With no input from Sarah Palin (as far as we know), the American Psychiatric Assn., in its new Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, has replaced the term "mental retardation" with "intellectual disability." Whether this will stop schoolyard taunts of “retard” is another matter.

Speaking of schoolyard taunts, the draft manual employs new terminology for another condition that gives rise to childhood teasing. What used to be called childhood “gender identity disorder” is now also referred to as “gender incongruence.” The definition of this syndrome is “a marked incongruence between one’s experienced/expressed gender and assigned gender." Indicators include “a strong preference for the toys, games, or activities typical of the other gender.” In popular parlance, a boy who prefers fashion to football is called "sissy," a taunt that's a lot older than "retard."

When doing research on a book about the culture wars (including skirmishes over sexuality), I discovered that childhood Gender Identity Disorder is controversial to the point that some activists want it removed from the manual. One argument is particularly interesting: If the APA has deleted homosexuality from its manual of disorders – which  it did in 1973 – it’s inconsistent to retain childhood GID. Why? Because research suggests that most “feminine” boys grow up to be  gay, not transsexual.

A broad generalization? Obviously (and the fact that most feminine boys grow up to be gay doesn't mean that most gays were feminine boys). But this connection informs a program at a Washington, D.C., children’s hospital that helps parents accept  their “gender-variant” kids. A brochure for the program advises parents that although most of these boys will be gay, many will “grow up to be masculine and conventional in their appearance.” Meanwhile, the program counsels parents to question “traditional assumptions about social gender roles and sexual orientation.” “The more that society and their peers may be critical of [these children],” it says, “the more important it is for them to have the support and acceptance of their families.”
 
The question is whether programs like this – or kinder, gentler medical manuals – will prevent other kids from tormenting outcasts with words like “sissy" or  “retard” -- or "fatso," for that matter. Children, unfortunately, are crueler than either parents or psychiatrists.

--Michael McGough