South Africa: Apartheid Military Forced Gay Troops Into Sex-Change Operations
AUGUST 25, 2000. South Africa’s apartheid army forced white lesbian and gay soldiers to undergo ‘sex-change’ operations in the 1970’s and the 1980’s, and submitted many to chemical castration, electric shock, and other unethical medical experiments. Although the exact number is not known, former apartheid army surgeons estimate that as many as 900 forced ‘sexual reassignment’ operations may have been performed between 1971 and 1989 at military hospitals, as part of a top-secret program to root out homosexuality from the service.
Army psychiatrists aided by chaplains aggressively ferreted out suspected homosexuals from the armed forces, sending them discretely to military psychiatric units, chiefly ward 22 of 1 Military Hospital at Voortrekkerhoogte, near Pretoria. Those who could not be ‘cured’ with drugs, aversion shock therapy, hormone treatment, and other radical ‘psychiatric’ means were chemically castrated or given sex-change operations.
Although several cases of lesbian soldiers abused have been documented so far—including one botched sex-change operation—most of the victims appear to have been young, 16 to 24-year-old white males drafted into the apartheid army. Between 1967 and 1991, all white males over the age of 16 were conscripted in South Africa. The apartheid regime, which began in 1948, officially ended in 1994.
Medical “cures” for homosexuality in the 1990s included anti-psychotic drugs or hormone treatments. Some patients were put into a diabetic coma with the hope that they’d wake up and have changed their sexual preference. Women whose desire for other women could not be cured were often prescribed a sex change since, according to the logic of Russian psychiatry, they must really be men.
Russia’s ‘Science’ of Sex Shapes Its Attitudes on Gays, Lesbians
Medical “cures” for homosexuality in the 1990s included anti-psychotic drugs or hormone treatments. Some patients were put into a diabetic coma with the hope that they’d wake up and have changed their sexual preference. Women whose desire for other women could not be cured were often prescribed a sex change since, according to the logic of Russian psychiatry, they must really be men.
Although homosexuality ceased to be an official psychiatric illness in Russia in 1999, it remains a reason that many young women are committed to psychiatric institutions. I have been an expert witness in cases in which Russian lesbians are seeking political asylum, and a handful of women have cited forced hospitalization as the reason they want to leave the country.
Unlike “sick” lesbians who needed to be cured, men who desired other men were regarded as “criminals” who needed to be punished.
Havelock Ellis (1859-1939)
was a social activist, physician and psychologist. Ellis best-known work concerns sexuality. He co-wrote the first medical text in English about homosexuality. Ellis also wrote on the subject of gender and transgender identity. His work was essential in developing the psychoanalytical concepts of autoeroticism and narcissism.
Havelock Ellis like Magnus Hirschfeld was innovative in his studies of what has been more recently called transgender identity. Ellis was one of the first to classify this as a distinct construction from sexual inversion and homosexuality. Havelock Ellis argued that Hirschfeld’s term transvestism was limiting and inaccurate. Ellis proposed the term sexo-aesthetic inversion in an attempt to more accurately describe the occurrence. Later, Havelock Ellis would suggest that the term eonsim would be better. The origin of the this word was from the historical figure of Chevalier d’Eon. He considered this to be a common “sexual anomaly.”
Havelock Ellis like many forward-looking intellectuals found promise and hope for the future in the fields of eugenics. Although this concept has been discredited, it was not an unusual position for someone of Ellis’s era to embrace. At one time, he held the office of the vice-presidency of the Eugenics Education Society. It was hoped that by examining biological and psychological histories of the majority of breeding humans that the wellbeing of races of people could be improved.
Pat Robertson: God approves of sex changes but homosexuality should be a mental illness | The Raw Story Televangelist Pat Robertson on Wednesday struggled to understand why homosexuality was no longer considered a mental illness, but said that he approved of gender reassignment surgery.
India’s transgender law is no help to its lesbian, gay and bisexual communities
India’s transgender law is no help to its lesbian, gay and bisexual communities We now have contradictory laws on gender and sexuality in India – with homosexuals now seemingly singled out as a threat
In a landmark judgment by India’s supreme court on Tuesday, transgender people were granted the status of a “third gender” category, recognising them as a socially and economically disadvantaged class. “It is the right of every human being to choose their gender,” the detailed judgment stated, thus granting rights to those who self-identify as neither male nor female. The court also directed the central and state governments to take the necessary steps to allow for equal status by ensuring adequate healthcare, education and employment as well as separate public toilets and numerous other safeguards against discrimination. All identity documents such as birth certificates, passports and driver’s licences will now have a third gender box. The ruling stresses a number of times how much the transgender community has suffered historical abuse and discrimination.
While the ruling is in line with the tune of the Indian constitution, the verdict does not apply to sexuality, leaving India’s lesbian, gay and bisexual communities in a state of flux. In fact, it contradicts a judgment made in December, by a different bench of the supreme court, which upheld the controversial section 377 of the Indian penal code that criminalised “sex against the order of nature”, which is interpreted as gay sex. Only the ruling Congress party was quick off the mark to question the court ruling.
Forced Sex Change A Growing Concern In India Sad to say, it pays to be a man in many parts of the world. In fact, in India, some parents are paying doctors to turn their young daughters into sons in hopes of improving the familys prospects.
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