Dedicated to the acceptance, medical treatment, & legal protection of individuals in the process of correcting the misalignment of their anatomical sex, & supporting their transition into society.

 
TS-Si Op-Ed Pages/Looking Glass
Will Genetics Research And Eugenics Doom The HBS-born?
Sharon Gaughan
Sunday, 20 April 2008
Springfield, VA, USA. Those of us born with Harry Benjamin Syndrome (HBS) had (or still have) a correctible medical condition. Despite the pre-existent nature of HBS, critics on both the social left and social right often characterize our striving for surgical correction as an example of making a wholly optional lifestyle choice. But how can that be so when it is a medical condition identified at birth? And why should the critics be in control anyway? Shouldn't the right to personal liberty prevail?
The story of human social development contains within it an important component: a continuing desire for enhanced abilities and improved prospects. These yearnings can take the form of formal religion, scientific investigation, or political activism. All of them, and more, can reach fruition as positive contributions to human progress or write dark and terrible chapters in a downward spiral toward sociopathic authoritarianism.
HBS people, like people everywhere, try to find their way in the midst of bewildering attempts to corral and categorize them for processing by those who set themselves up as their judges. But let's leave the potential oppressors out of the discussion for a moment and consider the debate that goes on among ourselves. Do we really want to
know the origin of HBS?
Some say no, it does not matter. What matters is what we do about it. Besides, the more detailed the knowledge of our birth condition becomes, the more strident becomes the objection of critics to our existence. What would happen of our critics could control the information? Would we be hounded out of society or worse, pinned wriggling like a butterfly on an examining table?
I certainly agree with one part of that: I had no choice in how I was born, but I did h
Countering Empty Gestures With Coffee & A Really Good Blueberry Scone
TS-Si News Service
Friday, 25 January 2008
Springfield, VA, USA. I avoid commercial pastries; they are bad for my waistline. However, I do love a really good blueberry scone. Every so often when out doing my tasks in life I simply can’t resist and swing by a coffee shop and indulge in what passes in my life for a guilty pleasure. One day, I stopped at a shop, ordered up a coffee and a scone — blueberry, my favorite — and settled in to eat my delight and read the Science section of the New York Times. Horrors! The scone was some sort of stale chocolate thing.
I went to the counter to complain and the young man told me that was the only kind of scone available (my choice was sold out). I pointed out that the sign in the case said blueberry. The clerk only half-jokingly said I should pretend. Really? What about my expectations? And what would happen if we all decided to mislabel things because we should just pretend? I told the clerk his employer had engaged in a deceptive business practice, but he merely shrugged and passed on to the next customer.
Play can be fun, especially with children or the dog. It doesn’t work so well if I vote for one candidate based on her or his policies, only to d
Finding Renewed Faith In Optimism, And The Perils Of Despair
Sharon Gaughan
Monday, 05 November 2007
Springfield, VA, USA. I have met two men in my life who lost their penises to a misfortune of life. They weren’t born with HBS, but accident or disease confronted them. These are my notes on our encounters, my meetings with men looking for lives to live.
A city on the eastern seaboard of the United States drew me in for my periodic medical examination. The stairs leading up to a hospital rarely convey the charm of what might lie ahead, only the terrifying possibilities of what might lie within.
The hospital I visited is old and prestigous, but ill-equipped to calculate the tolls paid by the human heart. While there, and as usual, I stopped in for my regular visit to the pediatric burn ward. As a long-term burn survivor of nominally terminal burn injuries, the gatekeepers let me in, figuring my example might help comfort the kids.
My mother once caught my younger brother playing with matches. In frustration, she exposed my burn sites to him hoping that would block him from doing it again. That was awful, given that children often feel so guilty when terrible things happen to their families.
But a visit to the burn ward isn’t like that. I
What About Non-op Transsexuals? A No-op Notion
Sharon Gaughan
Saturday, 19 August 2006
Washington, DC, USA. Can we at all agree and let transsexuals be transsexuals? Human language, while inherently imprecise, does convey rich meanings that frequently become the basis for action, inaction, or dismissal of real needs. Anyone up for a game of oxymoron?
Consider the odd joining of the terms “non-op” and “transsexual” into “non-op transsexual”. And what about pre-op transsexuals? Non-op? Let’s talk about it.
A Little History
Opinion : Looking Glass : Sharon GaughanHere is the short form: the original meaning of “non-op” came from “no-op”, a term used in early computer languages. Basically, it referred to an instruction that does nothing (it was sometimes used by assembler-level programmers as filler for data areas).
Managers, of course, took things around a bad turn when they used the term to identify a person who contributes nothing to a project, or has nothing going on upstairs, or both (he or she is “no-op."
The evolved term, “non-op”, did gain traction in other contexts.
For transsexuals, some now apply the term to a person who, for a variety of reasons, does not proceed with Sex Reassignment Surgery (SRS). Some are “pre-op” individuals in transition to
TS-Si Op-Ed Pages
 

Body Image, Women, And Facial Feminization Surgery

Full Facial Feminization (FFS)
Springfield, VA, USA. Society (the women and men around us) has always been more comfortable if its members fall within certain known, established patterns: this is how we dress, this is what we say, this is...

 
TS-Si Science Access
 

Brain Before Body: The Spemann-Mangold Experiments

Brain Before Body
Washington, DC, USA. Science shows that the human brain and central nervous system form before the remaining portions of our overall body plan. This is a central insight and the province of developmental biology, particularly embryology, which deals with the development of organs and other anatomical structures...

 
TS-Si Medicine
 

Research Shows Aging Brain Brings Benefit Of Mature Perspective

Research Shows Aging Brain Brings Benefit Of Mature Perspective.
Edmunton, Alberta, Canada. Does emotional wisdom come with age? Researchers identified brain patterns that help healthy people over the age of 60 regulate and control emotion better than younger counterparts. Two brain regions increased activity when...

 
TS-Si Policy Review
 

Worth Noting: Washington State Dems Sing A Different Tune

License Plate WTF
Washington, DC, USA. Criticism of the Washington state Democratic Party for an attack ad that linked an Italian-American politician to fictional organized crime. The Pennsylvania Senate ponders expansion of bathroom access to people with bowel disorders. North Carolina's motor vehicle department embarrassed by a sample license plate on its...

TS-Si Society
 

US State Workers Give Thanks For Thursday

Exhausting work week.
Washington, DC, USA. As fuel and energy costs continue to soar to record highs, a growing number of states are offering more of their public employees compressed workweeks to hold down states’ energy spending and give long-distance commuters some relief from paying high gas prices.
 
 
Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman...


Editorials
Pride 2008: In a time to come ...
TS-Si
Friday, 13 June 2008
Editorial: Memorial Day, 2008: The Fellowship Of Liberty
Editorial: Professional Case Studies And HBS
Global Warning
Body Image, Women, And Facial Feminization Surgery
Lisa Jain Thompson
Tuesday, 01 July 2008
If A Man Loves A Woman, Should He Give Her A Gun?
Lisa Jain Thompson
Friday, 27 June 2008
Birds, Bees, And Neurobiology: Sexing The Brain
Lisa Jain Thompson
Tuesday, 24 June 2008
Guest Columns
The Arising Of My Life: The Challenge … (Part 6 of 6)
Bernadette Rogers
Wednesday, 30 April 2008
The Arising Of My Life: A Play Of Passion … (Part 5 of 6)
Bernadette Rogers
Wednesday, 23 April 2008
The Arising Of My Life: The River Runs By … (Part 4 of 6)
Bernadette Rogers
Wednesday, 16 April 2008
Public Affairs
Politically Unconnected: America's Forgotten Holiday
G. Terry Madonna & Michael L. Young
Saturday, 28 June 2008
An Age In Thrall To Enthusiasm
Peter Sellick
Sunday, 15 June 2008
Reconstruction Lessons
Eric Foner
Saturday, 31 May 2008
Media Ranger
US Sen. Larry Craig Solicits Applications From Summer Interns
Even Doctors Can Believe Commonly Held Medical Myths
TS-Si News Service
Saturday, 22 December 2007
Revisiting The Ever Noisy Land Of Gender Blah Blah Blah
Tangent Wits
MacGyver never gets lazy. Any ideas?
Randall Munroe
Wednesday, 02 July 2008
Modern Tents Don't Have A Single Piece Of Rope
Randall Munroe
Monday, 30 June 2008
xkcd loves the Discovery Channel. Boom de Yada!
Randall Munroe
Friday, 27 June 2008
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So They Say

Men wake up aroused in the morning.  We can't help it.  We just wake up and we want you.  And the women are thinking, "How can he want me the way I look in the morning?"  It's because we can't see you.  We have no blood anywhere near our optic nerve. 
 

Andy Rooney

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DSM V & Beyond

DSM-V: Annotated List Of TS-Si.org Articles. Our continuing update of articles on the coming DSM revisions.

Finding Our Way

 
Richard Smith, Editor-in-Chief, introduces Cases Journal. Dr. Smith urges all physicians to submit their case reports to the new open access Cases Journal, which publishes case reports from any area of healthcare.
 
Cases Journal will publish any case report that is understandable, ethical, authentic, and includes all essential information. A more selective companion, the Journal of Medical Case Reports, publishes original and interesting case reports that contribute significantly to medical knowledge. Article submissions are subject to potential publication by either journal. All reports will be entered in a common and open access database.
 
Video courtesy of BioMed Central.
Time 00:01:35.
 
TS-Si articles of related interest:
 
 
• Dr. Richard Smith: Why Do We Need Cases Journal?
 
• Dr. Richard Smith: The Policies Of Cases Journal
 
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