Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders III-5:
Gender variance is not a psychiatric disease; it is a human variation that in some cases requires medical attention. For the 5th edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, because there is no other medical diagnosis available for transgender people to seek reimbursement of medical expenses under, we recommended that some version of gender dysphoria appear in DSM-5 as a stop-gap measure. There is a continuing need for the medical and insurance industries to update their procedures for reimbursement so that gender dysphoria can be removed entirely in the future. Yet, we must understand that as long as transgender identities are understood through a “disease” framework, transgender people will suffer from unnecessary abuse and discrimination from both inside and outside the medical profession. As long as gender variance is characterized by the medical field as a mental condition, transgender people will find their identities invalidated by claims that they are “mentally ill,” and therefore not able to speak objectively about their own identities and lived experiences. This has even been used to justify discrimination against transgender people, such as in child custody cases, discrimination in hiring/workplace practices, or justifying them to be mentally unfit to serve in the military. Even more alarming is the high rate of children—and adults— who will continue to be forcibly subjected to abusive “reparative” therapies designed to “cure” them of gender variance. While the “Gender Identity Disorder” framework of the DSM-IV did have some usefulness for accessing care, there is significant evidence that it has been gravely abused since its creation as a way to subject gender-variant children and adults to damaging “reparative” treatments against their will. (2020)*
There seemed to be two parallel streams in his life. The first—discipline, family order, schooling—dutifully performed but disavowed. The other, an “underground or subterranean” Edward who longed not only to read but to be a book. Everything artistic belonged to this second version: his tastes in reading, his love of music, the creativity he unpersuasively palms off in the memoir as “fibbing.” His childhood friends agreed: “Said was never really part of us … He lived a life separate from us, coddled, spoilt and adored… — Timothy Brennan*
This week, Timothy Brennan and Kai Bird will discuss Brennan’s acclaimed new book Places ofMind: A Life of Edward Said. For information on registering for the online conversation, see:
I like to think of my artwork as an unmoving film, a memoir of a certain moment, where the past and the future of that moment can be felt in the painting. — Jiab Prachakul
Friends Indeed Gallery presents JIAB PRACHAKUL—14 YEARS, the artist’s first solo show in the United States, at Four One Nine in San Francisco. See link below for details.
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