November 2000

(Corresponds to Chapter 13 in your text)

Gender Identity Disorder in the News

Most of the time, our sense of ourselves as male or female, known as gender identity, is consistent with our physical makeup. Children with male genitals act in accordance with societal expectations of male roles, and children with female physical sex characteristics exhibit the behaviors expected of girls. But this is not always the case.

When children grow up feeling like their gender identity and their physical anatomy are in conflict, they may be diagnosed with gender identity disorder, characterized by feelings of being trapped in the wrong body and by intense desires to behave as the "other" sex. Boys with gender identity disorder (the diagnosis is rare in girls) want to dress like girls, adopt female behaviors, and shun traditional male roles. Two recent examples indicate society's difficulties in dealing with boys with gender identity disorder.

Six-year-old Zachary Lipscomb started acting like a girl when he was two years old. He wanted his mother to buy him girls' clothing. He fashioned dresses and wigs out of blankets and towels. When he was 5 years old, he announced that he was a girl and wanted to have his ears pierced. His parents did what many experts in gender identity disorder suggest—let Zachary, by now known as Aurora or Rori, at home express the gender behaviors that he was comfortable with.

When Zachary went to school dressed as a girl, the school and child welfare authorities were alarmed. The county children services' agency took the Zachary into custody, alleging that the parents were unfit, in part because they allowed Zachary to dress as a girl and call himself Aurora. The court agreed. Zachary has been placed in a foster home where he is required to wear boy's clothing and act like a boy. The authorities say that Zachary's problem is caused by his parent's own psychological problems, His mother has bipolar disorder; his father believes he has gender identity disorder and wants to have sex reassignment surgery and live as a woman.

But a judge in Massachusetts took a more enlightened view. When a 15-year-old boy was suspended from public school for wearing girls' clothing, including bras, wigs, and high heels, the judge ruled that the student (referred to as Pat Doe in the proceedings in order to protect the adolescent's anonymity), who has been diagnosed with gender identity disorder, could wear any clothing that any other male or female student could wear. "Pat's" therapist testified that forcing him to wear boys' clothing would harm his mental health.

The judge, who coincidentally is lesbian, noted that a school could not stifle a person's sense of self merely because the community was uncomfortable. Further, she suggested that student exposure to different life styles would make them more tolerant as adults.

Psychologist Kenneth Zucker, who runs a treatment clinic for transgendered children in Canada, believes that being more accepting of children who reject their assigned gender may save the children from requiring sex-reassignment surgery as adults. They may accept the gender-sex disconnect more readily if allowed to dress and behave in ways consistent with their gender identity.

Cloud, J. (2000, September 25). His Name Is Aurora. Time. pp. 90-91.

Judge: Boy Can Wear Girl's Clothes. Retrieved October 12, 2000: http://www.findlaw.com.

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