Someone who chose to remain Anonymous wrote:

They buy into the gender constructs imposed on them, and refuse to come to grips with who they actually are. They are not people of an opposite sex trapped in an "incorrect" gender - they are people who can't accept society's assigned genders and, rather than grow a backbone and saying "fuck off - I don't fit the pre-ordained roles," opt to mutilate themselves in an attempt to pass and be accepted.

And your evidence is?

See

Zhou J.-N, Hofman M.A, Gooren L.J, Swaab D.F (1997) : A Sex Difference in the Human Brain and its Relation to Transsexuality.

See also

Kruijver F.P.M, Zhou J.-N, Pool C.W., Swaab D.F. (2000) : Male-to-Female Transsexuals Have Female Neuron Numbers in a Limbic Nucleus

http://www.harrybenjaminsyndrome-info.org/pdf/BSTc.pdf

http://www.harrybenjaminsyndrome-info.org/pdf/brainsex1.pdf

They are not people of an opposite sex trapped in an "incorrect" gender is exactly 100% wrong.

The brain is a complex organ, with many different parts. Many of these parts have morphology that follows a bimodal distribution with strong correlation with sex chromosome configuration.

OK, boys (tend to) have one type, girls another, Ok?

The part that determines whether you are a boy or a girl appears to lie in the area of the hypothalamus and limbic nuclei. If of one configuration, you're a girl, in another, a boy, but there are gradations, and some people could probably function as either.

It may be that sexual orientation is also set by brain morphology (A different part, as Gay Males have strongly male-pattern BSTc layers). I think the evidence is strong that it is, and fMRT imaging will prove this in a few years. Or show I'm full of it. Science is like that, and we must be prepared to abandon even the most cherished beliefs when the facts show we're wrong.

Everyone is entitled to their own opinions. No-one is entitled to their own facts. But the worst are those whose bigotry is so ingrained that they make unsupported and unsupportable statements contrary to the facts, and then use those as a reason for oppressing others.

Maybe I'm being too harsh. Maybe you just didn't bother following a hyperlink, it's too much trouble. Well here it is again.

http://aebrain.blogspot.com/2007/10/ts-101.html

While we're at it, and talking about "gender roles", what would you say about a woman who is in the space industry, studying engineering, doesn't wear makeup, and is in a legally perplexing marital relationship with another woman. Not exactly "Doris Day" is she?

Now see http://cs.anu.edu.au/~Zoe.Brain/

My mere existence contradicts everything you say and believe.

That happens a lot, especially to Fundies. Many can't handle a fact that completely destroys their whole, snug, comfy world-view.

Oh yes, if your cranium hasn't imploded yet, I'm also a neocon.

Correction : 1 in 100,000 men, not 1 in 10,000, is the official figure. A typo.

And a clarification: "woman" in this case means "person with female-pattern hyptholamic stuctures and limbic cortex born with a male, mostly male, or apparently male body". The dividing line gets blurred, as many who are neurologically intersexed (ie have Harry Benjamins Syndrome aka HBS aka Transsexuality) are intersexed in other ways too.

For a full explanation, medical papers, autopsy results, fMRT scan results etc etc see TS 101 at http://aebrain.blogspot.com/2007/10/ts-101.html

Some other figures:

30% of TS people who aren't treated suicide (California Survey)

90% of TS people who don't get treated die prematurely, from suicide, murder, substance abuse, being refused medical treatment, or STDs (West Australia survey)

50% of TS people under 20 self harm (vice 25% for GLB) - Scottish Office Survey of Northern Ireland, the most scientifically rigorous of any of the figures.

70% of TS people suffer "significant employment discrimination"

50% of TS people have been fired at least once for being TS

75% of TS people in California are not in full-time work

The median income for TS people is ~ $15,000. This is why so many cannot afford surgery.

In a "straw poll" at a TS support site last week, 1/3 of post-operative TS women reported they were always attracted to men. 1/3 reported being always attracted to women, and 1/3 reported sexual orientation changing from lesbian to straight. The incidence and degree of bisexuality was not recorded, but believed to be high. This is consistent with more rigorous figures gathered by Lawrence et al.

See http://aebrain.blogspot.com/2007/01/statistics-and-sex-changing.html