Post Punk Kitchen Forum

Yay!

Whoo-hoo!

woo!! This is very exciting!

this is awesome. i hope that this means the danish system will change aswell.

So glad this finally happened. I remember taking Abnormal Psychology waaaaay back in undergrad and there was a whole textbook chapter on "fetishism" and a big part of it was on non-gender conforming people. And nobody in class really saw that as an issue. This was circa 2003 or 2004.

Woohooo! That's awesome!

Good. This makes it clear that the body is the problem - not the mind.

It's not really clear to me why this is such a big deal. I mean, I don't see it as a bad thing, but it just seems like sort of a neutral thing to me. They've just changed what they're calling the diagnosis given to transgender people from one that has the word "disorder" to one that has the word "dysphoria". If the reason this is supposed to be a good thing is that the word "disorder" carries stigma, nothing is going to change if they start calling it "dysphoria" because until mental illness becomes destigmatized, any word associated with mental illness is going to carry stigma. If anything, it will probably just make it more difficult for transgender people to get insurance coverage for transgender-related medical care, since it's now officially "not really a disorder". (Most insurance companies specifically exclude any transgender-related medical care from coverage, and many exclude any mental health related care too.)

I took a 200-level child psych class this semester and there were a lot of students who couldn't get their heads around the instructor saying that something called "gender identity disorder" wasn't an actual disorder. I think your take here is really valid, but I think the word "dysphoria" might clear up some of that confusion for those people.

This is what I've been concerned about. I guess I'm on the fence in that yes, it could be a positive step if being trans is becoming less stigmatised, but if it's harder to access necessary medical care, that's not such a great thing. I guess for me personally, if it helps me to get the medical care that I need, then I don't really care about the diagnosis I receive (as long as it's not preventing me from doing other important stuff). I totally understand that this is different for other people.

And like CQ said, I'd rather see mental illness becoming less stigmatised overall, so that it's less of a problem to have a diagnosis of GID/Gender Dysphoria/whatever, or any other kind of disorder or mental illness. I don't feel that being trans is a mental illness, but I also don't like the way that some trans people are so keen to distance themselves from people with mental illnesses.

I think still dysphoria is a much better term. Transgender or genderqueer covers a LOT of diverse gender identities. Some people in that category need more health care than others, and its not fair to say that by being non-cis, there's something wrong with you, you're inherently disordered, you know? Dyshporia instead addresses those who need help instead of every single non-cis person. While I agree mental illness needs to be de-stigmatized, I don't think its really an attempt to de-stigmatize trans-ness, but prevents the unnecessary diagnosis of people who don't need it, thus unclogging the health care system.

The term that they stopped using was "gender identity disorder". "Transgender" or "genderqueer" have never been diagnostic terms.

I don't think it will unclog the health care system to switch from "gender identity disorder" to "gender dysphoria". Actually, the opposite will probably occur. The "gender dysphoria" diagnosis is more liberally applicable than "gender identity disorder", and the increased awareness of "gender dysphoria" will result in more practitioners applying that diagnosis.

Maybe that could be one possible positive outcome? I know there are people out there who, being non-binary, don't really fit under the usual diagnosis of GID, but definitely do experience gender (and sex) dysphoria and would really benefit from treatment of some kind.

That's good news!

I thought this post from Feministing was interesting. I don't have anything to add because I don't know much about the subject, but apparently this change still pathologizes transgender people.

http://feministing.com/2012/12/18/actua ... the-dsm-v/

They were never diagnostic terms, but they were also not recognized identities. The old diagnosis was fraught with cissexism (ACLU has the scan: http://www.aclu.org/files/images/asset_ ... _30369.pdf) where no gender spectrum was recognized, either you were a "boy" who wanted to be a "girl" or vice versa. If you were non-binary, you could get diagnosed with Gender Identity Disorder Not Otherwise Specified which had no real criteria. Gender dysphoria does not make the distinction that you are x who wants to be a y, but that you are y and are suffering mentally for many reasons that are special to non-cis people.

I would think that the health system would unclog as those who have no dysphoria but perhaps were made to go to therapy by others (parents particularly, but people can be pressured to go by partners and friends as well) now have a very clear definition of what isn't wrong. But you're right, this now expands who can seek help and makes it more known. If anything, at least transphobes can be held accountable for exasperating dysphoria and even creating it rather than making it only the patient's problem.

Gah, seriously? So its really nothing like how they're reporting it. AWESOME.

Yup, most of the reporting has just been rewriting press releases. Julia Serano's analysis is really good and knowledgeable. Her blog is linked at the end of the feministing post, I think?