It is well known that trans people are very present in the business world and some of them perform brilliantly in numerous spheres of activity. They can be found as the head of companies and at the origin of many organizations of all kinds – in short, they are dynamic and shine. Martine Rothblatt is part of this prestigious list and is even in a class of her own, that of pioneer and fighter.

Born in a male body in Chicago in 1954, Martine Rothblatt grew up in San Diego and Los Angeles with a dentist father and a speech therapist mother. She spent her childhood with her head in books and clouds as she was raised in a religious Jewish family within a Hispanic environment.

Martine Rothblatt has a law degree from the University of California in Los Angeles and lived the first part of her life as a man. It was during this period, in 1979 to be precise, that she met the love of her life, her wife Beverlee Prator (alias “Bina”), whom she married in 1982. Together, they will have two children named Gabriel and Jenesis. It should be noted that Martine and Bina each had a child from a previous relationship and that they also adopted a fifth child.

It was in 1994 that – after the deep reflections required for this kind of decision, Martine Rothblatt chose to make a transition and feminize her name. Throughout this process, Martine was supported by her spouse, Bina.

Professionally, Martine Rothblatt began her amazing journey by founding the pharmaceutical company United Therapeutics Corp with the primary goal of finding a cure for her 7-year-old daughter Jenesis, who had developed pulmonary arterial hypertension – a rare disease that proves fatal within two years of diagnosis. Ms. Rothblatt will hire the person who will find the right treatment and, as a result, will become the head of a company whose primary focus is to decode the pharmacogenomic properties of drugs, manufacture anti-rejection transplantable organs and, first and foremost, generate and propose new treatments for people with rare diseases.

A few years later, this brilliant businesswoman will be at the origin of major startups such as GeoStar and Sirius Radio, a major company specializing in satellite operations, as well as Terasem, a transhumanist movement she created in 2004 with her life partner.

Still today, it is through this movement that she formulates her theory that any person will be able one day to be reincarnated in an artificial world.

On this subject, Martine Rothblott and her team created, in 2010, a robot in the image of her spouse and bearing the name Bina48. Impressive in its appearance and communication skills, it is technologically updated on a very regular basis.

Over the years, Martine Rothblatt has also written numerous articles and books on xenotransplantation (Your Life or Mine), cyberethics (Virtually Human) and “non-binary” (Transgender to Transhuman).

Today, this visionary woman earns an annual salary of $38 million, which is set according to a contract that aligns this amount with her firm’s share price. A true figurehead of transhumanism, Martine Rothblatt was the highest paid CEO in America in 2016.

Highlights

1954 – Birth of Martine Rothblatt in Chicago

1982 – She marries Bina

1990 – Founded the satellite communications operator Sirius

1994 – At age 40, she undergoes gender affirmation surgery

1995 – She publishes a report on “Gender Apartheid”

2004 – She launched the transhumanist movement Terasem

L’article Martine Rothblatt, an exceptional trans woman est apparu en premier sur TransAvenue.

Gender identities are multiple and cannot be quantified or defined in a very precise or fixed manner. This is why it is important for a clinic such as GrS Montréal, which specializes in gender affirmation surgery (formerly called “sex change”), to offer a variety of options to its patients.

What is an orchiectomy and why choose it?

Orchiectomy is a relatively simple procedure involving the removal of the testicles. The surgery itself takes about 30 minutes and patients return home the same day. The surgeon makes a first incision in the groin to remove the blood vessels that supply blood to the testicles and then in the scrotum itself. This surgery can be part of a larger process and can be combined with other surgeries: for example, it can be performed during a vaginoplasty. However, if the orchiectomy is performed before the vaginoplasty, it will be necessary to stretch the skin of the scrotum to make sure that it does not shrink too much since this skin will be used to cover the inner wall of the future vagina.

Since the removal of the testicles drastically reduces testosterone production, orchiectomy is a surgical option for people who do not want or cannot do hormone therapy. It can sometimes be recommended by an endocrinologist.

Following the surgery

Upon returning home, it is advised to rest for one week and wait four weeks before resuming physical activities such as sports. As with all procedures, it is recommended that patients stop smoking six to eight weeks before surgery and maintain good hygiene and general health to minimize risks and surgical complications.

Other surgeries

Some surgeries can be combined with orchiectomy such as face and body feminization surgeries, breast augmentation, etc.

The GrS Montréal clinic is the only private clinic specializing in trans surgeries in the country and its surgeons will be able to advise and guide you according to your needs. They have pioneered a movement of acceptance and accessibility that, hopefully, will continue to grow exponentially in the coming years.

L’article What is an orchiectomy surgery? est apparu en premier sur TransAvenue.

Between 1871 and 1994, paragraph 175 of the German Penal Code made homosexuality punishable by imprisonment. It was between World War I and World War II more specifically, that Germany saw the rise of fascism that culminated in Hitler’s seizure of power in 1933. However, while this part of history is more readily known, less often is the parallel liberal movement that so exasperated the extreme right discussed. At that time in Europe, many doctors were beginning to explore the possibility that, medically, one cannot ignore what happens in the brain, that the mind is a valid source of information about the patient’s torments.

Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld was one of those pioneers; he dedicated his life to the humanization of homosexuals and was the first to use the term transsexuality. Throughout his life, through science, he worked to normalize, educate, and protect practices that were then considered abnormal or even disgusting. He collected the testimonies of the transgender people he met and worked actively for their social acceptance.

His experience in the army as a doctor on the front lines during the First World War gave him first-hand experience of the mistreatment of homosexual soldiers. He also had the opportunity to work with women who dressed as men so they could participate in combat. Himself Jewish and gay, he also received these people in his office and witnessed their suffering.

It was after he returned from the war, in 1919, that he created Berlin’s Institute for Sexual Science – the first institute of this type in the world. The institute was open to everyone, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. It offered group therapy, and information on sexually transmitted diseases (at the time, syphilis cognitively affects and kills those affected). Patients could sleep there if necessary or consult a well-stocked library. Taking advantage of the Institute’s prestige, he negotiated with the police to grant passes to those who were called transvestites in those days. He published several books and even participated in the production of the film Different from Others, in which he played himself interviewing homosexual soldiers.

Dr. Hirschfeld supervised Dr. Ludwig Levy-Lenz, who performed one of the first MTF surgeries on Lili Elbe. In 1933, the Institute was destroyed by the Nazis, the books burned, and the three doctors ended their lives in exile.

The history of sex reassignment surgery is a fascinating one. It begins with inspiring men and women who defy prejudice and twist the law to do what they believe is right. Early cases of MTF or FTM surgery can be difficult to trace as it often took place clandestinely and was sometimes covered up to protect the people involved. The history of sex change surgeons is the story of the liberation of morals.

L’article Dr Magnus Hirschfeld and his legacy est apparu en premier sur TransAvenue.

Long before European colonization of America, Native Americans lived in harmony with the fact that members of their various communities had a gender identity different from the majority. In several Amerindian languages, we find words that characterize what we have now translated, in French, to be bispiritualité, and in English, to be Two-Spirit.

The meaning of the words varied slightly from one language to another. Among the Cree, the terms used can be translated as “men who wear women’s clothes” or “women who wear men’s clothes”. On the Ktunaxa (pronounced “TOO-nah-HA”) nation’s¹ side – which has been in British Columbia for more than 10,000 years – a term meaning “women in roles that are perceived as masculine” was used. These are just a few examples. Two-Spirit is found in over 130 tribes across North America.

Overall, we observe that the terms used by indigenous communities considered the existence of at least four genders:

• masculine men
• feminine women
• feminine men
• masculine women

Families viewed it as an honour to have two-spirited people in their midst. These individuals usually had specific roles to play: doctors, warriors, ambassadors, and spiritual leaders. In fact, it was believed that these people communicated with supernatural powers through their dreams or visions.

Native communities were also open to the clothing choices of two-spirited people. Thus, what we today call transsexuality, MTF (male to female) or FTM (female to male) transformation was  both commonplace and accepted. However, European colonization, religious missions, and cultural assimilation tools had the effect of making progressively invisible, marginal or perverse what was once a character normally accepted by indigenous societies. Today, LGBTQ members of aboriginal communities and other identity groups (queer, pansexual, etc.) tend to reclaim the term and meaning of two-spirit, and  gain new followers outside  of Native American  circles. Nowadays, there as elsewhere, a phase of explanation, sensitization, education, or even of battle is underway.

In the past, two-spirited people were also the guardians of tradition. They were storytellers, they passed on history, they created feather headdresses, organized weddings, gave first names. In short, they were a vast source of knowledge. Today, two-spirit is a concept that allows people to reconnect with ancestral traditions, with those related to spiritual identity or gender identity. The term “two-spirited” first appeared within aboriginal communities in the early 1990s, in an effort to reclaim these traditions. The goal was also to replace the previously used designation berdache, with a more inclusive term that could be used by the general public.

Thus, associations that include lesbian (L), bisexual (B), gay (G), transsexual (T), queer (Q), questioning (Q), two-spirited or Two-Spirits (2 or 2S) and all others whose identity is marginalized from the mass (+) tend to use the acronym “LGBTQQ2S +”.

L’article Two-Spirit and Trans people in Indigenous Communities est apparu en premier sur TransAvenue.