Uh-oh.

Ken Zucker has been appointed to head up the Sexual and Gender Identity Disorders Work Group for the forthcoming DSM-V. As if putting a batshit insane gender boot-camp officer in charge of the project was not bad enough, he'll be joined by Ray Blanchard, who has gained much notoriety with the transgender community as an asshole who clings to an unwisely-generalized theory of autogynephilia as the key motivator of transsexualism based on approximately three data points (two of which are mere figments of Anne Lawrence's imagination), whilst preserving the integrity of his theory against the onslaught of disconfirming evidence by insisting that transsexuals who do not conform to his theory are simply lying.

Don't get me wrong. I'm sure it's an excellent theory that has to insulate itself from nearly all observational evidence in order to stay alive. I mean, even though it can't help but utterly fail to describe reality, it can be so very useful to someone like Ken Zucker, whose primary motivation seems to be pathologizing transsexualism so that he can shame youngsters into deep denial and gender sadness and call them cured! Surely, with a payoff like that, we can accept one itsy bitsy teeny tiny wee widdle overwhelmingly disconfirmed theory, amirite?

Give me a fucking break. But... no, no: these two clowns are in charge of shaping what amounts to the party-line of the clinical psychology community. This document that will influence the care of possibly tens of thousands of our brothers and sisters around the world. Our only hope is that the other members of the work group will successfully oppose the unfounded bullshit that Zucker and Blanchard will surely be pushing for inclusion. Failing that... I guess intelligent and compassionate caregivers will still have the HBIGDA Standards of Care to justify treatment... not that that's a perfect document either, but it's a damn lot better than the tripe Zucker and Blanchard are going to work to churn out.

Hat tip to a shining star of our community, Lynn Conway, for bringing me this terrible, terrible news.