Describing the massive exercise as a milestone since the first ever National Population Registry was going to be prepared, Karunanidhi, in a letter to the prime minister on Saturday, sought that necessary provision be made in the census format to enumerate trangenders. “There are a number of persons in the country, who are called transgenders. I suggest that they may also be enumerated and necessary provision may be made in the format,” he said.

The move is seen as yet another initiative of the state government to draw transgenders into the social mainstream. Tamil Nadu has taken several pioneering initiatives for the welfare of this community in recent months. Tamil Nadu was the first state to form a welfare board for transgenders in 2008, headed by the social welfare minister. The state government also issued separate ration cards to transgenders. Tamil Nadu government also added the option of third gender in the application forms of state-run schools and colleges for unhindered admission of transsexuals in educational institutions.

Transgenders see the appeal by Karunanidhi as an effort to recognize their third gender status. “It is a welcome move if we are enumerated as transgenders during the census. But the enumerating staff should be adequately sensitized about our community. There is a misconception even among government officials that transgenders will dress only like a woman,” said P Kajol, secretary of Aravanigal Rights and Rehabilitation Centre.

A government official admitted that awareness about transgenders and their rights increased only in the last decade. “May be transgenders were enumerated as women during the last census,” he said. Karunanidhi has also appealed to the prime minister to bring pavement dwellers, who are usually left out during census, into the ambit of enumeration.

Source: timesofindia

The decision was announced by France’s Minister of Health, Roselyne Bachelot, on the eve of last year’s International Day Against Homophobia, but did not come into effect until last month.

Bachelot made the announcement parallel to the launch of a campaign petitioning the World Health Organisation to do the same. The campaign was endorsed by some of the country’s leading minds who put their names to a letter published in French newspapers.

In France, hormone treatments and gender reassignment surgery are funded by the state.

However, transsexuals must complete their surgery, effectively sterilising them, before the state will recognise their new gender.

The announcement comes as the American Psychiatric Association (APA) considers proposed changes for the fifth edition of its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), scheduled to be published in 2013.

The DSM is the primary manual used for diagnosing mental illnesses in the English-speaking world. In it, transgenderism is currently referred to as ‘gender identity disorder’.

The working group assigned to revising sections covering gender identity disorder have published their proposals for change on the APA website. They have suggested dropping the word ‘disorder’ and changing the official name for the condition to ‘gender incongruence’ for the entries for “Gender Identity Disorder in Adolescents or Adults” and “Gender Identity Disorder in Children”.

Members of the working group wrote that the proposed name was more appropriate because “[it] is a descriptive term that better reflects the core of the problem: an incongruence between, on the one hand, what identity one experiences and/or expresses and, on the other hand, how one is expected to live based on one’s assigned gender (usually at birth)”.

They also noted that a survey of organisations representing transgendered people carried out by the APA found widespread rejection of the term “because, in their view, it contributes to the stigmatisation of their condition”.

Proposals for a related entry, “Gender Identity Disorder Not Otherwise Specified”, are yet to be published.

Another entry, “Transvestic Fetishism”, also has a name change proposal — to ‘transvestic disorder’ — in order to better distinguish between people with a cross-dressing fetish and those for whom it presents “clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning”.

Source: Starobserver

• The International Olympic Committee (IOC) reject demands that female athletes with intersex variations have their variations diagnosed and treated.

• The IOC allow the above mentioned athletes, known as intersex women, to compete as females without having to undergo diagnosis or  “treatment.”

• The IOC, its press, and medical practitioners refer to females with intersex variations as “women with intersex variations” and not “women with disorders of sex development.”

People with atypical internal and/or external sex anatomy are commonly and historically known as “intersex men” or “intersex women.” OII is the largest intersex organisation in the world, with over three thousand members on all continents except Antarctica, and all our members reject the term “disorders of sex development” which the IOC is using to describe us.  This term pathologizes our differences, which none of our other labels throughout history has done, and was imposed on us in 2006 by a group consisting primarily of physicians, without taking our views into account.

The question has arisen as to whether intersex women athletes are really female, and we declare that yes, they are.  As we have all seen, there is a spectrum of masculinity and femininity within males and females, even amongst those without intersex variations, and in today’s legal system one is either male or female.  Thus, intersex adults who are not legally male are legally female, and should be allowed the same legal rights and privileges of any other women.  They should be allowed to compete in sporting events as female without having to undergo unnecessary medical “treatment” to validate them as women.

Certain members of the IOC medical panel claimed “Athletes’ health might be endangered if their disorders are not diagnosed and treated,”[1] but only a very small percentage of women with intersex variations have any health issues related to their variations.   Some have “salt-wasting syndrome,” and some have internal testes which may be at risk for becoming cancerous.  Both of these risks can be tested for and acted on if necessary.[2]

However, members of the medical panel stated, “Those who agree to be treated will be permitted to participate.  Those who do not… will not be permitted.”[3] Thus health is not the real motivator for “diagnosis” and “treatment.”

The medical panel is falsely framing their demands as a health issue to obfuscate the fact that they are singling out women they deem overly masculine and forcing them to  “fix,” i.e. “feminize,” their “masculine characteristics” in order to compete.   We believe this is astoundingly discriminatory.

The issue which intersex female athletes present is one of “fairness.” However, as many have pointed out, unfair physical advantages are endemic to sports.  Men with low testosterone levels have been muscled out of medals since sports began without calling for their rivals to be banned from competition.  In addition, many male athletes have been shown to possess physical conditions that give them advantages in their particular sport. The only fair solution is for the IOC to celebrate, not regulate, “masculine” women’s physical talents, just as it does men’s.

Please sign here

Source: Organisation Intersex International

Chelk said Jan. 6 that putting such a determination on transgender people’s military discharge papers creates problems for them.

From now on, transgender people being separated from the military will be labeled as “diabetics” or “people with a hormonal imbalance,” he said.

In reality, Chelk said, Iran’s 4,000 self-identified transgender people have a “sexual identity disorder.” They are citizens, he said, and the government views them “favorably.”

Source: Bay Windows – New England’s Largest LGBT Newspaper

Erratum in: J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2008 Mar;93(3):1083.

CONTEXT: We report herein a remarkable family in which the mother of a woman with 46,XY complete gonadal dysgenesis was found to have a 46,XY karyotype in peripheral lymphocytes, mosaicism in cultured skin fibroblasts (80% 46,XY and 20% 45,X) and a predominantly 46,XY karyotype in the ovary (93% 46,XY and 6% 45,X).

PATIENTS: A 46,XY mother who developed as a normal woman underwent spontaneous puberty, reached menarche, menstruated regularly, experienced two unassisted pregnancies, and gave birth to a 46,XY daughter with complete gonadal dysgenesis.

RESULTS: Evaluation of the Y chromosome in the daughter and both parents revealed that the daughter inherited her Y chromosome from her father. Molecular analysis of the genes SOX9, SF1, DMRT1, DMRT3, TSPYL, BPESC1, DHH, WNT4, SRY, and DAX1 revealed normal male coding sequences in both the mother and daughter. An extensive family pedigree across four generations revealed multiple other family members with ambiguous genitalia and infertility in both phenotypic males and females, and the mode of inheritance of the phenotype was strongly suggestive of X-linkage.

CONCLUSIONS: The range of phenotypes observed in this unique family suggests that there may be transmission of a mutation in a novel sex-determining gene or in a gene that predisposes to chromosomal mosaicism.

Source: PubMed

Janahi’s clients want legal permission to undergo sex change operations. While the law is quite straightforward on this in Bahrain, the lawyer says it is more difficult in other countries in the region.

“But that wouldn’t stop me from helping transgendered trapped in their bodies,” she says. “I’m ready to challenge the odds!”

Janahi, 47, spoke with IPS about her unusual practice, her future and hopes of greater acceptance of transgendered/transsexuals in Gulf societies. Excerpts from the interview.

IPS: How did you become a lawyer for the transgendered?

FAWZIYA JANAHI: I had a transgendered roommate, who studied with me in university in Egypt. I felt her agony and difficulty in accepting herself as a woman. When she approached me in 2001 to defend her I didn’t hesitate. In 2005, she won the case and was officially declared a man. My female roommate is now a happily married man who got a chance for a new beginning.

IPS: Did you think there would be others who would come to you?

FJ: I didn’t think there could be many people who had the courage to pursue long lawsuits. I got really recognised after my second case – when the female “Zainab” turned into a male, “Hussain”. This person was courageous and confident enough to attract media attention throughout his legal battle that ended in 2008.

Now I’m overloaded with cases from all over the Gulf. I take up all those who seriously seek sex-change operations.

IPS: How do you figure they are serious?

FJ: I don’t take up a case unless s/he presents me with at least a two-year evaluation by a psychiatrist proving that a sex-change operation is the only solution for their sexual identity disorders.

IPS: What is the legal process?

FJ: The court should be provided with evidences that this person cannot continue with her/his gender and has to undergo a sex-change operation.

This process takes years – my first case took five years. After that if the client goes through with the operation to become a transsexual, then we have to apply with the government to change their sex in the official papers, such as ID card and passport.

IPS: How do you feel being the only woman in the region to take up such career?

FJ: I’m the only lawyer, whether male or female, right now to specialise in legal assistance for the transgendered. I feel proud, but more than that defending people whose sexual identity differs from the one at birth has become a calling. I know that if I stop, most lawyers won’t as they don’t want to confront conservatives who are the majority amongst Arabs. There was one male Arab lawyer before me who took up some cases but he quit after these were rejected by the court.

IPS: Has it been difficult for you? Would you give up?

FJ: In a website of Kuwaiti transsexuals, I have been named “The Guardian Angel” – so how can I give up. Our society rejects anything new and progressive. The idea of allowing women to work was a big taboo, but people accepted this after some Arab women withstood the pressures and criticisms. I’m optimistic things will change especially after a Saudi conservative and psychiatrist, Dr Tariq Al Habib, defended on his popular TV show the right of the transgendered to go with sex change operations.

It was difficult personally. I received many rejections from my family but after years of discussion they started to be supportive. But I cannot say the same about the outside world as many religious scholars are against and fighting me.

IPS: You don’t fear them, especially in the religion-oriented societies of the Arab world?

FJ: I’m a lawyer so I can defend myself as everything I’m doing is according to laws and their rejections wouldn’t affect me, especially in Bahrain as the government has been very supportive in my last two cases.

IPS: Are you receiving the same support in other Arab countries?

FJ: Unfortunately no. I’m planning to defend at least 10 cases in one Gulf country, and there the situation is tough as the government is in conflict with its powerful parliament. Its MPs (members of parliament) are hardliners and against transsexuals.

While meeting my clients there I am accompanied by journalists. The meetings are in flats in the presence of journalists in case of a police raid as part of efforts to implement a new decent law act that fights vice, homosexuality and transsexuals.

IPS: Transgendered who approach you are females who want to be males or the opposite?

FJ: I receive both (types), but strangely a majority of the cases are males who want to become females and they face rejection from their families because they don’t want to accept them as women.

IPS: What have you gained by specialising in defending transgendered?

FJ: Financially nothing. I want society to realise that they suffer from physical problems that could end only if they change their sex. They aren’t pretending or need therapy; they are just looking for acceptance and understanding.

IPS: Where do you see yourself 20 years from now?

FJ: As a woman who has made good contributions in helping transgndered as I hope there will be legislations giving them the right to change their sex without legal hassles.

Source: Ipsnews

Transsexualism is a condition in which an individual identifies with a physical sex different from the one they were born with. A medical diagnosis can be made if a person experiences discomfort as a result of a desire to be a member of the opposite sex, or if a person experiences impaired functioning or distress as a result of that gender identification. “The aim is to demand an end to the classification of non-conforming gender identities, like transsexual and intersexual [hermaphrodites] individuals, as mentally ill on reference documents belonging to the World Health Organisation’s American Association of Psychiatry (AAP), which will be reviewed in 2012 and 2014”, said Sérgio Vitorino of Portugal’s Pink Panther Association, which is promoting the event in this country.

Sérgio Vitorino believes the long process that individuals wanting a sex-change are subjected to leaves them open and vulnerable to social marginalization. “Contrary to what happens in Spain, sex change procedure in Portugal drag on for many years and people cannot live their lives to the full, because until they have completed the medical and processes they cannot alter their name or their genders on their identity documents”, he explained.

Source: Ovimagazine

The decision to pursue a sex change, Majd maintains, was a difficult one. Gaza’s conservative society, along with difficult economic conditions, made it extremely difficult to take this life-altering decision.
But about five months ago, Majd said, a team of Spanish Urologists performed the operation.
“Here in the Gaza Strip, the doctor wanted to charge 3000 dollars per surgery (out of a total of three). Since I could not afford that, I decided to go abroad. But while making travel arrangements, a Spanish medical delegation specialising in Urology happened to be visiting the Strip. So I went to al-Awda hospital and met with the doctors. The (Spanish) doctor checked him just two days before he travelled back. He performed only one surgery instead of three,” Majd said.
Odai will continue to receive testosterone injections for the next eight months, and will have to undergo an additional surgery which will link Odai’s penis to his urine tract.
“I feel much more comfortable now, I feel like I was born again. I feel free. Anyway, I prefer now to be male because this society privileges males over females. The females in our society are not respected, and their ideas are not respected either. This society is much more acceptant of males than females,” said Odai.
Odai, once the eldest daughter, is now the second oldest boy in the family. He wants to study journalism and defend Palestinian women’s rights

Source: Itnsource

Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Sapporo Medical University, Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan. tbaba@sapmed.ac.jp

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study is to understand the relationship between polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), altered hormonal characteristics and insulin resistance in female-to-male (FTM) transsexual patients. METHODS: We studied 69 Japanese FTM cases, aged 17-47 years, who were seen in the Gender Identity Disorder Clinic of Sapporo Medical University Hospital between December 2003 and May 2006. The subjects had never received hormonal treatment or sex re-assignment surgery. Prior to treatment, they received physical examinations entailing measurement of anthropometric, metabolic and endocrine parameters, after which we compared the values obtained according to the presence or absence of PCOS and/or obesity. Insulin resistance was determined using the homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR).

RESULTS: Of the 69 participating FTM cases, 40 (58.0%) were found to have PCOS. Of the 49 for whom HOMA-IR was calculated, 15 (30.6%) also showed insulin resistance, whereas of the 59 for whom adiponectin was measured, 18 (30.5%) showed hypoadiponectinaemia. Of 69 for whom androgens were measured, 29 (39.1%) showed hyperandrogenaemia. Insulin resistance was associated with obesity but not with PCOS. In contrast, hyperandrogenaemia was associated with both PCOS and obesity. CONCLUSION: FTM transsexual patients have a high prevalence of PCOS and hyperandrogenaemia.

Source: PubMed

Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Transsexuality is an individual’s unshakable conviction of belonging to the opposite sex, resulting in a request for sex-reassignment surgery. We have shown previously that the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BSTc) is female in size and neuron number in male-to-female transsexual people. In the present study we investigated the hypothalamic uncinate nucleus, which is composed of two subnuclei, namely interstitial nucleus of the anterior hypothalamus (INAH) 3 and 4. Post-mortem brain material was used from 42 subjects: 14 control males, 11 control females, 11 male-to-female transsexual people, 1 female-to-male transsexual subject and 5 non-transsexual subjects who were castrated because of prostate cancer. To identify and delineate the nuclei and determine their volume and shape we used three different stainings throughout the nuclei in every 15th section, i.e. thionin, neuropeptide Y and synaptophysin, using an image analysis system.

The most pronounced differences were found in the INAH3 subnucleus. Its volume in thionin sections was 1.9 times larger in control males than in females (P < 0.013) and contained 2.3 times as many cells (P < 0.002). We showed for the first time that INAH3 volume and number of neurons of male-to-female transsexual people is similar to that of control females. The female-to-male transsexual subject had an INAH3 volume and number of neurons within the male control range, even though the treatment with testosterone had been stopped three years before death. The castrated men had an INAH3 volume and neuron number that was intermediate between males (volume and number of neurons P > 0.117) and females (volume P > 0.245 and number of neurons P > 0.341). There was no difference in INAH3 between pre-and post-menopausal women, either in the volume (P > 0.84) or in the number of neurons (P < 0.439), indicating that the feminization of the INAH3 of male-to-female transsexuals was not due to estrogen treatment. We propose that the sex reversal of the INAH3 in transsexual people is at least partly a marker of an early atypical sexual differentiation of the brain and that the changes in INAH3 and the BSTc may belong to a complex network that may structurally and functionally be related to gender identity.

Source: PubMed