QUOTE(NDPA @ Aug 17 2006, 04:42 AM)
Although recent DNA research has shown that everybody appears to start as a female and then develop the male... characteristics...
True, true. I remember my psych teacher once told us about this woman who's been having problems or pains during sexual intercourse with her husband. They went to a doctor and, to cut the long story short, he found out "she" had XY chromosomes. It appeared "her" body was extremely and severely underdeveloped so, while being far from male, she's also not quite female. Our teacher ranted on about the doctor's dilemma: keep quiet about it or say, "Hey, guess what, you're a guy!"
Anyway, I digress but that... err, man, has lived his entire life thinking he was a woman. I was just wondering... is that considered being transgendered?
QUOTE(JasperIk @ Mar 5 2007, 07:19 AM)
They will be unhappy and could end up killing themselves if they don't go through with becoming the real gender they are meant to be, so when people say why don't you just stay the gender you were born as, it's not very intelligent because it wont change them from being transgendered. It will just make them very unhappy.
Indeed. Sometimes, I wonder why people bother with labels like "gay", "bi", "transsexual" or "transgendered." While it
may be a mental disorder, note that not all mental disorders can or should be "corrected". After all, ain't it rude to say, "Oh, he's autistic, there's something definitely wrong with him." More than "correction", what everyone needs is understanding.
I think I remember my professor defining mental disorder, according to some thick book that served as
the standard for psychiatrists, psychologists and psychoanalysts worldwide, to be a condition borne of the workings of the mind that causes distress to one's self and to others. It also disrupts a person's day-to-day life.
From what I see, a transgendered kid does not cause distress to itself or to its supportive parents. Now, I know a lot of people are gonna find problems with that poor child, claiming he has "mental disorder", is "not normal" and wearing the "wrong" clothes. Others may claim that the kid might need "correction", "rehabilitation" or a "cure", otherwise he/she
will have nothing in store for him/her but doomsday, fire and brimstone.
It appears, though, that what the world needs is not a "cure" but a dose of tolerance. And to those who love sticking their noses into other people's gender and even sexual orientation (yes, cangor, I
definitely may or may not mean you!), perhaps a wiser choice would be to stick their noses elsewhere.
QUOTE(vbritton @ Mar 5 2007, 07:50 AM)
In the first case, the individual worked for a government entity, who had to foot the bill for the horrendously expensive "procedure" of having his sex changed from male to female. This alone was enough to cause some degree of protest from other employees. Especially those who couldn't get said entity to even pay for necessary medical procedures that they needed. Sadly, he/she committed suicide within months of the operation.
In the second case, the individual also chose to have a sex change from male to female. After a few years he/she went on a mad, drug-induced rampage of depositing his own excrement at neighbor's driveways and doorsteps, and it wasn't long after this that he finally took his own life.
Ahh, the controversial gender re-assignment operation. Allow me to share what a fellow homosexual had to say about that:
"Of course he'd feel depressed! He just had his thing cut off, now where is he gonna find pleasure? He's gonna be in heat for the rest of his life but never find release, poor guy!"
While I do not agree that it is all about sex, the more I think about it, the more it does make sense. Poor guy!
QUOTE(vbritton @ Mar 5 2007, 07:50 AM)
The axiom, "Leave well enough alone," takes on new meaning in these cases.
Hmmn... I know you meant, "Leave well enough alone (stop fiddling with your gender!)" but it could also mean, "Leave well enough alone (stop fiddling with
our gender!)" Just a side note, though
No, I'm just gay. I'm not transgendered; I'm still a guy (a gentleman, some girlfriends say) who politely yields his bus seat to women
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I agree with you completely... it is most certainly a mental disorder, and I might even go so far as to say that being homosexual is a mental disorder... just because it happens doesn't mean it's right... I really don't want this to escalate further into "is it ok to be gay/gay marriage" debate, but I just have to say I agree with you on what you say... as for what to do about it... well, I'd just like to say if I had this problem I would learn to accept the body i'm in... though it may not be as easy as I make it sound, since I don't REALLY understand what it would be like...