Kathy Shaidle says it so succinctly: Transexuality is a disease to be treated, not a lifestyle to be celebrated. This blogppost was prompted by the suicide of a LA sports writer who was in the process of changing his gender to become a woman.
When a man feels that theres's a woman trapped in his body (or a woman feels that she's really a man), I don't doubt those feelings exist and there's something serious going on. But I can't believe that major surgery (cutting off breasts and penises, etc.) and a lifetime of taking hormones is any sort of answer. That we even do this to children is an abomination.
As Shaidle writes:
"We don't treat alcoholism and drug addiction by encouraging drunks and junkies to use more, let alone force everyone in their work environment to 'adjust' to their 'born that way' 'lifestyle' -- or get fired for raising objections."
"Transexuals are the only amputation fetishists whose sickness we enable. ... One hundred years from now, heads will shake in wonder at how cruel we were. "
Sooner than that, I bet.
Lets support stigma with temperance. Stigma should absolutely not be used against AIDS victims (and Pope Benedict would agree). The disease is the enemy, not the people. Nor should it be used against pregnant teenage girls, lest it cause them to feel compelled to have an abortion to hide the "shame" (something else father Benedict would also dislike), though it should certainly not be glorified the way it is either. And if abortion were illegal they would feel compelled to take an "abortion vacation," commit suicide, or feel extreme undue stress and abandonment that neither mothers nor children should feel (in this case the young woman is both). And lets not forget to shame the boys if we do. In this case, stigma is bad and it should only be given in very small doses to both parties. More positive encouragement to do the right things should be given. The Catholic church is not a fire and brimstone church and even most conservative Catholics like it that way.
Stigma against marriage to a Muslim or doing business wit brutal China should certainly be present in its fullest form. Of course girls who marry Muslim boys should also be embraced by their communities if they are willing to try to convince him to accept Christ, abandon the pedophile Muhammad, or at least secretly Baptise the children and refuse to be converted to Islam.
And taking food stamps for people who don't really need them should also be discouraged. But truly disabled people should only be given positive encouragement and mild prodding to do as much work as they are capable of doing.
Posted by: Rajeev Kumar | December 13, 2009 at 01:54 PM
At the same time, moral relativism and laxity is destroying us and this, not the people who are afflicted with such problems should be the real enemy. Europe has gone too far in removing stigma, while we have the right balance but need to go a bit further in positive reinforcement of responsibility without glorifying the misactions of those have none.
Posted by: Rajeev Kumar | December 13, 2009 at 02:02 PM
"Miss Kelly", this is ridiculous, it has nothing to do about a celebration of amputation it has to do with leading society to an acceptance of people who do not feel that they are the gender they should be. If one wants to go through surgery to become another gender they should be allowed to. And, no, it is not any kind of an abomination to do it to children; you say that if it goes untreated that people will commit suicide, well look at how many people commit suicide when disallowed to change genders. This is not something that people need medicine for or therapy to help them get through some stage in their life, it is solely about what one's true gender is and how one wants to express that gender.
Posted by: Anonymous | February 11, 2010 at 10:23 PM
Sorry, Anonymous, there's something profoundly unnatural with surgically changing one's sex and signing up for a lifetime of hormonal treatment. It's certainly looks like a form of self-mutilation to me. My heart goes out to someone who thinks that he or she is trapped in the wrong body. But the way our society is dealing with it now (surgery, drugs, hormones) seems very sad and weird. Quite a few men who've had their family jewels cut off (irreversible, it goes without saying) have regretted doing so and counsel others not to undergo this radical surgery.
http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/TS/Warning.html
There's got to be a better way to accept who you are and what organs you were born with.
Posted by: Kelly | February 16, 2010 at 08:01 PM