i just read the most infuriating article written by an alleged ‘gay-friendly’ person!
find it here;
perusing the multitude of comments gives some of the feelings others had upon reading this tripe, which differed vastly from my own. for me, a personal email to the author was necessary to adequately respond.
it read:
you are either very ignorant or incredibly cruel.
trivializing what is a most serious condition and attacking those who
seek to advocate for transgender children is idiotic.
obviously you have zero direct experience with these children
whose condition you equate with fantasizing about being a cat or a train.
I feel sorry for anyone who takes you serious as a doctor, educator or even
a human…
get some compassion, follow up on the hard research in the field, step outside your obvious absolutist agenda.
the point of view of those whose heads are firmly up their asses is bound to be full of shit, so I suggest you pull out before you suffocate. and by the way, fuck you for making the world an uglier place for those who might meet anyone who takes you seriously!
feel free to contact me …. I will gladly tell you in greater detail how and why you are utterly oblivious
moon
it isn’t that i don’t get the point of how a gender paradigm that is strictly binary is a bad thing. or that it should be perfectly fine for a boy to wear a dress and play with dolls.
but as evidenced by the story with which this woman prefaces her article, she really doesn’t have the slightest clue when it comes to the trans-gender child.
gender identity is nothing like make-believe, no matter how pervasive, that one is a cat or a train. in zeeona’s case it mattered not in the slightest that she, tho born in a male body, could wear dresses or play with dolls. to preface one’s remarks with such an analogy only evidences the fact of the author’s ignorance and prejudice.
while claiming to completely support ‘adult’ transgender people’s rights and identities, she would deny children being taken seriously about something as crucial as their very being! as tho they aren’t quite clear on the concept of who they are.
i have more than a handful of transgender/transsexual friends, and to the last one they all have expressed to me how much they wished they had been allowed to be who they are long before they reached the magickal ‘adulthood’ wherein the author of the article in question would take them seriously enough to grant them the boon of self-definition and self-determination.
how dare she!
my beautiful daughter might have committed suicide, long before attaining that age at which she might have that woman’s blessing! many, far too many, have done just that.
then there’s the fact that for transgender women, many of the ‘changes’ that testosterone brings on are very hard to reverse. the voice must be trained, the bones and body size can’t be undone. no matter how much of surgery these ‘late-bloomers’ can afford to get there is no doubt, in anyone’s mind, that had they been allowed to transition before going through puberty as a male, the results would be far superior.
to advocate for our children is only logical for parents who have seen the pain that being out of sync with their natal gender has caused these ‘less than adults’. to imply that we have merely ‘seized upon’ a fleeting fantasy that our children might outgrow did we not take them so seriously, is down-right dirty pool!
the most cutting edge research into transgender physiology suggests that this is not just some mental ideation or desire dreamed up because the societally imposed gender roles cause discomfort, but rather there are actual and measurable differences in the bodies, and brain structures (not just the minds) of transgender people. so why then should children be ignored and denied the proper medical treatment. would we deny them insulin, because it is potentially dangerous, if they were diabetic?
it seems to me a fair question.
just as surely as diabetics need their insulin to be healthy, or even just to stay alive, in the case of our transgender children a proven protocol exists to spare them suffering and even pre-mature death. (through suicide or self-destructive behaviours)
i am so infinitely grateful to those pioneers who have taken the needs of our transgender children seriously. who have done research to unravel the mystery of gender identity and i’m especially indebted to those transgender adults who have stood up to advocate for children like zeeona, writing books, sharing their wisdoms and clearing a path to the future for transgender people, of any age!
of course, it goes without saying that i will be an advocate for my transgender child, whose truth i needed three years to clearly hear, mainly because of the same sort of balderdash and ignorant crapola put forth by the author of this horrendous article.
and altho i don’t make a habit of raking people over the coals for their views, i meant every word of my harsh email to this woman, who i feel quite certain doesn’t give a shit. but i especially meant the part where i said that she is making the world an uglier place.