On June 14, the State Duma supported amendments to the legislation, according to which sex change is prohibited, both in the passport and surgically. According to them, the correction of a person’s sexual characteristics will be carried out only in case of congenital anomalies detected in children, and their permission will be issued by a special commission approved by the government. Psychotherapist Nikolai Ambartsumov told Russian media how Russian psychiatry previously dealt with the problem of transsexualism and why the new bans would not work.
Nikolai Ambartsumov is the head of the medical rehabilitation department of the Gannushkin Clinical Psychiatric Hospital, a doctor of the highest category, psychiatrist, psychotherapist, narcologist and expert in forensic psychiatry.
How was transsexualism treated in the USSR?
For the first time, transsexualism, homosexuality and other personality disorders were described in the book Sexual Psychopathy by Richard Krafft-Ebing, published in 1886. For her, by the way, he was expelled from the university, where he was a professor.
In the Soviet Union, homosexuality was a criminal offense and, in general, all such sexual matters were prohibited. And it was not only in the USSR, but also in Europe, where there were no less radical laws.
The fact that Stalin demanded the introduction of an article on homosexuality, I think, is to blame for his prison past or other personal characteristics. But the funny thing is that thanks to her, homosexuals began to climb the career ladder. Because a criminal article is a very good rope by which such a person can then be held and pulled.
Of course, no one held the candle, but there were rumors that these were directors of large factories and some prominent representatives of the nomenklatura.
The only people conditionally allowed to do so were actors and performers. They have always been considered strange, “embraced by nature”.
This is how we lived. Formally, all of this was forbidden in our country, but everyone knew it existed. Then the events of 1991 took place, and one of the first decrees signed by Yeltsin was the abolition of criminal punishment for homosexuality and the prohibition of involuntary hospitalization of seriously mentally ill patients, which seems quite symbolic.
Yuri Martyanov / Kommersant
What did the lifting of bans and permission to change sex lead to after the collapse of the USSR
In the 1990s, we finally had our own school of sexology and the possibility of carrying out sex reassignment operations after a medical examination.
This procedure is well established. In addition to transsexualism, there is also a completely medical term “true hermaphroditism”, when a person has developed approximately equally male and female signs, and at the same time both work. This, of course, is very rare, but such problems, including in Soviet times, were solved with the help of surgical operations.
Grigori Pun / TASS
The second case where such operations were necessary is that of injuries. For example, it is not uncommon for sailors to have their penises ripped off with ropes on deck. Therefore, the plasticity of the penis existed for a long time – Filatov was always involved in it. Again, there were standard hormonal recovery regimens in which endocrinology was involved.
But if we are talking about transsexualism and the need for any surgical intervention, then first you need to consider a person’s puberty. It begins at puberty, until sexual behavior and physical characteristics are unclear in boys and girls.
At the beginning of the journey, due to the closed society or environment where the young man or girl is, homosexual contact most often occurs. It’s no secret – for many this experience is the first. Indeed, it is socially acceptable for boys to see naked members of their sex in, for example, a locker room or a shower. The same for girls. Moreover, normal human sexuality includes homosexual activities. You can’t help it, it’s a scientifically proven fact.
But sexuality in general begins to develop due to the characteristics of the environment in which young people find themselves.
Most often, in a normal family, where there are no prohibitions, there are both male and female, this development follows the standard pattern. And where, for example, there are strict and hard parents who prohibit everything, there is interest in the prohibition.
Any child is by definition a psychopath, simply because they are childish, selfish and always trying to test their limits. Well, he cannot live normally himself and interferes with the lives of others. During the puberty period, hormones play, boys have their first erection … Then people grow up, and this is somehow compensated.
And here we have to talk about the psychological factor. There are real transsexuals who clearly feel in another body and so on. This is a neurosis that causes terrible inconvenience to a person from an early age. He loves it so much, he’s drawn to it. There are few – two or three per thousand. The main criterion here is that if a person does not suffer from schizophrenia or if it does not develop, it can be perceived as a certain personality trait. Moreover, such phenomena are natural in the animal world.
Ilya Pitalev / TASS
Should gender reassignment surgery and other restrictions be imposed on these people?
At one time, these operations were done free of charge, and even at the expense of some people with other diagnoses. I’ve heard a lot of complaints that ‘it’ after the medical board is given priority intervention, and the line of simply injured patients is pushed back, because that’s the rule. I don’t think that’s correct.
If we talk about bans in general, they never did any good anywhere. It is an attempt to go back, to stop progress, movement. But it happens, and we’re not getting anywhere.
The ban on the sale of vodka led to moonlight. The prohibition of abortion (including in the USSR) led to an increase in clandestine operations. Now the story is the same in Poland, where conservative radicals are trying to ban them. So it’s a common misfortune – the government tries to solve medical or psychological problems, and they always look delusional.
There was no scientific discussion, no arguments and debates. It was just an order from above. This is where our two main problems arise: corruption and dilettantism. Of course, knowledge multiplies sorrow, but ignorance multiplies stupidity. And this stupidity has no borders, with the attempts of some to pass in front of the engine and to appear holier than the pope.
These operations will therefore always be carried out. They will be called differently, workarounds will be found, and it will continue anyway. Should an injured limb be sewn up? Necessary. And the decisions of these state medical commissions, called upon to determine the need for surgery, will depend on the dough that will be paid to them. The transsexual will become “wounded”, and he will still undergo this operation.
Aiden Craver/AP
Of course, there will be demonstrative spankings. They’ll find a victim, scream, sue… And then it all bogs down and slowly slows down, like it does with all of our laws. As they say, the severity of Russian laws is offset by the optional nature of enforcement.
Let’s pass a law so that everyone drives at a speed of only 20 kilometers per hour! You can accept it, fine, but in a month everything will be back to normal, despite the millions of cameras placed in major cities.
Pedagogical work must be carried out with personality. And the question of sexuality, of course, is formed mainly in the family. Robert De Niro’s father was gay, while his son, with whom he has always had a paternal relationship, grew up heterosexual.
We are told it is a nightmare and a mess. But wait, do you think so yourself, or did you do some research, find something? Nothing like that.
Do you want to live by Bible principles? So let’s start with the commandments “Thou shalt not kill” and “Thou shalt not steal”.
By the way, our country is ahead on the issue of same-sex families, because 70% of the population grew up in such families. They consist of mother, grandmother, aunt and daughter. And if there is not a girl there, but, God forbid, a boy, what will come out of him in such an environment is easy to guess. So much for transsexualism, and wanting to be a girl, and hating daddy, and rejecting your gender.
There is a problem with transgenderism, and it will not go away no matter how many laws are passed. We must help transsexuals.
Recently I was at a scientific conference and a serious report on this subject was read there. When some started asking if we were talking about something that couldn’t be discussed now, we were reminded that doctors simply had no legal right not to help the sick and suffering.
One person’s freedom ends where another person’s freedom begins. And when the state gets into the bed of its citizens, it’s a very bad story, because the reverse process is also possible. If you stare into the abyss for too long, it may begin to scrutinize you.
The opinion of the author may not coincide with the opinion of the editors.
Read the Latest Ukraine War News on The Eastern Herald.
