UPDATED with revised conclusion.

Feministe say wrote May 13 of efforts to assist people struggling with gender identity:

Ken Zucker of Toronto’s Clarke Institute represents the widespread, traditional approach, where the goal is to eliminate cross-gender behavior and the desire to be a different gender. He basically describes his success rate as the number of kids he’s managed to steer away from becoming an adult trans person; as he’s said elsewhere, he wants to “help these kids be more content in their biological gender.”

Which sounds all right on paper, but how far do you go in denying a child’s perfectly innocent inclinations?

Feministe notes that some view Zucker’s attitude toward gender-variant people as repackaged ex-gay therapy. And so Feministe is naturally concerned that the American Psychiatric Association has put Ken Zucker in charge of a working group that will weigh changes to the definition of gender identity disorder.

Although I don’t know if I quite understand this given that the DSM is a diagnostic tool rather than a prescriptive tool, and given that previous DSMs were written from similarly retrogressive approaches, she also feels there’s “an additional danger that gay and lesbian communities need to be cognizant of […] if Zucker and company entrench conversion therapy in the DSM-V, then it is a clear, dangerous step toward also legitimizing ex-gay therapy and re-stigmatizing homosexuality.”

That may seem to be a logical fear, but apparently it is unwarranted:

Gay City News wrote a story today that addresses some (not all) activist apprehensions. Key points:

• The working groups will not prescribe treatment
• The diagnosis of homosexuality will not be put back into DSM

Dr. Jack Drescher, a gay psychiatry professor at New York Medical College and a member of APA working groups relating to sexual and gender identity disorder, was instrumental in clearing up concern relating to the scope of working-group efforts.

PFOX — Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays — was co-founded by ex-gay activist Anthony Falzarano and the Family Research Council in 1996. When Falzarano complained in 1999 that the ex-gay movement was being exploited and underfunded by religious conservatives, he was ousted and replaced by antigay parents of adult gay individuals. Contrary to the organization’s name, few PFOX members appear to have ex-gay relatives.

Today the Virginia-based organization is led by executive director Regina Griggs, whose son is openly gay. Its board includes antigay federal civil rights attorney Estella Salvatierra, who spends various weekends at Northern Virginia public fairs, inciting arguments with bewildered passers-by. With the help of FRC’s Peter Sprigg, PFOX has fought against popular efforts by parents in Washington, D.C.’s Maryland suburbs to establish factual and comprehensive sex-ed programs and to reduce discrimination against gender-variant Marylanders.

In a racially charged rant that was distributed April 1 via PFOX’s online discussion board and official e-mail address, PFOX’s unidentified site administrator parrots an article which ignores established wisdom about gender identity disorder. Specifically, the article fails to make important distinctions among transsexuality, transvestism, biologically or genetically intersexed individuals, and other transgender conditions.

Instead, PFOX’s article reprint lumps a variety of different biological and psychological gender variances together — and then ridicules them all with the unexplained rationale that taxpayers who experience gender variance, for biological or psychological reasons, should not be granted the same access to public facilities that is granted to persons of color or other taxpaying demographics. (Read More)

“Gender identity is very important to God,” according to Exodus executive vice president Randy Thomas.

But what verses of the Bible or any other authoritative religious document refer to “gender identity”? In an interview published today by Focus on the Family, Thomas does not say.

Sidestepping specifics about the Bible, Thomas ignores a growing Christian debate about gender-variant Biblical role models and eunuchs, broadly labels gender-variant individuals as “confused,” and offers a bold generalization: that the courage to express one’s individuality is the fault of unidentified “activists.” (Read More)

Concerned Women for America and “Citizens for Responsible Government,” a Maryland antigay group connected with PFOX (Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays), have been battling a suburban Washington, D.C., ordinance that aims to reduce discrimination by public facilities against gender-variant and intersexed individuals.

In an interview with CWFA, a representative for the Maryland group admits faking an incident at a public restroom in order to incite public opposition to nondiscrimination.

MARTHA KLEDER [of CWFA]: Well Theresa, I also heard that someone tried to test this. Was there some event where a transgender or a shemale or someone tried to use the opposite sex bathroom?

THERESA RICKMAN: Yes, at Rio Sport and Health up in Germantown. A guy dressed as a girl went into the ladies bathroom. And, ah you know, essentially what uh, that was meant to get some media attention, you know, and the guy left immediately apparently, I mean but there was, this is the Rio Sport and Health Club, you know and Sport and Health has steam rooms, and there are ladies changing in those locker rooms, people in various stages of undress [laughing] all the time, so there’s lots a guy can see.

According to Teach The Facts, a Maryland group of pro-tolerance parents and teachers, Washington-based ABC affiliate WJLA-TV recklessly reported the staged incident as if it were real, and has yet to retract its false reporting.

The Montgomery County (Maryland) Council is considering a new gender identity nondiscrimination bill, which has angered some people - a few which have gone off the deep end. It has also generated a batch of unpleasant letters to the Council. The websites Box Turtle Bulletin and Teach The Facts report that the following letter came from Gabriel Espinosa, the webmaster for Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays: (in 40-point type)

Bill 23-07

Allowing men who think they’re women into women’s bathrooms and locker rooms?

ARE YOU PEOPLE OUT OF YOUR FUCKING MINDS?

Hopefully, it will be one of your daughters who gets raped first!

Sincerely Yours,
Gabriel Espinosa
President
Furryllama Media Productions

As we have pointed out, PFOX’s former president and cult member, Richard Cohen, was permanently expelled from the American Counseling Association. PFOX has recently drawn controversy for either faking or greatly exaggerating “hate crimes” against members who staffed a booth for the organization. The webmaster prior to the unhinged Espinosa was a violent individual who went by the name “Burning Black Triangle.” Clearly, PFOX is a nut magnet that attracts the bizarre and unstable. It is scary that they keep trying to foist their insanity onto the public schools. This letter is representative of PFOX - a vulgar group that is nearly devoid of content. Judging from this letter, PFOX is not Pro-Family, but profanity.