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from Clinical/Therapeutic Issues
APA Gay Issues Division Newsletter
Studies Gender Variance
July 26, 2004 - Division 44, the Society for the Psychological Study of Lesbian, Gay, and
Bisexual Issues, has published its summer 2004 newsletter online.
The summer issue, devoted to "Transgender Issues In Psychology," and features
numerous articles dealing with intersexuals, transgenders, and gender variant
individuals in cross-cultural settings.
"Cross-Cultural Examples of Gender Variance," by psychologist Randall D. Ehrbar,
describes several Native American tribes and the Sambia, a New Guinea tribe that
institutionalizes gender variant individuals who known in the United States as
hermaphrodites. According to Ehrbar, the Sambia tribe has a high incident of
intersexed (hermaphroditic) individuals and this tribe recognizes three sexes
and two genders. The Sambia raise these individuals as males but they are unable
to complete the requirements to be considered fully male.
Ehrbar notes that in the U.S., parents of a child born with malformed genitals
typically have the child operated on to be assigned a sex as either a boy or
girl. However, intersex activists are urging a change in policy in dealing with
these children. Activists argue that it is unethical to operate on an infant
without his or her consent and that surgery often has negative effects on later
sexual development.
The author observes that there is frequently a strong "spiritual component to
gender variant statuses. This is true for some Native American cultures and
Indian hirja. This is also an important aspect of the acault in Myanmar
(formerly known as Burma)."
Ehrbar also reviewed Transgender Emergence: Therapeutic Guidelines for Working
with Gender-Variant People and Their Families, authored by Arlene Istar Lev,
with Division 44's Transgender Taskforce. Ehrbar has served on this task force
with Lev.
He observes: "Lev is very thorough and addresses the needs of the full range of
transgender people and their families, including people who cross-dress;
bi-gendered, non-gendered, and other alternatively gendered people; transsexual
people, and intersex people. ... While she is frankly in favor of a
non-pathologizing approach, she is fair and respectful in her presentation of
other approaches."
Updated: 8 February 2008
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