The Riddle of Gender - Deborah Rudacille [151]
Two years later, in an article published in the American Journal of Nursing, Benjamin stated more firmly that “in many respects, transsex-ualism in the anatomic male might be regarded as an incomplete expression of testicular feminization syndrome (AIS, CAIS or PAIS) with the defect affecting only sex-specific areas of the hypothalamus…. Recent research indicates that in the genetic male the hypothalamus is masculinized by fetal androgen at a specific period somewhat after the masculinization of the genitourinary tract. The genetic female, with her XX chromosome complement, lacks fetal androgen and therefore develops along typically female patterns. The important principle here is that effective androgen is necessary for masculinization. Without androgen, masculinization will not occur. Thus, the prenatal hormonal environment is critically important for all future development.”
Over the past three years, as I’ve researched this book, I’ve been struck by the fact that most of my sources trace their feelings of gender dysphoria to their earliest childhood. Sometimes their intuition of the disjunction between their bodies and their sense of themselves as boys or girls is their very first memory. They can recount exactly where they were and what they were doing when they first admitted to themselves that they were not the children that others assumed them to be—usually before the age of five. Many transgendered people believe that these feelings (which in the case of transsexuals are so overwhelming that those who experience them eventually seek surgical and hormonal sex reassignment) are the result of “hormone surges” in prenatal life that somehow alter the link between their physical sex and their gender identity. More than one person I interviewed compared transsexuality to a cleft palate—characterizing both as “birth defects” that require surgical intervention. A few mentioned the increased incidence of reproductive deformities and “transsexualism” (feminized males, masculinized females) in wildlife and wondered if there might not be some connection to their own situation. But few are willing to state as bluntly as Christine Johnson that their lives and gender identities may have been turned inside out by an environmental toxin.
In March 2002, I asked the subscribers of the National Trans Advocacy Coalition’s online discussion list what they thought of the environmental endocrine hypothesis as a possible explanation for their gender variance. I received some interesting replies. Rozlyn Manley, a Vietnam veteran who worked as a claims adjuster prior to her transition, posted the following response.
My former career was in the insurance industry, where I handled high-exposure claims on behalf of the international insurance market. Among those claims were pollution, environmental, and product liability claims. In addition to managing the defense and negotiation of existing litigation, I was also in constant contact with the Fortune 500 companies regarding potential litigation they were concerned with. This is because they self-insure the first five or ten million of coverage and have a duty to keep the excess insurers fully informed of what was in the pipeline. Before I left, I began hearing from the pharmaceutical and petro-chemical companies about “gender bender” claims. Each have waste by-products that they dispose of in settling ponds, mostly in Puerto Rico, Germany and our Gulf Coast. They were becoming aware of animals displaying homosexual behavior and transsexual changes. For example, female birds in the Gulf Coast were nesting with each other and non-mating