Abstract
This paper examines the narratives of being the "justifiable party of Gender Identity Disorder (GID)" and explicates the types of criteria that are used.
First, it focuses on how the GID category is used, by referring to the question of the distinction between self-enforcement and other-enforcement, as posed by Harvey Sacks (1979). Second, the paper analyzes interview data concerning the "justifiable party" based on 23 interviews with 21 people with GID, and explains the criteria that are used. Principally, there are four criteria that define the GID category : serious illness, self-sacrifice, struggle for feminity or masculinity, and possession of social skills. Although these criteria are based on medical grounds they are currently being used within the GID community by people with GID.
GID is a category that not only doctors, but also people with GID themselves have the right to enforce. People with GID modify the medical use of these criteria in a rigid manner and apply them to the criteria of possession of social skills. The GID category is decided on by people with GID, and this decision assumes a strong moral character away from the medical setting.
