Vivek Ramaswamy calls 'transgenderism' a 'mental health disorder'

[RoyalCorgi]

This is a particularly badly written article, even by Mail Online standards, but the story itself is interesting. Vivek Ramaswamy is hoping to gain the Republican presidential nomination - he doesn't realistically stand a chance, but he is now very high profile and getting a lot of publicity for his views.

The reason I think this is interesting is because he is being so outspoken - he's not pussyfooting around the issue. His comments about transgenderism being a mental health disorder are the sort of that Glinner might come out with, but as a whole in the UK, most of the well-known gender critical voices are much more circumspect. The debate is clearly far more polarised in the US. And I guess Ramaswamy must think he has nothing to lose by expressing his views so frankly.

[[https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12569599/Vivek-Ramaswamy-calls-transgenderism-mental-health-disorder.html

Yes, that was my point. Other mental health conditions may also attract stigma and judgment, but they don't shift them out of the DSM to try and counter it.

In ICD-11 (the International Classification of Diseases) here is the definition of gender incongruence, so not sure how the NHS gets away with both (a) saying that it is not a disorder and (b) offering medical/surgical treatment for the disorder:

HA60 Gender incongruence of adolescence or adulthood

Description
Gender Incongruence of Adolescence and Adulthood is characterised by a marked and persistent incongruence between an individual´s experienced gender and the assigned sex, which often leads to a desire to ‘transition’, in order to live and be accepted as a person of the experienced gender, through hormonal treatment, surgery or other health care services to make the individual´s body align, as much as desired and to the extent possible, with the experienced gender. The diagnosis cannot be assigned prior the onset of puberty. Gender variant behaviour and preferences alone are not a basis for assigning the diagnosis.

• Exclusions Paraphilic disorders (6D30-6D3Z)

I listened to him on the Jordan Peterson podcast and was very unimpressed. He really over estimates his calibre.

He’s trying to pitch himself as “Trump Ideas For Those Embarassed to be Trump Supporters.” I thought he was intellectually sub-par, just like every other Harvard graduate I’ve met. This would be the one policy area where I would agree with him.

Please take a look at what his positions actually are - supporting a 6-week ban for abortions, for example. I am relieved that he hasn't a hope of getting the nomination (not that any of them are remotely OK either).

Vivek is a climate change denier. I have no time for him whatsoever. But he is partially right on this one point. Only partially. Some transgenderism is gender incongruence ie mental disorder. Some is paraphilia inc AGP, so also mental disorder. Some (lots)however is nothing to do with mental disorder but is power games/patriarchy maintainance/misogyny.

The problem being that if you say "trans people are delusional" people will shut you down even quicker than if you said anything else. Even fence-sitters might think you're going a bit far. You've moved beyond attacking the belief to attacking the person.

Spend any time on e.g. Twitter and you'll see plenty of trans people show strong indications of delusional mental illness (a noticeably reduced grasp of reality and logic) that extends far beyond their gender identity.

He isn't a climate change denier; he does disagree with US current net zero policies.