Mia Isabella Rebuts WSJ Guest Editorial on Gender Reassignment

New York—Mia Isabella has responded in writing to a June 12 guest editorial in the Wall Street Journal that dismisses the need for gender reassignment surgery and makes the claim that "the transgendered suffer a disorder of 'assumption.'" Isabella’s response to the editorial's author, Dr. Paul McHugh, was published June 15 on eros.com.

In an impassioned rebuttal, Isabella wrote, “Referring to true identified transgender individuals as ‘confused’ or ‘under the wrong assumption of their core selves’ is a blatant showcase of how so many look at the [transgender] community as less than human beings. For those who are living their adult lives bold enough to be who they are, knowing the backlash and limitations they must fight through every day based on … physical appearance … clearly betraying the affected person’s sense of self, confidence, and inner emotional struggles … surgery in various forms can absolutely have positive life changing effects, where it concerns something as simple as depression and as complex as body dysmorphic disorder.”

The entire response can be read here.

Isabella, who is currently working on her memoir, gives credit to her mentor, Dr. Kaleita, for helping her with her own personal transition. Kaleita is Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences and Psychiatry Researcher in the Department of Neurology at UCLA.

“My friend and mentor, Dr. Kaleita, had a great impact in my development when it came to education, and we attended many medical galas, functions, and philanthropy trips to broaden my views on the world, regarding issues he passionately believed in. He didn’t feel medical advancements concerning hormone therapy and surgical operations regarding sexual reassignment had reached a pinnacle of success a decade ago,” said Isabella. “He absolutely believed that true transgender individuals did, in fact, contain core essentials chemically and hormonally found in the opposite sex or identified gender, and conservative surgical changes after puberty were necessary to transition socially into adulthood.”

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