Sir,
Dea Birkett's article "Mutilation won't make a man a woman" can only be viewed as a particularly uninformed piece of crap, and I am amazed it was ever approved for publication.
First of all, it is not true that there are fewer female-to-male than there are male-to-female transsexuals. The FTM International Network estimates the numbers are about equal, and figures from the Netherlands show a 40:60 FTM:MTF split. Given how progressive Dutch society is, it would seem that the more empowered female-bodied people with Gender Dysphoria are, the more likely they are to consider their options for full masculinisation.
I am a man who was born female. My decision to go for gender reassignment has nothing to do with what women can *do*, but with who I *am* and particularly who I am in relation to my body. I am an ardent feminist and fully support any female-identified human being to do whatever she wants - and many women have much more stereotypically masculine interests than I have - but I reserve the right to do with my body what feels right to *me*, and not feel revolted and depressed whenever I step out of my clothes.
Yes, feelings should be enough to enable individuals to seek gender reassignment. It may be difficult to establish mortality rates from untreated Gender Identity Disorder, because many inviduals do not have the resources to ever get professional help and never show up in any GID statistics, and neither will their suicides be linked to their gender conflict. But there is probably no transsexual person who has not been suicidal over their gender conflict at some point in their lives. Surgical and hormonal treatment has proven to be the only effective cure for the most severely affected. And the surgery, costly as it may be, is only a fraction of a lifetime's earnings and productivity that may be lost with a suicide.
Dea Birkett makes the problem look as if one treats on mom's dresses one moment, and heads for the operating table the next. This is extremely misleading. Those who do head for the operating table typically go through years of painful self-questioning, and many others apply exactly the "gender bending" to their lives that Ms Birkett so high-handedly prescribes for *all* GID sufferers.
Another bad mistake is the assumption that all transsexuals start out as repressed homosexuals and will be heterosexual post-reasssignment. Transsexual people come in all sexual orientations. I am a gay man, and I do get my share of "You fucking queer!" on a regular basis. Likewise, a great number of transsexual women identify as lesbian - just where is the acceptability Ms Birkett is waffling about?
All in all, I am dismayed to see an article like hers in a quality broadsheet like the GUARDIAN, and hope that your future coverage of the gender community will present a radical departure from this uninformed drivel.
Yours etc.,
Stephen Van Doren
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