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is dedicated to the acceptance, medical
treatment, and legal
protection of individuals correcting the misalignment
of their brains and their anatomical sex, while supporting their transition
into society as hormonally reconstituted and surgically corrected citizens.
| Sex, Gender, and Bathrooms: A Discussion of Transgender (Part 4) |
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| Opinion - Global Warning | |||
| Lisa Jain Thompson | |||
| Saturday, 26 January 2008 20:00 | |||
Springfield, VA, USA. Political correctness normally prevents liberal modern society from subjecting certain subjects to scientific scrutiny, e.g., race, religion, intelligence, and, most recently, transgenderism. I have never been bound by political correctness (you can ask the third grade nun who taught me) or reluctant to poke into subjects that might give rise to great moral indignation by the offended cultural guardians.
This is my fourth column that discusses the transgender and it takes a deeper look at the root causes of transgenderism. As Anton Chekhov wrote, Man will become better when you show him what he is like.
Before we begin, some definitions:
Harry Benjamin Syndrome (HBS fna transsexuality) is a medical condition that originates during fetal development inside the womb. HBS is not, intrinsically, trans-sex, trans-gender, or even trans-active. HBS, in and of itself, is not queer. Named after Doctor Harry Benjamin, a pioneer in treating the birth condition, HBS men and women began to apply the term to themselves in the early 2000's to deconflate true HBS from the appropriation of the term transsexual by male transgenders.
Transgender. Virginia Prince, a male crossdresser and a staunch promoter of heterosexual transvestism since the late 1950s, invented the term "transgender" in the 1990s to distinguish himself and other male crossdressers from men and women born with HBS. The term has since been expanded to as a popular means of uniting all those whose gender identity did not mesh with their gender assigned at birth, taking on a political dimension as an alliance covering all who have at some point not conformed to gender norms.
Transexuality. Former name for HBS, now appropriated by the transgender movement for its own political purposes. As currently used by the transgender community and their spokesmen, transsexual applies to issues of gender identity unrelated to any medical condition at birth. As such, the term no longer has application or relevance to men and women born with HBS.
The righteous glow of transgenderism and its unending drive to recruit others to the movement obscures its root causes and behaviors, perhaps intentionally. The need to believe in their own innate moral goodness motivates them to insist that we all must be transgendered (HBS, lesbians, gays, cross-dressers, drag kings and queens, anyone who dares dress or act out on the fringes of social norms) so that transgenders may feel validated in their own worth as human beings.
If transgenderism is universal, there is no reason for the various elements of the transgendered community to examine their own motivations and emotions. If they can convince everyone that transgenderism is universal, they won't have to worry about what society thinks, their families believe, or what religion might say about them.
And most importantly, they will no longer have to worry about passing. [cf. Note]
How the transgendered plan to escape the pressure from peers and society to conform to the current mores is never addressed. Perhaps the human animal will undergo some miraculous change to our nature. Laws do not alter human nature. Legal mandates do not suddenly mutate society into something other than it is: only the passage of time can bring a sea change. There is no magic wand.
The question goes unasked, however, as to why people want to dress and act in the manner of the opposite sex (male as female, female as male), adopting the societal expectations of gender — the desire of the transgendered — but not be that sex (realign the genitals to conform to the
 brain's birth sex — the HBS condition). Succinctly, Why does someone only wish to change their gender
— the clothes, the social role and expectation
but not their sex
— bring their genitals into conformance with their true sex identity?
Numerous reasons for transgendered have been suggested:
Perhaps the differences between HBS men and women and the transgendered are rooted in the design of the human brain. The scientific method has discovered that some parts of the human experience are products of our biological makeup. The difference between shocking pink and dark blue, the sourness of lemons and the sweetness of a chocolate cake, the smell of death and dead bodies, the cuteness of babies, the pleasure of sex — these are intrinsic to the design of our common
nervous system. But we will never know unless we are willing to examine and discuss the sources of our actions. Is transgenderism rooted in physical causes or is it driven by psychological needs? Why do more males claim to be transgendered than do females? If we agree there is nothing morally wrong with cross-dressing (and most of us really do not care one way or the other), why are so many transgenders closeted and fearful of the opinion of others? Why are so many transgenders obsessed with passing?
There will never be answers if the questions are continued to be met with righteous anger and indignation rather than scientific research and open discussion. Transgenderism is not a moral crusade — it is a variant of human experience that requires systematic examination if we are to understand it. Making the subject of transgenderism off limits by imposing political cultural taboos on any public discussion helps no one.
Note. Passing refers to a person's ability to be accepted or regarded as a member of the sex or gender with which they physically present. Typically, passing involves a mixture of physical gender cues (e.g. hair style or clothing) as well as certain behavioral attributes that tend to be culturally associated with a particular gender. Irrespective of a person's presentation, many experienced crossdressers assert that confidence is far more important for passing than the physical aspects of appearance.
 Ms. Lisa Jain Thompson is a Co-Founder & Principal of TS-Si. She also serves as a Contributing Editor and columnist for the TS-Si website. She maintains another site, StarPoet.com, for her poetry and literary works.Ms. Thompson's signed articles contain her own opinions and do not necessarily convey an official position of TS-Si, its partners, or affiliates. Lisa welcomes your comments. Use the form below or email via her TS-Si Contact Page. We will not divulge any personal details or place you on a mailing list without your permission.
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