Resolution by IFGE BOD to APA

Resolution by the International Foundation for Gender Education (IFGE) Board of Directors to the American Psychiatric Association (APA)

Whereas people are naturally endowed with a wide diversity of gender expression, identities, and sexual orientations;

Whereas, the distress felt by gender non-conforming people is fundamentally due to social prejudice and heterosexism, and is not a characteristic of their identities;
Whereas diagnosis of psychological disorders has been used as a form of social control;

Whereas, the inclusion of normal variations of behavior as diagnostic criteria has been widely used to justify discrimination against gender non-conforming people by individuals, governments, and corporations; and has resulted in material harm to people;

Whereas, the principle responsibility of medicine is to "Do No Harm;"

Therefore, be it resolved that we find the American Psychiatric Association to have a responsibility to ameliorate this harm, and hereby call for the following remedies:

(1) We hereby call on the Board of Trustees of the American Psychiatric Association to issue a declaration stating that: Gender variance, and gender non-conforming behavior do not constitute a psychological disorder;

(2) We hereby call on the American Psychiatric Association to remove the diagnosis of so- called "Transvestic Fetishism," which explicitly pathologizes gender non-conforming behavior, from their Diagnostic and Statistical Manual;

(3) We hereby call for the reform of any diagnosis that can be made solely based on gender non-conforming behavior, specifically including “Gender Identity Disorder in Children.”

Resolved this day May 15, 2009 by the Board of Directors of
The International Foundation for Gender Education

Facebook IFGE: the International Foundation for Gender Education.

http://www.ifge.org/

APA

Rally In The Castro, May 17th : IRAQ STOP KILLING GAYS

San Francisco LGBT Community Rallies for LGBT Iraqis: Leaders Want End to Torture and Murder

(San Francisco, CA) – A broad united coalition of human rights advocates and politicians will hold a spirited rally this Sunday, May 17, in solidarity with the LGBT citizens of Iraq, who face surging violence and killings. Since 2004, hundreds of gay men have been killed or executed in Iraq. LGBT people in Iraq are targeted by clerics reviving religious pressure against gays leading to killings and by militias seeking rally their bases. Recent reports out of Baghdad document the gruesome gluing of anuses of gay men, who are forced to swallow laxatives, leading to death by diarrhea, come amid continuing genital mutilation.

Responding to the atrocities, San Francisco LGBT community holds a demonstration to support the LGBT Iraqis.

WHERE: Harvey Milk Plaza, Castro and Market Streets
DATE: Sunday, May 17
TIME: 12:30 – 1:30 PM

Speakers: Sen. Mark Leno, Supervisor Bevan Dufty, SF Police Commission Pres,ident Theresa Sparks, Karen Kai of Rainbow World Fund, Rev. Lea Brown of the Metropolitan Community Church, Rev. Tommy Dillon of St. Aidan's Episcopal Church, Debra Walker of the Harvey Milk Democratic Club, political artist Clinton Fein, and community organizers Michael Petrelis and Gary Virginia of Gays Without Borders.

Rainbow World Fund, the LGBT international humanitarian relief charity, is serving as the fiscal sponsor, and donations made through it are tax-deductible. Donations will be used to provide direct aid to the Iraqi LGBT community.

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