GID is not a sexual disorder

On the PC main page about different condition, gender identity disorder is listed under sexual disorders. In case you did not know this, GID starts in childhood, long before someone gets sexual. It has to do with a person's identifying with being male or female (or bi- or agender). It has to do with what is expected of you as a boy or girl, and if the wrong thing is expected of you, you experience gender dysphoria.

In early years it can be how the child is dressed, what toys to play with and whom to play with. In later life it can be choice of education and choice of career. A transgendered male to female might not have to like all girly stuff but he WILL get in trouble if he does. The core is what gender you feel you are.

That is much different from sexual disorders which have to do with people having unusual SEXUAL preferences, like fetishism or even pedophilia.

Sexuality is just secondary in GID, same as to any person. A GID person can be straight, gay, bi or asexual, just like anyone else. So it is not being sexually unusual or disordered.

In DSM IV the headline for these condition is "Sexual and Gender Identity Disorders", so NOT just sexual disorders.

It bothers me that such misinformation is on a site like this.

Sex is whether you are male or female (which sexual organs you have), gender is what/how you exhibit that. If you are male and would rather dress like/be with, etc. females, as one of them, you have a sexual disorder that revolves around your gender identification. It is controversial because it, as you point out, happens quite young and is probably similar to homosexuality, etc. in that that's not a disorder at all, is not a "choice".

For some reason, I feel like this came up because of me, I don't think it is, but I am like that. Feeling guilty or the center of attention when not.

Some argue that GID starts sooner than childhood. While nothing conclusive, there has been observations that point at things physiological. Identifying is one aspect, but it is far greater than just a social aspect. Enough that the aspect of being treated a certain doesn't always play into it at all. I can vouch for this.

"A transgendered male to female might not have to like all girly stuff but she WILL get in trouble if she does."

While I tend to be alright, more so than most, proper pronoun usage is encourage and is based on presentation, not initial physical design. I have worked with folks having to deal with this, i.e. the families and so it's something I've had to toughen up to.

I believe when they refer to the sexual aspect, they are speaking less of the act; but in terms to sexual when it refers to physical design as sexual is seen as the body aspect and gender refers to the brain aspect. As in like it says on things a persons Sex.

Yeah, that part sort of bothers a lot of transfolk people. DSM-5 is going to the designation of Gender Dysphoria and losing Gender Identity Disorder as it misrepresents it as something that is "fixable". Last I saw, before they took it down for finalization.

If I misunderstood or something, I'm sorry, I am. But, when I see posts come up I tend to have flags raised in my head and I begin to look and pick apart the words, because of the delicate nature of it all.

Had nothing to do with you. Was just browsing the site.

In my example I said he when I meant she. That is an incredibly stupid error on my part. Sorry.

And of course being transgender has a lot more to do than the social stuff, I thought I said that clearly.

But anyway my point is sexual means having to do with sexuality and/or sex. I feel it is disgusting when people implies children only a few years old in some cases have a "disorder" connected to their sexuality or sexual actions. This is why intersexed people are called that instead of intersexual, which was used sometimes in the past. Now there is a word called transsexual, which really isn't a particularly good word. Even transgender is a bad word, because it is illogical. But oh well.

I'm not thrilled about the name gender identity disorder, because it sounds like the mind is wrong and the body is right. I actually prefer gender dysphoria because it focuses on the mental suffering. It doesn't imply that your mind has it the wrong way, just that it is unhappy with the ways things are. Also the proposed definition is very good IMO.

But it is interesting what PC will do when DSM5 really is out there. In the new DSM the headline will not even be Sexual AND gender yadda yadda. It will NOT be in the same group as sexual disorders (because it isn't one).

I'm sorry if it seemed like I was attacking, I wasn't try to. I also understand the mistake, it happens, even transfolks make the mistake. Again, my mistake and I'm sorry.

No, it's fine. I hate making mistakes like that! It's not an attack correcting me at all. I should have corrected myself. You really shouldn't apologize.

I tend to not be real good with apologies.

And it's a mistake I'm afraid to make, paranoid about. I tend to fumble, vocally, when conversing. Text is so much easier, especially when I have time to think about it... Sorry, derailing the topic.

I do agree with you on your points, thank you.

Yeah I agree with you. You make good points and was something I had noticed also. It's rather frustrating when the first thing people typically ask is "who do I like" :/ Has nothing to do with my sexuality and for whatever reason it's hard for some to understand that. While it has to do with a person's sex, it's confusing to have it under sexual disorders >< Gender Dysphoria I don't think has a lot in common with sexual disorders, so why it (Or GID, rather) is under the same category... it took me aback for a second.

I'm glad that in the DSMV it's being changed to Gender Dysphoria since that makes a lot more sense to what is going on.

LOL, yea I had many people saying like they suddenly get it..."Oh so you're gay!"

*facepalm*

GID has nothing to do with the asperger's/autism spectrum--but here you are posting a topic like this on here! I'm kind of curious as to why this was not posted in sexual/gender issues forum?

It was not originally posted in this section.

I'm transgender. I would like to note that feelings of gender dysphoria can surface at any point in someone's life, not just childhood. Such feelings may remain unconscious or repressed. It depends on a multitude of factors.

This is interesting.

All my life, I have felt about 55% male and 45% female, even though I am biologically female. I have ASD and discovered not to long ago this is quite common. I wonder why this is?

My theory? We simply don't soak up as much of the culture around us as most people do. If you don't receive social signals too well, you don't get as much of the pressure to be either male or female, to fit yourself into a gender stereotype. So, if you're naturally androgynous, you're likely enough to just stay that way instead of adopting whatever identity seems to fit best. After all, gender dysphoria isn't universal even among people who don't fit into the usual gender categories.

Take me for example: I'm androgynous, but I don't really mind when people assume I'm female, because I couldn't care less one way or the other. I have the usual set of female equipment, but my self-image doesn't really have a gender. If I'd been pushed into gender categories as a child, maybe I never would've realized just how androgynous I am and just kind of assumed that I was female because I'm biologically female and I don't really have that much of a problem with it. If I weren't autistic, maybe I'd never have realized, maybe I'd never have felt free to get a buzz cut and study engineering; maybe I'd have assumed that my love of cats and crochet meant I was a proper girl. But those things are not aspects of my gender; they're aspects of me.

I think that when neurotypicals identify as non-binary gender of some sort, they must've started out with such a strong identity that no amount of pushing could have changed it. For us, there's not so much identification with cultural norms, so we're freer to identify as something other than cis male or cis female.

Still, once you get to the point that it feels wrong to say you're male or female when you know you're not, it's basically the same experience no matter what your neurology is like. By the time you're old enough to know whether you're male, female, neither, or both, your identity is probably pretty firm, and even if you suddenly got all the social signals loud and clear you probably still couldn't change it.

The social signals theory makes a lot of sense, since it is one of the many ways we are socialized.

Since gender is socially constructed do childhood interests influence GID or androgynous feelings in autistic individuals? During my childhood, my interests were not girly so I am just wondering if this has shaped me and others.

-Curious Didgee

There are many women who have 'masculine' interests and men who have 'feminine' interests. That doesn't mean they are transgender. Gender identity isn't the same as gender expression. I could be out in the middle of nowhere with no one around me and still feel like a guy, even though there is no social element. So, while gender expression has it's social element, gender identity does not. That's also why changing gender expression can't change someone's gender identity - in fact gender identity cannot be changed as far as is known today.

I certainly get it - make your voice heard!

See http://forums.psychcentral.com/commu...eight-los.html - the same issue, trying to fight misinformation and invalid assumptions.