KONGRESSBERICHT
Oktober 1998
Third International Congress of Sex
and Gender
A fairly large number of Australians presented at the Third
International Congress of Sex and Gender held in Oxford, England
last month. Only one was from the old school of one option
transsexual medicine. The others included a contingent from
International Foundation for Androgyny Studies, a couple of
intersexed academics, a pro-visibility professional, and a
prominent spansexual activist. This was a microcosm of the entire
conference, energised by transgender community professionals,
academics, and activists.
(By "transgender community", I mean the whole range of
transsexual, crossdresser, intersex, male-to-female,
female-to-male, bi-gender, surgical, non-surgical,
"part"-surgical, hormonal, non-hormonal, partners,
parents, young and old present.)
Herbert Bower, from Melbourne's gender dysphoria clinic, wailed
about the "widening gap between the medical model and the
non-medical model."
However, what he failed to grasp was obviously well understood by
the majority of (transgender and non-transgender) doctors and
therapists present: That there are more than two models for
transgender people to choose from. They talked not about
"the medical model", but about plural and diverse
models that allowed for combinations of selections from the full
range of medical and other options.
Esben Benestad/Esther Pirelli, a bi-gendered therapist from
Norway rejected the term "Gender Dysphoria". "I've
never met anyone who is not happy about their gender. They're
very happy about it. It's their bodies they are dsyphoric
with." Zie suggested that this (gender-related) body
dysphoria is not dissimilar to other body dysphorias such as
bulimia or anorexia, or those that lead to presentation for
plastic surgery.
In a session on treatments for young
people, Esther said "The quest is not for the possibly
transgendered child or adolescent to understand or take care of
the world, but for the world to understand and take care of the
transgendered." Zie asserts that transgenderedness is not a
disease (and can thus not be treated), but that the main source
of pain and trouble for transgendered young people is the way
they are met and perceived by the world. The main therapeutic
route to a better situation for the identified transgendered is
to treat their world of significant others: parents, teachers,
siblings, and so on.
Claire McNab, a prominent activist with Press For Change,
conducted workshops on using mass media and particularly the
internet for lobbying, education, networking, support, and
producing swift mass actions. Press For Change is the British
umbrella group for transgender activism.
Perhaps because of the packed and competing program, few people
attended my HIV paper, but we did network on this issue during
the Congress. I was most disturbed to hear of HIV funding being
withdrawn on the basis of less AIDS beds being needed, as a
presumed result of combination therapies. Well funded peer-based
HIV prevention programs are also a likely cause of declining AIDS
cases, and cutting support for prevention programs will have
disastrous results.
Elizabeth Riley, Co-ordinator of the Gender Centre in Sydney,
advocated for the advantages of "visibility". Being out
about ourselves allows us to be educative, usually creating
positive responses in people who "just hadn't met anyone
like that before." Of course, this doesn't mean being an
advocate twenty four hours a day seven days a week. In my
workshop (which deconstructs sex and gender), I pointed out that
although I asserted my gender as "neuter" for the
Australian Electoral Commission, I was happy to have a
gender-normative passport. Sometimes, "passing" can be
the sensible expedient (for example, in getting through Customs
easily), and other times it may be more appropriate to insist on
recognition of our own specific identity.
Julia Greenberg , a legal academic from California, talked about
the legal status of transgender people. She outlined various
determiners of gender, hormonal, anatomical, psychological, and
chromosomal. If these are not all congruent, and one has to be
chosen as the determining factor, she posits that it makes most
sense to determine the social gender according to the
individual's psycho-social gender identity.
The final plenary heard of an
intersex infant recently born in England. It is still not clear
which gender is "most predominant" in this individual,
but one has to be specified on the birth certificate. The
registration of birth can be delayed for up to nine months, but
the psycho-social gender will still be unknown by then, and even
a best guess of the predominant somatic gender may be later
"disproven". This case highlights the difficulties
caused by legal insistence on a single (exclusive) gender
identity that may have no basis in reality.
The first Congress was very much dominated by non-transgendered
professionals searching for the answers for their troubled
patients. This Congress was full of transgendered professionals
exploring and expanding the range of options for transgender
people, our families and friends, and the wider societies we live
in. This was a change in dynamics from "Here is the answer
for you, if you fit criteria X," to "What combination
of options might suit you?" and "What support do you
need in order to be
happy where you want to be?"
It was an exceptionally illuminating, educative, networking and
supportive experience, well worth the expense of travel, the
outrageous cost of living in England, and the discomfort of
up-ending our body-clocks. The next one will be in Pennsylvania,
but there was wholesale support for Sydney in 2001.
-norrie mAy-welby
norrie mAy-welby
Lay Sister
Universal Life Church