OVERVIEW

What is life like for transsexuals? What can they do about their gender incongruity? Where do they and their families turn for help in coping with transsexualism? How do medical and mental health professionals learn more about the transsexual phenomenon? These are some of the questions True Selves addresses.

Mildred Brown, a California-based clinical sexologist and therapist, was once approached by a female who she previously knew as a male. After a long conversation with the individual, she realized how little she knew about the transsexual dilemma; thus, she decided to pour herself into the study. Co-author Chloe Rounsley is a journalist who has extensively researched the topic.

Through the book, the authors aim:

• To provide information for friends, family, and helping professionals so that they may understand the transsexual experience and related personal and therapeutic issues.
• To provide guidance for family members and friends coping in the difficult adjustment period.
• To separate transsexual fact from fiction.

CONTENTS

The Transsexual Dilemma. This chapter differentiates transexuals from other sexual deviants—including transvestites, homosexuals, she males, and others—explaining that the former has to do with gender identity rather than sexual orientation. The Childhood Years. This chapter studies the childhood of gender dysphoric children: their confusion, rejection, pain, anxieties, and coping mechanisms are described. The Teen Years. The pain does not end in childhood, but compounds during the teen years. Transgendered teens begin to despair as they watch their bodies develop anatomical changes that do not match their core identity. The constant struggle for survival is discussed, through dating practices, drug and alcohol use, self-mutilation, and suicide—all attractive options to the gender dysphoric. The Adult Years. By this stage, most have resolved to suppress their transsexuality for the sake of their loved ones. Yet, note the authors, this choice psychologically and physically takes its toll on the transsexual. Their coping mechanisms are generally temporary; eventually, most transsexuals experience problems with their daily functioning. It is usually at this time that the transgendered seeks a therapist. Therapy. Unresolved transsexuality may induce severe clinical depression and other psychiatric disorders; thus, some reconciliation must emerge so that the transexual may enjoy a fulfilling life.

At this point in the book, the authors explain the transition of physical change and psychological, social, and relational integration that must occur if the transsexual chooses to change gender. The authors explain the complexity of working through transsexuality. Transsexuals must become even more self-focused to succeed at passing as the opposite sex. The book discusses different aspects of the transition process: the legalities, changes of the outer presentation (i.e., electrolysis, voice training), disclosure at the workplace, discrimination, and violence.

The dream and goal for all transsexuals is, of course, to look authentic and believable, usually facilitated through sex-reassignment surgery (SRS). The authors discuss the most popular medical methods for helping the transsexual achieve self-realization and wholeness. The book addresses hormones and describes both the male-to female and female-to-male surgeries. It discusses the options, expectations, expenses, and life after SRS.

The book concludes with guidelines for support, offers personal testimonies of transsexuals, and includes a resource guide.

QUOTATIONS

For the majority of people, their gender identity matches their body, but transsexuals are not so fortunate. Despite all physical evidence to the contrary, they do not perceive themselves as a member of their anatomical sex. Their minds and bodies are in opposition; one says female, the other says male.

The overwhelming majority of my patients-approximately 85 percent recognized their dysphoria by the time they began grade school."

Transsexual teens typically feel shame, despair, and anger because they are developing the adult body of the wrong sex. Puberty to them feels like the ‘end of the line" because it provides the indisputable evidence that their bodies are never going to match their gender identity.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION

1. What is transsexuality and how does it differentiate from other sexual disorders?
2. How do you personally respond to someone whom you suspect struggles with the issue?
3. What do you think are the causes of gender identity disorder?
4. Would you encourage or discourage the transsexual in seeking the sex reassignment surgery? Why or why not?
5. Would you welcome into your community and your home a man who now lives as a woman with all the accompanying issues?
6. If you detect in your child a gender identity disorder, would you seek hormonal treatment and SRS to "spare" him/her of the future torment?
7. How do you think the transsexual who decides to pursue physical changes deal with his children? Should he/she now become their second mommy or daddy?
8. Is gender something that can be changed?
9. What about people who have gone all the way, who found that SRS did not solve their problems and try to revert (as much as they could)?
10. How about the long term effects of taking hormones?
11. What is the true nature of the conflict? Is the creating another persona a healthy way of resolving this internal conflict?
12. Could it be that in our reaction to appearance we are missing what lies underneath, a trouble soul who is not adjusting well to life? In other words, could it be that just as magicians purposely draw us away from what is really happening, we are purposely made out to see only what meets the eye and not the real issues?

IMPLICATIONS

1. Transsexuality is a very complex disorder about which there is still a lot to learn. There are no easy answers and no painless ways to resolve it.
2. Read and research all sides of the issue. Talk to those afflicted if possible. Be aware that when talking to pre-operative transsexuals that their goal is to justify by all means the SRS, and will often lie to get what they want. Brown and Rounsley, in True Selves, warn the readers of this fact.
3. Many insightful studies have been and are being made that shed light into the matter. Perhaps a good place to begin is by reading from George A. Rekers, Professor of Neuropsychiatry and Behavioral Science, Research Director for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and Chairman of Faculty in Psychology at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine in Columbia, S.C. He is the editor of the Handbook of Child and Adolescent Sexual Problems; this book may be ordered at: 1-800-956-7739.

Ana Reid cCYS