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Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Sage Smith is Still Missing!

DaShad Laquinn Smith 2

Sage Smith continues to remain missing since December of 2012. Two other young women who have gone missing since then may be vindicated by a recent arrest of a man from this area (Charlottesville, Virginia) but Sage's suspected assailant who was identified, Erik McFadden who is from Minnesota and met her on Facebook, remains at large. He came to Charlottesville to meet her and was seen with her at the local Amtrak station, and has not been seen since an initial interview by police who named him as a "person of interest", but was allowed to leave and has not been heard of since.

My belief is that if she were a cis gendered woman and not a transsexual woman, and if she were not a woman of color, more effort would have been brought to bear in apprehending her perpetrator. Much unlike the effort focused on recent cases of missing women who were murdered or not found to date.

If anyone has heard of Erik McFadden, come across him on social media as someone who is attracted to transsexual women, please contact the Charlottesville, Virginia Police.

Please join me in prayers for Sage and if, by a miracle, you read this and happen to have even the tiniest shred of information that might be helpful in solving this missing person case, please call the Charlottesville, Virginia Police at 434-977-4000

Friday, October 4, 2013

Prequel: Gathering information for an article I am writing on Transsexual Regretters

This discussion will tie into something I've recently taken an interest in and am writing an article about; transsexual regretters. What role, if any, does the  informed consent model contribute to the rate of transsexual regretters? I am looking at statistical outcomes for my article. If 5% of people who have come to regret their decision to transition and have grs, that becomes significant and can become an argument against informed consent, or even providing the means to have access to HRT and GRS via WPATH SOC.
Do you believe this is a significant issue? To be honest, and in the interest of full disclosure, I advocate for the WPATH SOC and am a member of WPATH.  I am a psychotherapist who is post transition and pre op. I have chosen to adhere to the SOC despite having the means to circumvent the process because I believe that WPATH's SOC is a reasonable and thoughtful approach for people coping with our issues. I am, however very open to other points of view. I don't believe I have the lock on what is "correct" or "right".
When I look at the recent study by NCTE and their statistics on substance abuse, poverty, victimization and attempted suicide rates (> 30%) which are magnitudes above the general population, then read what those who regret transitioning and their perspectives, I recognize that something significant has occurred and there seem to be far too many who think they made a terrible mistake.

Many of those who regret their decision to transition do not take much personal responsibility for their tragic regrets. They indict a system that allows almost no review in the process they undertake and see tragedy as a result.

Others rail against any kind of system that compels a person to engage in a process of examining their motives and potential for poor or disastrous outcomes in the hopes that system will provide better outcomes for those who transition from a biopsychosocial perspective.

I am exploring why those who regret their choices are so vocal in opposition to allowing others to proceed in this process and why whatever decisions they made to transition ended in such tragic results.

There are no clear compelling arguments for the extremes of each position here. What is your opinion?