OPINION:
The Oregon Department of Education presented its policy interpretation allowing men to enter women’s restrooms and lockers rooms based on current gender feelings (“Oregon lays out guidelines for transgender students,” Web, May 6). This asymmetrical approach results in a random walk through reflective life. When comforting lights of popular expressions drive decisions, no opportunity remains to consider insights such as the following from Johns Hopkins Hospital.
At one time the Sexual Behaviors Consultation Unit there conducted candidates through a lengthy preparation process culminating with gender reassignment surgery. The study caused them to question whether any emotional resolution was achieved, and they eliminated the practice in 1979. Dr. Paul R. McHugh said “transgenderism is a mental disorder that merits treatment … these policy makers and the media are doing no favors either to the public or the transgendered by treating their confusions as a right in need of defending rather than as a mental disorder that deserves understanding, treatment and prevention.”
Shouldn’t transgenderism first be assessed as a medical issue? This restroom policy provides many the opportunity to indulge in deviant impulses. The policy thrusts a few into intimate political theater where they portray a feeble caricature of a woman, but without evidence of benefit to their psychological condition. Considering the Johns Hopkins’ experience with reassignment surgery, shouldn’t this radical transformation of society await careful review?
NOLAN NELSON
Eugene, Ore.
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