A GUIDE TO TRANSGENDER HEALTH: STATE-OF-THE-ART INFORMATION FOR GENDER-AFFIRMING PEOPLE AND THEIR SUPPORTERS My appreciation for this book, and recommendation of it to readers, is not only based on my current professional support of gender diversity, but on my longtime experience with the trans issue reaching back over 40 years. As a young senior research scientist and psychologist who was part of the first group of experts in the field of sexuality diagnosis and treatment, I was approached by a pioneer in gender reassignment surgery. Very concerned about whether those requesting his services were really psychologically pre- pared for the drastic change in their lives—or instead were looking to solve life’s problems or, worse, were depressed and at risk for suicide—he asked me to assess his candidates. I clearly remember one young man who cried that he was “born in the wrong body”—affirming a critical determinant of gender incongruence necessary for reassignment eligibility—but who also shared severe and long-lasting misery about his life, including tragic past physical and sexual abuses, and a distinct belief that if only he were a woman, he would be taken care of and finally happy. Clearly, other issues had to be resolved. At the time, I was also on the committee drafting sexuality criteria to be included for the first time in the third edition of the famous Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, and working with senior psychiatrists considering the con- dition “gender dysphoria.” SERIES FOREWORD
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