Letters to the Editor
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Some answers (maybe) for Napoleon Anonymous...
So far I have heard nothing that changes my opinion that hormone therapy or gender reassignment surgery are just mutilations of a body that WAS FINE TO BEGIN WITH. All I see is a problem in the mind.
There are multiple current theories about transgenderism and its origins. It is still listed in the DSM. Recent research (google it - I heard about it on the BBC - and to my knowledge it is still theoretical) indicates that pre-natal hormone levels affect brain development, producing, in essence, male or female brains where the chromosomes have produced the opposite body. Is that a mental disorder or a physical condition? Does it matter? What is a disorder and what is simply a condition, and who is to say? Definitions change over time. The problem may be in the mind (I've always hated the phrase "trapped in the wrong body") but no reputable "cure" for transgenderism has been found any more than a "cure" for homosexuality has. The only "cure," clumsy as it may seem, is to change the body. And it does work, if working is defined as giving people peace and enabling them to get on with their lives (and isn't that what pills or therapy would try to do?)
Why not ask yourselves why there's such a deep obsession with adopting the extreme form of the opposite sex in transgendered people? I was born male but I don't feel the need to appear "extreme" male as in the stereotypical wifebeaters, baseball caps, etc, that I see in the T community. Or the MTF T's who not only want to appear female but a hyper-sexualized hyper-female with extreme dresses, breasts (when you DON'T HAVE ANY!), high heels, loads of makeup. (and yes, genetic women who make their appearance hypersexualized ALSO have a mental issue!)
Well, myself and the transwomen I know dress pretty unremarkably. Jeans, tee shirts, whatever suits the occasion... It's not exactly in our interest to stand out. The one gender conference I attended back in the day did have its cadre who were dressed to the nines, but I don't think they were interested in going full-time. I don't personally know any transmen but from photos of Shannon Minter in the courtroom he seems to like his suits just fine.
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Where is the opposing piece on this topic?
Many of us have disagreed with Mr. Aravosis' piece in our responses, but I certainly would hope that Salon.com would maintain its journalistic integrity by publishing another piece that offers a differing view. By leaving it only at this piece alone, I take it to mean that Salon.com either endorses his stance or doesn't have the journalistic depth to find a piece written by someone who is a little more enlightened.
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Thank you Arcadia!
Thank you very much for your calm and very reasonable response. I very much appreciate it. This is exactly the type of response I would like to see more of.
Now, given what you say, that there is still theoretical research, is there any wonder why there is still much confusion and pushback from those of us who think that there are mental issues going on?
"Is that a mental disorder or a physical condition? Does it matter? What is a disorder and what is simply a condition, and who is to say?"
Well, I would say it certainly does matter. How would we react if Oprah said she's a white woman trapped in a black woman's body and wanted to "turn" white? We'd say she's nuts and rather than enabling her delusion, we'd maybe try to help her psychologically. THIS is basically the view most people have of transgender people. Granted this is also the view many people have of gays and lesbians (hi mom!), but like I said before, we have examples in nature and much more research to answer those people.
So this question of whether it is a psychological issue or a genetic/hormonal/congenital problem is a very big question and goes to the heart of the rights issue.
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Sex and Gender 101
From Anonymous:
BOTH deny reality. As in facts. How do you identify someone as male (or female)? Is it primary sexual characteristics? Secondary? Hormones? These things are more and more malleable based on the introduction of outside hormones that were never a part of your body. So what we have left with are genetic tests that show you are male or female. So while your face or even more increasingly your body may lie, your cells still say otherwise.
Anonymous, you are confusing “sex” with “gender.” Sex=male or female. Gender=man or woman, boy or girl. Both sex and gender are much more complicated than society--and you--simplistically present.
Sex does indeed involve chromosomes, sex organs (internal and external), hormone levels, and secondary sex characteristics—the latter are primarily a product of hormone levels. Sex also involves the brain in ways that scientists are only beginning to understand.
Possible viable chromosomal combinations for human beings number—well, I lost count at five. Moreover, from Wikipedia we have this:
For the majority of individuals, sex determination is as simple as the presence or absence of a Y chromosome. Those individuals with a Y chromosome (including XXY, XXXY, etc.) will develop into males, and those without one will become female. Some individuals, however, will undergo what is referred to as primary sex reversal, whereby the X and Y chromosomes [cross over] and exchange genetic material. This relatively rare occurrence (approximately 1 in 20000 births) can lead to males with two X chromosomes and females with a Y chromosome.
Additionally there are, as a few posters have mentioned, individuals—chimera—who have some cells with 46xx and other cells with 46xy.
That's just a glimpse at the complexity of chromosomal sex, to say nothing of possible intersexed conditions which result in combinations of internal and external sex organs and secondary sex characteristics. One in two thousand human births is intersexed.
Gender, on the other hand, involves the mind. It’s how you feel inside your head when you think about who you are. It is also a social construct. Which means that societies’ convictions regarding what is “manly” or “womanly” vary greatly from place to place and time to time. When I was growing up in the 1950’s, for example, you wouldn’t catch a manly man pushing a baby carriage down the street to save his offspring’s life. Now the manliest of men will carry their infants around in snugglies.
Now, I’m a trans-man--one of those trannies who have been somewhat below the radar throughout much of this discussion. That does NOT mean I think I’m male. I am not delusional. Despite my female body, however, I never “felt” like a girl or a woman. Ever. Honestly, when I was a little kid, I believed I was a boy without a penis. But you can bet damned well I knew better than to share that belief with anyone else. Like I said: not delusional. Being forced to assume a woman’s role in society felt like acting to me and made me inherently unhappy. It never felt natural...I lived my life on a two-second delay.
Yet society tells me I have to choose between two and only two choices: man or woman. You tell me, Anon, do you have to look between your legs to know which gender you are? If you lost your prized member in a tractor accident or at war, would you then by default be a woman? Well, it’s as much a no-brainer for me, too. You may not believe in boys without penises but I am much happier living my life as a man than I ever was trying to live it as a girl or woman.
If our society ever evolves to the point where I can live openly as a “female-bodied man,” then that’s how I’ll identify day-to-day. In the meantime, I do not intend to sacrifice my happiness so people like you can maintain their well constructed but delusional fantasies about the realities of sex and gender.
And as for ENDA, I've followed the 30-year battle that has brought us to this dubious culmination, and there has been a fight over whether or not to include trannies from the beginning. If at this late date trannies are sacrificed to political expediency, I believe bitterness and divisions will rend the LGBT movement and potentially set us back decades.
What's the matter with America that it can't even achieve the level of legislative protection that Catholic Ireland has achieved?