You can listen to the teaser promo here:  “81 Words”

Here’s a synopsis:

Act One.

In 1973, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) declared that homosexuality was not a disease simply by changing the 81-word definition of sexual deviance in its own reference manual. It was a change that attracted a lot of attention at the time, but the story of what led up to that change is one that we hear today, from reporter Alix Spiegel. Part one of Alix’s story details the activities of a closeted group of gay psychiatrists within the APA who met in secret and called themselves the GAYPA … and another, even more secret group of gay psychiatrists among the political echelons of the APA. Alix’s own grandfather was among these psychiatrists, and the president-elect of the APA at the time of the change. (24 minutes)

Act Two.

Alix Spiegel’s story continues, with a man dressed in a Nixon mask called Dr. Anonymous, and a pivotal encounter in a Hawaiian bar. (30 minutes)

You can listen to This American Life broadcast here: “81 Words: The Story of how The American Pyschiatric Association decided in 1973 that homosexuality was no longer a mental illness“.

Leading women: The women who rise to the top of your organization in the coming years may have a few things in common.

She has a list of characteristics that women (and really men too) will need in place in our own lives to be effective at leading at work; how many of these characteristics ring true?

• Authenticity: Martha defines this as a woman, “Being self-aware and doing something about it. This trait allows a woman to understand at a very base level her strengths, weaknesses, desires, and fears.”  And then taking this trait and leveraging it into her life at work.
• Fearlessness: Martha feels this trait is the opposite of being fearful.  She further notes that those who act out of fear act in an unbalanced way that compromises our ability to be effective.  Fearless women focus on what they want to achieve and very often achieve it.
• Focus: Here Martha tosses aside the notion that as women, we have an unlimited ability to multi-task and be equally effective across all our tasks.   Martha says that such practices must stop and that only focus will result in achieving the results we want in our lives.
• Energy:  Finally Martha points out the to do anything women need to take care of themselves, “working longer hours, compromising sleep, and depleting our wellness. We must know and attend to what brings us energy in the physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual sense.”

Four very interesting characteristics women will need for the coming years.  If you’ve got any coffee left in your mug, mouse on over to the full article at Sales and Marketing Training Magazine by clicking to  “Leading Women“

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Update 2/29/2012:  A number of people have been reading this article but the link to the actual piece by Martha Carlson was broken.  Apparently it was moved to Training Magazine.  I’ve embedded the new link in the article above, and here it is in it’s more native form:  http://www.trainingmag.com/article/leading-women

After Nancy Pelosi’s historic election as Speaker of the House, the Washington Post described her as a “grandmother of five.”

The Post didn’t refer to her as a “20-year veteran of Congress,” which probably had more to do with her election.

Meanwhile, the Post described Harry Reid, the new Senate leader, as the “son of a hard-rock miner” with no mention of Reid’s 16 grandchildren.

Imagine how differently the story would read if it began “Pelosi, daughter of a mayor” and “Reid, grandfather of 16.”

And here’s another interesting quote to think about relative to how gender neutral is our news coverage from the article:

The Sunday after Pelosi’s inauguration, the New York Times’ feature opinion piece written by New Republic senior editor Ryan Lizza purported to question the Democratic strategy of electing a pack of new “alpha” male Democrats in Congress. But Lizza’s opinion takes as fact that strength and leadership are “masculine” traits, to be contrasted with the image of the Democrats as the weak “mommy party.”

The suggestion was clear that male is strong; female–used interchangeably with “nurturing”–is weak.

Not surprisingly the gender differences in news reporting have not escaped the mind of researchers (one gets the visual cue of a bespecklad gray haired woman in white trench coat, coke bottle glasses tight to her eyes as she pours through endless charts of numbers, sifting them for answers). In a report from Michigan State University dated July 15, 2004, “MSU researchers find gender bias in coverage of political races”, some interesting findings were revealed from examining media coverage of political campaigns in four states; Oregon, Michigan, Illinois, and Minnesota (the press release for the report is at MSU at this link here):

• Three quarters of stories citing nonpartisan sources cited only men, while 9 percent cited only women. The rest used at least one man and one woman.

• Female experts who were cited got fewer paragraphs for their assertions than males, a two paragraph average for males and less than half a paragraph for females.

• No female expert appeared in more than one story, while male experts appeared repeatedly.

Of course none of this tells us why this is happening just shows us it is happening. It’s a little beyond the scope (or budget) for the good barista’s here to froth up a full bore study but here’s a few thoughts that might pique your own thinking. Perhaps when women are seen as nurturing, their views on our personal lives, in a one-to-one session, are received as nurturing. However, in a more public venue perhaps they are not received nearly as much so because there is no perceived sense of threat or danger on the part of the male listener. If there is no threat of being usurped or dominated why worry and why pay much attention? In the case of other women, they may receive and trust another women’s views more so as part of mutually accepting and supporting each other.

Another view is the issue of how much women are perceived to have talked. They key here is “perceived”. In Deborah Tannen’s Book, “You Just Don’t Understand; Women and Men in conversations“. She notes on page 77 that, “Studies have shown that if women and men talk equally in a group, people think the women talked more”. Like it or not, it may be that men simply wrongly perceive that women have said enough. In their minds the reporting is indeed equal. When in fact it is not.

Bias in the media is alive and well to this day. How is your own listening, and accepting of what is said, towards men and women in your life. Do you filter what is said, or bias it yourself? Maybe the media bias will change when men realize that a women’s views on the world are indeed different but just as valid and normative as their own. When that day fully comes there may be a better perspective on the world reported for all our own benefit.

VULNERABLE (vul-ne-ra-bel) adj.
female: Fully opening up one’s self emotionally to another.
male: Playing ball without a cup.

COMMUNICATION
(ko-myoo-ni-kay-shon)n.
female: The sharing of thoughts & feelings with one’s partner.
male: Scratching out a note before suddenly taking off for a weekend with the guys.

BUTT (but) n.
female: The body part that every item of clothing manufactured makes “look bigger.”
male: The organ of mooning and farting.

COMMITMENT (ko-mit-ment) n.
female: A desire to get married and raise a family.
male: Not trying to pick up other women while out with one’s girlfriend.

REMOTE CONTROL (ri-moht kon-trohl) n.
female: A device for changing from one TV channel to another.
male: A device for scanning through all 75 channels every 2 minutes.

TASTE (tayst) v.
female: Something you do frequently to whatever you’re cooking, to make sure it’s good.
male: Something you must do to anything you think has gone bad, prior to tossing it out.

(From Dr. Dialtone’s Amazing website (and it really is amazing!))

The article does a good job of outlining the potential sources for our being transgendered as well as the ethical issues in intervening in children who are diagnosed with gender dysphoria. There are other good insights in the article as well, such as the authors opinion that psychological issues (such as depression, fairly common in the trans-community) are really a result of not dealing constructively with a person’s gender dysphoria.

Click here for this excellent article, from this well respected medical institution in New England

4-2-2008 Update
There is a nice Q&A Interview on the author of this Lahey Clinic article, Dr. Norm Spack. It was done in Boston.Com. You can reach the Boston.com Article by clicking here.

The project, funded by the NIH, is designed to:

describe the economic, social and personal, family and workplace experiences of male to female trans-persons, how these experiences change over the course of our lives, and the impact of these experiences on our mental and physical health.

This sounds like a worthwhile study that will produce some very valuable information on the transgendered community.   If you live in the NY Metro area, go have a look, sounds like you could be a part of history if you do!

Have a lookie at the link and the debate by clicking here.

Helen’s journal, (en)gender, is at this link here.

You can buy the book from Amazon at this link here.

One of the questions I often hear is “how do I find a qualified therapist”. This is an important point as most therapists do not have experience or education in dealing with transgender patients. If you end up choosing such a therapist, you may find you spend more time educating your therapist about what your dealing with rather than getting the help you need. That’s a bad deal (unless you are charging them $150 per hour, then you have a good gig going). There are two things you need (1) a list from a qualified source and (2) references from people where you live…

Both of these will drive you mad if you are in the closet – which is where all of us generally start, wondering what is going on inside us
while finding our lives spinning increasingly out of control. Let’s talk about these two points as they are the critical first step to getting your going forward – which is what you must do. Generally speaking for most trans-folk, sitting back is not the best option.

Let’s take point (2) first then point (1) second (confused yet?). If you can get a suggestion from a live person, that is best. But, you
might not be able to get a reference from another trans-woman or trans-man if your in the closet; you simply won’t know anyone to ask and you might not even know where to begin. That’s where some chat lines and Yahoo groups can be invaluable since you can interact with real transgender men and women who’ve been there, done that and are in the midst of it. Generally speaking, a yahoo group that caters to transgender folks where you post a question are less intimidating than a chat line. Also, there are more transgender writers of blogs out there today and many of those authors are living, breathing people who more than likely will help you or give you some of their life’s knowledge if you ask them.

Now onto point (1) regarding a list of qualified sources. One of the best lists, perhaps the best, is done by Dr. Becky Allison, M.D.. Her list is sorted by state and country and is made up of referrals done to her by other trans-folk. You can reach it by clicking this link here. I started with her list when I had reached the literal end of my rope and knew that I had to start talking to someone. Another list that parallels Dr. Allison’s, though primarily targeted at New England, is Laura5′s resource site. You can reach her site at this link here.

What I did that may help you, is that I just randomly chose three – and then I prayed and hoped I’d find the right one who would take me seriously. It turned out I did not have to worry. My first call to my first therapist was met with someone who was heartfelt and made me feel like I was not insane. Those put me right at ease and opened a little door to my closet that had been pretty much closed and locked up to that point. I put things a bit backwards and actually found out later that other trans people I had met and become friends with used my therapist. That was a nice confirmation but likely would have been better had I found out up front.

And don’t be afraid to try out one or two or three till you find the right one. You are the consumer here. These are your dollars your spending and your health you are dealing with. I started with one who was outstanding for me, but, my spouse did not click with that therapist, so off to look for another. The second one was a good fit for us both.

Many insurance plans will cover your talking to a psychologist, psychiatrist or social worker who specialized in gender issues, but, here’s the catch, you will likely have to ask your therapist to report it as depression. Frankly, such a diagnosis will not be very far from the truth anyway for many of us since depression is a symptom of Gender Identity Dysphoria (GID). And, it will more easily be covered by your insurance and, be less likely to cause someone to wonder what is going on with you as your medical bills are filed and paid for by you or your insurance.

Some additional resources that may be of help to you and well worth reading on this topic:

• How to tell if your therapist sucks like a bilge pump? Click for this story here
• Andrea James @ TS Roadmap with advice on therapy: Click for this story here
• A Teen’s Guide to Choosing a Therapist:  Click for this story here.
• Youth Resources Guide for Trans-Teens.  Click for their resource guide here.
• TYRA Links for Trans-Youth Resources; please click here.
• If you live in Massachusetts, MTPC has put together an excellent list of therapists and their contact information.  Some of this is duplicated in Dr. Becky Allison’s list but there is additional information that you may find helpful.  You may reach the MTPC list at their Wiki here.

12/23/2009 Update
Changed trans-youth guide to a new set of more helpful links for transgender youth under the TYRA umbrella

7/6/2009 Update
The link to “A Teen’s Guide to Choosing a Therapist” was blocked.  It has been replaced with a link to the Youth Resources Guide for Trans-Teens which also has the article, “A Teen’s Guide to Choosing a Therapist”.    We have also added the MTPC guide to therapists in Massachusetts.

4/14/2008 Update
Diane Ellaborn, LICSW, a well respected gender therapist in Massachusetts, wrote an excellent article to help teens choose a therapist.  We’ve included it above under “A Teen’s Guide to Choosing at Therapist”.

4/1/2007 Update
The site, Laura5, has been permanently disabled by the owner.

What makes her story different is that she’s the first Mormon I’ve ever read about who’s transitioned. Her story sounds like many of ours who are trans (whether Male-to-Female or Female-to-Male). But her being a part of the Mormon church is an interesting piece that is well worth reading. Sadly, she was ex-communicated. This is also a common theme among many of us who are transgender and belong to a faith community of some type. Generally speaking, we get the axe. I’m not sure why this is. If one were a Christian, say, then decided that Christianity was simply groundless and then committed to preach a different alien gospel in that church body, well that would certainly be grounds for expulsion. But, to try and be a healthy whole person, follow the teachings of Christ, and then be tossed? Quite a puzzlement.