kyan lynch, md, ma transgender history · 2018-10-22 · transgender history kyan lynch, md, ma 1....

Looking to the Past, Informing the Future: A New Perspective on Transgender History

Kyan Lynch, MD, MA

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Brought to You By:

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The Plan

• Section 1: Disclaimers

• Section 2: Where Have We Been?

• Section 3: Where Are We Now?

• Section 4: Where Are We Going?

Section 1: Disclaimers

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I Speak With, Not

For

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Write Down the First Word or Phrase that Comes to Mind When I Say…

The History of Transgender People

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If you are thinking, you are doing it wrong!

Crumple it Up!

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Throw it Across the Room!

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Pick Up the Nearest Paper Ball, and One at a Time, Read the Word or Phrase Aloud

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Section 2: Where Have We Been?

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The History of Transgender Medicine

Karl Heinrich Urlichs (1825 – 1895)“A female soul enclosed within a

male body”

Richard von Kraft-Ebing(1840 – 1902)

Psychopathia Sexualis

Max Marcuse(1877 – 1963)“Drive for Sex

Transformation”

Havelock Ellis (1859 – 1939)

“Sexo-aesthetic inversion”

Chevalier D’Eon(1728 – 1810)

Namesake for Ellis’ Eonism

Magnus Hirschfeld (1868 – 1935)

“Sexual Intermediaries”

Institute for Sexual Science, Berlin

Nazi Book Burning of Institute for Sexual Science, 1933 Lille Elbe

(1882 -1931)

Harry Benjamin (1885 – 1986)The Transsexual Phenomenon

Michael Dillon (1915 – 1962)First Trans Man

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The History of Transgender MedicineNotice Anything?

Karl Heinrich Urlichs (1825 – 1895)“A female soul enclosed within a

male body”

Richard von Kraft-Ebing(1840 – 1902)

Psychopathia Sexualis

Max Marcuse(1877 – 1963)“Drive for Sex

Transformation”

Havelock Ellis (1859 – 1939)

“Sexo-aesthetic inversion”

Chevalier D’Eon(1728 – 1810)

Namesake for Ellis’ Eonism

Magnus Hirschfeld (1868 – 1935)

“Sexual Intermediaries”

Institute for Sexual Science, Berlin

Nazi Book Burning of Institute for Sexual Science, 1933 Lille Elbe

(1882 -1931)

Harry Benjamin (1885 – 1986)The Transsexual Phenomenon

Michael Dillon (1915 – 1962)First Trans Man

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“The Modern Western notion of a gender binary is only one of many possible

perspectives”

Vincent, B., & Manzano, A. (2017). History and Cultural Diversity. In Genderqueer and Non-Binary Genders (pp. 11-30).

Palgrave Macmillan, London.

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Transgender History: Another

Perspective

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Trans History: Another Perspective

“’Strange country this,’ a white man wrote in 1850 about the Crow nation of North America, ‘where males assume the dress and perform the duties of females, while women turn men and mate with their own sex!”

Feinberg, L. (1996). Transgender warriors: making history from Joan of Arc to Dennis Rodman. Beacon Press.

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“As late as 1930, ethnographer Leslie Spier observed of a nation in the Pacific Northwest: ‘Transvestites or berdaches … are found among the Klamath, as in all probability among all other North American tribes. These are men and women who for reasons that remain obscure take on the dress and habits of the opposite sex.”


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“The language used by the colonizers to describe the acceptance of sex/gender diversity, and of same-sex love, most accurately described the viewer, not the viewed. And these sensational reports about Two-Spirit people were used to further ‘justify’ genocide, the theft of Native land and resources, and destruction of their cultures and religions.”


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A Theme Emerges

“When men oppress their fellow men, the oppressor ever finds, in the character of the oppressed, a full justification for his oppression.” - Frederick Douglass, Address to Case

Western Reserve, July 12, 1854

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“Occasionally these colonial quotes opened, even if inadvertently, a momentary window into the humanity of the peoples being observed. Describing his first trip down the Mississippi in the 17th

century, Jesuit Jacques Marquette chronicled the attitudes of the Illinois and Nadouessi to the Two-spirits.

‘They are summoned to the Councils, and nothing can be decided without their advice. Finally through their profession of leading an Extraordinary life, they pass for Manitous, - that is to say, for Spirits, -or persons of Consequence.”

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“Ancient and diverse cultures allowed

people to choose more sex/gender paths, and this diversity of human

expression was honored as sacred.”

Leslie Feinberg

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Transgender History: Another Perspective

• In 1431, when she was 19 years old, Joan of Arc was burned at the stake by the Inquisition of the Catholic Church because she refused to stop dressing in garb traditionally worn by men. And no one ever taught me that her peasant followers considered Joan of Arc – and her clothing – sacred.”

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“African spiritual beliefs in intersexual deities and sex/gender transformation among their followers have been documented among the Akan, Ambo-Kawnyama, Bobo, Chokwe, Dahomeans (of Benin), Dogon, Bambara, Etik, Handa, Humbe, Hunde, Ibo, Jukun, Kimbundu, Konso, Kunama, Lamba, Lango, Luba, Lulua, Musho, Nuba, Ovimbundu, Rundi, Shona-Karonga, Venda, Vili-Kongo, and Yoruba”

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“In Mali, the Dogon tribe generally maintain that the perfect human being is androgynous; the tribe worships Nommo, ancestral spirits who are described as androgynous, intersex, and mystical creatures, and whom are also referred to as ‘the Teachers’.”- Collins, S. (2017, Oct. 9) The Splendor of Gender Non-Conformity In Africa

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“He encountered an individual among the Nuer people of Ethiopia who not only appeared in feminine dress, and acted as female, but was actually regarded as having become a woman. No physical change of sex had transpired, yet this person was free to occupy a feminine identity and role, even to the extent that marriage to a man was permissible … the prophet of Deng had consulted the spirits and then declared the change in this individual’s status, which the people accepted. Here transpired an outcome more certain and favorable than many individuals who actually undergo sexual assignment surgery and legal identity change experience in our culture (which so commonly and arrogantly perceives itself as more enlightened).”

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“Despite a long history of transgender realities in Africa, many modern transgendered people there experience well-warranted fear because of hostility in their families, tribes, or nations,” writes G. G. Bolich. “Much of this modern hostile response has been placed on the influence of European culture, both because of a colonial past and because of contemporary pressure, or the influence of foreign religions. Nevertheless, as in the past, so now transgendered people are active members of their communities, seeking to effect positive changes.”

- Collins, S. (2017, Oct. 9) The Splendor of Gender Non-Conformity In Africa

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“Transgendered identities and practices have been documented in every traditional Asian society. In some Asian traditions, transgendered figures perform religious or quasi-religious functions.”

- Pauline Park

Pictured: Korean Mudang, shaman or sorceress, combining the characteristics of both sexes and both genders could connect one to a transcendent spiritual realm

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A New Perspective:

Transness as Freedom

“The intransitive passing, as the performance of false identity, reached its peak of usage in print in the mid- to late 1800s.”

“As ‘passing’ became a term to describe performing something one is not, it trafficked a way of thinking about identity … like a vertical line with arrows on either end, passing is figuratively represented by moving up or down hierarchized identificatory formations.”

“As passing is most commonly understood, one ascends into privilege, being, and distinction.”

Photo: Ellen and William Craft. The Great Escape from Slavery of Ellen and William Craft. Credit: The Smithsonian.

- C. Riley Snorton, Black on Both Sides

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A New Perspective: Transness as Freedom

Cross-Dressing and Transgressive Gender Performance providing passage from “the impossibility of normative gender and sexual

reciprocity under captivity” to freedom.

Image: Crossdressing and Freedom From Slavery by Jelson Mendoza – American Studies Media Culture Program (ASMCP)32

A New Perspective: The Legacy of Transgender Warriors

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The Legacy of Transgender Warriors: Rebecca and Her Daughters

“On May 13, 1839, armed male peasants, dressed as women, thundered up on horseback, waving pitchforks, axes, scythes, and guns. As they stormed the gate their leader roared: ‘Hurrah for free laws! Toll gates free to coal pits and lime kilns! … They called themselves ‘Rebecca and her daughters.”

- Feinberg, 75

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The Legacy of Transgender Warriors: Lady Skimmington

“In 1631, bands of rebels in the dairy and grazing areas of Wiltshire, England, rioted against the king’s enclosure of their forests, led by cross-dressed males who referred to themselves as Lady Skimmington.”

- Feinberg, 78

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The Legacy of Transgender Warriors

“In the early nineteenth century, cross-dressed workers led some early labor struggles against the growth of capitalism.”

- Feinberg, 80

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The Legacy of Transgender Warriors: Sylvia Rivera

We were all fighting the same thing: oppression.”

- Sylvia Lee Rivera (1990)37

The Legacy of Transgender Warriors: Marsha P. Johnson

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Transgender Warriors

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“In order to understand the lives of people who have passed as another sex in any direction, it must be remembered

that trans people have always existed, but

were once viewed with respect as vital,

contributing members of our societies.”- Leslie Feinberg

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Section 3: Where Are We Now?

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Gender Identity Disorder, 1980

Gender Identity Disorder, 1987:1) Nontranssexualism2) Transsexualism3) Not Otherwise Specified

Gender Identity Disorder, 1994(Transsexualism and Nontranssexualism)

Gender Dysphoria, 2013

The Western Medical Model

“Positioning transgender experience and identity within the medical model creates the following three-step process of becoming transgender:

Johnson, A. H. (2015). Normative accountability: How the medical model influences transgender identities and experiences. Sociology Compass, 9(9), 803-813.

i.Experiencing discomfort and distress surrounding gender throughout life

Acquiring a psychiatric diagnosis for gender variance

Accessing gender-affirming medical interventions

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How’s That Working Out?

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One-third (33%) of respondents who had seen a health care provider in the past year reported having at least one negative experience related to being transgender, such as verbal harassment, refusal of treatment, or having to teach the health care provider about transgender people to receive appropriate care.

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“Participants described experiencing open gawking, superfluous history taking about

gender-related surgeries, assumption of sexually transmitted infections, drug use, and psychiatric disease, and being put on

display.”

*Chisolm-Straker, M., Jardine, L., Bennouna, C., Morency-Brassard, N., Coy, L., Egemba, M. O., & Shearer, P. L. (2017). Transgender and Gender Nonconforming in Emergency Departments: A Qualitative Report of Patient Experiences. Transgender Health, 2(1), 8-16.

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• 40% reported that all of their current health care providers knew they were transgender

• 13% reported that most knew

• 17% reported that some knew that they were transgender.

• Nearly one-third (31%) of respondents reported that none of their health care providers knew they were transgender

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“Generally, providers did not seem to know

when and how TGGNC-related

medical history was relevant to a chief

complaint.”

*Chisolm-Straker, M., Jardine, L., Bennouna, C., Morency-Brassard, N., Coy, L., Egemba, M. O., & Shearer, P. L. (2017). Transgender and Gender Nonconforming in Emergency Departments: A Qualitative Report of Patient Experiences. Transgender Health, 2(1), 8-16.

Gatekeeping

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• Forty percent (40%) have attempted suicide in their lifetime, nearly nine times the rate in the U.S. population (4.6%).

• Respondents were living with HIV (1.4%) at nearly five times the rate in the U.S. population (0.3%).

• Seven percent (7%) of respondents used prescription drugs that were not prescribed to them or used them not as prescribed (“nonmedical prescription drug use”) in the past month, compared to 2% of the U.S. population

• Eighty-two percent (82%) of all respondents had seriously thought about killing themselves at some point in their lives

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Section 5: Where Are We Going?

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Hot Off the Press!

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Hot Off the Press!

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Ky’s Prescription

• Remember the past

• This isn’t as new as it seems

• Normalize

• De-pathologize

• De-stigmatize

• Recognize the fullness of transgender life

• Celebrate!

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Write Down the First Word or Phrase that Comes to Mind When I Say…

The Future of Transgender Medicine

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If you are thinking, you are doing it wrong!

Crumple it Up!

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Throw it Across the Room!

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Pick Up the Nearest Paper Ball, and One at a Time, Read the Word or Phrase Aloud

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Questions?

Questions in the Future?

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kyan lynch, md, ma transgender history · 2018-10-22 · transgender history kyan lynch, md, ma 1....

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