XVI Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association Symposium
17 - 21 August 1999, London

Reflections on "Transsexualism and Sex Reassignment" 1969 -1999

Harry Benjamin, M.D.: A Legacy of Persisting Influences from the Persistent Pioneer

Wheeler, Connie Christine, Ph.D., Private Practice, New York City

Panel: Remembering Harry Benjamin: Reflections on the pioneer in understanding and helping transsexuals.

Not a single one of us working in the area of gender identity has been left untouched by the work of Harry Benjamin. The longer that I work in this field, the fewer people there seem to be that have any real knowledge about Dr. Benjamin. I didn’t either 25 years ago, when in 1973 Wardell Pomeroy invited me to become a national board member of The Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality, Inc. (SSSS), the oldest sexological organization of its kind in the United States and possibly the world. There among its founders I meet Hans Lehfeldt, Albert Ellis, and Harry Benjamin.

It took six more years for me to learn who Dr. Benjamin really was and how he was quietly working away at his incredible ideas and changing the lives of almost everybody who knew him or would ever know him, or about him. Ours was a friendship that really began when Leah and I first visited him to interview him for the archive collection on the history of the SSSS. Throughout the course of the 1980’s we were most fortunate to learn so much about him—some of which left us breathless, and some which left us sad. Dr. Benjamin had the great fear that as he got old, people would forget him and he would remain tucked away in his little apartment in mid-town New York City. The vitality of our relationship was mutual—Harry informing us about the beginnings and us letting him know what was happening. Harry Benjamin realized how absolutely integral a part of what was currently ongoing had its beginnings with him, and that we would be writing and telling about the many "firsts" he pioneered.

Harry Benjamin (1885-1987) made significant contributions both to gerontology and to sexology. He came to the United States (1913) and joined the Neurological Institute of Columbia University to nurture endocrinology. Encouraging his interest was his friendship with Eugen Steinach, of Vienna, who had claimed to have found a restorative effect in vasoligation of older men. Benjamin’s understanding of the newly braking developments in endocrinology led him to try these hormones to deal with the problems of aging and to coin the term "gerontotherapy."

Dr. Benjamin is best known in the sexological field for his unprecedented work with transvestites and transsexuals. He emerged quickly as the American leader in the field and published a seminal work on transsexualism, The Transsexual Phenomenon (1966). Over his career, he treated more than 1500 people with gender identity disorders, and was known for the kindness and understanding he extended to all his patients. He was so proud, and somewhat relieved, when in 1978, many of the professionals in the field organized The Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association, for organizing symposia and who initiated creating standards of care for the treatment of Gender Identity Disorders.

Although we are often required to provide treatment that in its methods is frequently totally alien to our own feelings and desires, Harry Benjamin taught us to "listen with dispassionate compassion" and to utilize ourselves and our resources in the best interests of the unique people that we serve. Dr. Benjamin inspired our realization that to seek the fulfillment of human potential, in all of us represents the highest good to which we can aspire. Harry Benjamin emphasized that "our emotions are the very essence of life, and they are indeed the source of all that makes life worth living. But for science and logic, they are bad companions." When Harry Benjamin died on August 24, 1986, we were shocked—even though at 1012 there was little to be shocked about. Today, with his legacy secured, perhaps our gift to Harry Benjamin might be to remember the valuable lessons his life’s unsurpassable work as given us.