Dear Dr Lewins,
I read with interest the article in this week's edition of the ANU reporter regarding the poor relationship outcomes of sex change recipients. From it, two main points came to my attention.
Firstly the representation in the article of what is defined as a "poor result". Since the article gave no reference to the "normal" heterosexual population, quoting that only 25 percent of heterosexual transsexuals form lasting relationships is obviously meaningless, unless it was inferred that 100 percent of heterosexuals form lasting relationships. Indeed if the average for either the heterosexual or homosexual population is less than 70 percent then the headline "Transsexual Lesbians more likely to form lasting relationships" may have been more appropriate albeit less journalistically interesting.
The second point resolves around the reasons for the poor "success" rate of heterosexual transsexuals. Since I do not have access to the original research this limits my interpretation somewhat, but I believed that the idea that fixation on physical appearances to be a somewhat inadequate explanation given that lesbian transsexuals have a much greater "success" rate by comparison. In my opinion a much greater cause of relationship breakdown for heterosexual transsexuals is widespread homophobia and transphobia in Australian men. Blaming transsexuals alone for poor relational outcomes seems as valid as blaming Aboriginals alone for their poor life expectancies and low socio-economic status.
Again given that I do not have access to the research data, I am not able to see whether the questions of mine are due perhaps to journalistic license. I hope therefore that you will be able to address my queries.
Stephanie
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