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A cruel hoax
I was going to write something light and witty tonight about the bumper sticker and the sign in Toscanini's and the fresh lemonade and the new Cajun/Mexican restaurant in town. But I made a terrible error.
I checked my mail first.
David Steinberg, who sends regular missive/columns on sex and sexuality, had this at the bottom of his latest:
TAKEN IN BY A HOAX
In my last column, I reported that Gender Identity Disorder had been removed from the American Psychiatric Association's "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders" after a long campaign to that end by transgender activists. Unfortunately, as James Green, a leading transgender spokesperson, informs me, that story is a hoax - fanned, as so many are these days, by the speed of the Internet.
While I am personally amused by some Internet hoaxes (such as the famous faux-commencement address supposedly by Kurt Vonnegut - perpetrated, rather unexpectedly it seems, on the whole world by Realist editor Paul Krassner), this sort of hoax - dealing with an issue that is of tremendous importance and emotional impact to so many people - is of another order entirely, and I am deeply sorry and embarrassed to have contributed to its legitimation. I am still amazed that the usually reliable source who sent this report to me was herself taken in by the hoax, apparently the work of some transgender "performance artist" who wanted to see how quickly and how far such a hoax could be spread. When she learned the story was untrue, she immediately published a retraction which, unfortunately, I never noticed.
Alas, the battle to win professional recognition that alternative gender identification is a choice and not necessarily a sign of mental disorder, is one that continues into the future.
Now I don't feel like writing anything cheerful tonight.
© Columbine
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