The Biggest Breakthrough of All

by Dallas Denny

(The Gender Centre advise that this article may not be current and as such certain content, including but not limited to persons, contact details and dates may not apply. Where legal authority or medical related matters are cited, responsibility lies with the reader to obtain the most current relevant legal authority and/or medical publication.)

When I think about breakthroughs in the field of gender, many ideas come to mind. I think about John Money's work with intersexed (hermaphroditic) people at Johns Hopkins University, which led, in 1955, to his making a distinction between gender and sex (previously they had been considered to be the same).

I think about recent genetic research in pursuit of a gene which "switches on" masculinize development. I think about the publication, in 1979, of the Standards of Care of the Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Institute, Inc., which standardized the treatment of transsexual people. I think about the recent realization by researchers that transsexualism is not a single clinical entitity, but a behavioral manifestation common to an unknown number of syndromes with underlying causes which might be biological, psychological, sociologic, or familial in nature. I think about recent progress in hormonal treatment (the use of antiandrogens, replacement of oral administration with subdermal and transdermal routes). I think about the advent, in the 1980's, of the use of the radial forearm flap, which revolutionized female-to-male reassignment surgery. I think about the blossoming of the gender community, which has been called "mythical" in these pages, but is real enough when one is in desperate need of information and assistance.

I think about all these, and more, only to reject them in favor of the biggest breakthrough of all - the unique combination of social and psychological and medical factors which has for the first time in history made it realistic for genetic males to live their lives as women, and for genetic females to live their lives as men.

There have always been transsexual people, and there will always be. In the future, sex reassignment may or may not be available. Certainly it has not been in the past. But during the past two decades, reassignment has become a realistic goal for those willing to work long enough and hard enough to achieve gender congruity.

Consider: if you had been born at any time in history except the second half of the twentieth century, you would have, unless you were one of the fortunate few who happened to look sufficiently like the opposite sex, been stuck in the gender normally associated with your biological sex. Electrolysis was not available. Sex hormones had not been artificially synthesized. Sex reassignment surgery was not performed.

Before 1949, the word transsexual had not even been coined. In the scientific literature, transsexual people were called transvestites, and sometimes Eonists. People who were confused about their gender did not even consider that something could be done about it.

It was in 1952, with the breaking of the " G.I. Becomes Blonde Bombshell" headlines about Christine Jorgensen, that things began to change. Transsexual people began to go to other countries to seek S.R.S. The 1960's saw the founding of the first gender clinic in the United States, and in the 1970s, S.R.S. became widely available. The 1980s brought increased media coverage of transsexualism, and the formation of a national umbrella organization for transgendered people.

And where does this leave us? Well, in a difficult position, to be sure. The struggle to change one's gender is probably the most significant event in his or her lifetime - but it is now, thanks to hormonal and surgical techniques and the social acceptance of transsexualism, possible for every man (and every woman).

And that is a breakthrough.

Polare is published in Australia by The Gender Centre Inc. which is funded by the Department of Community Services under the S.A.A.P. Program and supported by the N.S.W. Health Department through the AIDS and Infectious Diseases Branch. Polare provides a forum for discussion and debate on gender issues. Advertisers are advised that all advertising is their responsibility under the Trade Practices Act. Unsolicited contributions are welcome, though no guarantee is made by the Editor that they will be published, nor any discussion entered into. The editor reserves the right to edit such contributions without notification. Any submission which appears in Polare may be published on our internet site. Opinions expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect those of the Editor, The Gender Centre Inc.I, the Department of Community Services or the N.S.W. Department of Health.