Richard Green (6 June 1936 – 6 April 2019) was an American-British

sexologist Sexology is the scientific study of human sexuality, including human sexual interests, behaviors, and functions. The term ''sexology'' does not generally refer to the non-scientific study of sexuality, such as social criticism. Sexologists a ...

psychiatrist A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in psychiatry, the branch of medicine devoted to the diagnosis, prevention, study, and treatment of mental disorders. Psychiatrists are physicians and evaluate patients to determine whether their sy ...

, lawyer, and author specializing in

homosexuality Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" to peop ...

and

transsexualism Transsexual people experience a gender identity that is inconsistent with their assigned sex, and desire to permanently transition to the sex or gender with which they identify, usually seeking medical assistance (including sex reassignmen ...

, specifically

gender identity disorder in children Gender dysphoria in children (GD), also known as gender incongruence of childhood, is a formal diagnosis for children who experience significant discontent ( gender dysphoria) due to a mismatch between their assigned sex and gender identity. T ...

. Green was the founding editor of the ''

Archives of Sexual Behavior The ''Archives of Sexual Behavior'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal in sexology. It is the official publication of the International Academy of Sex Research. History The journal was established in 1971 by Richard Green, who served as its e ...

'' (1971), and served as Editor until 2001. He was also the founding president of the

International Academy of Sex Research The International Academy of Sex Research (IASR) is a scientific society for researchers in sexology. According to John Bancroft, retired director of the Kinsey Institute, IASR "can claim...most of the field's leading researchers." IASR is uni ...

(1975), which made the ''Archives'' its official publication. He served on the

American Psychiatric Association The American Psychiatric Association (APA) is the main professional organization of psychiatrists and trainee psychiatrists in the United States, and the largest psychiatric organization in the world. It has more than 37,000 members are involve ...

DSM-IV The ''Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders'' (DSM; latest edition: DSM-5-TR, published in March 2022) is a publication by the American Psychiatric Association (APA) for the classification of mental disorders using a common langu ...

Subcommittee on Gender Identity Disorders.

Education and career

Green was born in

Crown Heights, Brooklyn Crown Heights is a neighborhood in the central portion of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. Crown Heights is bounded by Washington Avenue to the west, Atlantic Avenue to the north, Ralph Avenue to the east, and Empire Boulevard/East New Yo ...

, New York.Peacock S, Editor (1997). ''Contemporary Authors''. Vol. 159, p. 157. Gale, . His father was an accountant and his mother a teacher. He earned his BA from

Syracuse University Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York. Established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church, the university has been nonsectarian since 1920. Locate ...

in 1957, his MD from

Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (JHUSOM) is the medical school of Johns Hopkins University, a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1893, the School of Medicine shares a campus with the Johns Hopkins Hospi ...

in 1961, and his J.D. from

Yale Law School Yale Law School (Yale Law or YLS) is the law school of Yale University, a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was established in 1824 and has been ranked as the best law school in the United States by ''U ...

in 1987. During his medical studies at Johns Hopkins, Green met

John Money John William Money (8 July 1921 – 7 July 2006) was a New Zealand psychologist, sexologist and author known for his research into sexual identity and Sex determination and differentiation (human), biology of gender. He was one of the first ...

, who was an assistant professor there, and started collaborating with him on research, initially on boys displaying substantial cross-gender behavior. In 1960, they published the paper "Incongruous Gender Role: Nongenital Manifestations in Prepubertal Boys," detailing their observations of 5 children assigned male at birth (AMAB) who "showed incongruities in gender role", ranging from preferring to play with girls to praying God would change them into a girl. Citing that adult gay men and transgender women recollect gender incongruity in childhood, they later concluded early intervention is best in cases of gender incongruity and that "part of the successful rearing of a child is orienting him, from birth, to his biologically and culturally acceptable gender role. This, as far as we know, is best achieved by providing a relationship between husband and wife exemplifying these respective roles." In 1961, they published a paper titled “Effeminacy in Prepubertal Boys,” which looked at eleven AMAB youth who were referred for their “excessive and persistent attempts to dress in the clothes of the opposite gender, constant display of gestures and mannerisms of the opposite sex, preference for play and other activities of the opposite sex, or a stated desire to be a member of the opposite sex.” They recommended that parents "Look for insidious and irrational ways in which parents may be unwittingly encouraging girlishness and penalizing their son for developing boyishly. ..Both

arents Arents is a Dutch and German patronymic surname ("son of Arent"). In 1968, Green published "Childhood Cross-Gender Identification", a paper reviewing the therapy of nine AMAB children who were younger than 8 and "clearly prepubertal". The first six were from the collaborative papers between Green and Money, the last 3 were from

Robert Stoller Robert Jesse Stoller (December 15, 1924 – September 6, 1991), was an American Professor of Psychiatry at UCLA Medical School and a researcher at the UCLA Gender Identity Clinic. He was born in Crestwood, New York, and died in Los Angeles, Cali ...

. Citing the failure of attempts to "cure" adult trans women, he reported early diagnosis and treatment may be effective in preventing manifestations of adulthood cross-gender identification. The stated goals of family therapy are for "for the husband and wife to gain some perspective on the second class citizen of the husband and of the significance of their unbalanced roles in shaping their son's personality. Additional focus is on the masculinity-inhibiting of mother's anxiety over her son's healthy aggression and her greater comfort with what to her is his less threatening behavior." In Money's obituary, Green acknowledges Money and

, as well as his father, Leo H. Green, for having set the course for his life and career. In the mid-1960s, Money introduced Green to

Harry Benjamin Harry Benjamin (January 12, 1885 – August 24, 1986) was a German-American endocrinologist and sexologist, widely known for his clinical work with transgender people. Early life and career Benjamin was born in Berlin, and raised in a German ...

, whom Green acknowledges as having "further honed" his career. In 1969 Green and Money co-edited "Transsexualism and Sex Reassignment", published by Johns Hopkins Press. In 1972, Green coauthored a paper with Lawrence Newman and Stoller titled "Treatment of Boyhood ''Transsexualism'': An Interim Report of Four Years' Experience," which held reports and comments from their psychiatric experiences. Believing family disturbance to be the cause of gender incongruity, they stated "General principles of therapy are aimed at accomplishing four objectives: (1) Development of a relationship of trust and affection between the male therapist and the boy. (2) Heightening parental concern about the problem so that parents begin to disapprove of femine interests and no longer covertly encourage them. (3) Promotion of the father's, or a father-substitute's involvement in the boy's life. (4) Sensitization of the parents to the interpersonal difficulties which underlay the tendency of the mother to be overly close with the son and for the father to emotionally divorce himself from family activities." Newman treated a family and tried to inspire aggressiveness in the child, insisting to the mother it was a success that the child struck their sister and mother. In addition, behaviors like dressing femininely were actively disapproved of. In another case treated by Newman he stated he established a warm and friendly relationship to explain feminine behavior was "not right" for a little boy and that he should give it up. In this case, he explains the parents were worried there child "was destined to be a homosexual and felt helpless to do anything about it," but responded quickly when they learned they could do a great deal for the child. In another case treated by Newman, he explained to the patient they'd have to stop feminine behavior now before it's too late, and in a few weeks the child announced they wanted to "become normal like the other boys," motivated by strong religious commitment. While the patient attempted to develop in a masculine way, Newman continually challenged the "pessimism about becoming masculine and his secret belief that he was destined to live as a feminine person" (216). In a case treated by Green, he made an effort to establish paternal control of the family to shift the child's perception of gender roles. Their final comments included "Some boys reveal their feminine identifications through physical gestures. By the time they are seen in consultation much of this display is unconscious or automatic. In order to bring it under volitional control, the child must be sensitized to when he is walking, sitting, or using his hands "like a girl." Parents should be instructed to consistently point out to the boy when such behavior occurs. In his contacts with the boy, the therapist does the same. The boy may also need actual instruction in modifying these gestures" (217). They countered the point they were ascribing an inherently higher value to masculine over feminine behavior by saying it would be easier to modify the behavior of a child rather than the attitude of society towards them. Green was founding editor of ''

'' in 1971, serving as Editor for 30 years. In 1974 Green and the board of the new journal established the

, with Green as the founding president; the ''Archives'' became the official publication of the Academy.Green R (1985). The International Academy of Sex Research: In the beginning. ''

'' 14: 293–302. The new organization had a more selective membership than

Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality The Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality (SSSS, or "quad-S") is a 501(c)3 non-profit professional membership organization "dedicated to advancing knowledge of sexuality and communicating scientifically based sexuality research and scholars ...

(SSSS), which published the leading US sexology journal of the time, ''

The Journal of Sex Research The ''Journal of Sex Research'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal covering the study of human sexuality and the field of sexology in general. It is published by Routledge on behalf of the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality. In 1963, ...

''. The IASR membership has a more medical and biological emphasis, and only accepts applications from published researchers. The IASR also has a more international approach, alternatively meeting in the US and other countries every year. Eventually, the ''Archives'' became a premier journal in its field. Green retired as Editor of ''Archives of Sexual Behavior'' in 2001 and Editorship was continued by

Kenneth Zucker Kenneth J. Zucker (; born 1950) is an American-Canadian psychologist and sexologist. He was named editor-in-chief of ''Archives of Sexual Behavior'' in 2001. He was psychologist-in-chief at Toronto's Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH ...

.Green R (2001). A 30 years' thank you. ''

'' 30: 633–637. In 1979 Green was a founding committee member of the

Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association The World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), formerly the Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association (HBIGDA), is a professional organization devoted to the understanding and treatment of gender identity and ...

and served as president from 1997 to 1999. He previously directed the

human sexuality Human sexuality is the way people experience and express themselves sexually. This involves biological, psychological, physical, erotic, emotional, social, or spiritual feelings and behaviors. Because it is a broad term, which has varied ...

program at the State University of New York at Stony Brook.Brody, Jane E. (26 January 1982)
Psychiatrists on homosexuality: Vigorous discord voiced at meeting
''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' He was at various times Professor of Psychiatry at the University of California, Los Angeles, Professor of Psychiatry at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, and Professor of Psychological Medicine, Imperial College, London. He was on the faculty of Law at UCLA and Cambridge. He was made a Fellow of the

Royal College of Psychiatrists The Royal College of Psychiatrists is the main professional organisation of psychiatrists in the United Kingdom, and is responsible for representing psychiatrists, for psychiatric research and for providing public information about mental health ...

in 1994. Green served as President of HBIGDA, now known as

World Professional Association for Transgender Health The World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), formerly the Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association (HBIGDA), is a professional organization devoted to the understanding and treatment of gender identity and ...

, from 1997 to 1999. Clinical vignettes from Green's work on

gender identity disorder Gender dysphoria (GD) is the distress a person experiences due to a mismatch between their gender identitytheir personal sense of their own genderand their sex assigned at birth. The diagnostic label gender identity disorder (GID) was used unti ...

appear in widely used textbooks, such as ''Kaplan and Sadock's Synopsis of Psychiatry'' (10th ed.) The term "gender identity disorder" itself introduced in

DSM-III The ''Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders'' (DSM; latest edition: DSM-5-TR, published in March 2022) is a publication by the American Psychiatric Association (APA) for the classification of mental disorders using a common langu ...

was taken from Green's 1974 work. Sexual Identity Conflict in Children and Adults. New York, Basic Books.He served on the

Subcommittee on Gender Identity Disorders. Bradley SJ, Blanchard R, Coates SW, Green R, Levine SB, Meyer-Bahlburg HFL, Pauly IB, Zucker KJ (1991). Interim report of the DSM-IV Subcommittee on Gender Identity Disorders. ''

'' Volume 20, Number 4 / August 1991 In 2006 he was awarded the

Magnus Hirschfeld Medal The Magnus Hirschfeld Medal is awarded by the German Society for Social-Scientific Sexuality Research (DGSS) for outstanding service to sexual science, granted in the categories "Sexual Research" and "Sexual Reform". It is named in honour of Germa ...

for Sexual Research. Green was research director and consultant psychiatrist at the Gender Identity Clinic at

Charing Cross Hospital Charing Cross Hospital is an acute general teaching hospital located in Hammersmith, London, United Kingdom. The present hospital was opened in 1973, although it was originally established in 1818, approximately five miles east, in central Lond ...

in London and Senior Research Fellow, Institute of Criminology, Cambridge and Member of Darwin College, Cambridge. His partner since 1988, Melissa Hines, is a professor of psychology at the Faculty of Politics, Psychology, Sociology and International Studies,

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

. Green died on 6 April 2019, aged 82.

Law practice

Green was co-counsel for Elke Sommer in her

libel Defamation is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defini ...

suit against

Zsa Zsa Gabor Zsa Zsa Gabor (, ; born Sári Gábor ; February 6, 1917 – December 18, 2016) was a Hungarian Americans, Hungarian-American socialite and actress. Her sisters were actresses Eva Gabor, Eva and Magda Gabor. Gabor competed in the 1933 Mis ...

.Pool, Bob (9 December 1993). $3.3-Million Libel Award in Sommer-Gabor Feud. ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'' He was co-counsel with the

ACLU The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1920 "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States". T ...

in a case challenging the Boy Scouts for refusing membership to a young gay man in California—''

Curran v. Mount Diablo Council of the Boy Scouts of America ''Curran v. Mount Diablo Council of the Boy Scouts of America'', 17 Cal.4th 670, 952 P.2d 218, 72 Cal.Rptr.2d 410 (1998), was a landmark case which upheld the right of a private organization in California to not allow new members on the basis of t ...

''.

Views and controversies

During the APA's heated debate in the early 1970s about the declassification of homosexuality as a mental illness, Green argued forcefully in favor of declassification. He argued that the grounds for deciding the issue should be the "historical and cross-cultural groundings in homosexual expression, associated psychiatric features accompanying a homosexual orientation, the emotional consequences to the homosexual of societal condemnation, and behaviors of other species". Green applauded the eventual APA decision while strongly criticizing the fact that the administration put it to a vote, saying that such "a shotgun marriage between science and democracy" was "ludicrous". In his work, on gender identity in children, Green used common English expressions like "

sissy ''Sissy'' (derived from '' sister''), also ''sissy baby'', ''sissy boy'', ''sissy man'', ''sissy pants'', etc., is a pejorative term for a boy or man who does not demonstrate masculine, and shows possible signs of fragility. Generally, ''sissy'' ...

boy" and "

tomboy A tomboy is a term for a girl or a young woman with masculine qualities. It can include wearing androgynous or unfeminine clothing and actively engage in physical sports or other activities and behaviors usually associated with boys or men. W ...

" in the titles of some of his publications. His choice of terminology was criticized as offensive. In 2002, he initiated a debate in a special issue of the ''

'' regarding the extent to which

pedophilia Pedophilia ( alternatively spelt paedophilia) is a psychiatric disorder in which an adult or older adolescent experiences a primary or exclusive sexual attraction to prepubescent children. Although girls typically begin the process of puberty a ...

should be classified as a

mental disorder A mental disorder, also referred to as a mental illness or psychiatric disorder, is a behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning. Such features may be persistent, relapsing and remitti ...

by the

, without impinging on the legal and law enforcement aspects. It concluded that sexual arousal to children is subjectively reported "in a substantial minority of "normal" people", and reviewed the level of social acceptance of this historically, but stated that such observations may not entail cultural or legal acceptance today.Green, R. (2002)
Is pedophilia a mental disorder?
''

'', 31, 2002. The paper also raised specific concerns about the DSM-IV definition, some of which were later acknowledged by

Ray Blanchard Ray Milton Blanchard ( ; born October 9, 1945) is an American-Canadian sexologist, best known for his research studies on transsexualism, pedophilia and sexual orientation. He found that men with more older brothers are more likely to be gay tha ...

in his literature review for the

DSM-5 The ''Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition'' (DSM-5), is the 2013 update to the ''Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders'', the taxonomic and diagnostic tool published by the American Psychiatric ...

workgroup, which proposed a more general nomenclature distinction between

paraphilia Paraphilia (previously known as sexual perversion and sexual deviation) is the experience of intense sexual arousal to atypical objects, situations, fantasies, behaviors, or individuals. It has also been defined as sexual interest in anything ot ...

s and

paraphilic disorder Paraphilia (previously known as sexual perversion and sexual deviation) is the experience of intense sexual arousal to atypical objects, situations, fantasies, behaviors, or individuals. It has also been defined as sexual interest in anything ot ...

s; this proposal is part of the DSM-5 draft. In 2010, however, Green criticized in stronger terms Blanchard's proposal to introduce

hebephilia Hebephilia is the strong, persistent sexual interest by adults in puberty, pubescent children who are in early adolescence, typically ages 11–14 and showing Tanner stages 2 to 3 of physical development. It differs from pedophilia (the primary or ...

as a

in the DSM-5 (as a subtype the proposed pedohebophilic disorder). Pointing to the legal age of sexual consent in several countries of Europe, this would declare 19-year-olds engaged sexually with 14-year-olds as having a mental disorder. In terms of research on

biology and sexual orientation The relationship between biology and sexual orientation is a subject of research. While scientists do not know the exact cause of sexual orientation, they theorize that it is caused by a complex interplay of genetic, hormonal, and environmental ...

, Green was optimistic about progress and told a reporter that "I suspect that at least in your lifetime we will find a gene that contributes substantially to sexual orientation."Chandler Bur
Homosexuality and Biology
''

The Atlantic Monthly ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...

''. June 2007. He received the 2006

Selected publications

* * *Green R, Money J (1969). ''Transsexualism and Sex Reassignment''. The Johns Hopkins Press (1 November 1969) . *Green R (1974). ''Sexual Identity Conflict in Children and Adults''. Basic Books (1974). . *Green R (1979). ''Human Sexuality: A Health Practitioner's Text''. Williams & Wilkins; 2nd edition (June 1979) . *Green R (1987). ''The "Sissy Boy Syndrome" and the Development of Homosexuality''. Yale Univ Pr (February 1987) . *West DJ, Green R (eds.) (1997). ''Sociolegal Control of Homosexuality : A Multi-Nation Comparison''. Springer; 1 edition (31 October 1997) . *Green R (1992). ''Sexual Science and the Law''. Harvard University Press (November 1992). .

References

External links

Richard Green
at Imperial College website
Should Marriage Between Homosexuals Be Permitted?
Debate on Same-sex Marriage, ''The Advocates'', 1974.
list of publications
from

Springer Science+Business Media Springer Science+Business Media, commonly known as Springer, is a German multinational publishing company of books, e-books and peer-reviewed journals in science, humanities, technical and medical (STM) publishing. Originally founded in 1842 in ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Green, Richard Psychiatry writers on LGBT topics 20th-century American Jews American sexologists American psychiatrists 2019 deaths 1936 births Lawyers from New York City Physicians from New York City Writers from Brooklyn Transgender studies academics Fellows of the Royal College of Psychiatrists Syracuse University alumni Johns Hopkins University alumni Yale Law School alumni David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA faculty Stony Brook University faculty Academics of Imperial College London People from Crown Heights, Brooklyn 20th-century American lawyers 21st-century American Jews People involved in scientific misconduct incidents