John Mark Karr, suspected of killing JonBenet Ramsey, reportedly sought to undergo a sex change while in Thailand. (Photo by Elizabeth Dalziel/AP)
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RYAN LEE
Friday, August 25, 2006
News reports that the suspect in the JonBenet Ramsey murder case was seeking a sex change in Bangkok, Thailand, angered some transgender rights advocates, who accuse the media of routinely ignoring important transgender issues, while never failing to sensationalize sexual reassignment surgery.
“It’s sort of irrelevant to the story [of Ramsey’s murder], and what’s more is that that story is irrelevant to the transgender experience,” said Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality.
“The media, now apparently including the gay media, are obsessed with sexual reassignment surgery, and it’s insulting and disappointing that that’s what people focus on,” said Keisling, who critized this publication for reporting this article. “Focusing on this case, especially this extraneous angle of this case, is disappointing.”
The Associated Press and other news outlets reported Aug. 21 that John Mark Karr took steps to change his sex before he was apprehended in Thailand and announced as the prime suspect in the JonBenet Ramsey killing that took place in 1996.
The AP quoted Thep Vechavisit, a surgeon who performs sex changes at Bangkok’s Pratunam Polyclinic, as confirming that Karr was “one of my patients.”
The reports do not make clear whether Karr considered himself transgender, or whether he was seeking a sex change for alternative motives, such as evading law enforcement, which Keisling doubts.
“[Having sexual reassignment surgery] isn’t something you do to avoid detection and arrest,” Keisling said. “I’ve never heard of anybody doing that.”
There is no universal protocol for sex changes, but Keisling said many surgeons across the world adhere to the Harry Benjamin Standards of Care, named for the pioneering researcher of transexualism.
Those standards approach changing one’s gender identity in five stages, starting with a diagnostic assessment of gender, followed by psychotherapy sessions, and experimenting with living as the opposite gender in real life circumstances.
The fourth stage involves hormone treatment, with the actual sexual reassignment surgery being the final step. Thep told AP he performs about one surgery per week, and noted most of his patients have been living as women and taking hormones for years.
News outlets reported the relatively low $1,625 price tag for a sex change in Thailand — compared to tens of thousands of dollars in the U.S. — and Keisling said it is undoubtedly a popular destination for Americans looking overseas.
The vast majority of people who identify as transgender don’t undergo sexual reassignment surgery, Keisling said. Any effort to link Karr — who has yet to be charged with anything related to Ramsey’s killing — and other transsexuals is misguided, she added.
With the media now obsessing about every detail of Karr’s meal on his airplane flight back to the U.S., Keisling sarcastically joked that she wouldn’t be surprised if king prawn producers are fielding calls from reporters inquiring about the potential impact on business.
“It is that absurd, this transgender angle on this story,” Keisling said. “There’s just still people who are willing to sensationalize transgender people.”
Karr called gay, too
Ethan St. Pierre, chair of the National Transgender Advocacy Coalition, agreed that any media attention given to Karr’s alleged interest in a sex change is “ludicrous” and “harmful.”
“It’s just as ludicrous that they’re reporting his possible transgender status as it would be if every time a child molester did something in public, they blamed it on gay people,” St. Pierre said. “They never report about the transgender person who is a hero, or has done something terrific.”
Conservative blogger LaShawn Barber angered some gay colleagues in the blogosphere when she wrote that Karr “seems more like a homosexual pedophile to me,” rather than someone who was “married with children.”
“Certain social conservatives seem so obsessed with homosexuality [that] any time sexual perversion comes up, they relate it to homosexuality,” answered conservative gay blogger Dan Blatt. “That [Barber] would assume a pervert who preys on little girls looks ‘homosexual’ says a lot about her attitude toward gay people.”
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