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By Root 2058 0

gender variance itself is a problem requiring a solution. Milton Diamond, for example, objects to the characterization of the different forms of gender variance as “anomalies” and prefers to term them simple variations. Still, science liberated the victims of St. Anthony’s fire from the stigma of mental illness, just as I am certain it will eventually reveal the actual biological mechanisms that produce the wide range of anatomical and neurological intersex conditions. Many of the anatomical conditions, of course, have already been elucidated. The “natural” genetic and/or biochemical mechanisms that produce Klinefelter’s syndrome, CAH, Turner’s syndrome, AIS, and various enzyme deficiencies that produce anomalously sexed bodies were identified decades ago. Yet there is still resistance in some quarters to accepting that many individuals born with these conditions are fine as they are—that they don’t need to be “fixed” to conform to some rigid aesthetic or medical concept of what “normal” genitals or “normal” human beings look like.

“More people are coming around,” says Milton Diamond. “They have to. The data is accumulating. I gave a talk at the American Academy of Pediatrics in ‘98 and I really thought they would throw stones at me. I was telling them that, first, I thought that what they were doing [intersex surgery on infants and children] was wrong; number two, that they have to do the research to discover the effects of what they were doing; and number three, they have to be honest. Well, they didn’t want to hear any of that. Now I have to give them credit. They did listen. In 2000, they changed the standard procedure. I gave a similar talk in England in 2000 and in 2001 they changed their procedure.” The current guidelines, he points out, “basically say, ‘think twice’” before correcting anomalous genitals. Diamond and legions of intersex activists would like physicians to wait permanently—or at least until the child expresses a gender preference. In many cases, the children might opt to stay exactly as they are.

The challenges faced by transgendered and transsexual people in their dealings with scientists and physicians are even more daunting. Like the general public, most hear the word “transsexual” and immediately visualize an episode of the Jerry Springer Show. They don’t conceive of gender variance as a medical condition, nor do they view it as a legitimate focus of research. Not many people are well acquainted with the kind of professional transpeople whom I interviewed for this book or with the data that point to a biological etiology for gender variance. In many ways, the scientific and medical professions mirror the prejudices of society at large with respect to trans people. No wonder so many trans people show little interest in participating in research and avoid seeking medical care. The history of interactions between trans people and health care providers has been a complicated one, as this book indicates. Arrogance, paternalism, dishonesty, manipulativeness—the accusations fly back and forth while the civil status and health status of transgendered people hang in the balance. Many in the trans community recognize that their efforts to achieve civil protections are somehow bound up with scientific and medical perceptions of their condition, while others heatedly deny that science and medicine will make any contribution at all to their efforts to gain job protections, to marry, to retain custody of their children, and to achieve the degree of social acceptance that has thus far eluded them.

Dr. Dana Beyer believes that further research combined with activism is essential. “People need to understand why this happens; they need to understand about DES and the effects of EDCs, and that this isn’t going away. This is personal for me. I live with this twenty-four—seven. But as a society we’ve got a real problem. Fish changing sex? Hermaphroditic frogs? But they don’t make the connection. And then when a story comes out, local sperm counts down 20 percent, they just sort of ignore it.”

The only way that the