A Legal Conundrum - Transsexuals in Athletics
![handle is hein.journals/hascom1 and id is 421 raw text is: A Legal Conundrum - Transsexuals
in Athletics
By LISA M. BASSIS
Member, third year class
Introduction
Transsexualism,' the phenomenon of lifelong, extensive cross-
1. A transsexual is an individual anatomically of one sex, who believes firmly in spite of
all physical or genetic evidence to the contrary that he, (or she) is inherently of the opposite
sex. The transsexual has a fixed and apparently unalterable belief that he is one sex, trapped
in the body of the other. Donald, The Sex Conversion Controversy, 271 NEw ENGLAND J.
MED. 535 (1968).
The transsexual views his sex organs, male body forms, hair distribution, masculine habits,
male dress and male sexuality with disgust and hate. He lives only for the day when his
female soul is no longer in conflict with his male body-when he can function as a female,
socially, legally and sexually. H. BENJAMIN, THE TRANSSEXUAL PHENOMENON 19 (1966).
[hereinafter cited as TRANSSEXUAL PHENOMENON].
The condition known as transsexualism is generally considered to be psychiatric, i.e.,
having roots in early emotional development. Donald, supra note 1. Others feel that genetic
and hormonal influences predispose the newborn to either a male or female identity and
therefore an error in the genetic code and resulting hormonal balance could be responsible
for the transsexual syndrome. Transsexualism, 2 MED. J. AusT., 251-52 (1973).
Nevertheless, the conviction that the individual has the anatomical configuration of the
wrong sex is manifested very early in life, usually by age four or five. Pauly reports that two-
thirds of a group of transsexuals felt that they belonged to the opposite sex by age five, Pauly,
Adult Manifestations of Male Transsexualism in GREEN & MONEY, TRANSSEXUALISM AND SEX
REASSIGNMENT 41 (1969) [hereinafter cited as GREEN & MONEY], while Green reports six case
histories of adult transsexuals whose cross-gender identification and behavior date back to
three years of age or younger. Green, Childhood Cross-Gender Identification in GREEN &
MONEY at 34-35.
Transsexuals should not be regarded as homosexual. The male transsexual feels himself to
be a woman and is sexually attracted to men. Strictly speaking, this makes him a homosexual
provided his sex is determined from the physical appearance of his body. But he, diagnosing
himself in accordance with his psychological orientation as a woman, considers his sexual
desire for a man to be heterosexual, that is, normal. TRANSSEXUAL PHENOMENON, at 19.
Transsexualism has resisted all known psychological and psychiatric treatment. Generally
the patients have no motivation for psychotherapy and do not want to change back to their
biological sex. Numerous attempts at therapy including intensive psychoanalysis, hypnosis,
aversion deconditioning, chemotherapy and behavior therapy have been generally unsuccess-
ful. Pauly, The Current Status of the Change of Sex Operation, 147 J. NERVOUS AND MENTAL
DISEASE 460, 465 (1968).
Currently, the only means to harmonize the transsexual's physical sex and psychological
sex is through hormonal therapy and (often) a sexual change operation. Id. at 463. If conver-
sion surgery is not readily available, the transsexual may attempt self-castration, other muti-
lating acts, suicide, or he may fall into a reactive psychosis. Such self-abuse is not rare, as
Pauly has reported. See Pauly, Problems of Sex Determination and Alteration, 36 MEDICO-
LEGAL J., 174 (1968).
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A Legal Conundrum - Transsexuals in Athletics
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