ignorance is bliss

I was shocked to read this letter to the editor in today's Lantern:

To the Editor:

Before winter quarter ended, I read an article in The Lantern saying that Ohio State was bowing to the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community and providing absurd options and concessions to individuals suffering from a mental disorder.

OSU's Student Health Insurance Plan is going to provide hormone therapy to individuals suffering from Gender Identity Disorder. This is akin to providing handguns to individuals suffering from suicidal tendencies or providing liquor to alcoholics. Gender Identity Disorder is just that - a disorder. The DSM-IV and ICD-10 define it as such. These are two medical texts published by the American Psychiatric Association and World Health Organization, respectively. The individual suffering from this disease should receive psychiatric help not hormone therapy.

Why not take that the money to be spent on this program and use it to keep the Wilce Center open on weekends - something from which all students could benefit. OSU will also make sure all forms will have more than the male and female option listed. The state and federal governments recognize males and females. How can you tell the government "we have eight students with no classification." How will this new category affect funding at OSU?

Will the Department of Athletics put together new transgender teams? Do fraternities and sororities have to accept transgender students? The fact that OSU would concede to a special interest group of this kind and provide these concessions is absurd.

Christopher Woodworth
Political science

I find it absurd that ignorance such as this still abounds at higher education institutions like Ohio State. Mr. Woodworth believes transgendered members of our society make up a "special interest group" lobbying for extraordinary rights. What Chris fails to understand is that gender identity is not as simple as looking between one's legs. Gender is a complex confluence of biological and sociological factors that is not as delineated as society once thought. While not practiced today, children born with ambiguous genitalia were simply assigned a sex, based on what the child most likely resembled. This often did not reflect the internal gender already assigned in the brain. Those individuals attempting to match their sex with their gender should not be further punished. I commend the University for including hormone therapy and encourage Ohio State to take further steps to protect transgendered individuals.

I would recommend that Chris Woodworth attend the College of Medicine's presentation, Trans 101. The event will be held on April 18th at 11:30 am and is organized by the College's GLBT Issues in Medicine group. Medical students will present the medical aspects of sex conversion and a panel of transgendered individuals will give their perspective.

Most frightening to me is that Mr. Woodworth identifies as a political science major. In this century, his letter to the editor was less than politically correct.