-
Sign2kewl@aol.com 12/05/2011 3:37:00 AM
Why did grandma give you a dress? because girls wear dresses.
-
margaret 07/28/2011 8:09:00 PM
there is no such thing as being transgendered. it is a mental illness. accept the body and mind you were born with, and maybe you can be happy.
-
margaret 07/28/2011 8:06:00 PM
"Katie" (or Keith, as the case may be). You are not a "transsexual woman"; you are a biological man.
No one is "forcing" their child to go through puberty. puberty is a natural process and if that is the body they are born in, c'est la vie.
they are not of the "wrong sex". THAT IS THE BODY THEY ARE BORN IN.
-
TRANSYOUTH 02/09/2011 6:05:00 PM
new youth transgender channel
http://www.youtube.com/user/TransYouthChannel?feature=mhum
-
Springbyker 12/03/2010 12:13:00 AM
Good article for the most part, but John Money should not be cited as some authority. He was a sicko who sexually abused the boy mentioned here and his twin brother, in the guise of "examining" them. Both of those young men later committed suicide, and their blood is on Money's head.
-
Zoe Brain 03/06/2009 5:23:00 AM
One area I do agree with commenter Cam on, with qualifications:
::I believe it is ridiculous to expose any child under the age of 18 to hormones to change the body that they were born with::
I agree, if there is any sign that body and brain do not match. When there is no such sign, we should let nature take its course, and allow the natural hormone exposure during puberty to proceed, to change the body they were born with, and masculinise or feminise it as the case may be.
I see no difference between an inappropriate "natural" exposure and an inappropriate "therapeutic" exposure. Hence the use of puberty-blockers, to *prevent* exposure to inappropriate hormones, until the child has reached an age where they can give fully informed consent.
The problem is, that once exposed, some changes can't be undone. To force a girl to masculinise because her body is anomalous is unbearably cruel. The results of corrective hormonal therapy later will never be able to undo all the damage. The earlier the intervention, the less need there will be later for cosmetic surgery, electrolysis and the like to look normal.
-
Zoe Brain 03/06/2009 5:02:00 AM
I have to disagree strongly with the comment by Cam, on several grounds.
First, as to "lifestyle choice". What about the sighted "lifestyle choice", where people get cataract surgery to correct congenital blindness? Or the hearing "lifestyle choice" with cochleal implants (never as good as the real thing, quite artificial) to correct congenital deafness?
I'll mention a seminar coming up in the next American Psychiatric Association conference in May:
S10. The Neurobiological Evidence for Transgenderism
1. Brain Gender Identity - Sidney W. Ecker, M.D.
2. Transsexuality as an Intersex Condition - Milton Diamond, Ph.D.
3. Novel Approaches to Endocrine Treatment of Transgender Adolescents and Adults - Norman Spack, M.D.
And the Full Bench of the Australian Family Court in 2003, after examining the scientific evidence:
"At paragraph [252]: �The traditional analysis that they are "psychologically" transsexual does not explain how this state came about. For example, there seems to be no suggestion in the evidence that their psychological state can be explained by reference to circumstances of their upbringing. In that sense, the brain sex theory does not seem to be competing with other explanations, but rather is providing a possible explanation of what is otherwise inexplicable�.
At paragraph [270]: �But I am satisfied that the evidence now is inconsistent with the distinction formerly drawn between biological factors, meaning genitals, chromosomes and gonads, and merely "psychological factors", and on this basis distinguishing between cases of inter-sex (incongruities among biological factors) and transsexualism (incongruities between biology and psychology)�.
At paragraph [272]: �In my view the evidence demonstrates (at least on the balance of probabilities) that the characteristics of transsexuals are as much �biological� as those of people thought of as inter-sex�.
Dr Ecker's bibliography of experimentation and papers supporting biological causation is 8 pages long, over 300 articles in peer-reviewed medical and scientific journals. Contrast that with Dr McHugh's single article in a religious magazine. He has to be endlessly quoted though, as there's almost no-one else who holds his views any more.
OK, so it's caused by cross-gendered neurology. Brain and body don't match. How do we diagnose it though, when so many children engage in cross-gendered play when young, without becoming transsexual?
The facts are, that 1 in 3 of such children (those who fit all the criteria in the DSM for GID) will become TS, the rest (with only a handful of exceptions), Gay. Dr Zucker's "reparative therapy" which involves coercion to "fix" this has reportedly taken the 1 in 3 down to 1 in 4, maybe, but he's had no luck "preventing the Gay" and now doesn't even try to. Coercing girls with masculinised bodies into living the life of a gay man is seen as preferrable to her getting her body corrected, because of the persecution such women experience.
By age 10, it's obvious which children are TS, and which are Gay. But still, we must make absolutely sure, as the consequences of misdiagnosis are so grave.
So instead of "hormones", we put them on "puberty blockers". Give some breathing time, to make doubly and triply sure. Only when the child is adolescent, and in some states, capable of consenting to marry, are hormones to masculinise or feminise authorised, with surgery forbidden before age 18.
This system works. I've seen the results. Fertility is compromised, and counselling on options there should be given. Babies may not seem important when you're a 16 year old girl, but they could be later in life. Even if it means being a biological father using stored genetic material instead of bearing children.
I'm Intersexed, by the way. Diagnosed in 1985 as a mildly intersexed man, and due to bodily changes later, re-diagnosed in 2005 after MRIs, ultrasounds, gene tests etc as a severely intersexed woman. I pretended to be male for 47 years, because that's what society expected. When the bodily changes happened, a ridiculously late partial puberty, it was an immense relief to drop the act. But I don't mind being labelled TS, as whether the external change is entirely artificial, or natural, seems to me to be unimportant. My condition is rare, over 99% of such natural changes are from a female appearance at birth to a male one later. Such things happen, things are not as clear-cut as most people believe.
-
Cam 03/05/2009 9:17:00 PM
Allowing (not forcing) a boy who is a biological female to go through puberty naturally? I agree, nature is cruel. The moment when Steven reveals to his girlfriend that he is a biological female with every semblance of a man, and takes a high maintenance dose of testosterone to keep that semblance? Immensely, hugely, toweringly more cruel, to her and anyone else who is decieved or misled in cases like this. The misfortune of one individual should not be extroverted toward those who surround them.
-
Katie 03/05/2009 6:42:00 AM
Forcing a transsexual person who wants to transition to wait through puberty - forcing them to become a person of the wrong sex - is nothing but cruelty, and adds expense and pain to the transition process as an adult.
As a transsexual woman, I fully support the right of any child who wants to transition to do so.
-
Cam 03/05/2009 4:03:00 AM
Apologies to those who are transgendered, and allow me to preface this with the fact that I respect your lifestyle decisions. I believe it is ridiculous to expose any child under the age of 18 to hormones to change the body that they were born with. Parents consenting to treatment like this are another symptom of over-indulgence in parenting, along with the narrow thinking that states certain personality traits and behaviors must always be associated with certain genitalia, and there is a disconnect, even to the extent of self-harm if this is not so.
Why is it that any other child who hates the body they were born with and endures ridicule because of it is encouraged to learn to love themselves, and children like this slip through some emotional loophole that places them under the needle in an attempt to ignore the realities of their bodies? Hormone treatment should have taken place after age 18 in Steven and cases like him, when he was an adult and in a position to make that decision, and any suicide attempts or self harm that he might have engaged in as a result of puberty chalked up to the realities of adolescence. Barring this, cosmetic surgery and chemical treatments all around for children who are in denial about their bodies, whether it be race, height, bone structure, muscle mass, et cetera.
-
Melissa 03/05/2009 3:51:00 AM
Commenter #1
The reason you find the Steven story hard to believe despite having worked with transgender youth is that is that the transgender youth of the queer community and people like Steven are people of an entirely different sexual nature that are conflated as one by gay media watchdog groups such as GLAAD.
People like Steven are psychosexual inverts. When they are sexually aroused, they see themselves sexually behaving as a heterosexual of the gender they identify with exclusively. Such people will always be at least technically virgins until surgery is performed due to this brain to genital disjunction.
Psychosexual invert transsexuals also sociosexually peer relate on an emotional and social level to other heterosexuals of the gender they identify with exclusively.
These people rarely associate with LGBT people to a greater extent than most other heterosexuals. These people are usually short term transients passing through the queer community at best when they first transition if they are ever part of the LGBT community which they usually never are.
This is different from the queer community transgenders that identify as the oxymoronic non-op transsexual. These people are either psychosexual males that live simultaneously as women and sexually active males or dual identify with men and lesbians and sociosexually peer relate on an emotional and often social level with butch lesbians rather than heterosexual men. Some of these people end up getting genital surgery anyway yet still work mentally the way they always have.
-
MelissaG 03/05/2009 3:46:00 AM
Commenter #1
The reason you find the Steven story hard to believe despite having worked with transgender youth is that is that the transgender youth of the queer community and people like Steven are people of an entirely different sexual nature that are conflated as one by gay media watchdog groups such as GLAAD.
People like Steven are psychosexual inverts. When they are sexually aroused, they see themselves sexually behaving as a heterosexual of the gender they identify with exclusively. Such people will always be at least technically virgins until surgery is performed due to this brain to genital disjunction.
Psychosexual invert transsexuals also sociosexually peer relate on an emotional and social level to other heterosexuals of the gender they identify with exclusively.
These people rarely associate with LGBT people to a greater extent than most other heterosexuals. These people are usually short term transients passing through the queer community at best when they first transition if they are ever part of the LGBT community which they usually never are.
This is different from the queer community transgenders that identify as the oxymoronic non-op transsexual. These people are either psychosexual males that live simultaneously as women and sexually active males or dual identify with men and lesbians and sociosexually peer relate on an emotional and often social level with butch lesbians rather than heterosexual men. Some of these people end up getting genital surgery anyway yet still work mentally the way they always have.
-
MelissaG 03/05/2009 3:44:00 AM
Commenter #1
The reason you find the Steven story hard to believe despite having worked with transgender youth is that is that the transgender youth of the queer community and people like Steven are people of an entirely different sexual nature that are conflated as one by gay media watchdog groups such as GLAAD.
People like Steven are psychosexual inverts. When they are sexually aroused, they see themselves sexually behaving as a heterosexual of the gender they identify with exclusively. Such people will always be at least technically virgins until surgery is performed due to this brain to genital disjunction.
Psychosexual invert transsexuals also sociosexually peer relate on an emotional and social level to other heterosexuals of the gender they identify with exclusively.
These people rarely associate with LGBT people to a greater extent than most other heterosexuals. These people are usually short term transients passing through the queer community at best when they first transition if they are ever part of the LGBT community which they usually never are.
This is different from the queer community transgenders that identify as the oxymoronic non-op transsexual. These people are either psychosexual males that live simultaneously as women and sexually active males or dual identify with men and lesbians and sociosexually peer relate on an emotional and often social level with butch lesbians rather than heterosexual men. Some of these people end up getting genital surgery anyway yet still work mentally the way they always have.
-
TimD 03/04/2009 11:49:00 PM
I'm 55 and have been transgendered all of my life, but did not have the knowledge or access to information people have now. I can't express the mental anguish I have been through -- I can just say you KNOW you are transgender when you are born. I think early age change is the right direction, otherwise you miss out on Everything by growing up, and also living, the wrong gender. Like many other transgendered people, I can't explain it -- it is just something you know. I grew up in a very very small religious mountain town in the south, yet I always knew, certainly with no influences.
-
xrk9854 03/04/2009 10:26:00 PM
The article was good, but seemed a little disjointed considering the title. The author could have brought up the fact that the Dutch gender program for kids, the oldest in the world, has NEVER had a child/adult change their mind. A young child may do so, but by age 12-13 these kids KNOW who they are. One of my online friends is a woman who was able to start transition when she was 13! She was very lucky to have supportive parents back in the early 90's.
One thing that detracted from the article was Dr Paul McHugh. Why do people use this man as a source? He is NOT a gender expert. He is a conservative Catholic pushing a dogmatic, religious agenda. The man doesn't even know that chromosomes don't determine gender. XX=female and XY=male about 98% of the time, but what about those other 2%? The people born intersex or transsexual? What about the millions of women born with AIS (androgen insensitivity syndrome)? They have XY chromosomes and they are definitely FEMALE. There are also some men who are XX; it's true! And there are dozens of other intersex conditions. But Dr McHugh doesn't want you to know that. It would undermine his credibility with you.
Gender identity is inborn and unchangeable. And Dr McHugh should know this because he witnessed Dr Money's flawed theories (that we are born as blank slates) destroyed while he was at John Hopkins. But he doesn't want you to know that either. There is much more to sex and gender than you know. A brief summary of transsexualism and how it happens can be found here:
http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/TS/TS.html#anchor107763
Nobody chooses to be transgender or transsexual, they are BORN that way.
-
Randall 03/04/2009 9:35:00 PM
I too am transgendered and have worked with transgendered youth, but I am simply not buying the Sarah/Steven story. I'm beginging to think that a good deal of what the City Pages prints lately is fiction. Either your writers are making it up or they are suckers for the tall tales of others.
