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Author Archive: danabevan
Dana Jennett Bevan holds a Ph.D. from Princeton University and a Bachelors degree from Dartmouth College both in experimental psychology. She is the author of The Transsexual Scientist which combines biology with autobiography as she came to learn about transgenderism throughout her life. Her second book The Psychobiology of Transsexualism and Transgenderism is a comprehensive analysis of TSTG research and was published in 2014 by Praeger under the pen name Thomas E. Bevan. Her third book Being Transgender was released by Praeger in November 2016. She can be reached at danabevan@earthlink.net.
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Opposition to LGBT rights is strongest in the southern states of the U.S. Why is it that these states lead the charge by imposing restroom laws and taking steps to make life harder for their trans citizens? Dana Bevan has the answers to the problem and she shares them with you today in an essay titled Alabamafication. There are many threads to this tapestry of hate and they are seen most clearly in Alabama where corrupt politicians maintain control of the purse strings by making LGBT people the “other” that threatens law and order. Dana has the truth about Sweet Home Alabama and how the rest of the country is at risk of moving in that direction.
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The article entitled “Are Gender Feminists and Transgender Activists Undermining Science?” (LA Times, February 10, 2017) omits much of the pertinent scientific evidence on gender and obviates a core scientific principle. With respect to gender feminists, the article confuses sex with gender, ignores social anthropology research on culture and omits salient research on transgender causation. […]
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Dana Bevan looks into what’s going on with today’s trans kids. Unlike the old days when trans kids kept quiet about their gender identity today’s trans kids are coming out much sooner. Is that good for trans children? What problems will they face that are different from the older generation’s who came out later in life? What advantages will they have for coming out at a young age? Dana takes a look at the available data and provides some insights into what we know, and makes recommendations for further study.
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I have always respected Morgan Freeman both as an actor and as a show maker. His Through the Wormhole Series has always been a source of accurate science and entertainment. I have even enjoyed parts of his series exploring God. From astronomy to human and animal behavior, his shows have generally hit the mark. But […]
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What to do about bullying? That’s a question that we just can’t seem to find a clear answer for. If you take some people’s advice and “stand up to that bully” we often end up enduring more bullying. Going to parents or school administrators doesn’t work. Outside of school the bully is waiting for you. Most LGBT people had to put up with a lot of abuse during their school years and today’s students, and even adults in the workplace, face it today. Dana Bevan has word of a technique that seems to stop a lot of bullying. It comes to us from the Finns.
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Dr. Dana Bevan has been unpacking and refuting the “report” by McHugh/Mayer in The New Atlantis that right wing media sites are now using as proof that being transgender is not real. Dr. Bevan has pointed out the errors in the author’s thinking, whether they are (as they seem to be) intentional, or result from poor research. Whatever the author’s intent we must conclude that their “report” is a political document meant to dismiss the reality of our lives. Even the staff at Paul McHugh’s former employer, Johns Hopkins, have issues a statement saying the “report” is full of errors and is unscientific. Read what Dr. Bevan has to say in her final blog on the McHugh/Mayer report.
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A recent report in The New Atlantis, a quarterly journal with conservative or skeptical tendencies was about a “study” done by two individuals, Mayer and McHugh, who oppose the idea that trans people are real. They ascribe trans behavior to mental illness or a phase of child development. Their “study” has been picked up and disseminated by right wing media outlets. Our own scientist in residence, Dr. Dana Bevan, has been going through the Mayer and McHugh “study” point by point and reveals how the authors cherry picked their data. Today she argues that the Mayer & McHugh Report seeks to bring about the end of gender.
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Last week a report was published in The New Atlantis, a quarterly journal with conservative or skeptical tendencies. It was about a “study” done by two individuals, Mayer and McHugh, who oppose the idea that trans people are real. They ascribe trans behavior to mental illness or a phase of child development. Their “study” has been picked up and disseminated by right wing media outlets. Our own scientist in residence, Dr. Dana Bevan, goes through the Mayer and McHugh “study” point by point and reveals how the authors cherry picked their data.
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With the depathologization of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) expected in 2018, its time to tell the Mental Health and Medical practitioners that serve the transgender community what we expect of them. The rewrite of the ICD is expected to create a non-pathological section of the ICD which includes “gender incongruence for adolescents and adults.” Dana Bevan proposes a Transgender Bill of Client Rights.
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Dana Bevan has been reading about the origins of the Prenatal Testosterone Theory of Being Transgender. That’s the theory that says you become trans due to different levels of testosterone exposure while you’re still in the womb. She finds the theory has roots in eugenics and “therapies” to “cure” homosexuality. The theory has been discredited but that doesn’t keep some people from still pushing for hormone therapy to “fix” gender and sexuality.
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Should toys be gendered? Is it okay for a boy to play with dolls or a girl to play with trains? Play is a very important factor in the development of humans. If they don’t get to play with what they want when they want children can develop differently. Learn the importance of play and both the good and bad of having toys that are marketed to specific genders in today’s post by Dana Bevan.
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It’s quite obvious that transgender people exist. We have been a part of many cultures all over the world since ancient times, and probably before. Conservatives who believe that we are “unnatural” are basing their belief, whether they know it or not, on Traditional Sex-based Theory. Want to know what that is? Read this post by Dr. Dana Bevan. She will explain our entirely natural niche in nature.
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Recently President Obama admonished Black Lives Matter protesters that they need to be doing more than shouting if they want to move their agenda forward. Protest is often necessary but there needs to be another step beyond protest which leads to real change. Too much shouting can actually hurt the cause. There is real science that can be applied to creating change in a culture. Dana Bevan reveals some of it today and urges its use in the fight for trans rights.
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Airport security screening includes the use of body scanners and “pat downs,” otherwise known as being frisked. These security measures are particularly hard on trans people who need to travel. The scanners require their operators to pick a sex for the subject before the scan begins. If they pick the wrong sex that causes scanner errors and problems for the trans traveler. Today Dana Bevan gives you some tips on how to survive the security screening using science.
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The Restroom Wars rage on with right wing legislators attempting to pass bills to prevent trans people from using public restroom facilities and locker rooms of the gender they identify with. These ill conceived bills don’t recognize the science of gender identity, the biological basis for many genders that prevents simple determination of a person’s gender and makes enforcement of these propose laws next to impossible. Today Dr. Dana Bevan brings in the big guns — scientific facts — in defense of our right to pee where we feel comfortable.
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The U.S. military is currently examining the ban on transgender people serving openly. But directives issued last year by the Department of Defense make it clear that the military is aware of its trans soldiers and is going to let them serve openly. Dana Bevan believes that while the road to trans acceptance in the U.S. military is going to be short one the various branches of the service are not at all prepared to deliver medical care to trans soldiers, sailors and airmen/women. Does she think they can get their act together? Read on and see.
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Decisions, decisions, decisions. For trans people there are decisions to be made at every step of their life journey. Should they start to experiment with crossdressing? Should they tell people close to them that they have these feelings? Would it be a good idea to go to a trans support group? Should transition be a goal? In order to make any of these weighty decisions Dr. Dana Bevan urges you to get information from different sources and make the best decision from an informed position.
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It’s hard to get people to accept the whole idea of transgenderism when they believe that genitals fully define what a person’s gender role will be. Many people feel that “men are men and women are women” and what men and women do in their lives is determined strictly by their physical sex. To them that’s the “natural state of affairs.” Today Dana Bevan asks, “What if that’s not the natural state of affairs?”
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When Southern Comfort pulled up stakes and moved to Florida many of the people in the Atlanta area who had volunteered and done work for that conference were left with skills in conference producing that were no longer needed. The Transgender Health Education Alliance stepped in the produce a new conference with a focus on trans health and improving the lives of LGBTQ people. Dana Bevan reports on how the conference turned out.
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Dana Bevan has been asked to speak to a youth group at her church on what her life has been like as a trans person. Today Dr. Bevan presents us with the outline she intends to follow for her talk. As you might expect from a person of scientific orientation she will tell the group of the scientific evidence she has gathered showing that being trans is not a choice but something you are born with.
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In many people there is an innate need for a spiritual connection to something greater. For some it is God. Others feel one with nature. Still others see the universe through science and appreciate its complexity as an indication of a celestial planner. Dana Bevan sees trans-ness as a scientist does but she has a friend who sees it as a spiritual experience. Which one is right depends on who you are.
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Dana Bevan has filed this report from the Transgender Word War. She feels that transgender people have been engaged in a war to find words to adequately express the phenomenon that we share. The war of words has proceeded along three fronts. In this post she outlines what those three fronts are and engages in a bit of hand to hand combat with the psychiatric establishment.
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Dana Bevan was in the military for a long time. She served as a a stealth trans soldier and devoted much effort to keeping her gender status secret. Today she writes about what it was like to hide for all that time and how she did it. She then discusses what the changes will be with trans people serving openly.
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Caitlyn Jenner blew up the media with her announcement that she was a woman. Initial reaction was positive but in just a little bit the voices of those who don’t accept trans identities as valid were raised in shouts of derision. Then a woman who told everyone she was black was revealed to be a white woman. Her claims of “trans-racial” identity added fuel to the anti transgender crowd’s rhetoric. Dana Bevan examines their thesis and finds it invalid.
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Dana Bevan was contacted by a producer from ABC News and asked to critique the Diane Sawyer interview with Bruce Jenner. She did so and sent her evaluation of the show to them. She has condensed that critique down to 11 points and today she shares them with us on TGF. What did she find to be the worst error in Jenner’s interview? Read on!
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Dr. Dana Bevan takes on the restroom issue. With conservative legislators attempting to pass laws to restrict where trans people can relieve themselves Dr. Bevan takes a look at how law enforcement and the legal system could possibly be able to determine anyone’s sex in order to arrest them for breaking one of these ill conceived laws. Bottom line? It wouldn’t be easy.
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