© 2009-2012
Trans Media Watch

Charity registered in England
Number 1144430
 

Guidance for the Media - Common Misunderstandings

“Trans people are mentally ill”

There is no evidence that trans people are any more delusional than any other section of society. If they are more susceptible to mental illness than others it is one area – depression. Their fear of isolation from or vilification by family, friends, or work colleagues can lead to years of inner repression and seemingly endless attempts to make their gender dysphoria go away. Many trans people try and divert or distract their feelings by becoming involved in activities which they hope will strengthen their identification with the gender in which they feel forced to live. Male to female transsexual people may perhaps join the army, become involved in physical contact sports, bodybuilding, or other typically ‘male’ activities. Until, often, the time when they can deny their feelings no longer.

Ironically, the elaborate process through which trans people are required by the medical profession to ‘prove’ the veracity of their feelings can involve extensive involvement with the psychiatric profession – at many stages of which it is established and re-established that the ‘patient’ is sane and competent.

BM TMW - LONDON - WC1N 3XX