2013/04/11/How the Psychiatrist Who Co-Wrote the Manual on Sex Talks About Sex

• when: 2013/04/11
• author: Laura Cameron
• source: VICE
• topics: Ray Blanchard normal/ambiguity
• keywords
• link: https://www.vice.com/en us/article/ypp93m/heres-how-the-guy-who-wrote-the-manual-on-sex-talks-about-sex
• title: How the Psychiatrist Who Co-Wrote the Manual on Sex Talks About Sex
• summary: “ It has been 40 years since homosexuality was removed as a mental illness from the DSM. But given a clean slate, Blanchard said he would still classify homosexual sex as abnormal.”

Some quotes from Ray Blanchard in the article:

To say that transvestic disorder pathologizes all trans people is rhetoric with no logic behind it whatsoever. If you actually open the DSM-4, it’s very explicit that it applies to people who get sexually excited by dressing in women’s clothes. They really object to the fact, (which is a fact established beyond any conceivable doubt), that in a lot of men there is some connection between cross dressing and sexual excitement.

I think that a transsexual should be considered as whatever their biological sex is plus the fact that they are transsexuals. That’s how you would do research on them. There’s no other way to do it. If you’re interested in whether the brains of transsexuals are different in some way, you’re interested in seeing if they differ from other individuals with the same biological sex.

...or maybe you're interested in seeing how they differ from other individuals with the same gender identity. He's making a naked assertion here, stating opinion as fact.

I always say "normal" is the other n-word. You just aren’t allowed to say it. I would say I have almost never written the word normal because for decades now, since I was a graduate student, and I’m an old man, normal has been a dirty word.

...because it's highly [[normal/ambiguity|ambiguous in this context, and not really a scientific term.