This thesis aims to explore autobiography as a rhetorical genre and to explore the personal narrative of Aleshia Brevard, an MTF (male to female) transsexual. The critical analysis employs a form of narrative criticism created from the work of several rhetorical critics. Narrative coherence is examined through looking at Brevard's arrangement of events, and narrative fidelity is examined through looking at Brevard's use of ultimate terms. This thesis suggests that the personal narratives told by transsexual individuals may constitute a previously undiscovered rhetorical genre and makes recommendations for future investigations of these narratives. / Master of Arts

Introduction: The risk factors involved in treating transgender individuals with hormone therapy have been documented, but a full understanding of them remains elusive. Much of the research performed in transgender medicine is old or being completed overseas. It is thus the responsibility of current providers and investigators to expand our current knowledge, so this often marginalized population can receive the best quality care. Methods: A group of 28 transgender men and women who received care from the Endocrinology Clinic at Boston Medical Center were randomly selected as part of a quality control project to evaluate the risk factors involved in hormone therapy. Analysis was two-fold. First, change in lab values associated with known risk factors over a two-year period were assessed in individual patients. Second, group analysis sought to correlate changing hormone levels with lab values associated with known risk factors. Results: The result of the analysis was the majority of the patients who were observed did not suffer from any of the risk factors commonly associated with hormone therapy, and if anything benefited from the consistent clinical care. Several correlations were calculated between hormone levels and the lab values associated with the risk factors, however further analysis must be completed to confirm any connection. Discussion: The goal of this project was to not only evaluate care at Boston Medical Center, but also to draw attention to transgender health. In doing so, we have given an example of safe and effective hormone therapy and shown additional avenues for future research.

Através do trabalho de campo e de análise bibliográfica e documental durante os anos de 2010 a 2014, esta pesquisa teve por objetivo compreender a produção das categorias travesti, transexual, trans e transgênero a partir das relações entre saberes e ativismos. Tomei como fio condutor os debates em torno das regulações das transformações corporais do sexo, argumentando que estas discussões são uma importante porta de entrada para o entendimento das relações entre movimentos sociais e especialistas, assim como da circulação transnacional e possíveis particularidades construídas acerca dessas categorias no Brasil. Na análise dos especialistas apresentei tensões entre os saberes biomédicos e os saberes sociais. Argumentei como os especialistas constroem suas versões de sujeito que orientam sua prática profissional a partir métodos e teorias diferentes, produzindo efeitos políticos e relações entre noções de (des)patologização, autonomia e sofrimento. Na análise dos ativistas apresentei como o uso do termo trans é polissêmico, sobretudo se pensarmos suas possíveis articulações com as categorias de travesti, transexual, homens, mulheres e pessoas. Discuti o surgimento de um culturalismo travesti como uma forma de politizar certa noção de cultura como núcleo da identidade travesti. Este culturalismo travesti produz a possibilidade de se constituir uma identidade com orgulho, conjuntamente com noções de nação brasileira, constituindo-se como uma contraposição e interlocução ao que chamei de transglobalização, um processo de espraiamento global das categorias transexual, trans e transgênero. / Based on fieldwork and bibliographical and documentary analysis during the years of 2010 to 2014, this research aims to comprehend the production of travesti, transsexual, trans and transgender categories throughout the relations between acknowledgments and activisms. I took the debates around the regulation of body sex changes as a conductor thread, arguing that these discussions are an important entrance door for the understanding of the relations between social movement and specialists, as well as the transnational movement and possible particularities built around these categories in Brazil. About the specialists analysis, I presented tensions between the biomedical and social acknowledgments. I argued about how the specialists build their own versions of subject that guide their professional practice on different methods and theories, producing political effects and relations between notions of (de)pathologization, autonomy and suffering. About the activists analysis, I presented how polissemic the use of the trans term is, mostly if we think its possible articulations with the categories of travesti, transsexual, women and people. I discussed the appereance of a travesti culturalism as a way to politicize a certain notions of culture as the center of travesti identity. This travesti culturalism produces a possibility to constitute an identity with pride, together with the notions of brazilian nation, constituting itself as a contraposition and interlocution to what I called transglobalisation, a global spreading process of the transsexual, trans and transgender categories.

This study is about "transness" in contemporary Istanbul. As this thesis demonstrates, transness is an urban phenomenon, an identity specific to time and space. In Istanbul, it is a subculture, defined by sex, gender, sexuality, class, and ethnicity. "Transness: An Urban Phenomenon in Istanbul" situates itself as part of a conversation about marginal subcultures in Gender Studies, Queer Theory, and especially Transgender Studies. This study fills two gaps: the temporal gap between the early Turkish scholarship on trans issues and the contemporary trans world of Istanbul; and the conceptual gap between trans words -- transvestite, transsexual, and transgender -- and trans identities in Istanbul. Furthermore, this study brings the current issues and discussions of US-based queer scholarship into the Turkish context and does so by discussing recent Turkish examples of media representations ranging from a documentary to a movie, and to a newspaper article; and by analyzing certain drag performances. All these examples discussed in this work exemplify the temporality and spatiality of transness, its relation to heteronormativity, and its publicness as a subculture. As is suggested by my examples, transness is 'out-of-time' and 'out-of-place,' always already public, and, as a performance, it asserts individual identity. Moreover, it is also always a public performance. All the examples point to the complex relationship between queerness and transness, and claim that the queerness of transness is always contextual. Combining the detailed analysis of these examples with the ethnographic work on Istanbul's trans world, "Transness: An Urban Phenomenon in Istanbul" provides answers to the following questions: "What is transness?" "What is the impact time and space have on transness within the urban structure of Istanbul?" "What is the relationship between dominant normativity and transness?" Finally, this MA thesis offers new perspectives and opens new paths for further research on the topic intended to help imagining new futures for trans folk in Istanbul. / text

The current Islamic Republic of Iran distinguishes between homosexuals and same-sex sexual activity: the former is not recognized as an identity, while state apparatuses openly condemn the latter. Beginning in Iran's medieval period, through its current Islamic regime, this dissertation argues that the allowances made for behaviors and attitudes for queer same-sex sexual intimacies in the historiography of Iranian sexuality are very distinct from the modern and Western notion of `gay'. Same-sex sexual relations in Iran threaten the conventional order that is built on an accepted series of gender differences reinforced by the Islamic regime. Marginalization of Iran's queer population permeates into local Iranian communities, creating ruptures with society and family. In the face of a generally repressive and heteronormative Iranian state, as well as the prospect of resettlement abroad, Iranian queers are fleeing to Turkey. This dissertation examines the processes by which queer Iranians face unprecedented forms of stigmatization and violence in Iran and later in Turkey. Going beyond a simple report of homophobic abuse in the Middle East, I engage ethnography as a vehicle by which to appreciate the effects of the constant silencing of queer voices and issues on social, familial, governmental and religious relations in Iran. During the summer of 2012, I conducted 24 qualitative interviews with queer Iranian asylum seekers and refugees in Turkey to assess the impact of societal and state consequences for queers in Iran, and later as refugees. Migration into Turkey reworks social relations based on race, sexual orientation and nationality; Iranians are both victims of and agents within the processes of asylum. An analysis of Iranians vis-à-vis one another, as well as their relations with local Turks, will explain the way race and sexual orientation impact migrant life. My research examines how the failure of figuring non-heteronormative sexuality into modern social, national, religious and academic discourses of Iranian culture is destructive on a human rights level, as it fails to generate new possibilities for developing truthful identities in Iranian and Turkish society and human rights law concerning queers.

In this study 21 trans-identified youth in Toronto and Ottawa, Ontario, Canada were interviewed about their experiences related to transition. Using the materialist research strategy of Institutional Ethnography, I explore the organization of trans-specific health care services in Ontario. I describe challenges participants had in relation to accessing care and describe key differences in how care is currently delivered in Ontario. The ways in which various politico-legal and medical forms of organization shape the provision of trans care in Ontario are explored in detail. This work provides an empirically grounded addition to the growing literature that seeks to make sense of trans marginalization and exclusion.

abstract: While numerous studies have examined the nature of masculinity, scholars seldom seek to determine the meaning of manhood or to explore which types of individuals are culturally permitted to call themselves men. One scholarly approach suggests that the meaning of a cultural category can best be illuminated through examining marginalized examples within that category. Based on this assumption, this project illuminates cultural understandings of manhood in the United States by examining the experience of men within two marginalized categories--gay and transsexual--who have often found themselves fighting for the right to call themselves men at a time when hegemonic assumptions about manhood have required that one had been designated male at birth, claims a heterosexual orientation, and exhibits characteristics that are stereotypically masculine. For gay men who were born male, social marginalization could result from one's gay orientation as well as from a perceived lack of masculine traits. For some transsexual gay men, all three of the traditional markers of manhood may be absent or deemed insufficient. This scenario calls into question what it is that all men have in common if the concept of manhood is to be associated with any stable definition. Within rhetorical analysis, the concept of textual fragmentation suggests that a rhetorical critic performs an analysis of a text by examining dense textual fragments; the critic's audience members then produce what they perceive to be a finished discourse in their own minds. Along these lines, this project illuminates the concept of manhood by examining dense textual fragments found within mass media representations and personal narratives, and concludes that one's manhood is determined based on the degree to which one identifies with others who call themselves men. Therefore, manhood can best be framed, not as a specific identity with a stable definition, but as a body of intersecting identifications specific to a particular cultural location and time period. As such, it is linked to cultural systems of power and oppression, illustrating that the claim to manhood as an identity is a rhetorical act that is not free from controversy. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Communication 2012

Através do trabalho de campo e de análise bibliográfica e documental durante os anos de 2010 a 2014, esta pesquisa teve por objetivo compreender a produção das categorias travesti, transexual, trans e transgênero a partir das relações entre saberes e ativismos. Tomei como fio condutor os debates em torno das regulações das transformações corporais do sexo, argumentando que estas discussões são uma importante porta de entrada para o entendimento das relações entre movimentos sociais e especialistas, assim como da circulação transnacional e possíveis particularidades construídas acerca dessas categorias no Brasil. Na análise dos especialistas apresentei tensões entre os saberes biomédicos e os saberes sociais. Argumentei como os especialistas constroem suas versões de sujeito que orientam sua prática profissional a partir métodos e teorias diferentes, produzindo efeitos políticos e relações entre noções de (des)patologização, autonomia e sofrimento. Na análise dos ativistas apresentei como o uso do termo trans é polissêmico, sobretudo se pensarmos suas possíveis articulações com as categorias de travesti, transexual, homens, mulheres e pessoas. Discuti o surgimento de um culturalismo travesti como uma forma de politizar certa noção de cultura como núcleo da identidade travesti. Este culturalismo travesti produz a possibilidade de se constituir uma identidade com orgulho, conjuntamente com noções de nação brasileira, constituindo-se como uma contraposição e interlocução ao que chamei de transglobalização, um processo de espraiamento global das categorias transexual, trans e transgênero. / Based on fieldwork and bibliographical and documentary analysis during the years of 2010 to 2014, this research aims to comprehend the production of travesti, transsexual, trans and transgender categories throughout the relations between acknowledgments and activisms. I took the debates around the regulation of body sex changes as a conductor thread, arguing that these discussions are an important entrance door for the understanding of the relations between social movement and specialists, as well as the transnational movement and possible particularities built around these categories in Brazil. About the specialists analysis, I presented tensions between the biomedical and social acknowledgments. I argued about how the specialists build their own versions of subject that guide their professional practice on different methods and theories, producing political effects and relations between notions of (de)pathologization, autonomy and suffering. About the activists analysis, I presented how polissemic the use of the trans term is, mostly if we think its possible articulations with the categories of travesti, transsexual, women and people. I discussed the appereance of a travesti culturalism as a way to politicize a certain notions of culture as the center of travesti identity. This travesti culturalism produces a possibility to constitute an identity with pride, together with the notions of brazilian nation, constituting itself as a contraposition and interlocution to what I called transglobalisation, a global spreading process of the transsexual, trans and transgender categories.

Claims of inadequate health care and safety afforded to transgender inmates have become the subject of litigation. This article reviews 129 unsolicited letters from transgender inmates writing from 24 states and the Federal Bureau of Prisons to identify their concerns. Among the letters reviewed were reports from 10 inmates who had filed lawsuits naming departments of correction (DOCs) as defendants, claiming inadequate access to transgender health care. Five of these lawsuits have gone to trial. In all of those cases, the defendant settled the matter or was found liable as of the time of this report. Claims of inadequate care for transgendered patients that have sufficient merit to be fully litigated in U.S. courts appear likely to produce verdicts in favor of plaintiff inmates. The information gleaned from reviewing letters from transgendered inmates may alert staffs of DOCs to concerns worth addressing proactively to avoid the costs associated with transgender-related lawsuits.

This study describes the largest population of veterans referred for a gender identity disorder (GID) evaluation. Most were self-referred, others were referred by their commanding officer. A search of the English language literature revealed no similar studies on veterans other than a pilot project by the second author. Methods: Retrospective descriptive data were obtained from chart reviews of 70 U.S. veterans who were evaluated by the second author for gender disturbances over a 20-year period (1987 to 2007). The modal veteran with gender identity disturbance was a natal male (91%) identifying as female, >40 years old, Caucasian, employed, with more than 12 years of education. Fifty-seven percent were parents with a history of sexual involvement with opposite sex individuals. Histories of autogynephilia were not elicited in vets interviewed since 1997. Classic "flight into hypermasculinity" was described by a majority of the natal male vets as a retrospective understanding of why they joined the military. Psychiatric comorbidities (43%) included post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, schizophrenia (N = 1), substance use disorders (17%), dissociative identity disorder (N = 1), and personality disorders (11%). Ninety-three percent met criteria for diagnosis of GID or GID not otherwise specified; suicidal ideation was reported by 61% with one or more suicide attempts by 11% of 56 responding; and 4% reported genital self-harm. Although 11% expressed active thoughts of surgical self-treatment, most expressed a desire for physician-performed sex reassignment surgery (SRS). Cross-dressing behaviors were common, and currently reported arousal with cross-dressing was reported by 13%, 63% of whom were not diagnosed with GID. Conclusion: Veterans often reported that they joined the military in an attempt to purge their transgender feelings, believing the military environment would "make men" of them. Most were discharged before completing a 20-year career. More than half received health care at veterans affairs medical centers, often due to medical or psychiatric disabilities incurred during service. Comorbid Axis I diagnoses were common, as were suicidal thoughts and behaviors.