�The American Psychological Association urged psychologists today to take a leading role in ending discrimination based on grammatical gender identity, career upon the profession to provide "reserve, nondiscriminatory handling to all transgender and gender-variant individuals" and encouraging more research into all aspects of gender identity element and expression.
The action came at APA's Annual Convention when the association's governing Council of Representatives adopted a resolution supporting full equality for transgender and gender-variant people. The resolution also calls on APA to:
musical accompaniment legal and social realization of transgender individuals consistent with their gender personal identity and formulation;
support the provision of adequate and medically necessary treatment for transgender and gender-variant people;
recognize the benefit and necessity of gender modulation treatments for appropriately evaluated individuals;
squall on public and private insurers to cover these treatments.
In addition to adopting the wide-ranging resolution, the Council of Representatives received a report by APA's Task Force on Gender Identity and Gender Variance. The six-member task force washed-out more than two geezerhood reviewing the scientific literature, as well as APA policies regarding transgender issues. It was also charged with development recommendations for education, professional training and further research into transgenderism, and proposing how APA can best meet the needs of psychologists and students world Health Organization identify as transgender or gender-variant.
Noting that transgender people, their families, friends and employers ar increasingly turning to psychologists for assist, "this course underscores the need for psychologists to acquire greater knowledge and competence in addressing transgendered issues," the report states.
Among the report's recommendations:
APA should encourage training programs and graduate internships to welcome and support transgendered and gender-variant people;
APA should develop separate practice guidelines for transgender clients;
APA should encourage more research into gender indistinguishability and expression, including the reliability and validity of diagnostic criteria for gender identity disorders;
APA should advocate for antidiscrimination protection for transgender people in jurisdictions that lack such laws.
With regard to research, the task force listed a series of recommended areas of focal point, including social stigma and public attitudes toward sex identity; identity development, including prospective studies of children and adolescents; the process and event of transgender-specific health care; and the variables associated with the efficacy of sex reassignment.
As a direct result of the task force's work, APA added gender identity element to its nondiscrimination policy earlier this year. This builds upon prior adoption of grammatical gender identity nondiscrimination language in APA's bylaws, Code of Ethics and its Guidelines and Principles for Accreditation of Professional Programs in Psychology.
In addition, the task force highly-developed a pamphlet, Answers to Your Questions about Transgender Individuals and Gender Identity (http://www.apa.org/topics/transgender.html), which APA promulgated in 2006 and has made available on its Web site.
The task personnel recommended that APA read no stead with respect to the diagnosis of gender identity operator disorder, which is sometimes required for transgender clients to obtain needed upkeep. "Psychologists wHO work with clients with gender identity issues are not of one mind on this issue," task force members wrote. They noted that the psychiatric profession publishes the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, which contains GID, "and hence revision is their responsibility."
The report noted that APA has previously adopted resolutions discouraging psychologists from using diagnoses that are potentially harmful or discriminatory. "Accordingly, if thither were evidence showing the GID diagnosing to be similarly harmful and discriminative against gender-variant, transgender or transsexual people, there would be a precedent for a resolution discouraging psychologists from using this diagnosing," the task force wrote. "However � there is a outstanding deal of disagreement about the GID diagnosis and whether it is helpful or harmful; therefore, the Task Force does not recommend that APA take a lieu on GID at this time."
It is APA's situation that no psychological upset should be stigmatized or used as the basis for discrimination.
Task force members:
Chair: Margaret Schneider, PhD, University of Toronto, Canada;
Walter O. Bockting, PhD, University of Minnesota Medical School;
Randall D. Ehrbar, PsyD; New Leaf Services Our Community, San Francisco;
Anne A. Lawrence, MD, PhD, Seattle; Katherine Rachlin, PhD, New York;
Kenneth J. Zucker, PhD, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Canada
Full text of the chore force report is uncommitted from the APA Public Affairs Office and at http://www.apa.org/pi/lgbc/transgender/2008TaskForceReport.pdf. The resolution is at http://www.apa.org/pi/lgbc/policy/transgender.pdf.
The American Psychological Association (APA), based in Washington, DC, is the largest scientific and professional organization representing psychology in the United States and is the world's largest association of psychologists. APA's membership includes more than 148,000 researchers, educators, clinicians, consultants and students. Through its divisions in 54 subfields of psychology and affiliations with 60 state, territorial and Canadian provincial associations, APA works to pass on psychology as a skill, as a profession and as a means of promoting human welfare.
Source: Kim I. Mills
American Psychological Association
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