Dear Zoe,
Congratulations on being chosen as a finalist for the 2008 Weblog award in the category “Best Australia or New Zealand blog. Now I am especially honored to have been cited in your blog. I am not surprised at your being chosen as a finalist for a blog award, since even as a total novice to blogging, I could immediately see what a classy blog you have created. But I am not surprised that you created such a good blog either, since you are such an amazing person.
It occurred to me, after reading about your finalist designation, that there should be another award that you should definitely win: a “Sexual Diversity Award” for being the most amazing sexually-different person! You have managed (much to my delight) to transgress the “Adam & Eve sexual rules” and qualify for all the sexually-marginalized categories simultaneously and even create some new categories along the way.
Since you have female identity and now look more female than not and still have a female love interest, you would be perceived by many as behaving like a lesbian.
Since your genital anatomy is slightly atypical, you qualify as an intersex individual. Another plus is that you are an unusual type of intersexual person.
Born more male-bodied than not but with a female identity qualifies you as transsexual in many people’s view.
And you have undergone transformation of secondary sex characteristics that became commensurate with your sexual identity, this transformation being driven by endogenous hormonal fluctuations (a kind of “natural quasitransitioning”) that is without parallel in the lives of most people.
Hence, you a homosexual intersexual “endogenously quasi-transitioned” transsexual! What is not to love about you, Zoe? You are a living proof that the “gender binary” paradigm is unnatural and you are an impressive representative as a sexual variation. You deserve an award for your honest self-presentation in your courageous blog that allows us to see your intelligence and heart and humanity. You are a credit to our species.
Thank you Zoe,
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
46XY/45XO Turner's Mosaic True Hermaphrodite
This well-spoken person is a 46XY/45XO Turner’s Mosaic True Hermaphrodite, a rare type of “Intersex” person. In spite of an unusual sexual life history, this particular person has a definite female sexual identity! Listen to her story! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vNzBW0ZNzA
Sex is not just about gonads and genitalia; sexual identity develops in the fetal brain and may take a different route than the genitalia. Also, difference does not equal disorder. As a biologist, I agree that “intersex” conditions are sexual variations and not disorders. Shame on the medical doctors! But hey, variations don’t bring in $$$, do they?
Sex is not just about gonads and genitalia; sexual identity develops in the fetal brain and may take a different route than the genitalia. Also, difference does not equal disorder. As a biologist, I agree that “intersex” conditions are sexual variations and not disorders. Shame on the medical doctors! But hey, variations don’t bring in $$$, do they?
Saturday, December 27, 2008
Heterosexuals need defense from "Gender Theories"
Pontiff equates gender theories with threat to rainforests!!!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/dec/23/pope-gender-sexuality?commentid=109df3f9-2adf-443b-a94a-b0837e08b74a
This message from the Holy Roman Poop, ... er ...I mean Pope, is so stupid! As if the Catholic Church has never cared about the well-being of the planet! As a biologist, I know that the primary problem of our planet is human overpopulation. It is irresponsible reproduction by heterosexual people that has caused destruction of the rainforests and all the rest of the global ecological calamities. No other institution has fostered irresponsible reproduction as much as the Catholic Church by condemning birth control and resisting the freeing of females from male-controlled reproductive policies. Of course the truth or facts have nothing to do with religion. Religion is all about mind control and the 24/7 behavioral control of the believers to serve the agenda of the hierarchy. And the Catholic Church hierarchy is comprised of male-bodied, male-identified, misogynists with purported heterosexual orientation.
The following paragraph about the holy roman poop's xmas message concerning "queers" is from the 12/27/08 blog of the remarkable Zoe Brain: http://aebrain.blogspot.com/ (emphasis mine).
"The pope was not talking about "transgender" or even "gender theory". He was talking about the concept that gender is distinct from physical sex. He denied this concept as merely an artifact of Man's Pride (for want of a better term), the same urge that led to the Tower of Babel.Theologically speaking - and how else could the Pope speak, he professes that there are men, and women. Nothing else. Men are attracted to women, and women to men. That is the natural order of things. There is no "gender", only sex. He states that all other things that appear to contradict a strict Male/Female binary, such as Homosexuality, or "women born in a man's body", "post-operative transsexuals" or any body not obviously male or obviously female, are all against the natural order of Creation, and dangerous. All such are artefacts of Human origin, perfect Divine creations spoilt by Man. Intersexed people may be explained away as the result of Man's tampering with the environment, with chemical and possibly spiritual pollution."
So the concepts of "sexual identity" and "sexual orientation" as neurological/biological phenomena independent of the genitalia are threatening to the Church. Yippee!!! And you know what happens when a religion makes a statement about the natural world - science eventually investigates and disproves that idea. Now we all know that the earth moves around the sun; Copernicus and Galileo were right and the bible was wrong. And the biblical Adam & Eve binary sexual system is as unnatural as the sun moving around the earth. The very existence of gay people, transsexual people, and the many types of intersex people refutes the "gender binary" and this obviously threatens the Poop.
In the last twenty years or so, a lot of groundbreaking research on homosexual, transsexual, and intersexual people has been done and a compelling scientific picture of sexuality has emerged!!! There are at least three separate dimensions to sexuality: one for the body, one for sexual identity in the brain, and one for sexual orientation also in the brain. Everyone occupies a point somewhere on each of these three continuums.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/dec/23/pope-gender-sexuality?commentid=109df3f9-2adf-443b-a94a-b0837e08b74a
This message from the Holy Roman Poop, ... er ...I mean Pope, is so stupid! As if the Catholic Church has never cared about the well-being of the planet! As a biologist, I know that the primary problem of our planet is human overpopulation. It is irresponsible reproduction by heterosexual people that has caused destruction of the rainforests and all the rest of the global ecological calamities. No other institution has fostered irresponsible reproduction as much as the Catholic Church by condemning birth control and resisting the freeing of females from male-controlled reproductive policies. Of course the truth or facts have nothing to do with religion. Religion is all about mind control and the 24/7 behavioral control of the believers to serve the agenda of the hierarchy. And the Catholic Church hierarchy is comprised of male-bodied, male-identified, misogynists with purported heterosexual orientation.
The following paragraph about the holy roman poop's xmas message concerning "queers" is from the 12/27/08 blog of the remarkable Zoe Brain: http://aebrain.blogspot.com/ (emphasis mine).
"The pope was not talking about "transgender" or even "gender theory". He was talking about the concept that gender is distinct from physical sex. He denied this concept as merely an artifact of Man's Pride (for want of a better term), the same urge that led to the Tower of Babel.Theologically speaking - and how else could the Pope speak, he professes that there are men, and women. Nothing else. Men are attracted to women, and women to men. That is the natural order of things. There is no "gender", only sex. He states that all other things that appear to contradict a strict Male/Female binary, such as Homosexuality, or "women born in a man's body", "post-operative transsexuals" or any body not obviously male or obviously female, are all against the natural order of Creation, and dangerous. All such are artefacts of Human origin, perfect Divine creations spoilt by Man. Intersexed people may be explained away as the result of Man's tampering with the environment, with chemical and possibly spiritual pollution."
So the concepts of "sexual identity" and "sexual orientation" as neurological/biological phenomena independent of the genitalia are threatening to the Church. Yippee!!! And you know what happens when a religion makes a statement about the natural world - science eventually investigates and disproves that idea. Now we all know that the earth moves around the sun; Copernicus and Galileo were right and the bible was wrong. And the biblical Adam & Eve binary sexual system is as unnatural as the sun moving around the earth. The very existence of gay people, transsexual people, and the many types of intersex people refutes the "gender binary" and this obviously threatens the Poop.
In the last twenty years or so, a lot of groundbreaking research on homosexual, transsexual, and intersexual people has been done and a compelling scientific picture of sexuality has emerged!!! There are at least three separate dimensions to sexuality: one for the body, one for sexual identity in the brain, and one for sexual orientation also in the brain. Everyone occupies a point somewhere on each of these three continuums.
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Should Doctors Still Consider Transsexual People to Be Suffering a 'Disorder'?
The fifth edition of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders will soon be published, and with it come a slew of updates for medical professionals on what, exactly, "disorders" are. Whether somebody's mental state is considered a disorder isn't a silly little matter of clarifications; it can have consequences on insurance coverage, power of will questions, and stigmatization. The debate rages on for whether things like shopping addictions and binge eating should be included as official disorders, but for our kind, whether transgender people should be included — for "suffering" from a genderidentity "disorder" — is a heated exchange.
Reports the NYT <http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/18/health/18psych.html> :
The debate over gender identity, characterized in the manual as"strong and persistent cross-gender identification, " is already burning hot among transgender people. Soon after the psychiatric association named the group of researchers working on sexual and gender identity, advocates circulated online petitions objecting to two members whose work they considered demeaning.
Transgender people are themselves divided about their place in the manual. Some transgender men and women want nothing to do with psychiatry and demand that the diagnosis be dropped. Others prefer that it remain, in some form, because a doctor's written diagnosis is needed to obtain insurance coverage for treatment or surgery.
"The language needs to be reformed, at a minimum," said MaraKeisling, executive director of the National Center for TransgenderEquity. "Right now, the manual implies that you cannot be a happy transgender person, that you have to be a social wreck.
"Dr. Jack Drescher, a New York psychoanalyst and member of the sexual disorders work group, said that, in some ways, the gender identity debate echoed efforts to remove homosexuality from the manual in the 1970s.
After protests by gay activists provoked a scientific review, the"homosexuality" diagnosis was dropped in 1973. It was replaced by"sexual orientation disturbance" and then "ego-dystonic homosexuality"before being dropped in 1987.
"You had, in my opinion, what was a social issue, not a medical one; and, in some sense, psychiatry evolved through interaction with the wider culture," Dr. Drescher said.
Dec 18, 2008 · posted by David Hauslaib
Tagged: Health, Medicine, TransgenderCopyright 2009 Jossip Initiatives
http://www.queerty.com/should-doctors-still-consider-transgenders-to-be-suffering-a-disorder-20081218/
Reports the NYT <http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/18/health/18psych.html> :
The debate over gender identity, characterized in the manual as"strong and persistent cross-gender identification, " is already burning hot among transgender people. Soon after the psychiatric association named the group of researchers working on sexual and gender identity, advocates circulated online petitions objecting to two members whose work they considered demeaning.
Transgender people are themselves divided about their place in the manual. Some transgender men and women want nothing to do with psychiatry and demand that the diagnosis be dropped. Others prefer that it remain, in some form, because a doctor's written diagnosis is needed to obtain insurance coverage for treatment or surgery.
"The language needs to be reformed, at a minimum," said MaraKeisling, executive director of the National Center for TransgenderEquity. "Right now, the manual implies that you cannot be a happy transgender person, that you have to be a social wreck.
"Dr. Jack Drescher, a New York psychoanalyst and member of the sexual disorders work group, said that, in some ways, the gender identity debate echoed efforts to remove homosexuality from the manual in the 1970s.
After protests by gay activists provoked a scientific review, the"homosexuality" diagnosis was dropped in 1973. It was replaced by"sexual orientation disturbance" and then "ego-dystonic homosexuality"before being dropped in 1987.
"You had, in my opinion, what was a social issue, not a medical one; and, in some sense, psychiatry evolved through interaction with the wider culture," Dr. Drescher said.
Dec 18, 2008 · posted by David Hauslaib
Tagged: Health, Medicine, TransgenderCopyright 2009 Jossip Initiatives
http://www.queerty.com/should-doctors-still-consider-transgenders-to-be-suffering-a-disorder-20081218/
Friday, December 19, 2008
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Zucker, Blanchard, Bailey: A travesty of science & medicine!
Zucker, Blanchard, and Bailey's misguided and unscientific attitude toward transsexuals and homosexuals reflects their ignorance of biology!
http://transactive.blogspot.com/2008/05/dsm-v-kenneth-zucker.html
http://waitingfordorothy.blogspot.com/2008/05/anti-trans-moron-appointed-as-head-of.html
http://transactive.blogspot.com/2008/05/dsm-v-kenneth-zucker.html
http://waitingfordorothy.blogspot.com/2008/05/anti-trans-moron-appointed-as-head-of.html
Transsexual Children - Out of the Shadows
All parents, teachers, health care providers and anyone else who deals with children should know the "Bill of Rights for Transgender Children."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2EV3w2QxII
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2EV3w2QxII
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Beyond Gay & Straight - Muxes of Mexico
"Muxe" is a zapotec word pronounced Moo-shay
See a slide show about the muxes of Mexico and read comments from their parents.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/07/weekinreview/07lacey.html?_r=1
See a slide show about the muxes of Mexico and read comments from their parents.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/07/weekinreview/07lacey.html?_r=1
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Special Presentation at Center For Inquiry
I gave a presentation entitled "Science & Sexuality" on November 9th at 10:30 am for the Center for Inquiry. I reviewed key research data on sexuality from a physiologist's perspective. Details can be found at these links:
http://www.centerforinquiry.net/chicago/events/science_and_sexuality_dr_veronica_drantz_guest_presenter/
and
http://www.meetup.com/cfichicago/calendar/9085859/?from=list&offset=0
In this presentation, I answered the following questions:
http://science.meetup.com/77/files/
http://www.centerforinquiry.net/chicago/events/science_and_sexuality_dr_veronica_drantz_guest_presenter/
and
http://www.meetup.com/cfichicago/calendar/9085859/?from=list&offset=0
In this presentation, I answered the following questions:
- What can science tell us about sexuality?
- How many sexes are there?
- What exactly is a female? A male?
- Is intersexuality normal?
- What is known about the biology of sexual identity?
- What is known about the biology of sexual orientation?
http://science.meetup.com/77/files/
Monday, August 25, 2008
Confusion about Sexual Orientation versus Sexual Identity!
The Gendercator has sparked debate across the country for its take on gender identity, including the premise that some butch lesbians might be pressured to become transmen in a right-wing future with room for only two genders.
WHAT CAN SCIENCE TELL US`ABOUT THIS CONTROVERSY?
And why do we assume that the lesbian would be "butch" in order to be a viable candidate for transmaleness? Does this attitude reflect the biblical binary system of sexuality? Whoa! Lesbians making assumptions based on the goofy Adam & Eve story? Lesbians should know better!
Sexual identity and sexual orientation are very different aspects of sexuality, and the scientific evidence supports the idea that both are innate. Click on my proposed "SexualityModel" at http://science.meetup.com/77/files/. I welcome questions and feedback.
WHAT CAN SCIENCE TELL US`ABOUT THIS CONTROVERSY?
And why do we assume that the lesbian would be "butch" in order to be a viable candidate for transmaleness? Does this attitude reflect the biblical binary system of sexuality? Whoa! Lesbians making assumptions based on the goofy Adam & Eve story? Lesbians should know better!
Sexual identity and sexual orientation are very different aspects of sexuality, and the scientific evidence supports the idea that both are innate. Click on my proposed "SexualityModel" at http://science.meetup.com/77/files/. I welcome questions and feedback.
Gendercator Screening & Panel Discussion
On 11/21/2007, Chicago filmmaker Catherine Crouch attended the local premiere of her controversial short film, The Gendercator, a futuristic look at forced gender roles. The 15-minute film, shown at Center on Halsted as part of the Reeling annual LGBT film fest, was followed by more than an hour of debate and discussion with a panel of experts on gender issues, as well as comments by Crouch about her intentions behind the project. Panelists included Jackie Anderson, Catherine Crouch, Ronnie Drantz, Judith Halberstam, Kate Kane and Casey Schwartz. Pictured is Ronnie Drantz (left) with Judith Halberstam during the Gendercator Panel Discussion. Photo by Tracy Baim.Ronnie Drantz refuted the simplistic biblical binary sexual system with a scientific update including the biology of sexual identity and sexual orientation.
see http://www.wctimes.com/gay/lesbian/news/ARTICLE.php?AID=16694
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