Ex-Gay Watch

Held on the 20th of November every year, this day is set to commemorate transgenders who have been killed due to discrimination, prejudice and hatred towards the community. It is also to raise awareness and act against the violence, brutality and murder of gender variant or non-gender conforming individuals within the LGBT community worldwide.

Every year, scores of transgenders have been murdered in dehumanizing ways, as the hatred against gender variant or non-gender conforming individuals is on the rise. The countless deaths are from all walks of life; activists, school children, sex workers, civil servants and even mainstream executives. Even those perceived to be transgenders are not spared. Most of the murderers get off lightly, resulting in further stigmatization that transgenders somehow “deserves it”. This is also a day to take action against transphobia.

Situation in Malaysia

In Malaysia, battered transgenders and friends of those who died are often too afraid to speak out because of death threats and police mockery, while Islamic fundamentalists still demonize and portray transgenders falsely as deviants. Many of the murder victims are often insultingly mis-gendered and referred to with the wrong pronouns when their deaths are reported in the newspapers. And many deaths go unreported because of media bias.

The Transgender Day Of Remembrance (Malaysia) is an event organized by the Malaysian TransAdvocacy Coalition, and funded by two key individuals. It was originally scheduled to be at the Asian-Pacific Resource and Research Centre For Women (ARROW), but due to an administration officer’s scheduling conflict, the event was moved to PT Foundation Transsexual Drop-In-Centre (DIC) a day before the event.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia is one of the 144 cities from 21 countries to hold the eleventh Transgender Day Of Remembrance this year. It also marks the second time this event is held in Malaysia, and the first in which the Malay Language was used. This year, Malaysia has three recorded deaths, and they are among the 162 deaths recorded worldwide. The issue of transphobia and ways to reduce a hostile climate towards trans people were discussed. A candlelight vigil was held at the end of the sessions.

TDOR in Malaysia

On Friday 20th of November 2009, around 20 participants were present by 7.50pm. Most of them are regulars at the PT Transsexual DIC. The host began the night by explaining the function of the Malaysian TransAdvocacy Coalition and its goal to sensitize schools to the presence of transgenders, to build a database of organizations that do not discriminate against transgenders so that jobs can be offered, narrowing down transgender friendly health care providers and clinics to assist transgenders, and providing possible places for transgenders to rent and stay without prejudice and discrimination.

Then the subject of transphobia was tackled. The members of the floor were asked about the causes of transphobia and a few of the more outspoken ones gave valid answers. Then an open discussion ensued on how to tackle the causes of transphobia, resulting in a truly educational experience for not only the participants, but also the host of the event. Some of the suggestions including stopping sticking to a transgender clique and hanging around the fringes of society, and instead coming out to meet and mix with the people around them. It is also agreed that the negative attitudes of most transgenders also needs to change, to avoid being stereotyped wholly as sex workers or unreliable people.

Then we headed on to the candlelight vigil, where names were called out and candles were lit for those who have died this year, and we reserved four tall candles for the four who died in Malaysia (three reported, one not reported). Unfortunately after reading about the fortieth name, most of the transgenders were getting restless and I was asked by the Transsexual DIC Programme Manager not to finish the list. I then asked everyone to light all the candles at one go to remember our dead, and hope for a better tomorrow for all of us.

Response from the LGBT Community

A request through e-mail was sent to PT’s In House Programme Manager to advertise the event on his regular Yahoo groups. There was no reply from him. Fellow ex-gay survivor Pang Kee Teik was most accommodating; he sent out messages to all the member of the Sexualiti Merdeka Facebook Group. However, no one from the group showed up. The Malaysian Human Rights Council and Joint Action Group For Gender Equality (JAG) were also notified via e-mail. There was no e-mail reply, and no representatives from either group. This may be a sign that most gays and lesbians, or even those working on sexuality and human rights, still do not regard trans violence something worth their time or importance, even though those perceived to be transgender have same risks of violence in Malaysia.

Most of the participants this year felt bored and have a nonchalant attitude towards the event. When the names of the dead were read out, instead of mourning, most of them were already chatting away and some did not even light one candle. Valuable materials that were printed out for them were a waste as most did not read them, probably because they do not know the English language, and for some they simply did not care. It is also saddening that most of the names from the memorial list failed to be read out, because they stopped paying attention to the candlelight vigil. This shows total lack of respect for the dead, and in this case ironically it is their own, and it could happen to them. It is my deepest regret I cannot finish the list, and that they do not consider their dead important.

A few prominent trans individuals were also invited to the event, and they too did not show up. This smacks of irony, as one of the prominent figures that funded the event was a trans woman from Singapore. It comes as a surprise to me that an individual from across the causeway would care about the transgender community in Malaysia, more than the Malaysian trans people themselves. This, in my opinion, marks the spirit of surrender by most of the transgender community especially among the Malays; their complacency, as most of them were negative in their attitude, and do not even care about tomorrow.

In conclusion

I was however, encouraged by some positive signs. Several trans people, while most were preparing to go back, continue lighting the candles until all of them are lit. Some were seen praying for the souls of their friends. And some do realize the reasons why we remember our dead. It is simply because it could be one of our family members, or our friends, or ourselves. I do believe the list should have been completed. All the names are people who have existed to make all of us visible. They have friends and families, and they were living people. And furthermore, these are victims of prejudice and hate, and this sort of violence can happen to anyone within the LGBT community. They do deserve their due recognition, especially when it is already so difficult to track down more of the deaths that are unreported to the police, or dismissed by the media.

There are lessons to be learnt from conducting a TDOR memorial. The event was not a total failure, for some do get the message. But I find it shocking that in comparison to the TDOR event last year, cisgenders seem to care more about trans people than transgenders themselves. Perhaps there is a dire need now for transgenders to take a hard look in the mirror and ask themselves what they really want out of their lives. To have their existence validated, or be thrown into the abyss where they will not even be remembered by their own. Right now I have made my decision to not let circumstances get me down. But unless they decide to do so too, their stance will affect me, as I will be just a single voice. It is my hope, for TDOR next year, every one, gay or straight, cis or trans, would come together for one simple reason. Hate is evil. The violence and murders must stop.

Randy Thomas has a history of speaking about transgenders without any real knowledge of the subject. So it was only a matter of time until he showed his ignorance and lack of any real knowledge on transgender issues once again. A while ago, he was interviewed on Prime Time America along with Russell Moore, self-styled trans authority who knows almost nothing about the complexities of transgenders. Mr. Thomas was asked to explain some of the factors that can lead people into the “transgendered lifestyle.”

Quote:

Thomas: From the experiences that I had with friends who have dealt with this issue, it could be anything from a complete defensive detachment from their gender identity. There might have been significant trauma or sexual abuse where they just completely rejected their own gender for shame reasons or fear of becoming what their abuser was, maybe a little boy was strongly identifying with women because they were his only role models that exhibited strength and power and intelligence. Maybe he was indoctrinated with mysandry, which is hatred toward men. What we do know about sexuality is that it’s very complex, and there’s always a high combination of factors for why people struggle with what they struggle with.

Mr. Thomas has a propensity toward reusing the tired “sexual abuse” theory, often parroted by Exodus International as a cause of homosexuality, and expands it to include transgenders. But he failed to mention increasing evidence that in most cases transgenderism is caused by biological conditions. And since he accused transgenders last year of ignoring their genetic destiny, evidence of a genetic component to transsexuality has been found, and researchers are confident more will be discovered. With such mounting evidence of the innateness of gender identity, how ridiculous do Mr. Thomas’ claims look?

Quote:

Thomas: For transgendereds, they have to deal with what all of us have to deal with and that is, struggling to find an identity in Christ and Christ alone. With transgendereds, my friends have struggled with what it means to be male, what it means to be female, why God would create gender complimentarity, and how to embrace that gender that they were born with and to thank God for allowing them to experience that as a man or as a woman.

But an identity in Christ has nothing to do with being male or female, and transgenders already embrace the gender they have, man or woman. The only struggle they have is with their sex, and not God. If only Mr. Thomas would take the time to learn the difference between gender and sex. He shows that he is completely oblivious to what transgenders are, when he uses “transgendered,” a word which means people of gender variance, as the name of some sort of a struggle.

Quote:

Thomas: What I see in the church is a complete disconnect with people who struggle with transgendered. It’s always a cultural aspect that we’ve not really consciously adopted into our churches but it’s there. It’s this feeling of I cannot relate to you at all. And the first thing I would say to the church is that’s a lie. If you use to struggle with your identity, or your sexuality, and whatever way, you know what it means to turn to God to explain and to love you into who you truly are. And empower you to steward your life in a way into that honor him and honors everyone around you so if you know what it means to have a saviour. You can relate to this person.

Russell Moore believes a person’s gender identity is something that needs to be repented from. He hopes to impress people with his opinion by re-enforcing masculine and feminine stereotypes . He is also hoping that more transgenders will show up at churches so that they can be “saved,” even though transgenders have done nothing wrong by simply being man or woman.

Quote:

Moore: There are a number of pastors who are dealing with it right now and my only lament is that there are not more pastors dealing with this right now. Because we have large number relatively speaking of transgendered persons in our society. The only reason why more pastors are confronting the issue is that we don’t have more transgendered persons queing up in our churches asking what must I do to be saved. And that is a problem for us. My hope is that more, of these situations will take place as more of persons who are damaged and wounded in various ways come and see a need for Christ.

Instead of letting transgenders who seek God simply have a personal relationship with Christ, Mr. Moore feels there is a need for his students to aid “repentance” by focusing on the external, a person’s identity, with a change of clothes and name. He clings to the myth that a person’s gender can be “damaged” or “wounded”. And when he is asked how pastors should counsel a transgender person who comes to faith in Christ, he says:

Quote:

Moore: What he will need to do is to take the active work of repentance in all the areas that he can change, which is the case for everyone. IF you have someone who is coming to faith in Christ and he is separated from his wife. Then what you are gonna say is that repentance means let’s try to reconcile this marriage. If on the other hand, he is remarried, well now you can’t do that, you can’t go back and do that, so you move to the point where the person is. I do no think that having another reassignment surgery is what I would counsel this man to do. I will instead say to this person, let’s decrease those female hormones in a way that’s medical. safe, let’s start dressing like a man, living like a man, taking back a man’s name, and step by step, this is not going to be an overnight process, but step by step, let’s move towards, living as a man, I think that’s what necessary, not a re-mutilation of his body.

As much as I respect his consistency in believing that divorce and remarrying is wrong, what has “divorce”, an action between one or two parties, got to do with a person’s innate gender identity? Transgender experiences are far more complicated than Mr. Moore’s assertion of “living like a man” or woman. He makes a grave error in judgment when he confuses male and female stereotypes with clothes and how a person should be addressed. He exposes his ignorance when he reduces male and female to stereotypes about clothes and how a person should be addressed. It may be that he really does not know anything about gender, which he insists on calling a “lifestyle”.

All of these misunderstandings and opinions, lacking any basic knowledge, are tiresome for transgenders to hear, as most of us already have to struggle – not with faith or identities as Mr. Moore implied, but with a society that is oblivious to what gender is. And to attempt to turn the church into another place of prejudice and imposition of “change” is demeaning for those who already knew from the start their gender identity and are believers in Christianity.

Randy Thomas and Russell Moore represent transgenders’ greatest violators. Hiding behind the “love” of Christ, they have demonized transgenders in this broadcast by saying repeating tired myths and insisting that our lives should be run as they see fit. Repentance has always meant a 180-degree turn from sin; but simply existing as a being with biologically rooted gender variations, some with intense distress and needing to live out their true gender, hardly constitutes sin. I believe both Mr. Thomas and Mr. Moore seriously need to reevaluate their misguided opinions which continue to reduce transgenderism to nothing but a choice of labels and clothing.

Johannah, frequently pen-named “Ephilei,” is a genderqueer and self-labeled liberal-orthodox Christian who recently started TransChristians.org and faithful reader of XGW.

The public intersection of Christianity and transgenderism is quite small, so I’ve kept tabs easily and I have to scrounge for every morsel. So I was anxious to see Glenn Stanton of Focus on the Family enter the court of the prince of pop-psychology on “Dr. Phil,” McGraw’s daytime show on January 14th. The trans movement is several decades behind the gay movement so I don’t encourage anyone to put their hopes up for a fair portrayal. Nevertheless, the result was entertaining.

The cast was comprised of three moms of transgirls (male-to-female transexuals), two trans-affirming researchers, Dr. Dan Siegel and Dr. Michelle Angello, the not so affirming Joseph Nicolosi and Glenn Stanton of Focus on the Family, and Dr. Phil. The kids were absent. Siegel has an MD from Harvard and has spent years studying how parent-child attachment influences behavior, emotions, and how a child perceives their history. In other words, exactly what reparative therapists generally believe is the cause of both transgenderism and homosexuality. Dr. Angello has her doctorate in sexology and has 10 years of counseling and leadership experience in gender and sexual orientation. Both act in the ways we’d expect from professional counselors – deep knowledge, experience, empathy, and solid advice – so I’m going to focus on Nicolosi and Stanton.

Stanton was new to me, and for good reason. He’s written a fair number of books and articles on homosexuality, but nothing on transgenderism and, of course, his education has nothing to do with psychology and his experience is politics and public speaking. His very basic article on the topic reveals he relies more on second hand quotations like newspapers and Focus on the Family literature than books or journals. Stanton is like any lay person who hears a theory second hand and uses his influence to espouse it without actually doing research or talking with trans (or even “ex-trans”) people.

For instance, on the show he cites Dr. Jerome Kagan as an expert with four decades of experience. Kagan is a giant in psychology, but his expertise is cisgender (non-transgender) child development, not transgenderism and invoking his name is a fallacious appeal to authority. Read more…

Gay actor John Barrowman met with an ex-gay during the filming of a BBC documentary about the origins of homosexuality.

The British-American entertainer, best-known to international audiences as Captain Jack Harkness in the the sci-fi serial Doctor Who (and its spin-off, Torchwood), met with Ron Woolsey, aka Victor J Adamson, a Seventh Day Adventist pastor from Arkansas.

Woolsey’s part in the broadcast was surprisingly brief. He reiterated the common ex-gay claim that being gay was a destructive lifestyle:

My life was hurting people. I saw my parents weeping, so I looked at my situation and I was under great conviction that if I wanted to be a Christian I would need to set that aside. I could choose to chart a different course for myself and it was a matter of retraining my mind.

Barrowman asked him whether being gay could simply be a matter of wiring in the brain. Woolsey’s reply confirms what most of us have experienced for ourselves, that being ex-gay does not change underlying orientation, but simply denies it: Read more…

From MSNBC:

Is he gay or straight? At a glance, the key to telling might be in the way he walks.

A swing of the hips or a swaggered shoulder is enough for many casual observers to identify a man’s sexual orientation, according to a study published in the September issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

Observers were only able to accurately guess the sexual orientation of men; with women, their guesses didn’t exceed chance. But what’s most interesting to researchers is understanding how that snap judgment can unleash a series of stereotypes – even from the most liberal-minded.

The study, by UCLA assistant professor Kerri Johnson, found that observers guessed men’s sexual orientation only 60 percent of the time — almost a coin toss. In other words, contrary to hype surrounding the study, the results suggest that body language does not give away sexual orientation.

The findings aren’t meant to be used as a diagnostic test, Johnson says. In other words, don’t use her research to out someone. But although the research is getting attention for its results about a distinction in how gay men walk, Johnson and her colleagues were more focused on studying the observers.

“If we know how people use these cues to categorize one another, it can help us understand what happens in how they react with other people,” Johnson says.

That quick assessment can mean that the observer is associating that person with stereotypes they’ve heard – for example, that a gay man isn’t as masculine as a straight man. Next, Johnson plans to study the implications of judging someone’s sexuality by those visual clues.

Does this suggest in some fashion that Exodus and NARTH — who allege that gay men lack masculinity and lesbian women lack femininity — have been succumbing to stereotypes rather than empirical observation?

Addendum: Controversial researcher J. Michael Bailey misconstrues the results of the study.

“There’s reason to think that gay people can’t conceal their homosexuality,” says Michael Bailey, a professor of psychology at Northwestern University. “I don’t think it’s a performance that gay people enact. I think it’s something that either is inborn, or it’s acquired very early, perhaps by watching members of the other sex.”

So does MSNBC writer Melissa Dahl:

Research such as Johnson’s may give scientific credence to “gaydar,” suggesting that people really can tell whether someone is gay or straight from visual clues.

The study found a 40-percent failure rate among just 150 college students in guessing the sexual orientation of men, and also found that the same observers were unable to correctly identify sexual orientation in women. That does not (in my opinion) suggest that people generally can identify sexual orientation from visual cues — among men or women.

It’s not very often I just recommend a piece for reading without much commentary on my part, but comments on recent Ex-Gay Watch posts have indicated that many are unfamiliar with the ex-transgender component of the ex-gay movement.

This recommended reading post is a personal story piece by Marti Abernathey that explains how she used to be ex-transgender, and now understands herself to be ex-ex-transgender – or as Marti says, “In the end I’m not really ex-ex- anything. I’m me.”

The Washington Blade picked it up for their BlogWatch for June 5th, so as one might guess Ms. Abernathey’s piece is well written.

TransAdvocate.com: Confessions of A Ex-Ex-Transgender

Excerpt:

You’ve probably heard of the ex-gay movement. You may have even heard of the ex-ex-gay movement. Odds are slim that you know anyone that is ex-transgender. But have you ever known anyone that is ex-ex-transgender?

You have if you’ve read this blog…

——
Pam Ferguson contributed to this post.

Federal legislation on expanding hate crimes to include violent attacks against individuals on the basis of “gender, sexual orientation and gender identity” is currently being reviewed by the Senate. Christians have strongly voiced opposition to the expansion, arguing that the bill could silence believers who view homosexuality as sinful. That also applies to the transgender.–Lillian Kwon, Christian Post Staff Writer

Lillian Kwon recently wrote an article for the Christian Post entitled Media Bias on Transgenders Raising Concerns. The concern, expressed by Dr. Robert Gagnon, Peter LaBarbera and Kwon, is that there are portrayals in the first place, and that these portrayals are often positive.

Dr. Robert Gagnon, associate professor of New Testament at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, is quoted in the article as claiming that 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 contains a prohibition against transgenderism:

Alluding to Scripture (1 Corinthians 6:9-10), Gagnon quoted Apostle Paul listing persons who will “not inherit the kingdom of God.” The list includes the “effeminate” or “soft men,” which is essentially the closest thing to transgenderism, Gagnon pointed out.

Noted Yale historian John Boswell, in his book Christianity, Social Tolerance, And Homosexuality (p. 106,107) said this about the passage Dr. Gagnon quoted:

There are three passages in the writings of Paul which have been supposed to deal with homosexual relations. Two words in I Corinthians 6:9 and one in I Timothy 1:10 have been taken at least since the early twentieth century to indicate that “homosexuals” will be excluded from the kingdom of heaven.The first of the two, “” (basically, “soft”), is an extremely common Greek word; it occurs elsewhere in the New Testament with the meaning “sick” and in patristic writings with senses as varied as “liquid,” “cowardly,” “refined,” “weak willed,” “delicate,” “gentle,” and “debauched.” In a specifically moral context it very frequently means “licentious,” “loose,” or “wanting in self-control.” At a broad level, it might be translated as either “unrestrained” or “wanton,” but to assume that either of these concepts necessarily applies to gay people is wholly gratuitous. The word is never used in Greek to designate gay people as a group or even in reference to homosexual acts generically, and it often occurs in writings contemporary with the Pauline epistles in reference to heterosexual persons or activity.

Dr. Dale Martin, in Arsenokoités and Malakos: Meanings and Consequences, adds the following:

Read more…

Researchers Kenneth J. Zucker and Susan J. Bradley are names that every gay man and lesbian woman should know, especially if they were treated to become “straight” at a camp or a ex-gay affirming psychologist’s office — but almost no one knows who Zucker and Bradley are.

The National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuals (NARTH) quotes Zucker and Bradley often in defense of treating children diagnosed with Gender Identity Disorder (GID) — described as a “pre-homosexual condition” by Joseph Nicolosi in his book A Parents Guide To Preventing Homosexuality. (Update – See Further Reading‘s GID Reform Advocates: DSM-IV-TR: Gender Identity Disorder in Children, 302.6 for how the Childhood GID applies to LGB people.)

Kenneth Zucker and Susan Bradley are from the Clark Institute (CAMH), specifically the institution’s Gender Identity Clinic.

In Gene Chase’s review of Zucker & Bradley’s Gender Identity Disorder and Psychosexual Problems in Children and Adolescents, Chase states of Zucker and Bradley:

They are specialists in Gender Identity Disorder (GID), which is the last vestige of the characterization of homosexuality as a disorder in the old APA DSM [Diagnostic and Statistical Manual].

Recall that GID is the feeling of conflict in one’s gender. It is not being transsexual (ts), since no biology is a part of the diagnosis. It is not being transgendered (tg) alone, since that may not be conflicting. It is not cross-dressing, since that is a behavior not a feeling.

Here’s what has been said about Zucker and Bradley’s work, some of it in their own words:

Read more…

Perhaps taking his cue from Exodus’s increasing involvement in US politics, British ex-gay James Parker has weighed in on the UK’s new Sexual Orientation Regulations. The SORs are an attempt to apply the same anti-discrimination laws to gays and lesbians that already apply to race and gender because of the Equality Act 2006. Under these rules, a hotel, say, cannot refuse a room to a couple simply because they are gay; businesses and services must be equally open to straights and gays. By the same token, of course, a gay bar cannot refuse service to straight people. After failing a challenge in the House of Lords, the regulations became UK law on Wednesday last week.

The most discussed consequence of the regulations has been the demand that Catholic adoption agencies no longer refuse to place children with gay parents. After much controversy, the Labour Government announced that there would be no exemptions.

Self-described “post-gay” Rev Peter Ould has rightly supported rules outlawing discrimination on the grounds of sexuality, and has condemned Christians who would deny gays and lesbians equal rights to services. He has been outspoken in criticizing the regulations for threatening freedom of speech, however, arguing that there is no protection against Christians who preach the “biblical” message of condemnation for homosexual acts. Acknowledging that priests and ordained leaders are specifically exempt, he is worried that lay Christians will find themselves being criminalized for condemning homosexuality.

And, of course, there have been the outright extremists, such as the group who made the outrageous claim that the new regulations would force schools to use graphic sexual images to teach 6-year-olds how to experiment sexually with each other’s bodies. (You can read a full transcript here.)

Read more…

Whenever I discuss transgender medical or therapeutic treatments here at the Ex-Gay Watch, I always seem to go back to the Harry Benjamin Standards Of Care. Like or hate this document (and the GID diagnosis), what the document does is provide criteria for determining if one has a condition that falls under the document’s purview; it provides a general outline of what medical and psychological treatments are appropriate for transsexuals; and it lists timelines and benchmarks for when particular treatments are considered appropriate.

Many medical and mental health conditions have standards of care — evidence-based clinical practice guidelines. There are standards of care for everything from treating ingrown toenails to managing Alzheimer’s disease; from treating acute dental trauma to treating bipolar disorders.

The National Guideline Clearinghouse™ maintains a public resource for many of these guidelines.

Not too surprisingly, there are no entries in the National Guideline Clearinghouse™ for Same Sex Attraction Disorder (SSAD) — no evidence-based clinical practice guidelines listed there for how to conduct conversion therapies for a SSAD (or any other named disorder relating to treatment of homosexuality or unwanted homosexual propensities) diagnosis.

National Association For Research & Therapy Of Homosexuality (NARTH) indicates this about its function:

NARTH’s function is to provide psychological understanding of the cause, treatment and behavior patterns associated with homosexuality, within the boundaries of a civil public dialogue.

After reading the organization’s function one might think that the organization would maintain an evidence-based clinical practice guideline for treating unwanted homosexual propensities. Yet, if one searches the NARTH website, one finds they have no published standard of care for SSAD, or standard of care for any other titled disorder relating to treatment of homosexuality or unwanted homosexual propensities.

Read more…