The Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association’s Standards Of Care For Gender Identity Disorders, Sixth Version

February, 2001

of section VII:

VII. Requirements for Hormone Therapy for Adults

Reasons for Hormone Therapy. Cross-sex hormonal treatments play an important role in the anatomical and psychological gender transition process for properly selected adults with gender dentity disorders. Hormones are often medically necessary for successful living in the new gender. They improve the quality of life and limit psychiatric co-morbidity, which often accompanies lack of treatment. When physicians administer androgens to biologic females and estrogens, progesterone, and testosterone-blocking agents to biologic males, patients feel and appear more like members of their preferred gender.

Eligibility Criteria. The administration of hormones is not to be lightly undertaken because of their medical and social risks. Three criteria exist.

1. Age 18 years;

2. Demonstrable knowledge of what hormones medically can and cannot do and their social benefits and risks;

3. Either:

a. A documented real-life experience of at least three months prior to the administration

of hormones; or

b. A period of psychotherapy of a duration specified by the mental health professional after the initial evaluation (usually a minimum of three months)….

At the conclusion is this paragraph:

“……In selected circumstances, it can be acceptable to provide hormones to patients who have not fulfilled criterion 3 – for example, to facilitate the provision of monitored therapy using hormones of known quality, as an alternative to black-market or unsupervised hormone use.”

It shows admittance that the rigid standards  imposed can cause harm, and that exceptions can be made in circumstances that not doing so may cause more harm than what the guidelines are purportedly meant to prevent.

Can the disposition of this particular argument be used to break down age, and other barriers?

Might it even pull the pins out from underneath what is a barrier to many transgenders, and their custodians who do not have the financial,  professional, or legal resources to navigate ?

I’m not a professional but this looks like an exploitable weakness for some resourceful knowledgeable person, or persons barred by a directive that dose not trust their judgment.

If you have any questions or comments about HBS or WPATH contact:

Dr. Bean Robinson, PhD (USA)

Executive Director

Or:

Jeffrey Whitman (USA)

Executive Administrator

Email: wpath@wpath.org

1300 South Second Street, Suite 180

Minneapolis, MN 55454

found at their page:

http://www.wpath.org/

I do need to read the whole thing in earnest, and study it more carefully, but my current feelings of frustration have me fixated on this specific portion.

I do not believe anyone would approach the subject of transgenderism for them selves, or a loved one with such disregard that a set of guidelines, be set in place of an informed individual’s judgment.

“Strength and Happiness”

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I was polled today there were 3 choices

• same sex marriage
• civil unions
• traditional marriage only

This is what I said about that:

Marriage is a civil contract between two people issued and recognized by the state designating certain legal privileges, protections, and responsibilities.

Most people have no idea how not being able to legally marry negatively impacts the lives of same sex couples every day in their professional, legal, and personal lives.

I consider the denial of marriage to same sex couples as economic, and social violence.

Anyone examining the finer points of civil, and criminal law will find that many are only applicable to couples who are “legally married”, this may for instance end a wrongful death lawsuit before it begins, leaving one partner without the support, or income of the other for themselves, or their children, with no way to recover their loss.

Your rights end at the tip of your nose, regulating another persons fair access to a state institution they paid for, based on your particular beliefs has no place in civilized society.

If it’s traditional marriage you want, who’s traditional marriage is it going to be?

“Strength and Happiness”

]]> http://scorrino.wordpress.com/2009/09/07/same-sex-marriage-i-was-polled-today/feed/ 1 Ghanima Corrino http://scorrino.wordpress.com/2009/07/03/a-call-to-action-enda-is-on-again/ http://scorrino.wordpress.com/2009/07/03/a-call-to-action-enda-is-on-again/#comments Sat, 04 Jul 2009 00:04:06 +0000 Ghanima Corrino http://scorrino.wordpress.com/?p=265 ]]> ENDA is on again.

Americans if you want this contact your, senators, congressmen, and president.

http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml
After reading this story:

Two Ga. congressmen co-sponsor ENDA
Lewis and Johnson only two supporters from Georgia

HOME > NEWS > NATIONAL NEWS

Jul 03, 2009 | By: LOU CHIBBARO JR. | COMMENTS | [Bookmark and Share] |

U.S. Reps. John Lewis and Hank Johnson, both Democrats from the Atlanta area, are the only two Congress members from Georgia to sign on as co-sponsors to an employment non-discrimination bill that includes protections for gay and transgender people.

Gay U.S. Reps. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), and Jared Polis (D-Colo.) teamed up with eight other House members June 24 to reintroduce the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, known as ENDA.

The bill was dropped into the legislative hopper with at least 118 co-sponsors, with more expected to sign on shortly, Frank said at a news conference on Capitol Hill.

“We can now take for granted that there will be a vote on the floor of the House of Representatives, almost certainly this calendar year, on a fully inclusive ENDA,” Frank said.

A companion bill has yet to be introduced in the Senate, but Hill observers have said a Senate version would be introduced shortly.

No Republican House members attended the news conference. A list of the initial group of 118 co-sponsors shows that only six GOP House members have signed on to the bill so far. They include Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), Michael Castle (R-Del.), Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), Leonard Lance (R-N.J.), Todd Platts (R-Pa.) and Judy Biggert (R-Ill.).

Ros-Lehtinen, Castle, Kirk, Platts and Lance signed on as lead sponsors, along with Democratic House members Frank, Baldwin, Polis, John Conyers (D-Mich.), Rob Andrews (D-N.J.) and George Miller (D-Calif.)

http://www.sovo.com/2009/7-3/news/national/10312.cfm

I announced it’s reemergence, and encouraged voter support.

But just to make sure we’re properly represented.

This organization occupies the largest niche in the LGBT advocacy industry, and since they claim to represent the transgendered when raising money, they need to follow through, or they can only claim they advocate for the LGB but not the T community.

Human Rights Campaign
1640 Rhode Island Ave. N.W.
Washington, DC 20036-3278

Phone

HRC Front Desk: (202) 628-4160

TTY: (202) 216-1572
Toll-Free: (800) 777-4723

http://www.hrc.org/12022.htm

“If there going to use me to raise money, they should follow through, and represent me against the economic violence I face.”

Ghanima Corrino

“Strength and Happiness”

the first link to this post was made at :

Laura’s Playground

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Here is that story:

7/1/09 | 113 comments

State rules in favor of young transgender

By Abigail Curtis

BDN Staff

AUGUSTA, Maine — The Maine Human Rights Commission ruled Monday that the Orono School Department discriminated against a transgender child by denying her access to the girls bathroom.

While the school department’s lawyer warned that schools around the state may not be ready to manage the practical fallout from the decision, civil liberties advocates hailed the ruling as an advancement of human rights.

“This ruling is a huge step forward for a vulnerable population that is entitled to the full protection of the law,” said Zachary Heiden, legal director of the Maine Civil Liberties Union. “There will always be voices who claim we’re not ready, we’re not there yet, the time to end discrimination is next year, or next session. But victims of discrimination should not have to wait.”

The attorney for the child and her parents said his clients are very happy with the outcome of their complaint.

“At the very heart of it is the issue of basic human dignity and fundamental civil liberties,” said Eric Mehnert. “It was a good decision.”

But Melissa Hewey, attorney for the Orono School Department, said the ruling was “a huge leap.”

“I’m not sure that it takes into account practicalities that face educators around the state,” she said. “You can understand [the ruling] intellectually. You can agree with it intellectually. But practice is sometimes different — and I think that’s what may have escaped some people in this case.”

The discrimination in question first occurred in October 2007 when the child was in the fifth grade at Asa Adams School. Until then, she was allowed to use the girls’ bathroom, although she was biologically male. But that fall, the transgender child was followed into the girls room by a male student who had “previously started to harass her by stalking her and calling her ‘faggot,’” according to the Maine Human Rights Commission investigator’s report.

After the second such episode, the boy was suspended and removed from the transgender child’s class. At that point, school officials told the transgender child that she had to use a single-stall faculty bathroom at the other end of the school, and that was when her parents decided to take the matter to the Maine Human Rights Commission.

Paul Melanson, grandfather of the boy accused of harassing the transgender student, also filed a complaint with the Maine Human Rights Commission, saying that not allowing his grandson to use the girls bathroom or the faculty bathroom as the other child did was a violation of his grandson’s right to public accommodation under the Maine Human Rights Act. Melanson had given his grandson permission to use the girls bathroom as long as the transgender student was doing so, according to the report.

Enough is enough, an irate Melanson said Monday of the commission’s ruling.

“It ticks me right off that you’re letting a kid run the whole system,” he said.

Melanson is now trying to inspire Maine moms to protest the decision, which he thinks is wrong — and unfair to both boys and girls.

“Little boys do not belong in the little girls room, and vice versa,” he said. “This isn’t just about my kid. A lot of children have come up to me and said that this isn’t right.”

On Monday, the commission found that Asa Adams School did not unlawfully discriminate against Melanson’s grandson “because of his sexual orientation,” which is a heterosexual male.

“Minor Student 2 was disciplined because his biological sex is male and his gender identity is male and he used the girls’ bathroom,” the investigator’s report said.

Hewey said the commission made the right decision in this case.

“You can hope that most people won’t use their children as pawns to make political statements,” she said.

Patricia Ryan, executive director of the Maine Human Rights Commission, said this decision is among the first to involve schools, sexual orientation provision, gender identity and the issues of bathroom use. She said schools in Maine likely will want to take a look at it.

It was the commission’s second ruling in two months on transgender people and public restroom use. On May 18, the commission found that a transgender woman was discriminated against at a Denny’s restaurant in Auburn when management would not let her use the ladies room until she had sex reassignment surgery.

“Every time you get new jurisdiction, the first decisions that are made are always new,” Ryan said. “They’re always in areas in which the courts have not had the opportunities to develop case law.”

According to Mehnert, his clients wanted to bring the case in part because the parents’ previously “wonderful” relationship with school officials over their child’s public accommodation had broken down.

“The message that was sent from the superintendent said that it is OK to segregate this child, it is OK to ostracize this child,” Mehnert said. “I think [the parents’] biggest challenge is their fear — it’s a very real fear — that the Orono school system has told them that they don’t think they can protect the child.”

Because the child started identifying as a girl at a very young age, the parents had worked with school officials to have a plan for “reasonable accommodation,” Mehnert said. But when the fifth-grade incidents happened, the school moved to resolve the situation with “no interactive conversation,” he said.

Hewey said school officials had the child’s interests in mind.

“Not only did they provide accommodation, a separate bathroom, that was the bathroom that the student’s health care practitioner recommended,” she said.

Mehnert said his clients had hoped to look at the fifth-grade incidents as an opportunity for education rather than a problem.

“They felt that the school could be a leader in what everyone sees as a very complex issue, and they were rebuffed,” he said.

The Maine Human Rights Commission is the state agency charged with the responsibility of enforcing Maine’s anti-discrimination laws. It attempts to resolve complaints of discrimination to the mutual satisfaction of those who are involved, according to its Web site.

http://www.bangordailynews.com/detail/109732.html

Summery: a  boy who was harassing a transgirl followed her into the girl’s rest room with the encouragement of his grandfather, and was suspended, the grandfather sued over his grandson being suspended, the transgirl’s parents sued on behalf of their daughter after the school unilaterally reversed its agreement with them to allow their transdaughter access to the girl’s rest room.

The boy lost, the transgirl won.

What I’m concerned about is this.

Paul Melanson, grandfather of the boy accused of harassing the transgender student, also filed a complaint with the Maine Human Rights Commission, saying that not allowing his grandson to use the girls bathroom or the faculty bathroom as the other child did was a violation of his grandson’s right to public accommodation under the Maine Human Rights Act. Melanson had given his grandson permission to use the girls bathroom as long as the transgender student was doing so, according to the report.

Why was there no mention of the grandfathers culpable role in this situation ?

This was a full grown adult encouraging a child to harass another child for his own personal gratification, I would seriously like to know why, no one in the press covering this has not highlighted the the crux of that situation.

I don’t know if this was deliberately ignored, or if  it was a “forest threw the trees” scenario.

If I can see it, why can’t they?

To bring this all into prospective when this young lady enters the upper grades she will more than likely be indistinguishable from the other girls, an example of whom can be found in Germany, at her web page here:

http://www.myspace.com/kimilinlein

To this brave young lady in Agusta, Maine I wish only for the best, and a bright productive future.

“Strength and Happiness”

the first link to this post was made at :

Laura’s Playground

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Two TABC officers and six Fort Worth police officers went into the newly-opened gay bar to observe how the facility was serving alcohol. It was one of three scheduled checks conducted Saturday night and early Sunday morning by the Fort Worth Police Department and TABC.

http://www.wfaa.com/sharedcontent/dws/wfaa/latestnews/stories/wfaa090628_mo_raid.179e4762.html

my brief comment to Ethan St.Pierre was:

omg we are poised to make great progress, this open naked attack is the backlash, this is a clear message to us, this is TERRORISM plain, and simple. and don’t forget social, economic, and physical violence are the same, and they are implemented towards the same, end our elimination by intimidation, or death. I had planned today to express myself at my place of vocation I’m not deterred. WordPress just went down. don’t panic.

Word press was down for a while, I wanted to respond to this immediately and nothing loaded, I suppose everyone else did too.

please to the LGBT community:

there is some internal bickering between some of the different classes of LGBT.

please stop and address our real problem we need everyone to cooperate, internal fighting is a luxury we do not have.

If the LGBT community were to falter it would have come from within.

WE NEED UNITY NOW.

“Strength and Happiness”

http://www.imatyfa.org/

and after you see what’s being done for the youngsters you might want to donate to them, or visit :

http://www.cafepress.com/imatyfa

and buy something.

they have a cute teddy bear that would look lovely on your bed, or in your child’s arms.

transgender transsexual gender

]]> http://scorrino.wordpress.com/2009/06/27/support-your-younger-brothers-and-sisters/feed/ 0 Ghanima Corrino tyfa-logo-smhdr3 239254442v4_150x150_Front_Color-White http://scorrino.wordpress.com/2009/05/29/legislation-addressing-bullying-in-oregon-awaits-governors-signature/ http://scorrino.wordpress.com/2009/05/29/legislation-addressing-bullying-in-oregon-awaits-governors-signature/#comments Sat, 30 May 2009 05:47:39 +0000 Ghanima Corrino http://scorrino.wordpress.com/?p=200 ]]> After reading this story in the “Insurance Journal”:

Oregon Senate Votes to Toughen Anti-Bullying Policy

May 29, 2009

A bill intended to reduce the amount of bullying in Oregon schools is headed to Gov. Ted Kulongoski for his signature.

The Oregon Senate followed the House’s lead in approving a bill that requires school districts to establish clear, uniform policies to combat bullying and to designate specific employees to investigate incidents.

House Bill 2599 also modifies the definition of bullying, streamlines the complaint process and encourages training for school employees.

Sen. Mark Hass says the action is needed because bullied children are more likely to suffer from anxiety, depression and drug abuse, and those problems sometimes linger into adulthood.

Find this article at:

http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/west/2009/05/29/100959.htm

I had to respond :

Subject: solutions

Posted On: May 29, 2009, 11:38 pm CDT

Posted By: Ghanima Corrino

Comment:

Almost all professionals will tell you that bully’s usually have an abuser in their background, this abuse is the product of unmet needs in the community like substance abuse, mental health issues, and worker anxiety. we should first address these issues before castigating offenders, or their parents, this way there will be no excuse for further offensive behavior, so more austere methods may be employed, such as removal of the offender from the environment, or subjugation to intrusive supervision, and segregation.

more violence added to the situation will not bring about a lasting solution.

cooperation between agencies in the community is the most effective, and economic way to insure tranquility in our schools. My main interest in this topic is how bullying affects the GLBT students witch have long been neglected.

“Strength and Happiness”

Having had personal experience with this situation, I would like to express my opinion with great vitriol, witch although satisfying would be meaningless.   I would like to interject in a small way, some better solutions to the problem.

Bulling affected my life in a negative way even into adulthood, so ignoring this is not an option. I am hopeful that Oregon’s Governor will enthusiastically sign the legislation with a possible mention of the GLBT students it may help, so that other states will be inspired to do the same.

“Strength and Happiness”

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In a news article an 8 year old in Omaha Nebraska is being allowed to transition from a boy to a girl in her school.

I am greatly encouraged to see a good set of parents doing these right, brave, loving, and unselfish things for their daughter. I have heard parents, to my discomfort, talk about their children as thou they were an unformed mass they could mold into whatever they want without any consideration of who they actually are.

In Nebraska ? I do not know much about Omaha but I do believe Nebraska may at least mildly be one of   “those  states”, witch is why I am surprised and encouraged by an 8 year old being allowed to transition openly there.

One of the things I am thankful for is that her parents had the patience, and insight to observe their child, and unselfishly do what was right. Many parents subject their children to the “reparative therapy” promoted by Dr. Zucker, and his camp as quoted in this story:

Omaha World-Herald

http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=2798&u_sid=10636013

Psychiatrist Paul McHugh, who closed the nation’s first sex-change clinic at Johns Hopkins University, called the medical treatment of transgender children child abuse.

And Canadian psychologist Kenneth Zucker says he has helped hundreds of youths return to the gender of their birth through behavior modification. Parents must remove clothes, toys and other items used to identify as the opposite gender.

Zucker says the children who continue to exhibit Gender Identity Disorder after this are in that small minority of transgender people.

Other psychologists balk at the idea a transgender person can or should be cured. Diane Ehrensaft is a California psychologist and author who says Zucker’s approach doesn’t work.

Children who end up accepting their birth gender were never transgender, she said. They might be gay or be more fluid in their definition of gender, but they do not hold the deep belief that they were born into the wrong bodies.

Such children, she said, when forced to conform to the gender of their anatomy, may hide the behavior. That can lead to anxiety, depression, acting out and, for some, substance abuse and suicide.

Witch I believe is increasingly being looked at by his peers as pseudo science (I’m not a professional), and I believe is being sold to vulnerable distressed parents, as a possible cure for their troubled children.

It makes me angry and sad that the kind of treatment afforded to this particular 8 year old is available for all children,  but Through misunderstanding, or personal prejudice is being denied to others.

To this end I would like to thank, and encourage all those professionals, and parents who unselfishly allow children to develop in their own naturally born gender identity, and do what they can to provide a welcoming safe environment.

“Strength and Happiness”

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View This Poll

….“A third shareholder, and company employee, brought a grievance about the company’s policy of making the women’s rooms available to transgender people. A visibly nervous Ellen Hardy, of Phoenix, said her efforts to voice her concern were held back by immediate managers.

Lundgren said that the policy is the law. But he advised the head of Macy’s employee relations to meet with her about the issue after the meeting.”

located at:

http://www.bizjournals.com/dayton/stories/2009/05/11/daily73.html

Thank you CEO Terry Lundgren I appreciate this h

owever I would like to see you bring your Diversity Leadership campaign into mainstream advertising for all to see.

I don’t believe Macy’s would really be harmed by placing its Diversity

Leadership campaign into mainstream advertising. Most stores are in high population areas were diverse communities are already their customer base, and the social maturity level is rising overall as the conservative way of doing things many once believed in is discredited by its own failure.

This also may be a good time to experiment since commerce has slowed, and an increase in minority spending, with the extra publicity couldn’t make things any worse. If it gets difficult just apologize, let your Diversity Leadership campaign fade back out of public view as it eventually will since most Americans have a low attention span.

This is just an optimistic thought from a single blogger somewhere in America.

“Strength and Happiness”

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