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A PERSON wishing to undergo sexual reassignment surgery needs to first have a psychological assessment.
'The clinician's role is to determine if the transsexual truly wants to have the surgery, as once the operation is done, there is no turning back. He will have to determine if the client is truly a transsexual and not (for example) gay or transvestite,' says Prof Teh.
In Transgender Emergence: Therapeutic Guidelines for Working With Gender-Variant People, author Arlene Istar Lev proposes that therapy should assist the client in achieving educated self-determination, not 'cure' his 'gender identity disorder' (GID).
Unlike homosexuality, GID is still classified as a form of mental illness in many diagnostic manuals, e.g. that of the American Psychiatric Association (APA). Homosexuality was declassified in 1973, following which the APA released official position statements opposing 'any psychiatric treatment, such as 'reparative' or conversion therapy, which is based upon the assumption that homosexuality per se is a mental disorder or based upon the a priori assumption that a patient should change his/her sexual homosexual orientation.'
American lobbyists are working on getting GID similarly declassified. Will their success make any difference to Malaysian transsexuals?
Sadly, not much, says Dr Kanagalingam K. Kulasingam, vice-chairperson of the Pink Triangle Foundation Malaysia (ptfmalaysia.org).
'APA policy statements are used as references - most psychiatrists would use them as a guide. However, we have found that many are influenced by their prior mindset, beliefs, and prejudices. This applies to other medical practitioners as well as most people generally.
'Also, aside from psychiatrists, many are not familiar with the APA policy statements and therefore these have little impact on a wider scale. I guess the current misconceptions as well as misplaced moral and religious beliefs will prevail.'
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