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Ray Blanchard

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Ray Blanchard is an American-Canadian sexologist, best known for his research studies on pedophilia, gender dysphoria, and sexual orientation. He has also published research studies on phallometry and several paraphilias, including transvestism and autoerotic asphyxia.

Education and career

Blanchard received his A.B. in psychology from the University of Pennsylvania in 1967 and his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois in 1973. He conducted postdoctoral research at Dalhousie University until 1976, when he accepted a position as a clinical psychologist at the Ontario Correctional Institute in Brampton, Ontario, Canada (a suburb of Toronto). There, Blanchard met his mentor Kurt Freund, who was conducting research in chemical castration for sex offenders. [1] In 1980, he joined the Clarke Institute of Psychiatry (now part of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health). [2] In 1995 Blanchard was named Head of Clinical Sexology Services in the Law and Mental Health Programme of the CAMH, and he serves as a Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto. He served on the American Psychiatric Association DSM-IV Subcommittee on Gender Identity Disorders[3] and was named to the DSM-V committee.

Fraternal birth order effect

Blanchard has conducted research on factors that influence the development of sexual orientation including biological factors. He has proposed a theory known as a fraternal birth order effect or "older brother effect". This theory is that the more older brothers a man has, the greater the probability is that he will have a homosexual sexual orientation. The number of older sisters has no effect, however. The same is not true for lesbians—neither the number of older brothers nor the number of older sisters appears to be related to the sexual orientation of women.[4][5][6] The fraternal birth order effect is the strongest known predictor of sexual orientation,[7] with each older brother increases a man's odds of being gay by about 33%.[8]

Blanchard hypothesizes that the older brother effect is caused by interactions between a male fetus and the immune system of the mother: Because certain proteins (called H-y antigens) are produced by male and not by female fetuses, the mother's immune system reacts only to male fetuses and is more likely to produce a reaction with each successive exposure to a male fetus.[9]

Autogynephilia and the taxonomy of male-to-female gender dysphoria

Blanchard coined the term autogynephilia to describe men with an erotic desire to be women and provided evidence that the previously described types of gender dysorphia in biological males were actually all variants of only two types: homosexual gender dysphoria and non-homosexual gender dysphoria.

Within the transsexual community, there has been much controversy surrounding Blanchard's ideas.

Blanchard is on record as supporting sex reassignment surgery as an appropriate treatment for both subtypes of transsexual people: For example, in 1998, the Ontario Health Insurance Plan ceased funding all sex reassignment surgeries in the province under the guise of cutting costs.[10] Blanchard strongly supported Michelle Josef's lawsuit to get funding restored as being medically necessary.[11]

The term Teleiophilia

Blanchard coined the term teleiophilia to refer to the sexual interest in adults.[12] Unlike the terms referring to sexual interest in other age groups, such as pedophilia (sexual interest in prepubescent children) and hebephilia (sexual interest in pubescent children), teleiophilia is not a paraphilia. The term was formalized in order to forestall neologisms, such as "adultophilia" or "normophilia," that were occasionally used, but had no precise definition. The term is used primarily by professional sexologists in the scientific literature.

DSM-V appointment

Blanchard served on the gender dysphoria sub-working group for the DSM-IV and served as Chair of the paraphilia sub-working group for the DSM-V. Some activists protested the latter appointment.[13][14] The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force issued a statement questioning the APA's decision to appoint Blanchard. According to The Globe and Mail, "Toronto psychologist Ray Blanchard, one of Canada's leading -- and most controversial -- gender experts, argues the transgender movement is rife with delusion. 'This is not waving a magic wand and a man becomes a woman and vice versa,' he says. 'It's something that has to be taken very seriously. A man without a penis has certain disadvantages in this world, and this is in reality what you're creating.'"[15]

References

  1. ^ Freund K (1980). Therapeutic Sex Drive Reduction. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica 62 (s287), 5–38 doi:10.1111/j.1600-0447.1980.tb10433.x
  2. ^ Laws RD, O'Donohue WT (eds.) Sexual Deviance: Theory, Assessment, and Treatment. Guilford Press ISBN 1572302410
  3. ^ Bradley SJ, Blanchard R, Coates SW, Green R, Levine SB, Meyer-Bahlburg HFL, Pauly IB, Zucker KJ (1991). Interim report of the DSM-IV Subcommittee on Gender Identity Disorders. Archives of Sexual Behavior Volume 20, Number 4 / August, 1991
  4. ^ Blanchard, R., & Bogaert, A. F. (1996). Homosexuality in men and number of older brothers. American Journal of Psychiatry, 153, 27–31.
  5. ^ Blanchard, R., & Bogaert, A. F. (1996). Biodemographic comparisons of homosexual and heterosexual men in the Kinsey interview data. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 25, 551–579.
  6. ^ Blanchard, R., Zucker, K. J., Siegelman, M., Dickey, R., & Klassen, P. (1998). The relation of birth order to sexual orientation in men and women. Journal of Biosocial Science, 30, 511–519.
  7. ^ Bogaert, A. F. (2006). Biological versus nonbiological older brothers and men's sexual orientation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 103, 10777-10774.
  8. ^ Cantor, J. M., Blanchard, R., Paterson, A. D., & Bogaert, A. F. (2002). How many gay men owe their sexual orientation to fraternal birth order? Archives of Sexual Behavior, 31, 63–71.
  9. ^ Blanchard, R., & Klassen, P. (1997). H-Y antigen and homosexuality in men. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 185, 373–378.
  10. ^ Palmer, K. (2002, Dec. 7). "Sex-change delisting 'prejudiced' ; Probe finds OHIP bias against transsexuals Tribunal to decide on issue of coverage." Toronto Star, p. A8.
  11. ^ Daly, R. (1999, May 2). "Michelle Josef goes to court to free the woman within ; 'If I was just worried about myself, believe me, it would be easier to just go out and have a sex change than sue the government'." Toronto Star, p. 1.
  12. ^ Blanchard, R., Barbaree, H. E., Bogaert, A. F., Dickey, R., Klassen, P., Kuban, M. E., et al. (2000). Fraternal birth order and sexual orientation in pedophiles. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 29, 463–478.
  13. ^ Chibarro, Lou Jr. (May 30, 2008). Activists alarmed over APA: Head of psychiatry panel favors 'change' therapy for some trans teens. Washington Blade
  14. ^ Rau, Krishna (July 7, 2008). Trans activists infuriated by doctors in charge of gender identity definitions. Xtra
  15. ^ Armstrong J. The Body within, the body without. Globe and Mail, 12 June 2004, p. F1.

See also

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