Friday, January 28, 2011

Transgender positive news from the US Department of State

January 28, 2011

State Department Issues Amended Policy Guidelines on Passport Sex Marker Changes

In response to concerns raised by TLDEF and other organizations and individuals, the U.S. State Department today published amended policy guidelines for changing the sex marker on passports.

Among other things, the new policy guidelines:

allow you to submit a doctor's letter from any licensed doctor, eliminating the burdensome physician specialty requirements;

allow you to submit a letter from a doctor who has either treated you for "gender-related care" or who has reviewed and evaluated your "gender-related medical history"; and

allow passport holders to change their passport's sex marker by presenting an updated birth certificate instead of a doctor's letter.

We've only described a few of the highlights of the new guidelines here, but there's much more. Please read our comprehensive web-based guide to the updated policy. We are also available to answer any questions that you may have. If you need additional assistance, please contact us.

We are pleased to bring you this news and will continue to update you on any additional changes to these State Department policies and procedures.

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Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund is committed to ending discrimination based upon gender identity and expression, and to achieving equality for transgender people through public education, test-case litigation, direct legal services, community organizing and public policy efforts.

1 comments:

JoanieH121506 said...: This is mind boggling! Someone in the U.S. government showing some good sense? Good job! I had to present both a corrected birth certificate and an affidavit from a licensed U.S. physician that I had "...undergone irreversible genital surgery for the specific purpose of gaining the sexual characteristic of the female sex." to get my passport.

Things have really been too rigid, and potentially dangerous for TG traveling abroad in the past. This is a good step forward for the TG community. This will go a long way toward alleviating a great social injustice.

Now we need to work a bit more on access to those medical procedures that both the American Psychological Association and the American Medical Association, under Standards Of Care, currently maintained by the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, consider to be medically necessary. No one should have to suffer needlessly and horribly, for decades, just because of issues that violates many individual's freedom of religion from religious tenets of Fundamentalist sects being maintained in outdated laws and restrictions, such as the sexually defined exclusions in the Americans with Disabilities Act, the DSM and other documents and laws which also impacts appropriate medical care under Medicare and other state-level and private sector medical coverages. Behaviorist psychiatry has not produced any bona fida results to date, nor shown any long-term benefits from their defined protocols, other than their own personal gains. However, appropriate psychological therapy with appropriate medical intervention has now demonstrated a 97%, long-term, curative success rate. One of the best rates of medical effectiveness in any area of medicine to date.

Kudos, but we STILL have a long way to go.; January 28, 2011 2:43 PM

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Comments and Responses

Ammo Girl commented on "Being Transgender Is Not A Mental Illness": I actually do have a Psych Degree...It is is in fact a mental illness/disorder... They need therapy and in some instances medications... I am sorry....Transgender (not gay, bi or lesbian)...TRANSGENDER IS a mental disorder.

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JoanieH121506 replied to Ammo Girl's comment on "Being Transgender Is Not A Mental Illness": It would seem that you are more of a Christian Fundamentalist than a psychologist as you are ignoring the 97% to 98% success rate that transitional medicine is accomplishing with defined standards of care, using known therapeutic agents and achieving expected results with one of the highest success rates known to modern medicine.

You are also ignoring several researches ...
...I am also wondering why you are ignoring the fact that the American Psychological Association considers repairative therapies to be far more harmful than beneficial?...
...I see in you more of the religious than I do of the educated, scientific-minded. JMHO

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Monica Roberts replied to Ammo Girl's comment on "Being Transgender Is Not A Mental Illness": being gay was once in the DSM as a 'mental illness' as well until it was taken out in the 1970's. It's just a matter of time before it happens for trans people as well

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Carolyn replied to Ammo Girl's comment on "Being Transgender Is Not A Mental Illness": It wasn't so very many years ago that being female was considered a mental disorder. Take a look at the root meaning of hysteria or read Freud trying to figure out women. While there are clearly real mental illnesses, there is also the terrible tendency to think that anyone who is different from "me" is nuts. Professionals who look for pathologies usually find them.

Dana LaRocca commented on "Maryland Transgender Folks: Here Comes The Annapol...": I don’t think that Delegate Pena-Melnyk or other sponsors of the bill intended leave us behind. They capitulated under Equality Maryland’s big lie that they represent the Mayland trans community.
The national organizations are running the show and the stage play is about marriage. . We don’t get straight answers because direction comes from HRC, Freedom to Marry, and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, not from the people at Equality Maryland. Internally they have agreed, or have been told by the board, not to discuss the level of national involvement. Without discussing that they can’t give an answer as to why this bill was downgraded.
Does Equality Maryland have a plan or a timetable for pursuing public accommodations protections? No.

JoanieH121506 has left a new comment on your post "Transgender Community Has No Room For Any Internal...":

Good article with some very succinct points. The hardest hit segment of the BT are those of color when it comes to the vast majority of discrimination. I have known those of African descent and many of Asian/Latino descent - and even some whites of older years - who seem to have hit brick walls at every turn when it comes to meeting their needs - and I am not talking about things like TV's, cars or iPODS. I'm speaking to the level of "where is my next meal coming from/" or "where am I going to sleep tonight?". It also does not make one feel too warm and fuzzy having to live in environments where there are constant threats of violence.

JoanieH121506 commented on "Transgender positive news from the US Department o...": This is mind boggling! Someone in the U.S. government showing some good sense? Good job!
...Now we need to work a bit more on access to those medical procedures that both the American Psychological Association and the American Medical Association, under Standards Of Care, currently maintained by the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, consider to be medically necessary...

Stacie,
It is our pleasure and passion to do anything to help support anyone and any organization that provides services and support to the Hampton Roads, VA Transgender community as well as our siblings in the Lesbian, Bisexual, Gay and Hetero community.
Keep up the fine work you do. We support you!
De

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Stacie commented on "TLC - Hampton Roads, VA Transgender Clinic Reopens...": Thanks so much for supporting TLC Clinic. We are anxious for services to start again and we look forward to working with our new counselor, Mary Aab. Thanks for everyone's patience during these last couple months!
Stacie

Joanne, Thank you for sharing your opinions and your feelings. They are always valued.
The only way things will ever change is through positive dialog.
Again, Thanks for speaking your voice, my friend!

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JoanieH121506 commented on "Transgender Activist E.m. Equality Speaks The Trut...": Now if people in positions of power were to adopt this perspective, it might actually begin to have some positive effects. However, when leaders like Barney Frank start pandering to the conservative right by bringing up groundless matters, preying upon the fears of the "moral majority" and Christian rightists, this seems to make the entire matter seem moot - especially for the lesser demographics within the TG umbrella. If this is to work at all, it needs to be implemented at all levels - and most importantly from the top of the power pyramid down. Right now, I am in the position of believing the gist of what the article professes, yet at the same time, I have decades of experience that prevent me from feeling anything other than a feeling of discouragement in this area. After all actions and experience mean a lot more than words - especially when action ignores history and truth...

...To quote Joni Mitchell; "They won't give peace a chance. This was just a dream that some of us had."

Jamiegottagun commented on "Thailand's Distorted View Of Transgender People": Thai's probably aren't as accepting as they've been made out to be: check.
Few things in this world are as they have been made out to be.
However, you endanger your own credibility when you make such sweeping statements as you did in your introduction of this story, but provide only the opinion of one movie director, quoted in one story.
And to trash an entire philosophy, Buddhism, based on the actions of a few, is hardly fair, or can be taken as serious news reporting.
If you want to run, what tries to appear to be a transgender news service, then to be taken seriously, you might want to start learning about acceptable practices and ethics in journalism.

Estraven commented on "Is The Repeal Of "DADT" Important To Transgender A...": Thank you so much for being inclusive, and using the word bisexual, as DADT itself does. Just as trans people have been marginalized, so have bisexuals, and it is a little known fact that the language of DADT included bisexuals, and bisexuals were dismissed under DADT. As Cliff Arnesen, President of New England GLBT Vets, who was discharged in 1967 for being bisexual and has been fighting for inclusion of queers in the military ever since, says "You don't get half a discharge for being bisexual."
As there is a natural alliance between the bi and trans communities, we feel that the fight for queer rights will not be finished until EVERYONE has a place at the table.

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Friday, January 28, 2011

Transgender positive news from the US Department of State

State Department Issues Amended Policy Guidelines on Passport Sex Marker Changes

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