The Riddle of Gender - Deborah Rudacille [195]
individuals exhibiting the bizarre symptoms of St. Anthony’s fire J. McLachlan, “Environmental Signaling,” 335.
More people are coming around Author interview with Milton Diamond, Philadelphia Pa., March 21, 2003; Milton Diamond, “Pediatric Management of Ambiguous and Tramatized Genitalia.” Journal of Urology 162 (1999): 1021-28.
what is gender-specific behavior H. F. Meyer-Bahlburg, J. F. Feldman, P. Cohen, and A. A. Erhardt, “Perinatal Factors in the Development of Gender-Related Play Behavior: Sex Hormones versus Pregnancy Complications,” Psychiatry 51, no. 3 (1988): 260-71. See also Hestien Vreugdenhil, Froukje M. E. Slijper, Paul G. H. Mulder, and Nynke Weisglas-Kuperus, “Effects of Perinatal Exposure to PCBs and Dioxins on Play Behavior in Dutch Children at School Age,” Environmental Health Perspectives no, no. 10 (October 2002): 593-98; D. E. Sandberg, J. E. Venn, J. Weiner, G. P. Beehler, M. Swanson, and H. F. Meyer-Bahlburg, “Hormonally Active Agents in the Environment and Children’s Behavior: Assessing Effects on Children’s Gender Dimorphic Behavior Outcomes,” Epidemiology 14, no. 2 (March 2003): 148-55.
the subject of essential sex differences in the mind is clearly very delicate Baron-Cohen, Essential Difference, 1.
Systematizing and empathising are wholly … different processes Ibid., 3.
Diagnoses of autism, like those for gender identity disorder, have been rising steadily over the past few decades “The U.S. Department of Education reports a 900 percent increase in cases of autism since 1992. On C-Span exhausted, terrified, furious parents vent their hopeless wrath during congressional hearings investigating claims that Big Pharma has ignored for years their belief that pediatric vaccinations precipitated their child’s acquisition of autism. Is the mercury-based preservative contained in the vaccine—thimerosal—overwhelming the baby’s premature immune system? … Sensing the inevitable, bills exonerating vaccine manufacturers from liability snake their way through Congress. The most notorious of which, a rider, Mickey Finn’d at the nth hour into the density of the Homeland Security Bill under cover of smallpox, attempted to exempt Eli Lilly from any and all damages related to vaccine complaints. The provision’s author? Senate Majority Leader Dr. Bill Frist, R-Tenn. Uncovered by public watchdogs, it has since been removed from the bill.” Scot Sea, “Planet Autism,” Salon, September 27, 2003. Available online at http:// www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2003/07/27/autism/index.html.
Two interesting (though unrelated) facts are buried in this excerpt— mercury is a known endocrine disrupter, and the Eli Lilly Company was also one of the primary manufacturers of DES. 277 The navy discharged me in ‘j4 See “A Life of Service: Sister Mary, Whose Past Has Seen Many Painful Twists and Turns, Now Brings Comfort to Others with the World’s Most Comprehensive Web Site on AIDS and HIV,” Jean O. Pasco, Los Angeles Times (Home Edition), December 1,1997; “Sharing the Word on AIDS Technology: Patients and Others Can Count on Sister Mary Elizabeth’s Electronic Bulletin Board in San Juan Capis-trano to Provide Extensive Information for Free,” Leslie Berkman, Los Angeles Times (Orange County Edition), April 18, 1994; “There Is Still a Prayer for New Religious Order,” Lynn Smith, Los Angeles Times (Orange County Edition), November 14, 1988; “Vows Repudiated: Bishop Blocks Transsexual Nun’s Order,” Lynn Smith, Los Angeles Times (Orange County Edition), January 8,1988.
ANSWERING THE RIDDLE
denied his claim of discrimination and request for damages In the ruling against Oiler, the Louisiana court noted that “the words of Title VII do not outlaw discrimination against a person who has a sexual identity disorder, i.e., a person born with a male body who believes himself to be a female, or a person born with a female body who believes herself to be male; a prohibition against discrimination based on an individual’s sex is not synonymous with a prohibition based on an individual’s sexual identity disorder or discontent