Horizons: Not to Cure: A Conversation About Health, Gender and Sexuality

We met a year ago on a conference call to discuss how GLAMA could address transgender issues more strongly. After that call we began a conversation (conducted via e-mail and telephone) about transgender health issues that led to a collaboration on a review of transgender health issues. Our writing soon turned into a sustained examination of how we ourselves live our gender and sexual identities in our work--Anne is a physician and Robert is a public health researcher. Some of this exchange is presented here. Like so many LGBT individuals, our life's work involves thinking about our sense of self. We are frequently called on to tell ourselves and others how we came to be who we are. As Anne states here--we know the value of living an examined life. Some compelling questions have emerged from our talk--what is the relationship between our bodies and our selves? How is the treatment of the body a treatment of the self? The core question, however, concerns how these sexed and gendered bodies are really cared for: to what extend do we alleviate the suffering involved in self-understanding? What do we do with the past?