|
ll March 1995
CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS FOR TRANSSEXUALS ANS
TRANSVESTITES
I greatly appreiate the invitation that has been
extended to the public at large to submit suggestions on the contents of the new
Constitutional, to your Assembly. May I therefore bring to your attention the
plight of this rations transsexuals and trans‑vestites.
1.
DEFINITIONS
A transsexual is a person who from a very early age
has felt that he or she has been born into a body of the “wrong”sex.
They find
their existing situation so intolerable that they are prepared to
spend many thousands of Rand on surgery to make the sex of their
physical 'body
conform to the gender of their inner self - their personality or
"soul".
A transvestite is a person who, while perfectly content
with the sex of the body he was born with, nevertheless has an overpowering urge
to adopt
the outward appearance of the opposite sex with regard to clothes,
hairstyles make-up, etc.
Both these phenomena are overwhelmingly male
problems, so for the sake of simplicity I will refer to the sufferers in male
terms,
though it must be borne in mind that one does occasionally come across a
woman with one or other of these problems.
2.
ORIGINS
Psychologists are divided over the origins of these phenomena and
whether they are separate problems or the same psychosis, differing
only
in degree, but their opinions are not really relevant. The point is that the
transsexual is a very real person with a very real
problem. NO psychiatrist on
earth can give this person a "male" mind, so the only option is to have a
surgeon give him (or should
we say "her"?) a female body, as far as this is
possible.
The transvestite has even greater problems. He is a man and is
perfectly content to be one. He plays manly sports and is probably
happily
married, yet he is plagued by a constant craving to adopt the outer trappings of
feminity. Surgery is not the answer. In
some cases transvestites have become
so desperate that they have resorted to sex-change operations. However they are
so masculine
in every other respect that this proves a disaster and sometimes
even results in the patient committing suicide. Psychiatrists cannot
“cure'' them, though they can help to remove the guilt-complex and low
self-image that result from, the condemnation that
is heaped upon, the male
cross-dresser by the public at large.
3. FREQUENCY OF
OCCURRANCE
Accurate statistics are simply not obtainable. Those we do
have are merely based upon the number of patients who bring their problem
to
the attention of a psychiatrist and these people are just the tip of the
iceberg,. The larger proportion of sufferers cannot
afford the high costs of
surgery or even psychiatric help, or they mistake their ''abnormality" for some
form of insanity and are
too ashamed to mention it to a soul.
Thus for
instance, while an official survey placed the number of residents of San
Francisco who have undergone sex-change surgery
at a staggering 60009,
newspapers in this country have stated that "every person in 35 000 is a
transsexual". Bearing in mind the
proven occurrence of transsexuality in San
Francisco I would suggest that a more likely figure would be, not one person,
in 35 000
but one person, in three hundred and fifty.
Transvestites are
even less likely to stand up to be counted. Many of them believe that they are
the only persons in the world with
these urges and are too ashamed of themselves
to even admit to their wives that they have this problem.. Instead they keep a
suitcase
of female clothes, make-up, wigs etc., hidden away somewhere and when.
the pressures become intolerable, they dress up in secret.
Just occasionally
one of them, venturing out in public, gets recognised. In consequence the
public think that transvestites are
as rare as two-headed calves - and just as
freakish.
To make matters worse, male prostitutes regularly dress up in.
exaggeratedly female attire in order to attract a particular class
of clientele
and these men get arrested and prosecuted now and then. They are really not
transvestites at all as their female garb
is not worn for psychological reasons
but purely for 'business purposes", but the ordinary public, not being aware of
this, treats
any cross‑dresser with loathing and
contempt.
Consequently the transvestite has nothing to gain and
everything to lose by coming out into the open and very few indeed are prepared
to do so, so just how many transvestites there really are will never be known.
However we do know that in America, out of an adult
male population of arounld
200 million., over 3 million men find transvestism such a problem that they
belong to one of the more
than 600 clubs that have 'been formed to assist people
like them. These men alone make up li% of the male population and, again,
represent only the tip of the iceberg. It is obvious from this that
transvestites are more numerous than gays and transsexuals put
together and if
these two groups deserve the protection of the Law (as has already happened to
some extent) it would seem most unfair
that the transvestite has been ignored up
to now.
Transvestism is a world-wide problem. One club in Tokyo has 6000
members alone and another in Osaka has 3000., There are clubs and
support-groups
in Britain, Scandinavia, Pakistan, Turkey, Peru, the former U.S.S.R. and
elsewhere. In South Africa we do have one
support-group for both transvestites
and transsexuals (The Phoenix society, P.O., Box 1332, Springs 1560).- It was
founded 15 years
ago but due to the low level of co-operation obtained from the
media of this country, most sufferers do not even know of its
existence.
4. PROBLEMS OF THE TRANSSEXUAL
A person’s sex
is decided at birth upon an examination, of their physical body and in most
countries even if a person has their
sex surgically altered subsequently this
cannot be reflected in the official records. In America, Britain and many other
countries
a 'male” who has become a "female" is still refused into the
army, refused permission to marry a man and, if she is raped,
her attacker is
only charged with public indecency, not rape. Most horrible of all, if
sentenced to imprisonment, such a woman would be confined amongst male
criminals. When one considers the known prevalence of sodomy
amongst convicts,
leaving a female transsexual to their mercies is positively barbaric and it is
to be hoped that legislation proposed
in this memorandum will be assed by the
Constitutional Assembly and become a model for Legislators in, other
countries.
Transsexuals are apt to be snubbed and humiliated by their
colleagues at work, by their friends, by neighbours, by members of Sports
Clubs
and be demoted or even dismissed by unsympathetic bosses.
Having put up
with all this, going through with the operation, takes a new job in another town
where nobody knows them and moves into
the background, it often happens that
someone who knew them previously turns up and tells everyone in the community
that "that woman
used to be a man!” This results in so much harassment and
trouble that the unhappy transsexual is forced to change jobs and
move to
another town once more.
5. LEGISLATION TO HELP THE TRANSSEXUAL.
If
a person has been diagnosed as a transsexual and begins medical treatment
preparatory to a "sex-change operations as soon as they
reach the stage where
they start dressing full-time as a female, they should be protected against
demotion or dismissal at work
and anyone harassing them should be deemed to be
"disturbing the peace" and liable to prosecution,.
As regards access to
places wnere nudity is involved, such as change‑rooms, toilets and
gymnasiums, the rule should be that
the patient's genitals should be matched to
the facility they wish to use.
Once the sex-change operation is
completed, the person should be treated as if they were of that sex since
birth., All. documents
such as Birth Certificates Identity Documents, School
Certificates etc., should be re-issued, reflecting the person’s current
sex. In particular such a person should have the right to marry and adopt
children, above all if sent to prison they should be committed
to a jail that
houses persons of their post-operative sex..
Any person who reveals that a
person has had a sex-change should be deemed to be guilty of slander and liable
to both criminal prosecution
and civil action.
Legislation covering some
of these suggestions is currently before the City Council of San Francisco and
could well be used by our
own legislators as a model. It must be borne in mind
that a transsexual has not chosen to be the way he is, any more than has a
baby
born, with a heart defect. Therefore the one is as undeserving of public
harassment for resorting to surgery to repair the
matters as the
other.
6.. PROBLEMS OF THE TRANSVESTITE.
I am informed that 100
years ago transvestism was equally common amongst both sexes. Today while it is
more common amongst men than ever, it is very rare indeed amongst women.
The reason is not far to seek. Females have so many masculine fashions
to
choose from, that they work any transvestite urges out of their systems at an
early age. It is the male who is forced to suppress
his urge to cross-dress
until the pressures tear him apart like a boiler with a defective safety-valve.
Transvestites who have been
caught out have even been known to commit suicide as
a result of their humiliation,
Consider the freedom enjoyed by women:
they can pierce their ears or ignore them, wear make-up or appear with
freshly-washed faces.
They can wear dresses of any length slax, shorts, or a
full suit consisting of jacket, trousers, waistcoat, shirt and tie. They
can
wear an army hairstyle waist-length hair or any length in between, styled,
permed and coloured in any way they choose.-
Now consider the
restrictions imposed upon the male of the species: It is hard to believe that
the Interim Constitution has decreed
that "there shall be no discrimination
based upon sex or gender", It needs to be clearly spelled out that if Sexual
Equality permits
a woman to turn up to work in something remarkably like a
man’s business suit, it must also permit a man to turn up in a skirt
and
blouse - and earrings, make-up and wig too, if he so chooses
Of course
not many men would want to dress like that but there is that one man in.20,
perhaps one man in 10 who is yearning to do
so and who would be a far happier
person as well as a more productive worker, if he could. After all, if the man
at the desk next
to him claims the right to blow cigarette smoke in- his face
all day long ‑in the name of individual freedom, why should a
transvestite
be deprived of the right to dress in any way he chooses?
AN ADDITIONAL
BENEFIT.
Such legislation would be a tremendous blessing to people who
fall midway between the transvestite and the transsexual. These are
men who
have very feminine natures but who are sexually attracted to women. If they
were permitted to wear dresses and make-up and
were accepted 'by Society as a
sort of 'third gender', - different but not inferior, just as left-handers are -
it is my belief that
they would be satisfied to remain in this condition. They
would marry, raise families and be content with the situation. How much
better
that would be than opting for sex-change surgery and becoming lesbians. Men who
have taken this course have been known to
commit suicide out of sheer
frustration.
8. STATUS OF THE WRITER.
The writer of this
memorandum would be the first to admit that he has no qualifications in
psychology. On the other hand, he has
had more practical_experience of
transvestism than most practising psychiatrists 60 years of it. He has been a
transvestite since
he was five years old.
For this reason he has
researched the subject very thoroughly indeed and also made close friendships
with many fellow sufferers -
and their loved ones - with whom he has had
in-depth discussions of transvestism, transsexuality and the problems of social
acceptance
that result from it. He has also contributed numerous articles to
the inhouse magazine of the Phoenix Society - the support group
for
transvestites and transsexuals in this country.
9. CONCLUSION.
I
trust the Constitutional Assembly will give this memorandum their earnest
consideration and hope that some effective legis‑lation
will come from
it.
I am proud to say that South Africa leads the world in enlightened
legislation against discrimination on grounds of sex, gender, race
or religion.
I do hope that the new Constitution will play its part in stamping out
discrimination against transvestites and transsexuals
as
well.
F.M. Fotheringhan
Enclosure: "Suggested Legislation"
SUGGESTED LEGISLATION,
- There
shall be no discrimination based on sex or gender.
- Any
article of apparel, jewellery or cosmetics worn by persons of one sex shall be
deemed to be equally acceptable if worn by someone
of the opposite
sex.
3. Any person harassing someone merely because their dress is
unusual, shall be guilty of a breach of the peace.
- Any
person who is diagnosed as a transsexual and who commences treatment which is
intended to lead to gender reassignment surgery
shall, from the time that he or
she begins to wear, on a fulltime basis, the clothing of the sex to which he or
she aspires, be
treated without prejudice as a member of that sex. However,
where nudity is involved the facility which the transsexual shall be
required to
use shall be matched to that person’s genitals.
No
person shall be demoted, dismissed or otherwise humiliated because they are
about to undergo or have undergone gender re-assignment
surgery.
- Any
document or certificate which had been previously issued to a person, shall be
replaced by an equivalent document reflecting his
or her new name and sex after
they have completed gender re-assignment surgery.
A person who
has undergone gender re-assignment surgery shall have all the rights at law that
they would have had had they been born
with a body of the sex it now
is.
Any person revealing that someone has undergone gender
re‑assignment surgery shall be guilty of an offence and be
subject to both criminal prosecution and civil action for damages.
|
