As someone who lives in NYC, I feel very fortunate that I have access to Callen Lorde and doctors who do not adhere to SOC and just believe me when I tell them what I need (particularly since I don't fit the criteria under the SOC). However, I am counted among the very small percentage who has access because of proximity to these doctors and centers, with the money and health insurance to access them, and with the socio-economic, cultural, and educational empowerment to find, access, and demand these resources. Critique and reform of the SOC, the DSM, and trans-related medical treatment and diagnostic criteria in general is so important to those who do not have this kind of access. So thank you, Kelley, for doing this work. I agree, we have to look beyond just GID.

We must tell the APA that it is unacceptable and dangerous to have people who advocate reparative therapy and autogynophilia helping to shape diagnostic criteria and categories! I definitely adhere to the school of thought that GID and other trans/gender non-conformity should be removed from the DSM, but understand that these diagnoses are vital to low-income people, people on government assistance, and people in prisons for them to ever have access to trans-related medical treatment (under the current medical/insurance regimes and organization).

I agree with kathygnome that trans/ect people should seek out doctors who do not adhere to the GID/DSM/SOC diagnostic criteria if at all available to them, but it worries me to advocate that people should self-medicate. sometimes that is the only option, but as with any medical treatment, it is best and safest to do under the supervision of a knowledgeable and sympathetic doctor.

The arguments are overwhelming and, as Audre Lorde wrote "Trying to educate or enlighten the oppressor is a tragic waste of needed energy".

The bottom line is that psychiatry has proven it cannot be trusted in transsexualism. Transsexual and transgender people must reject treatment that involves mental health professionals and seek treatment elsewhere. WPATH and its SOC must be rejected as long as it endorses psychiatry and the DSM as being valid.

Its patently clear that whatever form of TGism a person has developed, that person clearly is suffering from a variety of mental disorders to boot, NOT just your typical GID/BDD.

The medical establishment needs to pull its head from its patriarchal ass and begin treating TG folks where their issues lie (mentally), rather than brutally mutilating physically healthy bodies to "match" their unhealthy minds.

How can a diagnosis be listed in the DSM yet "cured" through unnecessary body drugging and body mutilations? Whats next gastric bypass for anorexics?

dirt

@Dirt writes: "Its patently clear that whatever form of TGism a person has developed, that person clearly is suffering from a variety of mental disorders to boot, NOT just your typical GID/BDD."

- Actually it is anything but patently obvious, it is not in the least obvious! All the actual evidence points the other way - that there is no mental disorder involved in transgenderism. TGfolk are as much of sound mind as the general population. The situation is strictly comparable with drapetomania.

It should be noted that the classification of transvestism (etc.) as mental disorders has recently been abolished in Sweden effective 2009-1-1. It is only a matter of time before other countries follow their lead.