Originally Posted By alexbook >>I didn't think this topic would have lasted this long but it's like it's in a second trimester.<< LOL!
Originally Posted By RC Collins >>You apparently disagree that people, even those who have felt since childhood that they are "a boy born with a girl's body" (or vice versa) should change their sex in the first place.<< You know, I find this to be very interesting. No man (or boy) really knows what it feels like to be a woman, and vice-versa. There have been experiments where people who are not transgender in the clinical sense tried crossdressing undercover to see how the opposite sex is TREATED, but that is not the same thing. For a boy to claim to be a girl trapped in a boy's body because he "feels like a girl" begs the question: How do you know what being a girl feels like? Could it be that this person is just not happy or comfortable being themselves, or with their gender? If so, that does not = "I need to be a girl". I have yet to see a professional explain how this is any different from people who want healthy limbs amputated, yet the profesional consensus frowns on amputating healthy limbs and yet support amputating healthy genitals. I'm *sure* it has nothing to do with any sort of social or political agenda other than wanting to help people. Right.
Originally Posted By Mr X You continue to make this "amputation" claim, while reassignment surgery is far more complex than that. The ultimate goal is not to remove something, but to change it.
Originally Posted By RC Collins But both involve someone who feels they need that change. People who want their healthy limbs amputated feel like they shouldn't have that limb.
Originally Posted By Mr X But again, reassignment surgery actually serves a purpose. Without getting too graphic about it, it allows a person to have sex the way they wish to among other things. There is no useful reason to lose a healthy limb, none that I can think of anyway.
Originally Posted By imadisneygal It's not that they feel they need to change to the opposite gender. It's that they KNOW they ARE the opposite gender of the anatomy they were born with. They absolutely loathe the parts of their body that identify them as the sex they were born. It's not just, "Oh, I don't really feel right in my own skin...I must really be a woman." It's much different than that. It's not just about the physical characteristics, either, which is why so much psychological counseling goes into sexual reassignment and gender dysphoria/gender identity disorder.
Originally Posted By davewasbaloo Ok, but in this case, this is pretty messed up. Here is a poor person who never fully crossed over to the other side. This is where I am struggling. One or the other??? I would have thought those would be the terms, so are not the physicians partially at fault too?
Originally Posted By Dabob2 RC, Mr. X and imadisneygal answered most of your post very well, so I'll just take on this last paragraph: <I have yet to see a professional explain how this is any different from people who want healthy limbs amputated, yet the profesional consensus frowns on amputating healthy limbs and yet support amputating healthy genitals.> If you're seriously interested, you could check out <a href="http://www.wpath.org/" target="_blank">http://www.wpath.org/</a> ...where you'll see that no is given theses procedures lightly or on a whim. You might also learn why some individuals feel this is so necessary for them, if you care to. <I'm *sure* it has nothing to do with any sort of social or political agenda other than wanting to help people. Right.> Really? You think that doctors who perform sexual reassignment do it not to help people, but because they want to advance a "social or political agenda?" Wow. That's telling.
