So I talked to Benjamin Boyce last week!
You can also find this episode wherever you listen to podcasts — just search for Calmversations with Benjamin Boyce — but, if you go the audio-only route, you’ll miss out on all the face work Benjamin does, which would be a pity:
And I don’t stint on facial expressions either, if that’s what you’re here for:
We talk about the recent World Professional Association for Transgender Health conference that I attended, multiple personalities, online trans community dynamics, castrati, transracialism, abortion, working across the political spectrum, and much more.
That was an amazing interview as well as exchange. We need so much more of such discourse!!!
WPATH was formerly the Harry Benjamin something something, and there were more doctors participating, including Dr. Stephen B. Levine, who has changed his position on "affirmation" after several of his "diagnosed trans" patients detransitioned and one killed himself 7 years after the surgeries.
I propose a "first steps" involving somatic mind/body work along with psychotherapy for deep understanding of childhood abuse/trauma/influences/sexism. The "sexologist" researchers jumped quickly into the life-altering surgeries as cures based on their own biases and the eagerness of the surgeons to try all the new bells and whistles in the 1980s-90s. Pride awareness was part of the trend.
For mind/body concepts from Ute Heggen, former professional dancer, ex-wife of a man who says he's a woman and mother of Ute's children, visit Ute Heggen youtube channel. I also touch on the experience of watching my then husband go down that rabbit hole, how I came to write the memoir, In the Curated Woods, True Tales from a Grass Widow. Thanks Eliza, for this crucial research!