Yeah I can't imagine this works out to more than a fraction of a cent per taxpayer per year.
Yeah I can't imagine this works out to more than a fraction of a cent per taxpayer per year.To me this is too small an issue to get indignant about.
I used to be very wary of the validity of sexual reassignment surgery - to me it seemed like self-mutilation in indulgence of a mental illness, not a legitimate medical therapy. Since that time, though, I got to know and became friends with a female-to-male transsexual (he is actually married to my ex-GF's best friend). It took essentially no time to be convinced that he really is a man, and was one even when he was entirely female in appearance. I don't know how common this kind of gender dysphoria is, but it's a real phenomenon and honestly as long as there is adequate screening prior to any surgery or medical treatments, I have no problem with gender reassignment or being obligated to pay, through Medicare, for the vanishingly small number of Medicare-eligible people who undergo gender reassignment procedures.
There are folks with parts not properly formed, thus making gender identification as a baby very difficult. In those cases the gender is assigned and assumed. Sometimes that choice is wrong.
Don Vito Corleone has made us an offer we cannot refuse. A reasonable argument.
Still doesn't help me understand what benefit a male gets from being castrated. Am I missing something?
(1) This has nothing to do with transgendered people.
(2) You are mixing up the terms gender and sex. Sex is about biology; not gender.
(3) Just because sex can be misidentified does not mean it is "assigned".
No, you seem to have everything you feel you need. But what if you didn't? What if you had been born with out a penis? In all other ways male, with the urges you currently feel, but no penis to do anything about it?
Urges? What urges?
No, you seem to have everything you feel you need. But what if you didn't? What if you had been born with out a penis? In all other ways male, with the urges you currently feel, but no penis to do anything about it?
You are right about all these (well, mostly right on the first, but not fully), but I don't think you have ever posted a coherent argument on just why this matters.
Not much really. Many of the ideas around how gender and sex interact are hard to grasp, and take a while to really settle in. It is no surprise that a lot of people still get mixed up when talking about them.Well if the people advocating for an idea cannot even keep their rhetoric straight what does that say for the idea?
Simply put, it doesn't.Basically the question is why does "feeling" mentally as a woman preclude having a male body?
There is no contradiction. There are many ways in which gender and sex interact to form something different. It is not a simple system.It is essentially an internal contradiction which on the one hand says gender and physiology are distinct and on the other hand says they are the same.
Those urges. You know what I'm talking about. I know you won't admit it here. Your identity is so wrapped up in not admitting it. But you also know what I'm talking about.
No, you seem to have everything you feel you need. But what if you didn't? What if you had been born with out a penis? In all other ways male, with the urges you currently feel, but no penis to do anything about it?
Side rant I don't know how the "T" got in the mix with "LGB", and if I were one of the first three I would not want to be associated with the latter.
You are behind the times. LGBTQ is replacing LGBT
Is cutting down there going to resolve that? I support procedures that help people who are... disabled, physically. Yet I would oppose it for anyone who is intact and otherwise healthy.
Speaking of sex changes where be Texas Hiker?
To me this is too small an issue to get indignant about.
I used to be very wary of the validity of sexual reassignment surgery - to me it seemed like self-mutilation in indulgence of a mental illness, not a legitimate medical therapy. Since that time, though, I got to know and became friends with a female-to-male transsexual (he is actually married to my ex-GF's best friend). It took essentially no time to be convinced that he really is a man, and was one even when he was entirely female in appearance. I don't know how common this kind of gender dysphoria is, but it's a real phenomenon and honestly as long as there is adequate screening prior to any surgery or medical treatments, I have no problem with gender reassignment or being obligated to pay, through Medicare, for the vanishingly small number of Medicare-eligible people who undergo gender reassignment procedures.
What exactly is a genetically male brain? I don't think the X or Y chromosome is responsible for brain formation. Therefor any differences between 'male' and 'female' brains would have to be hormonal not genetic.Unless psychologists and geneticists figure out how someone with a genetically male brain and body can somehow be "female", and vice-versa, I'm going to keep calling it self mutilation in service of a mental illness.
What exactly is a genetically male brain? I don't think the X or Y chromosome is responsible for brain formation. Therefor any differences between 'male' and 'female' brains would have to be hormonal not genetic.
Not only that but those differences between the 'male' and 'female' brain are a correlative and not deterministic. We simply can not look at a brain and determine if the person was male or female.
And your dog analogy is not only fallacious but offensive.
Despite its small size, and limited gene content, we have argued here that the Y chromosome may exert a considerable influence on brain function. As a consequence of its inheritance pattern, genes upon it may help to define male-specific brain phenotypes, and hence male-typical behaviours.
In humans, SRY expression has been described in the medial rostral hypothalamus, frontal and temporal cortex [52].
Until a conclusive answer is reached I'd classify transgenderism as a mental disease on behavioral components alone. I find it odd that were I to claim that I was an animal, even a close relative like a chimp, trapped in a human's body and wanted hair implants all over my body, I would be instantly classified as mentally ill. Yet if I claimed I was a woman trapped in a man's body and wanted to chop my dick off, taxpayers will apparently pay to support this view and many psychiatrists would encourage its expression. Likewise while homosexual behavior is present in other species, last I looked transgenderism was to the best of our knowledge a uniquely human abnormality.
And frankly if you're offended by the analogy, that's your problem. I see nothing fallacious about it.
Don Vito Corleone has made us an offer we cannot refuse. A reasonable argument.
Still doesn't help me understand what benefit a male gets from being castrated. Am I missing something?
My complete lack of any understanding is what makes me inclined to believe most of these cases are genuine. Having your junk cut off is pretty extreme and there must be a significant level of suffering to motivate them.
Killing yourself seems even more extreme.
Yet most people wouldn't argue that is a valid choice caused by significant levels of suffering. But that it is instead caused by mental illness.
But why does gender dyphoria get "special" treatment besides the obvious lobbying? Body dysmorphic disorder is also a recognized and diagnosed mental illness, so wouldn't having the taxpayers pay for liposuction, synthahol injections, gastric bypass, etc. also be warranted under that rationale? I'm sure that those procedures wouldn't "feel elective" to the people suffering from them, either...
I'm not saying that people shouldn't be allowed to have the procedure; just that we shouldn't be forcing an already broke government to use our money to pay for it.
It may not be the pc opinion to have, but I don't think that our tax dollars should be paying for this. I know that psychologist study this and think they have it all worked out, it's a perfectly normal thing etc. I disagree, however, and think that gender dyphoria or whatever term you want to use to call it is a mental disease. If they want to pay for it, fine, but our tax dollars shouldn't be what pays for it.
Side rant I don't know how the "T" got in the mix with "LGB", and if I were one of the first three I would not want to be associated with the latter. They are completely different things imo. I think the whole notion of gender fluidity is absurd and if I were LGB and wanted to be taken seriously I wouldn't include the T (since sexual preference is completely different than someone wanting to be a gender that they are not).
To me this is too small an issue to get indignant about.
I used to be very wary of the validity of sexual reassignment surgery - to me it seemed like self-mutilation in indulgence of a mental illness, not a legitimate medical therapy. Since that time, though, I got to know and became friends with a female-to-male transsexual (he is actually married to my ex-GF's best friend). It took essentially no time to be convinced that he really is a man, and was one even when he was entirely female in appearance. I don't know how common this kind of gender dysphoria is, but it's a real phenomenon and honestly as long as there is adequate screening prior to any surgery or medical treatments, I have no problem with gender reassignment or being obligated to pay, through Medicare, for the vanishingly small number of Medicare-eligible people who undergo gender reassignment procedures.