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Teenagers Arin Andrews and Katie Hill look like any normal young couple posing in their swimwear. It is hard to believe that just two years ago Arin was a girl called Emerald, and Katie was a boy called Luke. Arin, 17, and Katie, 19, from Tulsa, Oklahoma, have both undergone surgeries to change their gender and now are enjoying being in their bodies they always wished for. Just over a year ago Katie, a university student, had gender reassignment surgery, thanks to an amazing $35,000 donation from an anonymous donor who read her story in a local newspaper. Now, Arin,...

I live like a disabled person even though I'm physically healthy... and now want a surgeon to cut my spinal cord: Rare condition has made woman, 58, disown her legs * Chloe knew at 4 she was different and wanted to live as a disabled person * She wanted to wear leg braces like her aunt, hurt in an accident * Aged 9, she caused an accident to stop her own legs from working * Now she enjoys the excitement of downhill skiing - because she might fall * She spends most of her time in a wheelchair, but is...

Yes, Tyler is still a boy. That’s what people who heard about him have wondered. After a Maryland couple decided to listen to their 5-year-old daughter’s urgent and persistent insistence that she was a boy, after a psychiatrist told them it would be healthy to let the child live as a boy, after they let him pick a boy name and found a school that would enroll the child in kindergarten as a boy last year, Tyler’s parents have had no second thoughts. “It’s not a phase,” said his mother, Jean. “Anyone who meets him says, ‘Yeah, that’s a boy.’...

Studies of Children With Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Find Little Change It's no longer shocking to hear of children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder—and others simply facing a big test—taking ADHD medicine to boost their performance in school. But new studies point to a problem: There's little evidence that the drugs actually improve academic outcomes. Stimulants used to treat ADHD like Ritalin and Adderall are sometimes called "cognitive enhancers" because they have been shown in a number of studies to improve attention, concentration and even certain types of memory in the short-term. Similar drugs were given to World War II soldiers to...

Danielle Sheridan, age 8, was born a boy. Before she was 3, she began telling her parents she was a girl. It wasn't a phase. She was insistent. She identified with Cinderella. She wanted to grow up and marry a prince. She began dressing like a girl at home. “We kept it in our home only because of our fear of society. We wanted her to be happy, but we wanted her to be safe,” said her mom, Leah Sheridan, 35. Finally, her daughter said she didn’t want to live if she had to live as a boy. “She said...

In a cutting new article for the Wall Street Journal, two professors criticize the American Psychiatric Association for loosening the standards by which Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is diagnosed. This, they argue, will make such diagnoses more likely and increase the amphetamine usage of the general public. “Symptoms of ADHD remain the same in the new edition” of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, but with some changes: “The difference is that in the previous version of the manual, the first symptoms of ADHD needed to be evident by age 7 for a diagnosis to be made....

A senior boy at Middleborough High School in Middleborough, Mass. -- who started coming to school dressed as a girl during his sophomore year -- became the school's "prom queen" last week. Fox News in Boston did the first report on this, and it was a gushing pro-transgender puff piece -- referring to the boy as "she" -- with no contrasting opinion included at all. The Fox anchorwoman was totally "with the program." Fox News began its report describing the boy the "a girl whose growing achievement is the end of a journey that she started years earlier." Fox went...

A former member of the elite U.S. Navy SEALs has come out to say she's now a woman.

There are many reasons why people get insufficient sleep in our 24/7 society, from early starts at work or school, or long commutes, to caffeine-rich food and drink. But the precipitating factor is an often unappreciated, technological breakthrough: the electric light. Without it, few people would use caffeine to stay awake at night. And light affects our circadian rhythms more powerfully than any drug. Just as the ear has two functions (hearing and balance), so too does the eye. First, rods and cones enable sight; and second, intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells (ipRGCs) containing the photopigment... --snip-- The US Institute...

A spokeswoman for Catherine Zeta-Jones says the actress has “proactively” checked into a mental health facility for treatment of her bipolar condition. … Two years ago, the 43-year-old Oscar winner checked into a similar facility for a brief stay for treatment of her condition, known as Bipolar II. The disorder is characterized by mood swings and depressive episodes, and is commonly treated with medication and psychotherapy. …

The sibling conflict teased on the cover of Batgirl #19 may be the hook that pulls readers in, but it will be another reveal in the issue that will occupy a spot in comics history, as one of the book's characters will reveal she is transgender, the first time a character has done so in a mainstream superhero comic. Wired reports that writer Gail Simone was inspired to create a transgender character by a conversation with Batwoman co-creator Greg Rucka at Wondercon a few years ago. Simone asked why there seem to be fewer gay male comics characters than lesbian...

Snoop Dogg may have recently come out in support of gay marriage, but he doesn’t seem to think the world is ready for gay rappers. The legendary hip-hop artist - who now also goes by Snoop Lion - was asked whether Frank Ocean's decision to come out as a gay artist would make it easier for others to follow suit. Snoop responded by saying ‘Frank's a singer. It's acceptable in the singing world, but in the rap world I don't know if it ever will be because rap is so masculine.’

... In 1930, when he was 12, my dad was caught in bed with another boy at his New England prep school and sent home. My enraged grandfather hired a psychologist to straighten him out. The psychologist proclaimed that my grandmother’s extravagant love of her eldest child, and my grandfather’s harsh discipline, were responsible for Dad’s sexual confusion. He pronounced the cure: that my father leave home. ... So at the age of 12, he was exiled by his family to board at schools and summer camps and spent the rest of his life on the run. After my mother...

Sleep paralysis happens when people become conscious while their muscles remain in the ultra-relaxed state that prevents them from acting out their dreams. The experience can be quite terrifying, with many people hallucinating a malevolent presence nearby, or even an attacker suffocating them. Surveys put the number of sleep paralysis sufferers between about 5 percent and 60 percent of the population. [Say what?] One man told her about his frequent sleep paralysis episodes, during which he'd experience extremely realistic hallucinations of a young child, skipping around the bed and singing nursery rhymes. Sometimes, the child would sit on his pillow...

One in five high school boys and 11% of schoolkids overall have received an ADHD diagnosis, according to new data from the CDC. The data also shows two-thirds of children diagnosed with ADHD are prescribed stimulants like Adderall (above) and Ritalin. About 6.4 million children have received an ADHD diagnosis at some point — an increase of 16% since 2007 and 53% in the past decade. One in five high school boys and 11% of all schoolkids in the U.S. have been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, according to new data released by the Centers for Disease Control and...

PHOENIX—An Arizona judge on Friday refused to grant a divorce for a transgender Arizona man who gave birth to three children after beginning to change his sex from female. Maricopa County Family Court Judge Douglas Gerlach ruled that Arizona's ban on same-sex marriages prevents Thomas Beatie's nine-year union from being recognized as valid. Thomas Beatie was born a woman and underwent a double-mastectomy but retained female reproductive organs and gave birth to three children. Gerlach said he had no jurisdiction to approve a divorce because there's insufficient evidence that Beatie was a man when he married Nancy Beatie in Hawaii.

A wheelchair-bound man was awarded $8,000 by Disneyland after the "It's A Small World" ride broke, stranding him for a half hour while the theme song played continuously, according to an attorney for the plaintiff. Jose Martinez, who suffers from panic attacks and high blood pressure, did not medically stabilize for three hours after the ride broke down in 2009, attorney David Geffen said. "He has panic disorder and that was really what started everything rolling," Geffen said. "What caused the court concern, as well, because Disney was alerted about his panic problem and didn't call for the fire department...

The term “gender identity disorder” has been eliminated from the new edition of the American Psychiatric Association’s official guide to classifying mental illnesses, known as the DSM-5. Whereas previously a man who “self-identified” as a woman (or vice versa) could have been classified as mentally ill, now the DSM-5 uses the term “gender dysphoria,” which means it is only a mental illness if you’re troubled by this self-identification. Elated activists in the “LGBT” community had lobbied the APA for the change for years. And this month in Massachusetts, students, parents and teachers are reacting with concern to a recent policy...

It was never a medical decision—and that’s why I think the action came so fast…It was a political move…That’s how far we’ve come in ten years. Now we even have the American Psychiatric Association running scared. -Barbara Gittings, Activist Getting Started The American Psychiatric Association (APA) currently considers same-sex attraction a diagnosable and treatable mental disorder –if one is marked by persistent distress about their “sexual orientation.” The disorder is listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-IV TR (DMS-IV TR) as a paraphilia, euphemistically entitled, “Sexual Orientation Not Otherwise Specified.” Psychiatrists began to use this clunky phrase...

(CNN) -- Just like she did during the first half of the school year, first grader Coy Mathis wants to use the girls' restroom at her Colorado elementary school. But school officials won't let her. The reason? Coy is transgendered, born with male sex organs but a child who identifies herself as female. She has dressed as a girl for most of last year. And her passport and state-issued identification recognize her as female. In December, the Fountain-Fort Carson School District informed Coy's parents that Coy would be barred from using the girls' restrooms at Eagleside Elementary in Fountain after...