by Ponderer on June 9, 2023 8:26 am

I think she's pretty much on the money. But where I have a problem with what she's saying is that she makes it sound that if your child is not one of the extremely rare few individuals who have the highest degree of gender dysphoria from early childhood on, then they probably don't have any real gender dysphoria. But I would actually like to hear more from her about the issue.

She's describing children who, on the Harry Benjamin Scale *(which only focused on biological males back in '66) are "Type VI" transsexuals. Benjamin was one of the earliest pioneers of this field. Type 6's are the ones who from their earliest childhood exhibited behaviors and protestations that they were actually the other sex in no uncertain terms. They wouldn't nor couldn't hide their true selves from family or anyone. These are in fact the rarest kind of transsexuals, and the ones currently being destroyed by sociopathic MAGA Republican policies. But as the numeration indicates, there are decreasing levels of transsexualism. Donna and I feel that we rest securely in the type 5 level. And as you go down the levels, it is quite likely they become more numerous in occurrence.

What I think we are seeing today is a prevalence of type 4's and even Type 3's who are being lumped in and treated the same way as 5's and 6's by clinicians and doctors who are unfamiliar with these differing levels. And there's probably several tons of these 3's and 4's out there. Way more than the 5's like Donna and myself or 6's. As you go down the scale, the appropriateness of transitioning with the help of medication and surgery becomes more and more debatable as the right course of action for them. On a case by case basis of course.

I think that psychologists working on this issue back in the past may have had a better time of studying GD because there wasn't all the public hype about it then. There weren't hoards of young threes and fours pounding on doctors' doors to get treatment for this to have to sort through. If someone made it to a clinical psychologist's office with this problem back in our day, it was indeed a serious debilitating problem for them affecting their very lives and we were in fact quite rare.

When I started to really seek treatment for this, it was back in the mid-90's. It was estimated back then that there were around 1 in 40,000 people who suffered from severe gender dysphoria. I believe that the number even back then was much higher, because for every person who sought treatment or responded to any clinical study, I think there were ten or twenty who suffered as Donna and I did for decades without telling anyone about their feelings (yet) and maybe never did. And probably many who killed themselves rather than deal with it. But the numbers were still pretty rare.

Back in '96 I found three psychologists in the entire Los Angeles area who specialized in GD. That was it. I went with the one who got back to me first and she ended up being the closest one (And lucky thing too, because Donna and I met because we both had this same therapist).

At the time, there was an incredibly strict "Standards of Care" for transitioning that all psychologists, doctors and surgeons adhered to:

90 days minimum in therapy by a licensed psychologist before a recommendation for hormone therapy could be given to and prescribed by a doctor. Then with ongoing psychological therapy, a minimum of living "full time" for one whole year as your preferred gender before you could then see two psychologists to get the two letters of recommendation that any surgeon required for you to get gender reassignment surgery.

It was a rigorous gauntlet to run that Donna and I went through that I believe would certainly weed out a great deal of those getting medical treatments nowadays for gender dysphoria at the drop of a hat.

Today, there doesn't even seem to be any standards of care and a huge slew of psychologists and doctors willing to give anyone who comes through their doors whatever they want with little process at all if any. That's what it sure seems like anyways.

And I believe that it's what has become automatic deference given to anyone claiming to be a transsexual that has grown into the hands-off treatment of "transgender" athletes and such in society nowadays. Even people in the position to be authorities on the matter appear to be frightened to tell someone they my not be good candidates for full medical transition and are erring on the side of whatever the patient wants. A recipe for disaster in my opinion.

Donna and I both agree that there should be much more vigorous restrictions on the medical treatment of transsexuals. Much more than there currently is.

But the idea if prohibiting transsexual treatments across the board as some Red States are in the process of is nothing but vote-attracting, pig-ignorant and sadistic bigotry. Especially for those poor young Type 6's who can actually be saved early in their childhoods by treatments.


* Benjamin applied a bit more of a connection between gender and sexual preference back then than there really is, but his pioneering in this field is still quite cogent relevant.