Earlier I argued that trans* is not a disorder and that the problem is more likely with transphobia than with gender variation. I showed how much we are stuck in binary thinking that needs to get rid of its expectations of universality. A way out may lie in the concept of “fuzzy sets”. In the future, trans …
Author Archives: werk
Nothing but fear
The current health care model for trans * people many times is defended as protecting the patient. Protecting them against regrets. A physician wants to be sure the patient they see, is serious, is not acting on impulse. This worry we can understand, the solution however is wrong. A large part of the worries that …
Allemaal angst
Ik hoor het huidige zorgmodel voor transmensen nogal eens verdedigd worden met het argument dat men de patiënt wil beschermen. Behoeden voor fouten. En ook dat een arts zeker wil kunnen zijn dat de persoon in kwestie het meent en niet in een opwelling besluit. Nou is die angst begrijpelijk, maar de oplossing is dat …
Gender teams need to quit diagnosing trans* people
The press release of the Amsterdam gender team they sent out on Wednesday December 18, stating they cannot treat all the people who applied in recent times constitutes a brilliant opportunity to stop diagnosing trans people with gender dysphoria and start an informed consent based treatment process. The day after the glorious victory of the …
Continue reading “Gender teams need to quit diagnosing trans* people”
Trans law in the Netherlands passed. Now what?
In the early morning of the 18th of December 2013 the Dutch Senate passed the proposal for updating the existing legislation of now 18 years old. It has been a long and bitter fight, in which some core demands have been realised, but it is not over yet.
Against a third gender
For some time now the German decision to require parents of a child with ambiguous genitals to register their child without a sex marker and without protection or time limit, is making the news. To the growing displeasure of intersex activists. Displeasure because intersex activists have not been consulted and if consulted would have advised …
Spanish trans activists start hunger strike
From midnight tonight six trans* activists In Andalusia, Spain will start a permanent hunger strike until either the bill for better trans legislation that is stuck, will be really introduced in Parliament or until they die.
Trans kids need support not diagnosis
October 19, 2013 is the international day on the depathologisation, declaring not a disorder but a positive diversity, of trans people. And because of high level developments in the World Health Organisation, that is responsible for revising the International Classification of Diseases, that is used for understanding what is a sickness, a disease, a disorder – be …
Free & equal
A gay rights conference in Antwerp
From July 31 to August 2 the World Outgames LGBT Human Rights Conference took place in Antwerp. The conference was titled: “From safe harbours to equality. A changing LGBT world: transitions and migrations.” For a LGBT human rights conference I am sad to say it was an absolute failure for being not inclusive and run …