entry for Wikipedia reads:

The term transgender (TG) was popularised in the 1970s[6] (but implied in the 1960s[7][8]) describing people who wanted to live cross-gender without sex reassignment surgery.[9] In the 1980s the term was expanded to an umbrella term,[10] and became popular as a means of uniting all those whose gender identity did not mesh with their gender assigned at birth.[11]

In the 1990s, the term took on a political dimension[12][13] as an alliance covering all who have at some point not conformed to gender norms, and the term became used to question the validity of those norms[14] or pursue equal rights and anti-discrimination legislation,[15][16] leading to its widespread usage in the media, academic world and law.[17] The term continues to evolve.

The above is, of course, false. Here’s what is about to be published:

Writing for health professionals in the second edition of his reference work Sexual Hygiene and Pathology in 1965, psychiatrist John F. Oliven of Columbia University used the lexical compound trans+gender in the Transexualism section of “Primary Transvestism,” noting “‘transgenderism’ is what is meant, because sexuality is not a major factor in primary transvestism.”[1][2] Crossdressing pioneer Virginia Charles Prince used the compound in the December 1969 issue of Transvestia, a national magazine for cross dressers founded by Prince.[3] In the mid-1970s both trans-gender and trans people were in use as umbrella terms.[note 1] In part it was describing people who wanted to live cross-gender without sex reassignment surgery.[4] By 1976, transgenderist was abbreviated as TG in educational materials.[5] In 1979, Christine Jorgensen publicly rejected transsexual and instead identified herself in newsprint as a trans-gender saying, “gender doesn’t have to do with bed partners, it has to do with identity.”[6][7] By 1984, the concept of a “transgender community” had developed, in which transgender was used an an umbrella term.[8] In 1985, Richard Elkins established the “Trans-Gender Archive” at the University of Ulster.[3] By 1992, the International Conference on Transgender Law and Employment Policy defined transgender as an expansive umbrella term including “transsexuals, transgenderists, cross dressers” and anyone transitioning.[9]

Little by little, the historical myths propagated by TS Separatist are being chipped away. It’s hard to assert (with a straight face) that transsexuals have been “colonized” when the term transgender has been used to describe transsexualism since BEFORE Harry Benjamin wrote The Transsexual Phenomena in 1966 or that transgender has been used in its modern form since at least 1974. Remember, “transsexual” was redefined by Paul Walker in 1979 to mean what we commonly think of as being “transsexual” and by that time transgender had been used to refer to that 1979 concept since 1965.

Thank you!

I’m immensely satisfied in seeing the diffusion of the actual historical record take root. I’m beginning to find instances where people are using the very articles I discovered to educate others without noting that I’m the one who discovered this stuff. The fact that these truths are moving into the domain of common knowledge rather than it just being me and my blog trying to (at times, seemingly in vain) get others to take note of the actual historical record is gratifying beyond words.

Thank you to those folks whose kind words of support (and research assistance) offset the avalanche of ad hom attacks during this past year: Bethany Townsend, Dr. Rawson, Dr. Diamond, Carolyn, Koomah, Zagria, Dr. Valentine, Dr. Stryker, Malcolm Williams, Lilly Roddy, Lou Weaver, Alexis, Monica Roberts, Denise Norris, Dallas Denny and Phyllis Frye to name a few. All of these folks have been incredibly supportive at some point when I really needed it I’m very grateful for the words of encouragement and/or research assistance they’ve provided. Moreover, none of this history would have come to light without the Houston Transgender Archive. Nothing else like it exists in the US and I’m lucky to have such a resource at my fingertips!

Me on TransFM:

Thank you to Ethan St Pierre for having me on TransFM:

I’ll be debating Lisa McDonald on the topic of transgender history. Lisa will argue that “transgender” comes from communism. I, of course, will not be making that argument.

When: Friday, 6/22/2012 at 7 PM Central

Where: BlogTV

ehipassiko