Category: Editorial

Originally appeared in Transgender Tapestry #096, Winter 2001.

International Foundation for Gender Education, Inc.

I would like to address the condition of the International Foundation for Gender Education with you, our readers and supporters. I feel it necessary for you to have firsthand knowledge of where we are and where we are going.

IFGE offers a variety of programs. The most visible is our quarterly journal, Transgender Tapestry. While we maintain this journal as a separate program, it is in reality fully integrated with the rest of the organization.

Many people feel that in this day of the Internet Transgender Tapestry is the primary reason for IFGE?s existence. I would ask that you read not only about the magazine, but about our other projects and services, and what we are doing about IFGE as an organization.

Originally appeared in Transgender Tapestry #097, Spring 2002.

I?ve long been a supporter of the Standards of Care of the Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association. I felt they made great sense in a time when transsexual and other transgendered people were typically confused, frightened, and ignorant of their life options. In this postmodern age in which more and more of us are strong and sure of ourselves, I?m no longer certain about the appropriateness of the Standards of Care, and I?m becoming more and more convinced that it?s unethical to apply constraints to a class of people without solid evidence that they are needed.

Just as I?m an opponent of seat belt and motorcycle helmet laws which eliminate freedom in the name of the greater good, I?ve decided to come down in opposition to Standards of Care which give therapists gatekeeping powers over other human beings. I routinely use my seat belt, and I wouldn?t ride a motorcycle without a helmet, and I didn?t have sex reassignment surgery without having lived 24/7 for more than a year, but I assert my right and the rights of others to live free without such constraints.