Posted on 12/19/2001 8:58:59 AM PST by medlarebil
At his brother's wedding, the photographer put Marcus Rene Van with the men in the family and his sister screamed, "That's my sister."
Technically -- and biologically -- she's right. But two years ago, the 25-year-old spoken word artist with a tiny goatee swapped genders and went from she to he.
Van is one of a rising number of young women who are opting to live their lives as men -- a trend on the rise in San Francisco's lesbian community.
Business is booming for doctors specializing in chest surgery, clinics that provide hormone treatment and psychologists who offer gender therapy, with one popular surgeon completing twice as many surgeries as he did five years ago.
When Van -- who lives as a man without the help of hormones or surgery -- made the switch, it wasn't a popular thing to do. Now, he said, he's just another trans man living in The City.
Access to transsexual procedures is helping many be true to their chosen gender. But is easy access to hormones and the deluge of information about transsexuality helping those in need, or is it just plain hip right now to be a boy?
"I think (some young) people are going to end up regretting what they have done," Van said of those who might be too quick to take hormones without considering the effects. "If you take hormones for a couple of years, there is no turning back."
Easy access
Dimensions, the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender youth clinic in the Castro-Mission Health Center, is where many trans men have been coming since the doors opened three and a half years ago.
The clinic offers hormone treatment and has at least 25 female to male (FTM) transsexual clients who are on testosterone, according to clinic coordinator Laurie Lenrow.
Before a patient is permitted to take the hormones, they (or their guardians, if they are underage) are required to sign a consent form that outlines the permanent damage testosterone can do. Hair loss, beard and mustache growth, deepening of the voice, increased body hair and enlargement of the clitoris are irreversible, and the risk of cancer and diabetes is increased.
The clinicians here, like many who work with the transsexual community, do not closely adhere to what they consider conservative international standards of care for transsexuals, the Harry Benjamin Standard. The guidelines suggest three months of psychiatric treatment for those wanting to take hormones.
But patients at Dimensions do not have to undergo therapy and most are able to start hormone treatment within five weeks of their initial visit, following lab tests and a staff review of the individual case.
Lenrow compares taking testosterone to birth control pills, and points out there are many who don't take hormones or get operations. Besides, she said, most of their clients have been considering transition since they were teenagers and are usually "well-prepared" to make the decision.
Making history
Barely old enough to buy a drink, Chris Tavelli, 21, got chest surgery to remove his breasts in March and began taking testosterone in May.
He said he has known that his gender was wrong for as long as he remembers, but still admits that he made his decision at a young age, even though his family wanted him to wait.
But he doesn't think he'll have any regrets.
"Anything is possible, but I highly doubt I will ever regret it," he said. "You don't get to this decision on the whim. I'm just not a girl."
Still, many in the lesbian community are struggling to understand why so many young women want to change genders. While some view it as betrayal, others are just confused.
Bonnie Barrett, 33, graphic designer, is one of the confused. Barrett has been mistaken for a boy all her life.
"I'm not that old-fashioned," she said. "But (taking hormones) is a radical decision that I think is taken very lightly. What's wrong with just going to gym? What's wrong with just being butch?"
Why not just be a butch lesbian is a question that Van and Tavelli have all been asked a million times.
"It didn't fit," Van said simply. "I wanted to be myself, and myself is male."
Under the knife
A graceful metal robot with big red lips and voluminous breasts greets Michael Brownstein's clientele in his Potrero Hill loft medical office.
The gray-haired plastic surgeon has been doing sexual reassignment surgery in The City for more than 20 years. He has done hundreds of mastectomies and metoidioplasties -- the transformation of external female genitals into male (see inset) -- and business is booming.
Brownstein is doing twice as many surgeries as he did five years ago for clients who are mainly women in their 20s and 30s and want a mastectomy, or top surgery -- the more common of the two procedures that he does.
But he maintains that having surgery -- or even changing genders -- is not a fad.
"It's not a trendy thing," he said. "It's not like a rave party. This is a real condition."
Brownstein said the reason for the increase in procedures is that there is more acceptance of transsexuals, and more access to information via the Internet.
As chairman of the ethics committee for the Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association, he makes certain that his clients are ready to make the decision for surgery. But Brownstein doesn't require a letter from a therapist in every case, as is required in the guidelines.
"Someone who is 40 and has lived as a male for 20 years successfully, I wouldn't have much reservation," he said. "But a 22-year-old doesn't have that same degree of experience."
Getting equipped
Riley Richard is considering his options.
The 26-year-old with a sweet round face and tattoos running up his arm is going to therapy to figure out if hormones are the right treatment for him.
A few months ago, Richard decided to switch genders and went from she to he. Inside, Richard is all man.
"I'm a boy and I always have been," he said behind black-rimmed glasses and a ski cap pulled around his face. "I just don't have the biological equipment."
Richard has made the choice to go by "he" in a workplace that is accepting of his new gender, even though he was blessed otherwise.
Pronouns are important at Good Vibrations, where Richard works as a warehouse clerk. Sometimes it's the only word that gives away a person's gender in the sex toy distribution company where up to 15 percent of the employees are transsexuals -- the majority of whom are female to males transsexuals in their 20s and 30s.
But while Richard contemplates taking hormones, chest surgery is something he plans to do as soon as he can save the money.
Van doesn't plan to have surgery, top or otherwise.
"I want to keep my body intact," he said. "But there are things I can't do. I can't wear a tank top, I can't walk into a men's locker room."
But taking testosterone would change some of that. It would stop his periods, put more hair on his face, move fat off his hips and into his abdomen. It would make his bones bigger, his voice lower. With so many friends taking hormones, it's something Van has been contemplating.
"I think about it every day," he said.
E-mail Tanya Pampalone at tpampalone@sfexaminer.com
Sy Rogers (whom I've met in person and heard give awesome testimony) has a lot of healing words to say to people who are living or have gone through sexual identity problems. He says that almost everyone he's talked to that's gone through the surgery or through a same-gender marriage regrets it, and publically. He was at the first same-sex wedding in Hawaii (he was one of the best men), and he says that couple has since regretted it and talked to him about their mistake and at least one of them has chosen to turn to Christ.
Anyway, here's his web site for those seeking more on the topic:
Sy Rogers
http://www.syrogers.com/aboutsy.html
This is unreasonable. G-d can do all things, but by doing some things He limits Himself from doing others. Once He decided to create a universe of matter and energy, He limited Himself from having a universe of pure energy. It's like the old question about G-d creating the rock so heavy He can't lift it. G-d is real, not an invention. It doesn't reduce His omnipotence to suggest that, by exercising His omnipotence He limits Himself.
You can present the possibility that an omnipotent, omniscient being can have created creation in such a way that Satan could have been everything else G-d wanted him to be but not have the opportunity to sin. But until you become omnipotent and omniscient yourself, you can't suggest the solution so you don't really know if there is one.
G-d had a reason for creating creation the way He did. We do not know that reason. Therefore, we can accuse Him of not trying hard enough to make it impossible for Satan or man to sin, but we can't really know it was possible.
As to posting verses from the Gospel, a few verses won't do. The whole Gospel shows that G-d takes responsibility for what He has done. G-d put Adam in a position of test, knowing full well that Adam would fail. G-d was, in a sense, responsible for Adam's failure. That's why G-d took the initiative to repair the damage Himself. The Gospel, and many passages in the New Testament, make it clear that Jesus was not 'Plan B.' G-d knew from before the foundation of the world that He would one day face the cross.
Shalom.
We recognize mental illness because we have so many examples of how the brain is supposed to work and how healthy people respond to the world. Since we know that most people are not schizophrenic, we can call schizophrenia a mental illness. Then we can attempt to cure it. The success of some cures shows that we were right in classifying it as a disease. The lack of success shows how complex a disease it is and how far we still have to go in understanding mental illness.
The success rate for 'curing' homosexuality is at least as good as the success rate for curing schizophrenia. Just some food for thought, there.
Shalom.
You are, apparently, a bigophobe. I ask the moderator to pull your hateful thread. There is no room on earth for a person like you who would post such a hateful and tactless suggestion. I f--t in your general direction. Everyone ignore this person as someone who just doesn't see the reality that Rednecks and Bigots are the way G-d made them. Emmylou is intolerant and should be banned from the board.
Shalom.
Homosexuality is easy. 'Thou shalt not commit adultery.' Transsexuality may have no bearing if sexual activity is not involved.
Shalom.
You'd have to postulate the something before I can postulate the method.
In the case of G-d's creation, we broke it by sinning.
Shalom.
I disagree. Nothing that is done to your outside alters who you are. It is what comes from your heart that alters who you are.
Nose jobs, boob jobs, and sex change operations may all be signs of a heart that needs healing, but none will alter who you are.
Shalom.
At the moment I am the unofficial spokesbigot. We haven't actually had the first meeting to elect the officers and adopt the bylaws. Since the first bylaw is that non-members can't come to the meeting (since bigots and rednecks don't like outsiders) and the second bylaw is that you have to be voted a member at a meeting we're in a bit of a quandry as to how to proceed. But we'll come up with a solution. One favored solution is to get so drunk that we can't remember the bylaws and then hold the first meeting but we can't agree on whether to serve Bud or Miller Lite.
Anyway, I'll let you know how it progresses.
I have already asked the moderator to ban Emmylou from the planet for her anti-Bigot post.
Shalom.
Considering the topic you could have chosen a better verb. But the answer to your question is both no and no, depending on whether you chose the verb carefully or not. Judas was prophesied. Jesus did exactly what He was supposed to do.
Shalom.
As John is a man, and not a god, I will still doubt that gender identity is a problem. Actually, I recognize it as a problem. I think the solution is spiritual healing, not surgery.
Shalom.
Even a dead watch is right twice a day, unless it is a military watch in which case it is right once a day.
Shalom.
By the way, I notice that the supporters of sex-change surgery have not bothered to bring up the people who are having their bodies surgically altered to look like animals. I saw a man on TV once who had his face altered to look like a great cat. He had claws where fingernails should be. The TV show treated this as perfectly normal and discussed what his employer had to do to keep him from scaring the customers.
We call this the slippery slope. If a woman can be born in a man's body, why can't a puma or, as I believe one man did, an iguana (no pictures for that one)? Once you get to the bottom of the slope you realize the absurdity of the whole thing. Unfortunately, there often is no way back up.
Shalom.
I didn't realize when I posted to you earlier that you didn't know that people do this.
You probably thought you were being ridiculous. I'm sorry to point out that you were being perfectly rational.
The other inmates in this funny farm we're becoming have declared it so.
Shalom.
I am Cindy Crawford's bathroom mirror.
Really I am. It's not my fault I was born into a nerd's body.
Shalom.
Shalom.
But you can't expect gay males and gay females and straight FTM transgender and straight MTF transgender and gay FTM transgender and gay MTF transgender to all share the same bathroom, do you? Think of the long lines? Think of how hard it will be to decide how many urinals and how many stalls. We definately need to keep all these whackos straight - er - unconfused - er - in separate bathrooms.
Shalom.
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