Ray Blanchard

8,763 posts
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Ray Blanchard
@BlanchardPhD
Researcher in sexual orientation, paraphilias, & gender identity disorders
Torontoindividual.utoronto.ca/ray_blanchardJoined October 2011

Ray Blanchard’s posts

How wrong I was. “My early writings on autogynephilia were published in specialty journals with limited circulations. They were intended for a small readership of clinicians who specialized in the assessment and management of gender dysphoric patients. The general availability
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Triple Bankshot
@triplebankshot
I cannot believe that autogynephilia was just discussed in an interview with a vice presidential candidate. This video was released an hour ago and is already close to 1 million views. @BlanchardPhD @profjmb @BenjaminABoyce
The media could not be played.
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Pleased and surprised, because prominent and powerful trans influencers and their “allies” have done everything they could to prevent the concept of autogynephilia from entering public awareness.
Twitter has unlocked my account and graciously apologized for their error. My sincere thanks to the people who expressed their concern during the past 24 hours.
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Trans rights activists have tried to label the word ‘autogynephilia’ as a slur in hopes of preventing people from using the word and spreading knowledge of the phenomenon. I invented the word as a neutral, clinical descriptor, not as a slur, as shown here: rdcu.be/b57bu
It has been a disappointment to me that colleagues whom I generally like and respect have adopted the “sex assigned at birth” locution, either because they are afraid of their own students, or because they believe that implicitly endorsing this falsehood is essentially harmless.
In the gender identity clinic where I worked from 1980 to 1995, we endeavored to make sure that patients understood the limitations of surgical and hormonal treatments, and we would have considered it a contraindication for surgery if a patient thought they were literally going
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It is widely accepted that gay men are much more interested in casual sex than lesbian women, not because they are gay, but because they are men. The high “body count” of gay men is what the “body count” of straight men would look like, if straight men did not have straight women
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I and other clinicians have noted an element of exhibitionism in many (although not all) cases of autogynephilia. I think this is one reason why some natal male gender dysphorics insist on participating in women's competitive sports.
I hope that more and more ordinary trans people will speak out against the worst excesses of trans activism as more and more trans people realize that extremist activism is increasing resentment and decreasing acceptance of trans people.
Trans rights activists have claimed that natal women commonly experience sexual excitement from the simple thought of being women as a way of “normalizing” this phenomenon in AGP men. Research shows autogynephilia is actually rare/nonexistent in women: rdcu.be/cQv78
My view: Transsexuals have a mental disorder whose discomfort is ameliorated when society and individuals indulge them with reasonable compromises. This is a traditional psychiatric view although it is rarely stated that bluntly.
Nineteen out of 20 times one can tell, after a brief interaction with a male-to-female transsexual, if the individual is of the homosexual or autogynephilic type. They retain, as it were, the accent of their birthplace.
Earlier today I wrote this thread in response to a follower who asked me, “What is your actual position on transgender people?” It looks like my reply has not been delivered to a single person besides the original inquirer, so I am reposting it here.
In my view, trans activism changed in character when it affiliated with the social justice movement, re-framed transsexualism as a political problem rather than a clinical problem, and adopted SJW tactics such as no-platforming and getting people fired for their opinions.
There is one big difference between being the target of trans activists’ ire and being the target of gender-critical feminists’ ire: The latter will not try to get you fired from your job or otherwise deprive you of your livelihood. I don’t know if this distinction arises
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THINGS I MISS: 1. The ideals of self-control and self-restraint. 2. Social disapproval of hyperbole and exaggeration. 3. The concept of good taste. 4. Dry understatement. 5. Social disapproval of mawkishness and sentimentality. 6. Precision in language.
I'm not going to argue, on Twitter or anywhere else, with people so naïve that they think giving an interview to a conservative publication must mean that one holds conservative views in private life, or that giving an interview to a liberal publication means the opposite.
Here’s an irony. The Child and Adolescent Gender Identity Clinic of Toronto’s Centre for Addiction and Mental Health was closed for essentially the opposite reason that London’s Tavistock Clinic is being closed: The CAMH clinic wasn’t affirming enough.
Clinical sexologists who endorse “You are who you say you are” have probably never worked outside the gender identity bubble. In sex offender assessment clinics, patients routinely deny having a paraphilic preference, often despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
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(6) The sex of a postoperative transsexual should be analogous to a legal fiction. This legal fiction would apply to some things (e.g., sex designation on a driver’s license) but not to others (entering a sports competition as one’s adopted sex).
I now understand that the locution, “Robin *identifies as* [gay, Jewish, aboriginal]” instead of “Robin *is* [gay, Jewish, aboriginal]” is not merely an affected, pretentious way of speaking. It’s about denying the possibility of objective, stable, external reality.
The “debunking” of autogynephilia is in good company with the debunking of biological sex and the debunking of natal males’ physical advantage in competitive sport.
When I worked at a Gender Identity Clinic (1980-1995), clinicians considered transition an option only for patients with severe gender dysphoria. Our clinicians believed that patients with mild or fluctuating degrees of gender dysphoria would probably maximize their overall
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The strategy of re-framing trans as a civil rights issue rather than a clinical issue changed the main question from “How to lessen the emotional distress of persons with a rare psychiatric disorder” to “How to reconcile the conflicting rights of natal women and trans women.”
Many or most extremist trans rights activists are autogynephiles, natal males sexually attracted to women and desirous of becoming women. They direct their ire at women because it is women who frustrate their desires. Men are largely irrelevant. 1/3
I am writing in response to a reader’s question, “If you had to guess, what most accounts for the steep rise in the prevalence of opposite-sex identification in the last decade?” I think there are multiple reasons for the increasing prevalence of cross-gender identity (and
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Are people who end their tweets with “No debate,” “End of story,” “Sit down and shut up” accustomed to others actually obeying such commands? Or is this fantasy of control just another fantasy that makes on-line preferable to real life?
The terms “male-to-female transsexual” and “female-to-male transsexual” were instantly comprehensible. A native English-speaker who never saw either term before could tell immediately who had started where and was going where. This is not true of “trans woman” or “trans man.”
Journal editors take note: The “assigned at birth“ locution is claptrap.
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Grazie Pozo Christie, M.D.
@GChristiemd
You may find it interesting to know that as a radiologist, I can confidently determine the sex of a baby as early as the 15th week of pregnancy. This baby is a GIRL. I'm not assigning I'm describing. All the talk of "assigning" sex is unscientific, obscurantist claptrap.
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Capture of DSM5: “The term ‘desired gender’ is now ‘experienced gender,’ the term ‘cross-sex medical procedure’ is now ‘gender-affirming medical procedure,’ and the term ‘natal male’/’natal female’ is now ‘individual assigned male/female at birth.’”
I have learned a lot on Twitter. For example, how enormously people differ in the amount of evidence they require for making an assertion. I honestly didn’t realize so many people would just make stuff up.
Acceptance of homosexuals does not require heterosexuals to participate in homosexual acts. In contrast, acceptance of transsexuals always requires the active participation of others – at a minimum, using trans’ preferred pronouns. This sets a higher bar for acceptance.
I am afraid that the public's perception of all transsexuals - including decent, intelligent, reasonable people - will be soured by the obnoxious behaviour of "activists" they never asked to speak for them.
I'm not bothered when transsexuals say things like "sex assigned at birth," because that arises from their emotional needs. I'm grossed out when academics parrot that lingo for the purpose of virtue-signalling and maintaining status among their tribe.
Some cases of autogynephilia have an exhibitionistic element. Therefore I am skeptical of male-to-female trans who want to use a women’s gym because they have an overwhelming need to swim or work out. Some are there to show off, although it's not always clear what.
Clinicians who describe themselves as “allies” of trans and who support transition in every case are actually allies of the disorder and not allies of the patient.
You are a little late, Dr. Deakins. I let my membership in the American Psychological Association lapse many years ago. As recently as last month I was still getting emails from them inviting me to re-subscribe. I also quite publicly resigned from WPATH many years ago. However, I
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Dr. Amaya Deakins
@amayadeakins
Dr Blanchard endorsing a pseudoscientific theory. @X @APA @APApsychiatric He needs to be kicked out of the APA for this. I will be calling for it #WeDoMoredednesdays #Pseudoscience #LGBTQIA #trans x.com/BlanchardPhD/s…
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It’s self-defeating for trans activists to assert that people who are sexually uninterested in trans are therefore transphobic. This will simply lead people to say, “OK, then, I’m transphobic.”
What strikes me the most about this tableau is how puerile it is. It is a pubescent’s idea of what is “edgy” and subversive.
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Lily Maynard
@LilyLilyMaynard
I'm not a religious person. But why is it okay for the Olympics opening ceremony to mock Christianity, when other religions are treated with respect? If this was a mockery of Islam/Judaism/Hinduism or any other religion people would be incensed.
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In most areas, I would automatically take the opinion of an expert over that of a lay person. In the field of gender/trans, however, many “experts” are ideologues and activists, and they cannot be relied on for objective opinions.
Gender dysphoria (including its severe form, transsexualism) is not the same as gender ideology. Many patients — nearly all before the internet — developed gender dysphoria in isolation from other trans and yet presented with similar symptoms.
In the 1970-80s, clinicians tried to help gender-dysphoric patients lead happier lives. They weren’t trying to help them impose their subjective view of reality on the rest of the population, much less do so by force of law.
I never imagined, when I joined the Clarke Gender Clinic in 1980, that someday debates concerning trans would concern, not clinical management, but fundamental perceptions of reality, with many “normal” people supporting the trans view because of fashions in moral superiority.
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My beliefs include the following 6 elements: (1) Transsexualism and milder forms of gender dysphoria are types of mental disorder, which may leave the individual with average or even above-average functioning in unrelated areas of life.
Biological sex is immutable, but hormones and surgery can help simulate the opposite-sex phenotype, and this usually alleviates intractable gender dysphoria. Postoperative sex is essentially a legal fiction, which most people will accept in some but not all situations.
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Mars F.
@UpperhandMars
Biological sex is immutable. If you don't believe in biological sex than you don't believe in transsexuals. You can not medically transition UNLESS you acknowledge your biology. There, I said it. #IStandWithMaya #JKRowling
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Subtweet to many tweets: Nobody believes that humans can change sex. The questions are whether imitating the phenotype and behavior of the opposite sex ameliorates gender dysphorics’ mental suffering, and whether, how, or how much ordinary citizens should support such transition.
“Trans women are women” is a political slogan sold as the product of science. I say this as someone who believes that it is humane and appropriate to treat trans women as women in most everyday situations (not including, for example, competitive sports).
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Critics of transgenderism who focus exclusively on its sociopolitical aspects and ignore its origins in individual psychopathology are unwittingly playing by the rules set by trans rights activists. They'd rather discuss definitions of women than their desires to become them. 3/3
My sin, in creating the term ‘autogynephilia,’ was in providing the word needed to make a thought thinkable. Trans activists have tried their best since then to extirpate that word from the English language.
I “believe in” gender identity in the sense that I believe some individuals have a complex of emotions and cognitions centred on the idea that they are, or should have been, the opposite sex, and I believe that preoccupation with these ideas causes considerable distress.