Their story: ‘I want to be somewhere between two fixed points of gender’
The Canadian Globe and Mail has an interesting feature article by Sarah Hampson on trans and nonbinary issues, with a special focus on gender fluidity.
There is very little academic study of gender fluidity, and due to the varied and evolving terms for people who fluctuate between the two gender extremes, some researchers question the accuracy of the quantitative research that does exist. But in one of the most authoritative academic studies, The Lives of Transgender People, published in 2011 in the United States and including 3,470 participants, of those within the trans community who identified as genderqueer, gender fluid or non-binary, 86.5 per cent were biological females. They were also primarily young people: All were under the age of 32, and the average age was 19. Whether this is because there’s a particular demographic that’s more likely to be gender fluid or because society makes it easier for people who are young and biologically female to explore gender expression is a question researchers have yet to explore.
The article points to the shift in how the medical establishment view both transgender and nonbinary identities and expression:
“A key change is de-pathologizing gender identity,” offers Joshua Safer, an endocrinologist and professor at Boston University School of Medicine who is also a spokesperson for WPATH. “You don’t have to have a mental illness to be treated for being transgender … [We] are taking a view along the lines that this is a biological entity that may manifest differently in different people, e.g. in a non-binary fashion, and the medical goal is to be patient-centred, helpful and safe.” Dr. Safer is also a member of the Endocrine Society, which will be publishing “major” new clinincial guidelines for all trans patients in late 2016 or early 2017 to replace existing recommended practices from 2009.
The photo is of Mx. Gilmer-Osborne, shown in March, 2013, who is now taking low doses of the male hormone testosterone. More about them in the article.Photo by Taylor Halischuk-Jones.
