This is a discussion of Sandra Silverman’s clinical paper “The Colonized Mind: Gender, Trauma, and Mentalization.” Her patient, David née Ava, started early in life as a gender variant child. In adolescence, she became more stereotypically gender conforming. She entered treatment with Silverman as a young adult who was feeling great shame about both her past and present gender dysphoria. This discussion focuses on the clinical problem of gender policing, its external and internal manifestations as well as its appearance in the countertransference.