Words With Friends 9

Words with Friends 9

Words with Friends episodes are bonus episodes where different members of Mama Dragons provide definitions for LGBTQ related topics. This episode includes the following definitions:

WPATH shared by Becky J. from Salt Lake City, Utah

ROGD shared by Pannay G. from Wisconsin

SRS/GCS shared by Melissa H. from Georgia

SOGIE  shared by Heather G. from Southern Idaho

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Transcript

JEN:   Hello and welcome. You are listening to In the Den with Mama Dragons. I’m your host, Jen. This podcast was created out of our desire to walk and talk with you through this journey of raising happy, healthy, and productive LGBTQ humans. We are so happy that you’re here with us.

Throughout this year, Mama Dragons has been trying to help teach a few vocabulary words so that parents can better communicate with their children about words they might not previously have known. These mini episodes have been designed to help us all communicate better. Our language does change rapidly. So we invite you to avoid this as our language changes on the topic as our collective understanding grows.

WPATH shared by Becky J. from Salt Lake City, Utah

Our family has been learning a lot more about transgender services as we search for ways to support our own transgender family members. And recently I found out about an organization called WPATH which is The World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH). WPATH is a non-profit organization devoted to transgender health. Its mission is to promote evidence-based care, education, research, advocacy, public policy, and respect in transgender health. WPATH has created Standards of Care to guide physicians and health professionals to provide competent and informed care of trans people. Their guidelines cover everything from mental health to hormone therapy to surgery to reproductive care. And they’re an amazing resource for any questions you have about policies and guidelines for transgender care.  These internationally accepted guidelines are designed to promote the health and welfare of transgender and gender variant people in all cultural settings. The Standards of Care are updated and revised as new scientific information becomes available and can be found at https://www.wpath.org 

SOGIE  shared by Heather

G. from Southern Idaho

SOGIE is an abbreviation for Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Expression. Sexual orientation refers to the enduring physical, romantic and/or emotional attraction to members of the same and/or other genders, including lesbian, gay, bisexual and straight orientations. Gender identity is one's own internal sense of self and their gender, whether that is man, woman, neither or both. Unlike gender expression, gender identity is not outwardly visible to others. Gender expression is how a person presents gender outwardly, through behavior, clothing, voice, or other perceived characteristics. Society identifies these cues as masculine or feminine, although what is considered masculine or feminine changes over time and varies by culture. Everyone has a SOGIE. 

ROGD shared by Pannay G. from Wisconsin

ROGD stands for Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria. This scientifically specious term started in July 2016 on three blogs that have a history of anti-transgender agendas. All research on ROGD came from one problematic study, performed by Lisa Littman. One of the biggest issues with the study is that it interviewed parents of trans children, and not the trans individuals themselves. So, while it may have felt rapid and sudden to the parents who hadn’t seen clues along the way, it had been on the mind of the trans individual much longer before they braved coming out to their parents. The parents were also solicited from the above-mentioned anti-trans websites that were already skewed toward the idea of ROGD, so there was unlikely an unbiased research base to begin with.

The DSM-5 diagnosis for Gender Dysphoria (published in 2013) states:

Late-onset gender dysphoria occurs around puberty or much later in life. Some of these individuals report having had a desire to be of the other gender in childhood that was not expressed verbally to others. Others do not recall any signs of childhood gender dysphoria. For adolescent males with late-onset gender dysphoria, parents often report surprise because they did not see the signs of gender dysphoria during childhood.

The current WPATH Standards of Care (published in 2011) states:

Yet many adolescents and adults presenting with gender dysphoria do not report a history of childhood gender-nonconforming behaviors (Docter, 1988; Landén, Wålinder, & Lundström, 1998). Therefore, it may come as a surprise to others (parents, other family members, friends, and community members) when a youth’s gender dysphoria first becomes evident in adolescence.

As both of these descriptions indicate, you can see that the word “rapid” in ROGD doesn’t necessarily refer to the speed of gender dysphoria onset in the trans individual, especially in the many cases where the child keeps their experiences to themselves for a time before sharing them with parents. Rather, what’s “rapid” about ROGD is the parents’ sudden awareness and assessment of their child’s gender dysphoria which, from the child’s standpoint, may be longstanding and thoughtfully considered. 

For a more thorough look at the issue, visit: https://medium.com/@juliaserano/everything-you-need-to-know-about-rapid-onset-gender-dysphoria-1940b8afdeba

SRS/GCS shared by Melissa H. from

Georgia

Sexual Reassignment Surgery or Gender Confirmation Surgery
 (And Why It’s None of Your Business)

Some transgender individuals choose to transition socially by changing their name, clothing, and hairstyles. Some also transition surgically. Some do not transition at all. No route makes a person more or less trans. SRS stands for Sex Reassignment Surgery. Also called Gender Confirmation Surgery (GCS), these acronyms refer to doctor-supervised surgical interventions, and are only one part of possible transition for transgender individuals. Not all trans people choose to, or can afford to, undergo medical surgeries.

Inappropriate questioning is anything that is of a higher level of intimacy than questions you would ask a person who is not transgender.  For example, it would be inappropriate in general conversation to ask a man you don't know very well about the size and shape of his penis, or to ask a woman you only knew a little whether or not she wore a wig or a padded bra. Therefore, it is also completely inappropriate to quiz transgender people about their bodies.  It is also very impolite to ask transgender people what previous first names they might have had. Trans people often refer to their birth name as their “dead name,” and they want it to be forgotten and not brought up by people. It’s also inappropriate to ask them what they used to look like.  Those questions can be highly triggering and offensive to trans people, and are often a part of their lives they don’t want to relive in any fashion. Don’t let any natural curiosity about trans people override your usual politeness and sensitivity. Asking people about their genitals is inappropriate. Period. Avoid overemphasizing the role of surgeries in the transition process. Transitioning does not make a person transgender. They are already transgender. Transitioning is usually about lessening body dysphoria and increasing comfort in their own skin. What that transition looks like is as diverse and unique as the individuals themselves.  

JEN:          Thanks so much for joining us here in the den. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with your friends. We’d also love it if you could take a minute to leave us a positive rating and review on whatever platform you’re listening to us on. Good reviews make us more visible and help us reach more folks who could benefit from listening. But, review or not, we’re glad you’re here. For more information on Mama Dragons and the podcast, you can visit our website at mamdragons.org or follow us on Instagram or Facebook. And if you’d like to help Mama Dragons in our mission to support, educate, and empower the parents of LGBTQ children, donate at mamadragons.org or click the donate link in the show notes.