Homosexuality No Longer a Mental Illness

     There was a time when homosexuality was considered a
mental illness. Well, no more. According to the new DSM5,
homosexuality has been removed, but is far from being
extinct from controversial new labels such as gender dysphoria.

     Will there be a time when bipolar and schizophrenia are
no longer a mental illness too? That remains to be seen. This
is probably something to consider in the far off future,
because the new DSM5 just surfaced and was changed  from
the DSM-IV recently. There was about fifty years? of the
DSM-IV before the professionals changed it in the DSM5.

     I wrote something for school about gender dysphoria and
would like to share it with you. I am asexual and wonder if
that would be considered a disorder too. Between my medicine
and the abuse I suffered as a child, I am celibate and abstain
from any sexual behaviors. Sex disgusts me. I am asking for
an open mind about this.

     Vocabulary ABCs

     Thanks for letting me share a little college with you.
    

Gender Dysphoria and Societal Labels

     Social labeling may seem like it will last forever, but opinions and facts change over time. Biology, on the other hand, is what we are born as and nothing can change that. This encompasses the children born with chromosomes other than XX and XY. At around age 3, children have learned that they fall into a sex category- boy or girl; but, some do not accept this fact even at this young of age. There is peer pressure to “adopt same-sex stereotype attributes and to shun cross-sex ones” (Tobin et al. 602). Those children that see themselves as cross-sexed face an uphill battle of peer pressure, family concern, and many physician visits; including psychiatric as well as psychological therapy to “make sure” the child is really determined to be cross-sexed. I think treatment should include testing the chromosomes of the child, because the child may be biologically the ‘other’ sex.

     Gender segregation starts at home. Mommy is a girl, she does this. While daddy is a boy and he does that. This gender typing is normal and carries over to the child around their peers where the child at school will play with others of the same-sex and feel peer-pressure to shun the other-sex and other-sex activities at a young age.

     Physicians believe that “1-individuals are psychosexually neutral at birth and 2-healthy psychosexual development is dependent upon the appearance of the genitals” (Diamond 2). I disagree. I believe that our biological ‘clock’ tells us, at certain plateaus, that we are what we are and that you cannot make a boy into a girl just because you screwed up and maimed the child. It is psychologically more damaging, than if you were honest about it. If not, there will be trust issues later on that will never go away. The psychological damage is severe and irreversible.

          

                                                                                                                                                          

Diamond agrees, stating: “We believe that any 46-chromosome XY individual…should be raised up as a male”, and that, “This decision is not simple…” (Diamond 14).

     According to MacKain, “How (a) child creates and uses gender categories may be influenced by any number of factors: parental teaching, modeling…certain toys, or exposure to situations in which children can learn about anatomical differences between males and females(MacKain,14).

This environmental exposure is sometimes beyond the control of the parent. Thus the adage, ”kids will be kids”. We need to avoid assumptions and take into account, “that in order to understand how gender operates within the minds of children it is necessary to take into account each child’s unique perspective on what gender (is)” (Tobin et al,601). Gender identity is unique to each individual child and should be seen through that specific child’s perspective without sway. A preschooler’s gender schema allows the rapid acquisition of gender stereotypes that influences their behavior and they use this “belief” (Tobin et al,602) to process information about others. They intercollate their beliefs into how they play, who they play with, and how they structure their behavior, modeling peer-pressures in all their interactions with others. “Children use implicit theories of categorization to guide their thinking” (Tobin et al.,605) and their way of thinking gets passed onto others (mainly their peers).

     It is unfortunate that children, who at an early age feel cross-sexed, are put through therapy to learn more about “boys and girls”. Their innocence is disrupted, because the adults in “said” child’s life want to “make sure” for themselves, that their child’s determination is real. I also oppose hormone therapy at a young age. Yes, embrace the child, but leave the hormones out of it until the child is in their late teens and wait for the child to fully understand what for and why they are taking hormones.     

                                                                                                                                                          

     When I was young, my parents used to say, “You can be anything you put your mind to”, but, even the idea of boy into girl or girl into boy was kept hush-hush. The bible guided my uneducated teenage parents and if something was considered a sin we avoided it. I am far from being a devout follower, but I have reservations on the topic of androgeny. Should we or shouldn’t we? How early is too early? Are there nurturing issues perpetuation the child’s self-concept? Has the child been exposed and now wants to androgenize for safety reasons? It is alright to entertain the idea from the child’s perspective, but it would be a mistake if you lead the child into a decision. So, boy or girl? These days, there is more support and understanding that circumvents stigma and discrimination.

     With all of these questions remaining, I decided to go straight to the source (DSM5). The DSM5 has three gender categories: gender dysphoria, other specified gender dysphoria and unspecified gender dysphoria. For the sake of staying on topic, I will only be looking at gender dysphoria in young children.

     In the DSM5, it states that, “Individuals with gender dysphoria have a marked incongruence between the gender they (are born with) and their experienced/expressed gender” (302.6 (F64.2)). It also explains the difference between “early onset” and “late onset” of the disorder. But why should someone’s gender preference be categorized as a disorder in the first place? Just because someone is different than that of the norm and refuses to conform to “stereotypical gender role behavior” (DSM5) does not mean that they have a disorder. Society thrives on labels, but sometimes labels are misplaced, misguided, and distasteful because they want that label, they want to know what category to put their experience in. Sometimes, you just have to accept things as they are- without labels.

References

Diamond, Milton, and H. Keith Sigmundson. (2009). Sex Reassignment at Birth: A Long Term Review and Clinical Implications. Retrieved from http://hawaii.edu/PCSS/biblio/articles/ 1961to1999/1997-sex-reassignment.html.

DSM5. (2016) Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1176/appi.books.9780890425596.dsm14

Mac Kain, S.J.(1987). Gender Constancy: A Realistic Approach. (1-14) Retrieved from http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED286583.pdf

Tobin, Desiree D., Meenakshi Menon, Madhavi Menon, Brooke C. Spatta, Ernest V. E. Hodges, David G. Perry. (2010). The Intrapsychics of Gender: A Model of Self-Socialization. Psychological Review, 117(2), 602-622.