...and it's not so much because I hear about cases like these tragic prepubescents. But let's talk about these children for now, since that's the subject at hand, and I'll get to the rest later on in this post.

I think that IF you're going to go through with a gender reassignment that it's FAR-better to do it before ones hormones have changed bone structure, hair patterns, and everything else that can keep the eventual post-operative patients from having the best possible medical outcome. Reversing out what nature does during puberty only adds another layer of difficulty to what must already be a difficult life.

OTOH, a child is not LEGALLY able to make this sort of life-changing decision for him- or herself. And if it's true that 80% of people who grow up wanting to be the opposite sex eventually change their minds, then that's a really good reason to NOT allow kids to make this decision on their own.

Funny, but when I was a little girl, I really didn't understand the "facts of life." Bizarrely, I thought that I would grow up to be whatever I wanted, and somehow I'd gotten it into my head that I could be a man. It was the early 1950s, 2nd-wave feminism was no more than a glimmer in its founders' eyes, and gender roles were rigidly enforced. I didn't want a male body. What I wanted male power and privilege. And, most importantly, I didn't want to "be a mommy," which I had been told, repeatedly, would be my only option once I grew into womanhood. Of course, once I got older, I was able to separate "being a woman" with "things that society expects of women" in my mind, and I knew that if I were willing to pay the price for being a maverick that I wouldn't have to be anyone's mother, even if that meant that "no man will ever love you," as my parents repeatedly warned me.

Is getting a tubal ligation anything like getting sex reassignment surgery? Doing so made me happier with my body, I can tell you that. I had it done at age 21. I've heard that doctors usually refuse to do it for anyone under 30...or maybe even 35 or 40. But what if I'd wanted it done at age 12? It certainly could have saved me a lot of anxiety around the possibility of birth control failures. But if doctors are typically telling 30-year-olds, "You'll change your mind, so I won't operate on you," then certainly NO doctor, no matter how progressive or liberal, would do it for a 12-year-old.

Now I'm going to go a bit off-topic and talk about one aspect of transsexualism that 1-really confuses me and 2-makes me WAY-less sympathetic to the entire "transsexual movement." Has everyone here seen the ads in the backs of free weekly newspapers for prostitutes that look like women but haven't had their male genitalia removed? Frankly, I have trouble reconciling the realities of "chicks with dicks" and suicidal 12-year-olds in my mind. Sometimes these medical treatments are out-of-pocket, and I have no problem with people paying for any sort of plastic surgery that ethical physicians are willing to perform. But I also know that insurance covers many cases of gender reassignment surgery (for example, don't city workers, and their partners, have gender reassignment coverage included in their medical benefits in San Francisco?)--which means that everyone in the "insurance pool" is paying for it, at least indirectly. Keeping a distraught 12-year-old from committing suicide is one thing, but funding hormones a gal who's using her dick to attract kinky johns is another thing entirely, and giving transsexual felons special consideration and medical treatments gives me pause, as well, because it feels to me like someone's "playing the system" and "taking advantage," as contrasted with having a true "need." I know that what I've just written is not "PC," and I'll probably get verbally trashed for it...but I don't really care. I'm more-interested in getting some well-informed feedback about the realities of ALL aspects fo the "transsexual world."

But before we talk about the Inuits and the Athabaskans and all of the other indigenous tribes in the Arctic Circle, I'd like to point out that tanning beds are NOT the same thing as the ****full-spectrum**** light therapy that's commonly prescribed for Seasonal Affective Disorder. To my knowledge, the light from UV tanning beds is harmful the the eyes, and one is supposed to use eye protection while lying in them.

How else does a human being acquire enough Vitamin D to thrive, if Vit.D isn't being manufactured, with the aid of sunlight, by ones own skin? I would THINK that'd be a no-brainer: You get it through your diet. What do indigenous Alaskans eat a lot of (in some cases, it's 100% of their diets)? Fish. Seals. And the like. All of these animals' organs are eaten, including their livers...which are VERY rich in Vitamis A and D.