the majority
s p eaks Denmark through the eyes of a transgender couple
SK (sexological clinic) claims to be the "best" qualified team of physicians to treat trans people in Denmark. They are so adamant in this belief that they insist they should, in fact, be the only doctors legally allowed to treat us, and currently they are. Let's examine their claims. Like anyone seeking medical intervention for a health-related concern, we do, in fact, desire access to the finest treatment available, by the finest physicians available. If SK could prove they are the absolute best at what they do, and that any treatment option which does not include them would, in fact, be deleterious to our treatment outcomes, that might go a long way toward convincing many of us that we are in the best hands with them. We do not, however, believe that to be the case. Let's examine their claims closely, and see if they are, in fact, what they purport to be. Two kinds of mental illness They have years of experience treating trans people thought to be mentally ill. They have, in fact, treated a whopping
Opinion
Tanya and Robin are our dynamic writing duo and in every issue of Homotropolis they will zoom in on current trans issues in Denmark.
104 such trans persons between 1978-2010. We are willing to concede that they are the resident experts on treating the unfortunates who suffer from the “disease” of trans. But since, as it turns out, there is no such disease, they really no longer have a patient base, do they? We must remember that there are two kinds of mental illness which one may associate with being transgender. One derives from calling the condition itself a mental illness. It is not. We settled that argument when the condition was recently changed in the Danish National Health Classification System (SKS) to reflect this new way of thinking. We’re not alone. The Americans also settled the issue for themselves in 2016 when the APA released the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th Edition (DSM-V), removing the word “disorder” from trans nomenclature. The WHO is in the process of trying to make a similar change. They are, in fact, caught up in a nasty argument with opponents of the move like the Saudis and the Russians, who also, by the way, are proponents of imprisoning or executing us, hardly the kind of thinking with which we should ally ourselves, no matter how much SK seems to wish us living in the dark ages. The matter is settled. Let’s move on. 43
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