With his book, “Trans Life Survivors", author Walt Heyer has now written at least six books on this subject, several of which, including this one, this reviewer has read. Mr. Heyer, who is a self-described “sex-change regretter,” continues to weave his cautionary tale, book after book. Why even care about the issue to this extent?
For the author, it appears to be a very personal thing. At the time of his greatest gender turmoil, Mr. Heyer, who had then lived as a woman for seven years, indicated he was suffering from Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, compounded by another serious problem, which is known as Dissociative Identity Disorder. He believes that his mental health was the major factor in his ill-advised decision to transition, including undergoing SRS and having breast implants. Other areas of blame fall to a "greedy and inept" medical establishment and to the transgender community itself, the later the author feels greases the path, making transition an almost necessary imperative for those who are gender challenged. In addition to being unduly influenced towards embracing a female gender role by the TG community, the author claims that he was misguided by a self-serving psychiatrist who, as the author later learned, also had a clandestine substance abuse problem. The unfortunate thing for Mr. Heyer was that his sex change had taken place when one of his female alter-egos was the operative persona.
Taken as a group, these issues beg the question, "Where is the author's personal responsibility in all of this?"
What is the big “charge” for Mr. Heyer and the other so called "SRS objectors" who review his books if certain individuals choose to follow their own path? What the positive reviewers of Mr. Heyer's books on Amazon.com don’t really get is that, in spite of Mr. Heyer’s obviously sincere personal regret about his sex change, and the regret of some others he references in his book, there are thousands of struggling people for whom this course of action is their lone salvation. Count your lucky stars if you are not among them.
In this writer's opinion, the sole benefit of Mr. Heyer's books as a whole is that clinicians need to be certain to exercise more prudence with patients and explore every possibility prior to transition. Of course, the same thing goes for prospective transitioners. It is the belief of this writer that this is what the vast majority of professionals and those who are gender variant do anyway. The course of action is rarely totally clear. There may be some with regrets, but the common belief is that most of those who transition gender roles do not ultimately question their decision. It is this writer's view that gender stigmas are the result of societal and patriarchal stereotypes, fostered by the rigid thinking and self-righteousness of many. This is what causes most of the underlying emotional problems seen in transgender individuals. One can’t attribute suicide rates solely to gender dysphoria or sex change. The major and underlying problem is that if we, as a society, could be more accepting of individual differences as a whole, this discussion would not exist, and people could live in peace in the gender role they choose, much freer of emotional distress.
Lastly, and for this writer least of all, from a technical standpoint, Mr. Heyer's current book contains numerous repetitions that fully served to annoy. In addition, he throws technical lingo around as though he is a trained and fully qualified practitioner in this field, which he is not.
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