Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity

My friend, a researcher and ‘male feminist’ activist working for a Jakarta-based NGO, once told me something I had never known before. It is a biological fact, he said, that there are at least 16 different types of sexual orientation. Homosexuality, lesbianism and transvestism form a minority of three people are familiar with. Many other preferences have either been suppressed or forcibly relegated into one of the three categories.

I just looked at him in deep silence. I was thinking of many people who might be suffering both in understanding their gender identity and dealing with harsh treatment they experience from some people.

Surprisingly, many of the cases of so-called sexual disorder he has been dealing with are biological in nature. They become a problem only because of the social and psychological factors his clients have to bear. It is such a myth that one who manifests ‘uncommon sexual orientation’ must be yoked by the weight of environmental factors or pressures; those orientations are at any rate the very genetic buildup that are supposed to be their very gender identity. 

I remember how he emphasized about sexual orientation and gender identity when presenting his assessment in one of the graduate classes back in the days. They are normal only to be taken abnormal in a society whose sexual preferences are strictly binary. Therefore, despite societal imposition on the changing of the ‘offending’ femininity, even the best tongue of persuasion would falter except a radical surgery, which is very expensive medically and legally, is conducted.   

These clients of his are doubly persecuted: rejection by family and society as well. Many have misunderstood their stance as religious and cultural defiance to the norms. Some have consistently insisted on implementing sticker regulations to make them value the dignity of man. In the meantime, embarrassed by their ‘uncommon’ behaviors, clients’ families have been acting as the reinforcers of so-called correct living. 

Another section of the society is offended by the unnaturalness of the behaviors. Any explanation, they say, must take into account the supernatural interventions due to a particular sinful mode of living. A curse or a form of punishment must be the logical outcomes of any wrongdoing. The prescribed situation is a direct affront to the very structure of a decent community. At this point, they believe, those ‘abnormal’ people need to understand the dire consequences of perpetuating the same sinful mode of living their ancestors have committed before. Though difficult, it is perceived that they are capable of redeeming their parents and themselves for the sake of posterity.

Many clients, undoubtedly, have come to see my friend on the account of their stigmatization. Blending into the mainstream proves to be unbearably treacherous. While some are living under physical threats on a daily basis, majority have to deal with the emotional doubts of their worth. Their pressing question is if they are indeed abnormal. 

It is very liberating to know that DSM IV – TR excludes homosexuality. It is no longer considered part of mental disorders. You will see it no more in abnormal psychology. But, I have been wandering, about other sexual orientations not discussed in the manual. On what grounds, homosexuality should be put outside the realms of psychiatry? Thinking through my friends’ stories, I imagine much more complicated backgrounds when dealing with such clients of my friend. I am talking about the precipitating factors and comorbid possibilities that may have triggered and even aggravated the biological predispositions. It is very likely that environmental factors might prove to be too strong an element in the psychological makeup that the very sexual preferences have been released from its biological case to serving as the way out or a fulfilling compensation to clients’ insecurity. 

Psychology and psychiatry cannot afford reeling at the core issue!