In our last in a short series on some of the findings from the Hunter College LGB Poll, we review some information on milestone events in sexual identity development. The report is titled Findings from the Hunter College Poll of Lesbians, Gays, and Bisexuals: New Discoveries about Identity, Political Attitudes, and Civic Engagement. Again, the study was of 768 lesbian, gay, and bisexual persons, and it was funded by a grant to Hunter College from the Human Rights Campaign Foundation.

The Hunter College LGB Poll asked respondents about benchmarks or key milestone events in sexual identity development. The average age gay or homosexual males reported first thinking they might be gay was 12 (and 17 for those who thought they might be bisexual). For females the age was 16 regardless of whether they identified as lesbian or bi.   First same-sex sexual experiences occurred at age 16 for gay males and 18 for male bisexual, while it was age 21 for both lesbian and bisexual females.   Certainty about being LGB (“decided for sure I was LGB”) occurred on average at age 17 for gay males and age 20 for bisexual males, while it occurred at age 21 for lesbians and age 20 for bisexual females.   First disclosure to someone else of this identity occurred at an average age of 19 for gay males and 23 for bisexual males, while disclosure occurred on average at age 23 for lesbians and age 20 for bisexual females. 

http://www.hrc.org/documents/Hunter_College_Report.pdf

The second part of the NPR story is now available. Of particular interest is the new and more controversial treatment of older children, that is, the use of hormone blockers to delay puberty. From the NPR story:  

To put off puberty, children –- usually between 10 and 13 — are injected with hormone blockers once a month. Spack explains that the blockers only affect the gonads, the organs responsible for turning boys into men and girls into women. “If you can block the gonads, that is the ovary [in women] or the testis [in men], from making its sex steroids, that being estrogen or testosterone, then you can literally prevent … almost all the physical differences between the genders,” Spack explains.

Practically speaking, what is the result?

Without testosterone, boys will not grow facial or body hair. Their voices will not deepen. There will be no Adams apple, and height growth will slow. Without estrogen, girls will not develop breasts, fat at the hip, or menstrual periods. And since most growth happens before puberty, if you block estrogen — and therefore puberty — girls will grow taller, closer to a typical male height.

Then the older child (who is now a teen) can make a decision about whether to pursue development of the preferred gender identity:

The hormone blockers are the first stage of the treatment, but there’s a second stage that’s possible. Once children have postponed puberty for three or four years, at around age 16 they can choose to begin maturing sexually into the opposite gender, the gender they want to become. To do this, they begin taking the hormones of the opposite sex. For males, taking estrogen at this point will bring on breast and hip growth — and all the attributes physical and emotional of females. The reverse will happen for girls who take testosterone. Spack says this treatment can help make an adult transgender male almost indistinguishable from a biological male in terms of physical appearance.

This does not, of course, change their biological sex, but it does affect their gender identity and is intended to help resolve distress associated with gender dysphoria. The article indicates that the side effect is sterility.

As for studies cited, the NPR report mentions to groups that have been intervening with older children in different ways:

The Portman clinic has treated 124 kids since 1989. It requires children to live as the gender they were born with. And 80 percent of its patients — once grown — chose as adults to keep their biological gender.

The opposite outcome was seen by the researchers in the Netherlands who first developed the hormone-blocking treatment. They have treated 100 patients and all chose — as adults — to live as the opposite sex.

In our fourth in a short series on some of the findings from the Hunter College LGB Poll, we review some information on political attitudes. Again, the report is titled Findings from the Hunter College Poll of Lesbians, Gays, and Bisexuals: New Discoveries about Identity, Political Attitudes, and Civic Engagement. The study was funded by a grant to Hunter College from the Human Rights Campaign Foundation and is of 768 lesbian, gay, and bisexual persons.

The Hunter College LGB Poll asked respondents several questions about respondents’ political attitudes. From the report: 

…only 41 percent of LGBs agreed that their lives were affected by what happens to other LGBs in the United States, and only 29 percent said that membership in the LGB community was an important reflection of who they are. Furthermore, 57 percent agreed that their membership in the LGB community had very little to do with how they felt about themselves, and nearly half (47 percent) said their LGB identity had little to do with how they vote. (p. 12) 

Also, compared to the adult U.S. population, those who identify as LGB were more likely to be liberal (63% of this sample) and more likely to be Democrats (83%). Although the authors note differences between in terms of involvement in political campaigns, civic engagement, attending rallies, and writing letters to editors, many of the items were actually comparable. For example, 68.5% of those identifying as LGB agreed with the statement “It is a citizens duty to serve on a jury even if it interferees with his/her private life” (comparable to the 65% of American adults who agree with this statement). Similarly, 66.2% of the LGB sample and 60.0% of American adults agreed with the statement, “It is a citizens’ duty to keep informed about politics even if it is time-consuming.” In any case, the authors attributed differences in part to education: “It is likely that the differences we see between LGBs and the general population regarding interest and participation in politics can be partially explained by the fact that LGBs ahve higher levels of educational attainment” (p. 18). They note, however, that LGBs are also younger, which has historically meant less involvement in politics.

http://www.hrc.org/documents/Hunter_College_Report.pdf

National Public Radio has an interesting segment on two different approaches to gender dysphoria by mental health professionals. The one approach is to assist parents in intervening with a child who is demonstrating gender nonconformity (and other symptoms that meet diagnostic criteria for Gender Identity Disorder) at a young age. Dr. Kenneth Zucker represents this professional approach. Dr. Diane Ehrensaft represents a very different approach: helping parents assist their child by seeing their child as transgender and allowing who they “really are” to unfold over time. She likens a transgender child to how professionals are now often encouraged to think of homosexuality (thinking more in terms of discovering one’s true self). In response to this, Dr. Zucker rejects this comparison to homosexuality and develops a parallel he sees between gender identity and racial identity. From the NPR story:

Zucker says the homosexuality metaphor is wrong. He proposes another metaphor: racial identity disorder. “Suppose you were a clinician and a 4-year-old black kid came into your office and said he wanted to be white. Would you go with that? … I don’t think we would,” Zucker says. If a black kid walked into a therapist’s office saying he was really white, the goal of pretty much any therapist out there would be to make him try to feel  more comfortable being black. They would assume his mistaken beliefs were the product of a dysfunctional environment — a dysfunctional family or a dysfunctional cultural environment that led him or her to engage in this wrongheaded and dangerous fantasy. This is how Zucker sees gender-disordered kids. He sees these behaviors primarily as a product of dysfunction. The mistake the other side makes, Zucker argues, is that it views gender identity disorder primarily as a product of biology. This, Zucker says, is, “astonishingly naive and simplistic.”

Dr. Zucker discusses the potential result of such an approach in the NPR segment:

Zucker has come to believe that taking the view that kids are born transgender ultimately produces more transgender people. “By declaring the child as transgendered at, say, age 3 or age 4 or age 6, and then saying in a sense, ‘Go with the flow,’ … that will impact, I believe, on how the kid’s gender identity differentiates,” he says. In other words, allowing a child like Jonah to transition in kindergarten will essentially track him into becoming a transgender adult. And for Zucker, no child under the age of 10 or 11 can be definitively labeled transgender. He says that kids’ gender identities are flexible. And that even a child like Jonah, who appears to be absolutely consistent from the ages of 1 and 2, can change.

This certainly touches on the divide that has formed between professionals in this area. Dr. Ehrensaft sees Dr. Zucker’s approach as fundamentally coercive. Dr. Zucker sees Dr. Ehrensaft’s approach as producing more transgender adults.

ISSI does provide assessments and clinical consultations for families in which a child is experiencing gender dysphoria. We provide families with information on the controversies surrounding the topic and the different directions that have been recommended and the rationales that have been offered for various options. This is likely to continue to be an area of significant disagreement as professionals on both “sides” attempt to make a case for their approach.

The second part of the NPR story on gender identity is now available.

This is the third in a short series on some of the findings from the Hunter College LGB Poll. The report is titled Findings from the Hunter College Poll of Lesbians, Gays, and Bisexuals: New Discoveries about Identity, Political Attitudes, and Civic Engagement. Again, the study is of 768 lesbian, gay, and bisexual persons, and it was funded by a grant to Hunter College from the Human Rights Campaign Foundation.

The Hunter College LGB Poll asked respondents an interesting question about how they would like the survey to refer to their orientation and identity. Most respondents (87.7%) selected the choices provided to them. For females, it was “lesbian” or “gay woman,” while for males it was “gay man.”  All respondents were offered additional labels, such as “bisexual,” “homosexual,” “queer,” “homosexual,” and “something else….” Respondents could share their own term if they preferred something else. Interesting options preferred by the 7.4% of respondents who favored “something else” included “American” (n=2), “human” or “human being” (n=7), and “man” (n=4).

Also interesting, in another section of the poll 11% agreed with the statement, “I am not entirely sure that I am (LGB).” Also, 7% agreed with the statement, “I wish I could change from being (LGB) to being straight (heterosexual).” We discussed in the first segment that the poll may not have included those who experience same-sex attraction or who have a homosexual orientation but who do not identify publicly or privately as gay.  

http://www.hrc.org/documents/Hunter_College_Report.pdf

We are doing a brief summary of some of the findings from the Hunter College LGB Poll titled Findings from the Hunter College Poll of Lesbians, Gays, and Bisexuals: New Discoveries about Identity, Political Attitudes, and Civic Engagement. The study of 768 lesbian, gay, and bisexual persons was funded by a grant to Hunter College from the Human Rights Campaign Foundation.

The survey asked respondents about sexual behavior in the past 12 months (of those who indicated they were sexually active). For males who identified as gay/homosexual, 99.2% indicated having sex only with other males (0.8% indicated having sex with both males and females). Of males who identified as bisexual, 37.5% reported having sex only with other males, while 21.9% reported having sex with females (40.6% reported having sex with both males and females in the past year).  

Among females who identified as lesbian, 95.5% reported sex only with other females (4.5% reported sex with both males and females). Of females who identified as bisexual, 12.3% reported sex only with other females, while 55.4% reported sex only with other males (and 32.3% reported sex with both males and females in the past year). 

http://www.hrc.org/documents/Hunter_College_Report.pdf

Here is a news clip on the APA symposium on religion and sexual orientation that was cancelled. It is interesting how the focus of the report is on change of sexual orientation. In contrast, the Sexual Identity Therapy Framework, which is what Dr. Warren Throckmorton was going to present, focuses on navigating sexual identity questions and concerns and achieving congruence, so that people can live and identify themselves in ways that are consistent with their beliefs and values.

A report was just released titled the Findings from the Hunter College Poll of Lesbians, Gays, and Bisexuals: New Discoveries about Identity, Political Attitudes, and Civic Engagement. The authors are Patrick Egan, Murray Edelman and Kenneth Sherrill and it was funded by a grant to Hunter College from the Human Rights Campaign Foundation.

The findings are from 768 lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) persons from a larger sample of respondents from a survey by Knowledge Networks, Inc. Respondents completed a 25-minute Internet survey on sexual identity and related issues. 

Based upon the design of the study, this poll appears to be fairly representative of those who identify themselves as LGB. Respondents were asked whether they consider themselves LGB, and 2.9% indicated that they considered themselves as such. It is possible that those who do not identify as LGB are underrepresented in this kind of design, as we know that there is a difference between public and private identity, and that some people neither publicly nor privately identify as LGB.   

Of the 2.9% who consider themselves LGB, 51.1% identified as lesbian, gay/homosexual, while 48.9% identified as bisexual. About two-thirds (68.4%) of those who identified as gay/homosexual or lesbian were male (and 34.7% were female), while about two-thirds (65.3%) of those who identified as bisexual were female (and 31.6% were male). This seems in keeping with the literature that suggests that bisexuality (or what we might refer to as “sexual fluidity”; see Lisa Diamond’s book by that title) is more common among females than males and that about twice as many males as females report a homosexual orientation (e.g., Edward Laumann and colleagues, The Social Organization of Sexuality).   

http://www.hrc.org/documents/Hunter_College_Report.pdf

The American Psychiatric Association announced today the members of the various working groups who will be developing the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V). 

Of interest to visitors of the ISSI site is the Sexual and Gender Identity Disorders Working Group, chaired by Kenneth J. Zucker, Ph.D., Head of the Gender Identity Service Clinic at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto, Ontario.

Other members include:

• Irving M. Binik, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Psychology, McGill University

• Ray Blanchard, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto

• Peggy T. Cohen-Kettenis, Ph.D., Head of the Department of Medical Psychology, VU University Medical Center

• Jack Drescher, M.D., Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, New York Medical College

• Cynthia Graham, Ph.D., Research Tutor, Oxford Doctoral Course in Clinical Psychology, Isis Education Centre, Warneford Hospital, UK

• Richard B. Krueger, M.D., Medical Director, Sexual Behavior Clinic, New York State Psychiatric Institute and Columbia University

• Niklas Langstrom, M.D., Ph.D., Associate Professor, Centre for Violence Prevention, Karolinska Institute

• Heino F. L. Meyer-Bahlburg, Dr. rer.nat., Professor of Clinical Psychology, Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University

• Robert Taylor Segraves, M.D., Ph.D., Chair, Department of Psychiatry, MetroHealth Medical Center

Another notice from the American Psychiatric Association provides an overview of the revision process over the next several years and indicates that the final DSM-V should be available around May, 2012.

UMC Luncheon

ISSI is presenting at the United Methodist Church General Conference today. The UMC General Conference is held every four years and this year is being held in Fort Worth, Texas. The theme of the conference is A Future with Hope. According to wikipedia, the UMC has about 12 million members worldwide, with 8 million in the U.S. and the other 3.5 million in Europe, Africa, and Asia.

The official position of the UMC is that same-sex behavior is incompatible with Scripture, and so the UMC does not bless same-sex unions or ordain sexual minorities who are in same-sex relationships. The topic continues to be a challenging one for the UMC and for other mainline denominations in the U.S.

Mark Yarhouse and Trista Carr will be giving a talk on the three-tier distinction between atractions, orientation, and identity, which has been helpful in creating intellectual and pastorally relevant space for navigating sexual identity for some persons. They will also draw upon research on the experiences of persons involved in the Metropolitan Community Church and in Exodus ministries and discuss how Christians sort out sexual identity concerns in different ways. They will also be discussing the concept of stewardship and how it relates to sexual identity.