This is the full text of my letter published 22 March 1996 under the title The Denotation of Gender.
Editor
The Chronicle of Higher Education
editor@chronicle.merit.edu
This is in regards to your coverage of Professor McCloskey in the February 16 [1996] edition of The Chronicle of Higher Education. A friend just gave me a copy of this article.
First I want to thank you for a well balanced and non-sensational approach to this subject matter. (I've corresponded with Deirdre McCloskey several times both before and after her transition. I believe I am the only other 'out' transsexual staff or faculty member in the Big Ten.)
The only problem I have with your coverage is your use of male pronouns when referring to Ms. McCloskey. You do a better job than publications that rigidly follow the AP Stylebook, but I'd like to ask you to give this some serious thought. Afterall, many people look to publications such as yours for guidelines in such matters.
The AP Stylebook suggests that the so-called "sex change operation" is the dividing point for switching pronouns. I do not agree. I am a transsexual woman a year past my legal name change and full time shift in public presentation of gender and I find this practice inaccurate, insulting, and dangerous.
I do not carry with me a shred of identification that says other than that I am female. My university records reflect my female gender. Everything I do, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, reflects my female gender.
Pronouns denote gender. No surgical procedure can change a person's gender. (Could surgery change your gender?) The surgery in question, the best name for which I think is genital reconstruction surgery, is simply plastic surgery that makes one small part of a person's body appear more in line with how they feel they should have been born. The surgery does not change a person's gender, and I think it is a stretch even to say it changes a person's sex.
Not all, or even most, transsexual people who make a full time change in their public presentation of gender have complete genital reconstruction surgery. Many feel they do not need this surgery, many simply cannot afford it. The American Educational Gender Information Service (AEGIS, 770-939-2128, aegis@mindspring.com) recently released a position statement entitled, "Sex Reassignment Surgery: Sometimes, But Not Always, Necessary or Desirable."
If a person has taken the steps needed to change their name and articles of identification and live full time in one particular gender role it is only right to consistently use the correct pronoun in referring to that person. I have known from my earliest thinking moments that I am female. I've now corrected the mistaken identification made of my gender. It is not correct to refer to me, past or present, as anything but female. Simply referring to me as a transsexual woman tells people all they need to know about my past. (The current state of my genitalia is no one's business but my own.)
I mentioned that use of the incorrect pronoun is dangerous. Hate crime is not rare in this country. Anything that contributes in any way to ridicule of a transgendered person is risking the life of that person.
Please reconsider your editorial stance on use of pronouns with transsexual people and use your influence to show other publications that the current practice is wrong and unsafe. If you need further information, please take a look at my web pages or give me a call [omitted].
Sincerely,
Lisa Lees