The Transgender Day of Remembrance observances left many of us drained and wondering if the violence will ever end. In the midst of sorrow and grief for those lost, however, I also experienced a sense of new strength and resolve. On most days the task of “changing the world” seems pretty daunting, but on that particular day it occurred to me that perhaps we could all do more to change the landscape in our own back yards. 

We hear every day about transgender employment, documentation, healthcare, insurance, and housing issues, and those are indeed important. But what about something much more fundamental? What if we held a vision of creating understanding and loving support systems so that each and every person had a family to rely on — a PFLAG family, a “family of choice,” a family to help provide the love, understanding and validation that everyone needs for healthy self-esteem? 

What if every individual was so loved, accepted and nurtured that they didn’t need to seek validation from sexual promiscuity, partying, alcohol or drugs? What if every individual received the attention, hugs and affirmation that they needed? What if every person had an “emotional home” to go to? Would that make their lives happier and healthier and safer? I think it would. 

I also think this is the kind of change that each individual can affect. It doesn’t require you to study the issues or be an expert on the legislative process or politics. All that is required is an open heart. 

Happy Holidays,


Kim Pearson
TNET President

The New York Times carries an article today focusing on the three-year project to revise the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, also known as the DSM. The revision of this manual, considered the “bible” for psychiatrists and psychologists who use it to diagnose mental disorders, has been controversial for many reasons, and especially to people in the LGBTQ community. 

In this revision, the DSM focuses more specifically on gender identity, which the manual defines as “strong and persistent cross-gender identification.” This definition is “already burning hot with some transgender people,” so goes the article, who objected to the presence of two members of the research team “whose work they considered demeaning.” The article goes on to say that “transgender people are themselves divided about their place in the manual.” 

“Some transgender men and women want nothing to do with psychiatry and demand that the diagnosis be dropped. Others prefer that it remain, in some form, because a doctor’s written diagnosis is needed to obtain insurance coverage for treatment or surgery.” 

Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality (and guest speaker at the PFLAG Mountain West Regional Conference in Boulder in September, hosted by PFLAG Boulder County) said that “the language needs to be reformed, at a minimum …. Right now, the manual implies that you cannot be a happy transgender person, that you have to be a social wreck.” 

Read the full article in the New York Times >>