Diane Lynn—who says she never belonged there in the first place—wants out of the LGBT community. Lynn (not her real name) underwent “sex affirmation surgery” in the early 1970s and now lives a “rather stealth life” on the East Coast, with her husband of over 20 years. Identifying as born suffering from Harry Benjamin Syndrome (HBS), Lynn is a founder of the North American chapter of a group (www.harrybenjaminsyndrome-info.org) that believes the HSB—named after the doctor who pioneered treatment of transsexuals —is a more accurate name for the pre-natal hormonal imbalance believed to be cause transsexuality.

Lynn argues that HBS sufferers (also known as transsexuals) are inappropriately included in the LGB rainbow. “The gay, lesbian, [and] bi community by its own identity is a grouping of those who are describing sexual orientation. That has nothing to do with the causes and even the effects of those born with HBS,” she argues.
 Instead, she explains, research from her organization indicates the syndrome is an intersex condition. “In some cases, even years after corrective surgery—we prefer to call it ‘sex affirmation surgery’—some born HBS find they actually had some [physical, genetic or chromosomal] intersex anomalies. Not often, but not as rare as some might suppose.”

Lynn argues that, since sexual orientation isn’t paramount to their identity, HBS people gain nothing by being included in the LGB community. In fact, Lynn contends, when transsexuals were added to LGB, they actually lost rights.

“Now, since we are seen as an extension of GLBT sexual orientation, legislators and the courts are moving away from accepting our condition as being a correction of a medical condition to one of choice. Now, we are wrongly seen by many as having genital surgery so that we might find partners in the GLB community. To add those born with HBS or those who still identify as transsexual in that grouping is not only misleading but a demeaning travesty.”

In the 2006 anthology Transgender Rights, editor Paisley Currah argues, “The meaning of transgender has shifted since it was first coined.” The trans lawyer acknowledges, “Beneath the so-called transgender umbrella, however, roil some substantial differences.”

 Lynn maintains that those differences are simply too substantial to overcome, and the term “transgender” remains forever tainted by its origins. Virginia Prince—who Lynn refers to as “the married, heterosexual transvestite”—coined the term transgenderist to describe those who didn’t alter their bodies but lived as the “opposite” gender.

Lynn recalls a letter she says Prince wrote almost four decades ago “telling me that anyone who wanted to change sex was delusional.”

“This is the same person who coined the term transgender. So, for us the term transgender is a social construct term used not as anything more than perhaps to describe a mood, an urge, an escape, a fetish, a disclaimer of sorts or any of the other myriad of identifications that might welcome hiding under that very non specific and vague label.”

Adamant that those who don’t undergo full genital surgery cannot rightfully call themselves transsexual, Lynn explains: “[I] understand how difficult it can be for a FTM to obtain satisfaction from the current surgeries available. Nevertheless I feel that if one retains their reproductive organs, then that is what they should expect others to treat them as being. Anyone can call him or herself anything they wish. It does not make it so! A non-op is just that, not HBS, not transsexual,” but simply transgender.
When it comes to transgender and LGB individuals, Lynn says it’s important for them to understand that those born with HBS are medically and psychologically different. “We’re not your enemies,” Lynn argues. “But, many of us resent deeply when you insist upon adding us to your identity as if we’re cousins. Many of us are quite supportive of your social needs. But, many of us also find ourselves becoming unsympathetic to your pleas when you demean what and who we really are.”

Trans writer, Jacob Anderson-Minshall can be reached at www.trans-nation.org.