Disqus - Friends of peterblaise

Re: Nashuatelegraph.com: Series sheds light on hidden population

Zoe_Brain — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 08:18:28 -0000

Congrats on doing what needs doing - providing information. Those of us advocating human rights for Transsexual and Intersexed people don't want to change society. It doesn't need changing. But it does need educating, if only to dispel so many misconceptions and assumptions recent scientific work has disproved.

Re: Nashuatelegraph.com: Taking a look at the transgender community in N.H.

Zoe_Brain — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 09:42:11 -0000

Just a few additions - there are no peer-reviewed studies showing consistent "traumatic experience" pre-dating symptoms of transsexuality, though traumatic experiences are almost universal after symptoms appear between ages 2-10.

To quote the Full Bench of the Australian Family Court in its review of the scientific evidence : "‘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’." - [2004] DeakinLawReview 22

Likewise, there are no peer-reviewed studies showing that "reperative therapy" is any more effective as a long-term cure than it is for diabetes or congenital blindness, though many believe that it simply has to be, despite the consistent failures.

A number of autopsies, and lately, dynamic MRI scans, have shown Transsexual women have partly female neurology, despite a male eternal appearance. Which accounts for the lack of success of "reperative therapy". Transsexual men exist too, but for cultural reasons, they don't attract as much attention and have been studied less.

"Transgender" also includes the multitude of Intersex conditions, where someone's body is neither 100% male nor 100% female. This includes the rare conditions of apparent natural transition from one sex to another, usually from the 5ARD or 17BHDD mutations. Most keep their condition secret - it's safer. But I live in Australia, and that's far enough away from New Hampshire to protect me from those who would prefer people like me didn't exist.

Re: Nashuatelegraph.com: Taking a look at the transgender community in N.H.

Zoe_Brain — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 06:25:23 -0000

And it's because of posts like Lilymantha's that there's so many misconceptions and ignorance.

Oh well, time to tilt at windmills again, because many, quite understandably, have had no knowledge of either bisexuality or intersex.

Bisexuality means sexually attracted to both men and women. Intersex is a congenital medical condition, like hare lip. The evidence is that Transsexuality is a form of Intersex.

Bisexuality and Intersex are as similar as fish and bicycles.

Re: Nashuatelegraph.com: Taking a look at the transgender community in N.H.

Zoe_Brain — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 07:36:53 -0000

Susan, neither the majority of Transsexual nor Intersexed people are thrilled about being included in the "Transgender" category.

But we have no say in it, do we? We also get included in some GLBT - Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual/Transgender conglomerate, whether we like it or not.

I must disagree with you in one minor respect - while episodic Transvestite Fetishism is just another part of the weird world of male sexuality I will *never* understand (like the male fascination for suspender belts and garters) , Non-episodic Crossdressing may be either psychological or biological in nature, and may indicate "sub clinical" transsexuality, an ambiguous gender identity, or psychological denial of transsexuality. We really can't say at this stage. It's not something I ever did before transition, but 4 out of 5 TS women do.

Re: Nashuatelegraph.com: Taking a look at the transgender community in N.H.

Zoe_Brain — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 21:10:51 -0000

One must be careful - in my opinion anyway - not to exclude many who don't have "the op" from being recognised as TS. Some can't afford it, it can cost $100,000 if you include hair removal, facial surgery etc. - though many can get away with half that. It's still beyond the reach of some who most need it.

Some are excluded due to heart disease or diabetes, no matter how much they want it. No surgeon will touch them.

Some don't like the risks, no surgery is risk-free. One in 3 have complications (I did) , and one in 5 have "poor results". They look at the costs and the benefits, and decide they can live with their deformity, especially if they're celibate.

And some have such a strong maternal instinct that having children any way they can is more important to them than a normal life. More important than life itself.

Had my Intersex condition not sterilised me in the first few weeks, before anyone knew what was happening, I would have been one of the last category. But once my infertile condition became total sterility, wild horses couldn't have stopped me.

But I think we should keep it simple at this stage. Most readers of these series of articles already have a lot to cope with, much of which will go against long-held beliefs.

Maybe it would be easier if they just went to http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/pe...

And saw that we're just ordinary people who've had an extraordinary medical condition.

Re: Nashuatelegraph.com: Theories, controversy surround community

Zoe_Brain — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 14:00:21 -0000

I'm sorry that some were so upset by what they read that they refused to read it. One commenter called it "amoral disgusting trash" without saying what made it so.

I can understand "disgusting", many people get upset at the idea that gender can be less than clear for some. The people who are often most upset are the transsexual and the intersexed, they really would prefer to have been born with bodies that unambiguously matched their minds. But they weren't, so they have to live with that as best they can.

Amoral? In what way? We have people who are suffering terribly because of a biological (not psychological) condition, yet should they attempt to get treatment, many will shun them. How can an article merely exposing their view be "Amoral"? As for "trash", I thought the series well-written, but that's subjective.

I'm sorry that so many prefer ignorance just so they don't feel uncomfortable.

Re: Washington could use a little sunshine, too

Zoe_Brain — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 20:24:26 -0000

Having read the stories of Transgendered people, having seen the Science and Medical facts behind the condition, perhaps it's worth seeing the depths of hatred, distortion, and downright lying many of those who oppose their very existence stoop to. It's not pretty, but it shows what is happening in the USA today:

I quote from just the first page of a 125 page "report" by MassResistance, a Mass. hate group:

"The Coming Nightmare of a “Transsexual Rights
and Hate Crimes" Law in Massachusetts:

...transgender/transsexual” activists... want to offer your children on the bloody altar of transsexuality -- pulling them into sex-change operations involving unimaginable bodily mutilations and hormonal manipulations.
...
The culture of death has created a compulsion in the souls of the homosexual radicals and their "trans" allies, driving them ever further into new perversions. There is no bottom to this pit of depravity, and they will drag many innocent victims along with them: the young, the lonely, the psychologically and physically wounded, the confused – including some of your children and grandchildren, family, friends and neighbors. There will be no safe haven. You cannot cocoon in your homes or churches. Our public schools, businesses, public accommodations (which may include churches), your employers and insurers, will all be forced to yield to yet-undefined perversions, protected by law."

Of the 8 GLBT people lynched or otherwise murdered for being who they are in just the first two months of this year in the USA, the majority were transgender. And 2 were children.

Re: More lawsuits against Starbucks and tips

Zoe_Brain — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 08:29:46 -0000

Given that the shift supervisors are just barristas who get an extra buck an hour for supervising the other barristas, I think you will see mass resignations.

From Overlawyered

I am a Barista at Starbucks. The comment about the judge is interesting. I wonder if she (as managemnt in the courts system) would clean the the toilets and mop the floors as the "shift superviosrs" at Starbucks that she just dumped on do?

Given that the average tip rate is $1.71 an hour, this would mean that "shift supervisors" would get less than those with fewer responsibilities. And as for late hours, when the "shift supervisor" is the only barrista on duty, they'll have to prohibit tipping altogether.

Re: Sleep-deprived. That's the latest excuse for the Bosnia lies.

Zoe_Brain — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 08:35:55 -0000

It's just Swiftboating. Sure, there's videos of her, but Kerry's tale involved actual geographic dislocation of countries. Just use the same tactics now as then, and by the time of the election, it's the military and other eyewitnesses who will be regarded as the liars.

Re: Legislation filed to block payment for prisoner's sex-change operation

Zoe_Brain — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 23:18:15 -0000

I congratulate Senator Tarr and Sherrif Cousins for their courageous and principled stand, sticking to their guns despite all the medical and scientific evidence, and the greatly increased costs to Massachusetts taxpayers of this bill.

From the World Professional Association for Transgender Health:
"Sex Reassignment is Effective and Medically Indicated in Severe GID. In persons diagnosed with transsexualism or profound GID, sex reassignment surgery, along with hormone therapy and real life experience, is a treatment that has proven to be effective. Such a therapeutic regimen, when prescribed or recommended by qualified practitioners, is medically indicated and medically necessary. Sex reassignment is not "experimental," "investigational," "elective," "cosmetic," or optional in any meaningful sense. It constitutes very effective and appropriate treatment for transsexualism or profound GID."

From the only other state to have this kind of legislation, Wisconsin, which has now spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal costs as the result:

"Earlier, Kevin Kallas, a psychiatrist and mental health director for Wisconsin's prisons, testified he opposed the law banning hormones.

Besides in federal prisons, hormones are given in all of the Midwestern states surveyed by the Department of Corrections, he said. Kallas called hormones a "medically necessary" treatment in some, though not all, cases.

Kallas said patients who are taken off hormones typically need counseling, drugs and hospital stays instead, suicide treatments that are more expensive than the hormones, which cost $675 to $1,600 a year. Kallas said he did not know of any other medical treatment that the state Legislature has banned in prisons."

If this bill was not so immensely costly, their bravery in putting it forward would not have been recognised - although coming as it does with the full support of MassResistance, the Hate Group (You'll find them on the list just under the "Nation of Islam" and the "American National Socialist Workers' Party") that would have been brave enough.

Re: Take Our Word for It - philadelphia weekly online

Zoe_Brain — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 20:52:08 -0000

"Transsexual" is mentioned, but not defined. "Transgendered" has two distinct meanings, one as a synonym for "Transsexual", the other meaning basically "anyone non-gender-normative in any way".
And most Intersexed people identify as either men or women, just with biological problems. A minority identify as neither, and you should define "Neutrious" too.

Re: Annie Oakley screws up her "I love guns" ad

Zoe_Brain — Tue, 06 May 2008 00:14:40 -0000

HRC looks like a pathological liar, because she is a pathological liar.
OTOH this is not necessarily a disqualification from being President.

All the bad stuff some Democrats are saying about Obama is true. All the bad stuff some Democrats are saying about Clinton is true. The bad stuff Democrats are saying about McCain may or may not be true (I think most of it *is* true), but because of the partisanship, none is trustworthy.

If the USA could survive Nixon and Carter, it could survive any of the three candidates. Despite the fact that HRC is dirtier, slimier, and more criminally dishonest than either of the other two, she may be least-worst. A competent crook, versus a populist demagogue and a has-been.

You know that once the selection is made, all of the mud that's been cheerfully slung in the Democratic camp against the winner will be blamed on the Republican Smear Machine? It's called "Projection".

Re: "The nutjobs might have been kind of right about the Clintons this whole time."

Zoe_Brain — Wed, 14 May 2008 03:34:17 -0000

You'll get a worse feeling when you find out the Nutjobs are right about Obama too.

Now you know how Republicans feel all the time, with McCain the least-worst of a very, very mediocre bunch.

Re: Transgender debate not rooted in discrimination

Zoe_Brain — Sun, 25 May 2008 12:36:32 -0000

I have only a minor correction to make to Nichole Webbering's excellent post, which I thoroughly agree with.
Current technology no longer requires the subject to be deceased, though the technique is not yet being used for diagnosis., at least, in the USA.

I'll quote from the German Medical Journal ArzteZeitung from 2005:

"Radiologists can now confirm what transsexuals report - that they feel “trapped in the wrong body” - on the basis of the activation of the brain when presented with erotic stimuli. There is obviously a biological correlation with the subjective feelings."

The details of technique needs further exploration and confirmation before being "ready for prime time", but autopsy of cadavers is now no longer the only way of determining whether a brain is Intersexed.

Re: Transgender debate not rooted in discrimination

Zoe_Brain — Sun, 25 May 2008 19:22:11 -0000

songbird - your question is a good one.

We don't have the knowledge to be able to re-format and totally re-construct from scratch a new brain, and that's what it would take. It's not the higher brain functions, those that can be affected by education or brainwashing, that are involved. It's the basal stuff, as fundamental as the bits that keep us breathing, or our heart beating.

Psychotherapy has been tried. And analysis. And psychotropic drugs. Electroshock. Aversion therapy using electrodes attached to genitalia and nausea-inducing drugs. Long periods of solitary confinement. Leucotomy and Lobotomy destroying higher brain functions. None of it works, and the more extreme measures are no longer practiced because of the 100% failure rate.

We have to make the body match the brain, because we can't make the brain match the body.

Even if we did have the ability, there are severe ethical issues. What would happens if someone decided your body was better off inhabited by a different personality?

Re: Why are some people so anti-transgender?

Zoe_Brain — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 10:51:55 -0000

Why are they so anti-Trans? It's a matter of pardonable ignorance.

In the days when 95% or more of the population was in agriculture, it was impossible not to know that some animals were neither normally male nor normally female. "Intersex" conditions were obviously real, tangible things. Some had ambiguous genitalia, some were hormonally mixed up "freemartins" with cross-gendered behaviour, it was accepted by everyone that while most animals were wholly male or wholly female, some were not.

When we became "civilised", meaning "living in cities" and away from daily contact with livestock, such things were forgotten. And at school, we learnt in Bible classes that men were men, and women were women, as God created them. Later, as science progressed, that 46xy was male, 46xx was female, and that's all there was to it, nice, neat, and simple.

We weren't taught that some animals, and some people, were 47xxy, or 46xx/46xy mosaics, or had any of a number of other Intersex conditions. Such things were embarrassments, to be concealed, "family secrets", and more often as not, either victims of infanticide, or in later days, surgical "correction".

We as a society forgot about Intersex conditions, so we never realised that people and animals could be born with Intersexed brains, the cliched "woman trapped in a man's body" or the reverse.

Now there are a lot of socialogical snake-oil salesman out there, all peddling their different brands of fashionable nonsense. How can people be blamed for seeing "transsexuality" as just another case, more of the same, if they weren't taught about the biology at school?

There's also the element of homophobia, and religious belief that not only is homosexuality (or indeed, any form of sexuality to some) morally wrong, but the reasonable but utterly mistaken belief that all gays really want to be women, and all lesbians really want to be men. So not only were transsexual people really gays, they were dishonestly attempting to circumvent the Good and Proper ordering of society by perpetrating a grand deception on unsuspecting people. Rather than being merely unfortunate Freaks (as one commentator put it), they were Perverts who were undermining the whole of society by their trickery and perversion.

It was ignorance, married with a healthy scepticism of something that went against "common sense", and genuine concern for the good of one's community and the welfare of one's children, that cause transphobia.

And that is why the Nashua Telegraph's stories on the subject are so important. Some, like Mr Winslow, still remain sceptical. Some, like TH, are so uncomfortable with the whole issue that they don't want to think about it - except when it comes to legislation that might give these people some human rights, like the right to marry, or adopt. Then they think about it all right, and oppose any such "nonsense", as it is outside their own experience.

Now a disclaimer: I'm Intersexed, with a Transsexual life history. You see, a few Intersex conditions cause a natural change from looking like one sex, to looking like the other. Usually Female to Male, the reverse is really rare. But such people, if they try to fit in to societal norms, transition at some time in their lives. For some it's a nightmare, the old body shape matched their brains, and they get surgery to stop the natural change. For others, like me, it is a relief from decades of discomfort, a feeling of wrongness, that the whole situation is horribly perverse.

People like TH and Jeffrey Winslow cannot, or will not, comprehend that, and won't believe that something like that could happen. Show them the evidence, that conditions like 5ARD or 17BHDD exist, and they still won't believe it. That's because it would mean shattering their whole world view.

Some people will continue to take refuge in their comfortable ignorance, for this whole thing is embarrassing. Hopefully most will at least listen to the medics, the biologists, the scientists, and not least the stories of those with Transsexuality or other Intersex conditions.

We can but try.

Re: Dealing with Merrimack dad’s transformation

Zoe_Brain — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 09:42:02 -0000

Model Railways and Software... those are two "concentrators", areas where there are more Transsexual people than in the general population.

We don't know why, but the effect is quite real. Other concentrators - the military, academe, music, game design, and oddly enough, truck driving,

Many more are ambidextrous or left-handed too. These are all indicators of a neurological setup that differs from the norm, and can't be completely explained by psychological causation alone.

Re: Transgender opponent seeks common ground

Zoe_Brain — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 20:10:17 -0000

So how do you know you're a man? Is it something you just know, something you deduce from bodily appearance, or is it something you're assigned - be it by society, or your parents, or surgeons while you're under 18 months old?

A lot of transsexual people were born intersexed, with malformed genitalia. They got "altered" to make them look normal, and sometimes they never feel right, they feel like their body has the wrong shape. They feel exactly like others who were not surgically mutilated shortly after birth, but ended up in the wrong-shaped body for their mind anyway.

There's now a mountain of evidence that transsexuality is caused by a cross-gendered lymbic nucleus, and possibly other structures too, in the brain. You're right that men are born men, and women are born women, but they may not look like that. Transsexuality occurs when they don't.

There's two conditions called 5ARD and 17BHDD. To simplify, they look like girls at birth, but naturally change sex to look like boys. So what sex are they?

I'll quote from "Gender change in 46,XY persons with 5alpha-reductase-2 deficiency and 17beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase-3 deficiency". by Cohen-Ketternis:

//Individuals with 5alpha-reductase-2 deficiency (5alpha-RD-2) and 17beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase-3 deficiency (17beta-HSD-3) are often raised as girls. Over the past number of years, this policy has been challenged because many individuals with these conditions develop a male gender identity and make a gender role change after puberty. The findings also raised doubts regarding the hypothesis that children are psychosexually neutral at birth and emphasized the potential role of prenatal brain exposure to androgens in gender development.//

The original author of the article made a good point when he asked "shouldn't we at least try psychotherapy to adjust mind to fit body"?

The trouble is, it's been tried, over 50 years, with a zero success rate, and where failures mean a 50% death rate. It was given up on because of that, even before the evidence came in of pre-natal hormonal influence, and the cross-gendering in the brains of transsexual people, No wonder psychotherapy is as poor at curing transsexuality as it is at curing other congenital physical conditions!

Re: Man snapping pictures outside school caught after foot chase

Zoe_Brain — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 03:29:11 -0000

MassResistance? Nothing they would do would surprise me.

Here's what's on just the first page of a mammoth 125-page "report" by the Hate Group "MassResistance" (You'll find them on the list just under the "Nation of Islam" and the "American National Socialist Workers' Party").

" The culture of death has created a compulsion in the souls of the homosexual radicals and their "trans" allies, driving them ever further into new perversions. There is no bottom to this pit of depravity, and they will drag many innocent victims along with them: the young, the lonely, the psychologically and physically wounded, the confused – including some of your children and grandchildren, family, friends and neighbors. There will be no safe haven. You cannot cocoon in your homes or churches. Our public schools, businesses, public accommodations (which may include churches), your employers and insurers, will all be forced to yield to yet-undefined perversions, protected by law."

It wouldn't be the first time that they haven't been able to get the evidence, evidence they *know* must exist, of all those Gay Paedophiles preying on toddlers. So it's possible (but unlikely) they have to manufacture some, in the cause of a "Higher Truth". That anyone, even them, could be so thick as to mistake a primary school for a high school beggars belief though, so maybe it's not as improbable as it seems. Without more evidence though, they deserve the benefit of the doubt.

A similar group did the same kind of thing in Maryland recently, eventually admitting that it was just a"publicity stunt" when people started investigating. So there is precedent, it's not mere un-evidenced conjecture.

Re: BrothersJudd Blog: OOPs, NEVERMIND:

Zoe_Brain — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 04:40:46 -0000

Transition is hard. Many don't make it at the first attempt. And for a few, transition is wrong for them. You really can't know this until you try it.

I better explain the process. Just as there's "Standards of Care", - best practices (SOCs) - for treating everything from toothache to triple bypasses - there's a SOC for treating transsexuality (TS).

First comes an assessment by a mental health professional (the technical term is "shrink") over at least 3 months, to make sure that the patient has TS. It's not that hard to exclude mental illnesses, but TS has degrees, and some can live with it without treatment.

After this assessment, which may take years, hormones to alter the body are authorised. This will make any misdiagnosed men freak, impotence being one of the first effects. TS women though start feeling a vast sense of relief.

But the patient being TS is not sufficient to authorise the processes for transition. To make sure they can handle it, the victim, sorry, patient, has to publicly live in the target gender role for at least a year (two in some places). This is called the RLE - Real Life Experience. This doesn't just test whether they are TS, but the scope of it. Some find that they're not as badly affected as they thought, and de-transition permanently, having learnt a lot about themselves. Some just find it too difficult, and will de-transition temporarily, until the misery gets too much again.

The RLE is hard, and in most places, dangerous. Looking like a woman, but having a male anatomy can cause arrest and imprisonment, despite it being part of necessary medical treatment. The patient must show they have the mental strength to endure the verbal and physical assaults that nearly every woman is subject to if they transition over age 25, and the sexual assaults if younger.

I believe that 3 women in their RLE were murdered in the last 3 months.

Many take several goes at it, often separated by 10 years or more recovering from the horrendous experience - until the misery gets too much.

After the patient has completed the RLE, a PhD gender specialist must then write a letter of authorization for surgery, as must the original medic. Such a decision gets peer-reviewed by experts, and letters may be denied and the RLE extended if there's any doubt.

I hope Mike has discovered himself. Gender Identity is usually consolidated by age 10, but in some people it takes longer.

The only thing that requires more courage than a very public transition is a very public de-transition. But if it's what's best for you, you have to screw your courage to the sticking-place and do it, knowing that if it was possible to die of embarrassment, you'd be 6 feet under.

No-one gets a vote on this but Mike himself. I marvel at his courage, and I support him completely.

You see, I transitioned. For me it was right. For Mike it wasn't - hopefully permanently.

PapayaSF is correct, BTW. The usual procedure is called "penile inversion",but in cases like mine, where the situation was abnormal, a different procedure has to be used.

Re: Transsexual sues over discrimination

Zoe_Brain — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 19:48:19 -0000

It's exactly because of this attitude that she's suing.
You're not alone Johnny. A lot of people think like you do - they're afraid of these uppity blacks, or Jews, or (insert your own group here) who are different from them. They want to see them put in their proper place, in the gutter where they belong.
By violence if need be - "reprimanded with a mouthfull of teeth", or like the 2 transgendered people who are slain every month in the USA, with a bullet or a knife.
You know nothing about the Science, the MRI scans and so on that show that Transsexuals are intersexed, male brain in female body, or the reverse. You're comfortable in your ignorance and bigotry.
In most states, your views are deemed acceptable, even praiseworthy. That's why transsexuals have an unemployment rate ten times the national average. But in some places, your views are not deemed a valid excuse for persecution. In some places, if you "reprimand with a mouthfull of teeth" you'll get prosecuted, even if probably not convicted. Not yet. The times they are a changin' though.

Re: In Support of Rick Warren

Zoe_Brain — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 02:04:22 -0000

It's a bit more complicated than that, I'm afraid. Talk about "mutilations, amputations and massive hormonal drug usage" and "male/female chromosomes they carry that identifies them, a priori." is factually inaccurate.

There exist women with 46xy (usually male) chromosomes who have given birth. There exist men with 46xx chromosomes (usually female) who have fathered children. There exist people with 47xxy chromosomes, some of whom (with technical help) have fathered children, and some of whom have given birth. Most 47xxy people look (mostly) male, and identify as such, but a small minority look (mostly) female, and identify as such.

There are people with genetic mosaicism or chimerality, who may have both 46xx and 46xy (and 45x, 47xxy etc) cells in their bodies. Miss Teen USA 1991 had Complete Androgen Insensitivity syndrome (CAIS) - you could have injected her with enough testosterone to change a Dallas Cheerleader into an Arnie Schwarznegger, with no effect. Ultra-feminine, she had 46xy chromosomes, again usually found only in males.

Chromosomes, while a really good approximation that's accurate more than 99% of the time, are not completely reliable.

So how *do* we define sex then? Obviously one can look at Genitalia and other secondary sex characteristics. But then you run into the problems with those people with ambiguous genitalia, ovotestes rather than ovaries or testes, or one ovary and one testis. And where do you draw the line between microphallus and megaclitoris? 1.5"? So 1.51 and he's a He, 1.49 and she's a She?

Oh, but it gets worse. Those with 5alpha-reductase-2 deficiency (5alpha-RD-2) or 17beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase-3 deficiency (17beta-HSD-3) look (somewhat. mostly, or completely) female at birth. But about half masculinise later in life, so they look (somewhat, mostly or completely) male by their Mid-20's. Some can even father children.

Do we insist on castrating the boys to whom this change is a wonderful natural cure of their transsexuality - and that's 2/3 of those children born with it - so they remain "as God made them"? Or do we deny the desperate pleas of the girls, the remaining 1/3, who plead in the name of all that is Holy for someone to stop these dreadful and disfiguring changes?

Male to Female natural changes happen too, but are much rarer, and we don't understand the causes - sample sizes are too small, less than 1% of all natural sex-reversals. Some cases happen at puberty. but the majority at andropause. In all but one recorded case, the woman concerned had suffered from transsexuality - they thought they were "women trapped in male bodies" rather than "women trapped in *apparently and temporarily* male bodies".

OK, chromosomes are immutable but unreliable, genitalia and other sex characteristics both mutable *and* unreliable, so what's left? WHY do we know what gender we are?

There's a couple (actually more like a hundred) papers on the subject. Both autopsies of brains, and recently, fMRI scans have shown that transsexual women - those born with apparently 100% male bodies - have feminised neuroanatomy. There's less evidence for transsexual men - but what we do have is only consistent those with them having masculinised neuroanatomy despite their apparently male bodies. We even know some causes now, several different genetic factors have been found, and "Prenatal exposure to diethylstilbestrol(DES) in males and gender-related disorders:results from a 5-year study" by Kerlin and Diamond showed conclusively that 1/5 of those "genetically male" foetusses exposed to the drug DES in the first trimester ended up Intersexed, transsexual, or both.

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof, so here’s a small selection of the articles on the subject to show that I’m not trying to sell the usual Post-Modernist snake-oil. Please research the matter yourself, all these papers, all in peer-reviewed scientific journals, are available on the Net. A quick Google on the titles will find them.

Gender change in 46,XY persons with 5alpha-reductase-2 deficiency and 17beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase-3 deficiency. by Cohen-Ketternis

A Sex Difference in the Human Brain and its Relation to Transsexuality by Zhou et al.

Male-to-Female Transsexuals Have Female Neuron Numbers in a Limbic Nucleus by Kruijver et al:

fMRT zur Diagnose bei Transsexualität geprüft (An Examination of the use of fMRT for diagnosing Transsexuality) (ArzteZeitung, 2006)

A sex difference in the hypothalamic uncinate nucleus: relationship to gender identity by A. Garcia-Falgueras A and D.F. Swaab.

Male-to-female transsexuals show sex-atypical hypothalamus activation when smelling odorous steroids. by Berglund H, Lindström P, Dhejne-Helmy C, and Savic I.

And so on and so on. Most of the hard proof has come in in the last 10 years, though a biological cause has long been conjectured. Before 1996, it was assumed (in the absence of evidence to the contrary) to be a purely psychological issue, as you believe.

Transsexuality causes *intense* distress. The issue is not so much about sexuality as other instinctive behaviour - maternal instinct. natural gait, communications skills, instinctive ballistic calculations and so on, all areas where sexually differentiated thinking patterns are obvious, and which are not culturally conditioned. There’s no biological reason why “blue is for boys, pink is for girls”, that’s cultural. But despite what Gender Studies departments hold as articles of faith, men and women do differ in their neurology, and no neurologist disputes this. The trouble is, some women are born looking like men, and some men are born looking like women. This feels terribly perverse to someone so afflicted, and the only cure is to align body and brain/mind through hormonal and surgical intervention.

Or as some people believe who aren't aware of these facts, "mutilations, amputations and massive hormonal drug usage".

Re: Question of the Day

Zoe_Brain — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 06:56:11 -0000

Funny you should ask that question...

Involuntary "Sex Changes" do happen in some Intersex conditions, almost always due to either 5alpha-reductase-2 deficiency (5alpha-RD-2) or 17beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase-3 deficiency (17beta-HSD-3).
It doesn't happen overnight - but at normal pubescent rates, and is always from female to male, in those two conditions.

See "Gender change in 46,XY persons with 5alpha-reductase-2 deficiency and 17beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase-3 deficiency" by Cohen-Ketternis.

About a third with this syndrome welcome the change as a cure for their transsexuality - they're no longer "boys trapped in girls bodies". Another third just take it in their stride, seeing no great difference. The final third though are girls to whom this is an utter nightmare, and without medical help to prevent the change, usually suicide.

Such "serial hermaphroditism" is common enough amongst fish, but quite rare amongst mammalian species.

The record for speed of change is on one so far unidentified syndrome, where the person concerned went from an indisputably male appearance to an indisputably female one in 3 months. The metabolic stress caused her to lose 1/3 of her body mass, and had she not been somewhat overweight to begin with, would likely have killed her. The syndrome is too rare to say much about, but is probably usually fatal.

Fortunately all but one recorded case of such male-to-female natural changes had female gender identities, and the natural change cured their transsexuality.

Such people get all the usual problems that "normal" transsexuals do when it comes to work, friendship, marriage etc. It doesn't seem to matter what the cause is, whether volitional or not, just that the change happens. It upsets other people too much.

Re: Transgender people plead for law change Karen Lovett can be reached at 594-6402 or klovett@nashuatelegraph.com.

Zoe_Brain — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 02:23:18 -0000

No offence taken. You honoured us with honesty.

Those of us who are in this situation aren't exactly thrilled with it. I'm not proud that I'm Intersexed, neither 100% male nor 100% female in body. But I'm not ashamed of it either. And as my particular rare condition involved a change of appearance, I don't shy away from being called "Transsexual" either. Endocrinally I'm not, but psychologically I'm indistnguishable from any other TS woman.

A lot of people find the concept of anyone changing appearance to match their gender upsetting, especially if the change is imperfect. I've found no difference in attitudes whether the change is due to therapeutic intervention, or a rare natural syndrome. There will be those who accept it regardless of their visceral feelings.And those who see it as moral perversion regardless of the facts, and therefore see it as their duty to make sure we're persecuted, within and without the law.

All you've said is that you don't let your intellect be ruled by your instincts. That you are an intelligent being, not an animal. How could anyone take offence at that?

Re: What About Transgendered Little Boys and Girls?

Zoe_Brain — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 03:15:49 -0000

The recommended "best practice" is to have gonadotrophins - "puberty delayers at age 12-13. Then move on to hormones at 15-16, with surgery at 17-18.

Fertility counselling is recommended, as it may be worthwhile to allow just enough pubertal development so gametes can be extracted and stored.
Most don't take this option, but it should be available. To a girl of 15, motherhood (or as close as she can get to it) may not be on her priority list. But at age 25, she may feel quite differently.

The situation's more fraught for the boys, as storing eggs (as opposed to embryos) is problematic.