Approved May 05, 2006



VOLUNTEERS NEEDED! Expires May 04, 2007

Researchers at the UCLA Medical Center are looking to recruit individuals who identify as a MtF transsexual for a study exploring human sexuality. The aim of the study is to understand what neurological and genetic structures may influence gender identity development.

PARTICIPANTS MUST BE IN A PRE-ESTROGEN STAGE.

It will involve:
1. an intelligence test
2. a psychological inventory
some participants will complete additional research measures and will be compensated for their time depending on the number of measures completed.
3.a saliva sample
4. an MRI scan

iF YOU ARE INTERESTED AND/OR HAVE FRIENDS OR RELATIVES THAT MAY BE INTERESTED:

Directly contact the principal investigator:

Eric Vilain, M.D., Ph.D.
Department of Human Genetics
David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA
Los Angeles, CA 90095-7088
Phone (310)-267-2455
[email protected]


There has been a rumor in the TG community that such research has been impeded by those with a vested interest in preventing determination that transsexuality has a neuro-biological source, rather than choice. We know that it is chance, not choice that causes transsexuality. Here is a chance to support such research and perhaps even obtain some funding for your transition.

Brilliant. I almost wish I was “pre-estrogen” and would have happily taken part, um, had I lived in the States…
One of the excuses for non-acceptance of the very convincing results on TS brain research is that most subjects had probably taken hormones and it couldn’t be proven that the remarkable similarity between female and m2f TS brains was not caused by the hormones taken.
I would have thought that would be ridiculously unlikely, but people will find any excuse not to believe that we were all born this way.
When all you ever remember is wanting to be a girl you have to wonder where the concept of “conditioning” is supposed to come in. I’ve had this out with my dad, him first blaming the break up of my marriage (do many guys instantly want to become women when they get divorced…?) then progressively going backwards through the various “traumatic” events in my life that could have caused me to “want to change sex”. Even my brother originally suggested that our mum wanted a girl and so treated me differently, and that’s what caused it. A ludicrous and completely untrue suggestion, completely disputed by our mum. We were treated equally as children, as far as was possible with him always acting in a very male way, and me not.
Why are some people so reluctant to accept that this is a physiological condition? I’ve been this way all my life; it was neither a sudden nor a gradual change.
I think the men in my family like to find blame for everything, or maybe they just feel clever for coming up with their own explanations. The cause lies in nature, blame is not appropriate. I was born this way, I know that – I am me, I should know. What more explanation do you need?!
By the time this is proven beyond question we will probably all be dead, but that doesn’t stop me from living my life the way I know I must, and being happy.
My dad may die in ignorance, stubbornly insisting that he knows better, on a subject about which he clearly knows nothing.
Men are like that.
xx

If conditioning causes us to be TG, then I would like two specific situations explained to me.

1. I grew up being strongly conditioned to be "a man". My natural tendency to be gentle, quiet and non-violent were repeatedly assaulted by peers and family. I lived in a home with an angry, threatening father who even forced me to fight against my clear wishes. I was conditioned to try to be the best "man" I could be. I spent my life in military training, martial arts and masculine pursuits. All this conditioning failed to stop my TG nature from emerging two years ago after 56 years of conditioning. How does conditioning explain us BECOMING TG?

2. David Reimer (whose life is described in AS NATURE MADE HIM by John Colapinto. After a "botched circumcision", as an infant, in which he lost his entire penis, he was raised as a girl. Dressed, placed firmly in feminine lifestyle for years. AS a teenager he rebelled against this and exerted his true male self. Again, explain to me how conditioning prevented his true nature as a male to force itself to the front.

I say it again. CHANCE NOT CHOICE. Genetics, hormones and biology, not social pressures make us TG. Social pressures can only cause us, and others, to deny our true selves and live as emotionally crippled human beings. Of course, being ANY man is superior to being feminine, right? "God" help those who prefer to follow the pattern that life first followed rather than be male, the evolutionary mutation that survived natural selection. How could any rational person make such a choice, right? We must be "sick" to "want" to be female. Only, as we know, not all of us do "want" to be TG. Some of us would prefer to just be ordinary members of our genetically assigned sex. But they can't be that. They can't "choose" to stop being TG/TS/CD or any other label you wish to use. Conditioning? Only the ignorant or closed-minded could stick to that explaination. In the meantime....we die.

This kind of research is destined to be the gateway to our liberation from outdated rationalizations for explaining our lives. Let's let those who ;finance and support and conduct such research know that they have our support.

The more research, The better, I say.

Like most here, I've known I've been "different" since I was 3, but, like most here, I suppressed it to keep parents, friends, society from reacting negatively.

No more!

I believe strongly that we were born this way, but conditioning can influence us to be anywhere from a straight non-CD (with a few fantasies unfulfilled... ) to a full post-op TS.

Some folks can manage the dichotomy of what they Want to be versus what they Are fairly well. Others have a bigger need for congruency and to feel "whole", "normal", or however each person defines their state. (That would be me, by the way...)

And environment has a lot to do with it. Let's face it: if
the world changed tomorrow, and there wasn't enough food for us all to eat, would you be worried about wearing panties and nylons under your work trousers, or would you be out there foraging for a meal, with little thought of much else as the hunger pains become more intense?

Environment can change/direct/blunt even the best thoughts and intentions.

Back to the study: My previous counselor stated that there is a difference between the brain M.R.I.'s of women and men. SHe also stated that TS's usually fit the female type, but not exclusively. When she was done stating that she looked at me like she was expecting me to go: "Really? All right! Let's go have one done so I can find out what I am?" She almost seemed disappointed that I gave my usual statement: I know who I am and what I am. That's all the validation I need. (Popeye theory: I am what I am...)

I don't see her anymore, for various reasons, but I always wonder: what was she really getting at or hoping to see by telling me that? I guess I'll never know. Nor, really, does it matter, in the long run.

I know where I am in the transition process, and where I want to end up. I just hope to travel the road with as few accidents and injuries as possible....

Hugs to all!!!

Kari

There actually is a cartoon in Glamour Boutique 3, in a frame on a glass case:

Olive Oyl is in the door with a shocked expression. Popeye is in front of a full length mirror in a dress saying : "I yam what I yam, Olive Oyl"