We have been exploring the topic of TRANSPHOBIA for nearly two months. If you are just now joining our blog, it is important for you to go back to the beginning of this series of blogs which began April 3, 2022, to set a proper foundation, and read each blog in sequence in order to understand what will be discussed in this blog, and to be able to put it into proper context. We will be continuing our look at the book, “The Riddle of Gender”, as we conclude this series of blogs. We will now continue our look at the physiological effects created by the introduction of DES (diethylstilbestrol) into human bodies.
“DES was viewed as a textbook example of the male medial establishment’s abuse of women, its lack of concern for women’s health, and its tendency to pathologize female bodies and view natural functions and women’s life passages such as pregnancy and menopause as illnesses requiring treatment.” “. . . ‘most doctors go out of their way to avoid concluding that a patient’s problem has been iatrogenically induced’. In the case of DES, that resistance to assuming responsibility has been shared by the pharmaceutical companies that produced the drug, and by the research establishment as a whole, which continues to resist full investigation of the tragedy. Half of the fetuses exposed to DES in utero were male, subjected to a barrage of synthetic estrogen during the period of sexual differentiation, chemically primed to be exquisitely sensitive to estrogen and estrogen-mimicking chemicals for the remainder of their lives. Their stories remain untold, and no one – not DES Action, not the Centers for Disease Control, not the National Cancer Insititute, not the drug companies that manufactured DES – wants to hear them.” Men are reluctant to explore issues with their bodies. “Gynecomastia, enlargement of the male breast, has been noted not only in DES sons but also in adult male agricultural workers exposed to the chemical.” ” ‘About 50 percent of our two hundred people in the DES Sons Network exhibit some form of gender variance. Most of them joined us when we didn’t talk about gender variance at all,’ says [Dana] Beyer. ‘I would say about half of the people on our list came unknowing that DES was connected with gender’.” There seems to be a “. . . conspiracy of silence about the effects of DES exposure on sons, particularly its association with gender identity disorder in males. Not a single DES cohort study has explored this question.” “Since we cannot create fresh studies of DES in humans and trace its effects from birth, we are pretty much forced to look at the existing adult populations. But it would be almost impossible to gather such population in one place physically in order to verify who they are and whether they were, in fact, DES exposed.” “The difficulties of researching the effects of DES on sons is acknowledged by the sexologist Milton Diamond, who told me that ‘the problem with DES is that there is no test that we can give today to determine if an individual has been exposed to DES’.” Studies continue supporting the effects of “endocrine disrupters” (EDCs), and these estrogenic chemicals are ubiquitous in our environment having adverse outcomes on humans and animals alike. Experiments with animals reveal “. . . that even minute changes in the hormone exposure of the developing fetus during certain sensitive stages could result in measurable effects.” These effects can be noted even in the positioning within the womb “. . . as the hormone circulates in the amniotic fluid.” “. . . bisphenol A, widely used in the production of plastics, and other environmental chemicals [exhibit] estrogenic effects – essentially ‘tricking’ the body into responding to them as estrogens. Bisphenol A (BPA) was developed in the laboratory of none other than Sir Charles Dodds, the man who developed DES.” “. . . scientific understanding of the mechanisms by which estrogenic chemicals exert their effects has grown dramatically. Studies have shown that environmental estrogens may alter production of normal hormones, disrupt the transport of hormones, affect the metabolism of hormones, interfere with hormone signaling at the receptor level, or modify hormone-regulated gene transcription. Adverse effects include reproductive failure, developmental effects, immune system dysfunction, and cognitive and behavioral pathologies of various types. The types of chemicals that may produce these effects include pesticides, [organochlorines], plasticizers, heavy metals, and plant estrogens. In Our Stolen Future, Theo Colborn and her coauthors list eighty-five chemicals known to be estrogen disrupters, many of them [ubiquitous] in the environment. We are living, scientists now say, ‘in a sea of estrogens’. ‘Is it a coincidence that since the introduction of the chlorinated pesticides around 1935-1940 the rate of transsexualism has been climbing steadily? The first generation born after the introduction of pesticides was also the first generation to have significant numbers of transsexuals. The condition is virtually absent from the U.S. historical record prior to 1952, when Christine Jorgensen made headlines’, Christine Johnson writes in a brief posted on the TransAdvocate website. ‘Every generation since then has had higher and higher rates. Clearly researchers knew that sexual developmental changes were observed with DDT in animals as early as 1950, yet this information was ignored, deliberately or not. Fifty years later, large numbers and quantities of EDCs are being distributed around the globe without adequate consideration of the consequences‘.” “I met with Christine Johnson in May 2002, in Philadelphia. As I soon discovered, Johnson is passionate about this subject. She speaks eloquently about the damage that she believes has been inflicted on transsexual people who have been told for years that their gender variance is a mental health problem, when the scientific literature shows quite clearly in animals that in utero exposure to exogenous hormones and hormone mimics affects the brain and behavior.” Author Harry Benjamin stated “‘. . . that my clinical impressions suggest to me more and more a prenatal neuroendocrine anomaly as perhaps the foremost causative factor for a majority of cases’. ‘. . . in many respects, transsexualism in the anatomic male might be regarded as an incomplete expression of testicular feminization syndrome (AIS, CAIS, or PAIS) with the defect affecting only sex-specific areas of the hypothalamus . . . Recent research indicates that in the genetic male the hypothalamus is masculinized by fetal androgen at a specific periods somewhat after the masculinization of the genitourinary tract. The genetic female, with her XX chromosome complement, lacks fetal androgen and therefore develops along typically female patterns. The important principle here is that effective androgen is necessary for masculinization. Without androgen, masculinization will not occur. Thus, the prenatal hormonal environment is critically important for all future development’.” This book reviews personal accounts of pharmaceutical and petrochemical companies talking about their “gender-bender” disposal settling ponds, and ” . . . were becoming aware of animals displaying homosexual behavior and transsexual changes.” Others were sharing stories living around “chemical soup” and “smog-laden” areas, and felt fortunate that if all they suffered was gender dysphoria, then they felt lucky from a heath perspective. “. . . studies have shown that estrogen can ‘imprint’ genes in such a way that ‘when a gene programmed to respond to estradiol at puberty is [mis-programmed] or reimprinted by development exposure to a hormonally active chemical, it will respond abnormally to the secondary cue, resulting in a functional cellular abnormality’. This process has been elucidated most clearly in chicken and frogs. But it does lead one to wonder what might be the effects on human fetuses whose gene expression may have been chemically altered by exposure to estrogens in the womb and who are then re-exposed again and again to estrogenic chemicals in the environment?” “The neurological basis of psychiatric conditions once considered the result of inadequate parenting (schizophrenia) or insufficient willpower (alcoholism and other addictions) is now recognized, even if the mechanisms that produce the condition remain incompletely understood.”
“Like the general public, most hear the word ‘transsexual’ and immediately visualize an episode of the Jerry Springer show. They don’t conceive of gender variance as a medical condition, nor do they view it as a legitimate focus of research. Not many people are well acquainted with the kind of professional transpeople whom I interviewed for this book or with the data that point to a biological etiology for gender variance. In many ways, the scientific and medical professions mirror the prejudices of society at large with respect to trans people.” “People need to understand why this happens; they need to understand about DES and the effects of EDCs, and that this isn’t going away. This is personal for me. I live with this twenty-four-seven. But as a society we’ve got a real problem. Fish changing sex? Hermaphroditic frogs? But they don’t make the connection. And then when a story comes out, local sperm counts down 20 percent, they just sort of ignore it.” “In The Essential Difference: The Truth about the Male and Female Brain, [Simon] Baron-Cohen [professor of psychology and psychiatry at Cambridge University in the United Kingdom], in 2003 believed “. . . that compelling data exist to show that the brains of the average man and woman are skewed to perceive and respond to the world differently. On average, he says, females spontaneously empathize (identify and respond to another’s emotions and thoughts and respond to them with an appropriate emotion) to a far greater degree than males. The average male, on the other hand, spontaneously systematizes (analyzes, explores, and constructs systems) to a greater degree than the average woman.” “When it comes time to explain the neurobiological mechanisms that might create this difference, he cites some of the same evidence that I have presented in this book, including the effects of hormones on the sexual differentiation of the brain. Indeed, he points to studies of DES sons that found the youngsters ‘likely to show more female-typical behaviors – enacting social themes in their play as toddlers, for example, or caring for dolls’. Studies of male-to-female transsexuals show ‘a reduction in ‘direct’ forms of aggression (the physical assaults that are more common in males)’,’ Baron-Cohen points out, and ‘an increase in indirect or ‘relational’ aggression (the style of aggression that is more common in females. This is strong evidence that testosterone affects the form the aggression takes’ . . .”
“There is some fear, however, that if a cause for gender variance is found, the search for a ‘cure’ will inevitably begin. ‘Once the source is found, the drive to cure or eradicate our particular form of biological variation is probable, based on current medical mentalities. Isn’t it better not to address this issue at all?’ says one of the trans friends I asked to review this chapter. Dylan Scholinski also voiced this concern. ‘I have a real problem with this being conceptualized as a birth defect,’ he said. ‘I am not ‘defective’.'” “If the stories contained in this book teach us anything it is that gender variance is neither a fad nor a revolution. It is a biological fact. Our continuing failure to acknowledge this fact virtually ensures that there will be more Alexanders and Tacys and Gwens, individuals whose pain cannot be assuaged by a syringe or a scalpel and who die violent and premature deaths. Whether dying by their own hands or at the hands of uncomprehending others, these individuals have been sacrificed to an illusion, the belief that the spectrum of gender contains only two colors, black and white, and nothing in between.” We told the story before about the man searching for his lost keys in the wrong place who said, “I’m looking here because the light is better over here”. “Scientists have searched for the solution to the riddle of gender in the place where the ‘light’ of scientific inquiry has shone brightest in various eras – endocrinology, psychiatry, embryology, and neuroscience. Yet those searches have produced no definitive answer to the riddle, only more tantalizing questions.” “A very important change that has yet to be made is the time we transgenders are no longer called ‘sex changes’. After all, consider this: we are NOT CHANGING anything! Indeed, we are merely CORRECTING pronouns, names, manner of dress, hormones and flesh to MATCH what has always been in our brains . . . The law must learn to assimilate the advances of medical science in a quicker manner and not remain legally stuck in the medical thinking of thirty years ago.” And we might add, the general public that is stuck in ideologies founded in limited knowledge, and biases based on decades-old ignorance. “A 2005 paper produced by researchers at [Gothenburg] University in Sweden presents evidence that an anomaly in the early sexual differentiation of various brain structures may be involved in transsexualism. The researchers found three common polymorphisms – genetic variations – that may influence the chances of transsexualism, providing support for the concept that transsexualism may be driven by genetics. In the language of molecular biology – ‘a long allele of the ERb gene may increase the susceptibility for transsexualism, and certain variants of genes coding for the AR, aromatase, and the ERb may partially contribute to the risk of male-to-female transsexualism if present in certain combinations’.”
“In any society you can name where a perceived need for purification and spiritual renewal requires a scapegoat, a category of unclean persons who need to be ruthlessly suppressed and even obliterated for the good of the society as a whole. Once, we recognized this monster and called it by its proper name – group psychosis. Today, the media and much of our political leadership bow down before this beast and worship it.” “Will we ever find a definitive solution to the riddle of gender? Maybe not – but as this history indicates, the questions we ask about gender tend to be more liberating than the answers. I would prefer to live in a society that gave me the freedom to ask those questions, rather than one that enforced autocratic conclusions.” ” In an era in which Americans are fighting and dying purportedly to free other people, perhaps we might take this one small step toward freeing ourselves by finally outlawing discrimination based on gender expression. What is freedom, after all, if it is not the freedom to be one’s self?”
It is hard to summarize our study of TRASNSPOBIA better than in the paragraph above. You may not like the conclusions we arrived at in this two-month series, but you have to agree that we have provided a systematic, scientific presentation. All we can expect is that you will have a greater understanding and compassion towards those who are trapped in this trans web. It has not been their fault, and it has not been done by their choice. We need to continue to look and explore in the “dark places” of science that have been illusive and, in some cases, ignored, to discover the answers to the question, “Why?” In our great Nation, we need to treasure and protect our FREEDOM and LIBERTY, and that applies to each citizen, whether we like it or not. There is no, and has never been, a litmus test that must be applied before any citizen can claim and practice their FREEDOM and LIBERTY in our Nation.