Benjamin scale

The Sex Orientation Scale (SOS) was Harry Benjamin's attempt to classify and understand various forms and subtypes of transvestism and transsexualism in people assigned male at birth, published in 1966. It was a seven-point scale (with three types of transvestism, three types of transsexualism, and one category for typical males); it was analogous to the Kinsey Scale as it relates to sexual orientation, which also had seven categories. Much like Kinsey's understanding of sexual orientation, Benjamin understood the nature of gender identity and gender expression not as a discrete scale, but as a spectrum, a continuum with many variations. However the Benjamin scale does not reflect a modern understanding of gender identity, and is not useful as a contemporary diagnostic tool, especially due to its conflation of gender identity with sexual orientation. Benjamin feared legal consequences for surgeons who performed sex reassignment surgery, and focused on the patients being able to pass and unlikely to regret their decision when deciding whether to recommend someone for an operation—in addition to possessing an unchanging gender identity.