Gender and Gender Identity

[AraDarkfire]

I think the whole Manning thing is less that it's she's transgender but more being that it came seemingly out of nowhere. At least, that's my take/opinion.

 

Edit: You know, I think the world would be a lot more mellower if everyone had both sexes. I've heard about an old sci-fi book where the society was made up them, but have never been able to track it down. Either way, people wouldn't be so hidebound about gender roles because in that respect, we'd all be literally equals.

Edited August 24, 2013 by AraDarkfire

[Riverwillows]

You might be thinking of Ursula K. Le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness, about a race of humans that landed on a planet in the early days of space travel, and evolved into where each person is part of the time as one sex, and then the other. One of the tag lines, is that "the mother of 5 children could be the father of several more..."

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Left_Hand_of_Darkness

Edited August 24, 2013 by Riverwillows

[prpldrgnfr]

The Happy Story of My Transgender Coming Out

 

I was born into a loving, suburban, upper-middle class family. My dad worked in the insurance industry and coached Little League while my mom stayed home with my brother, sister and me. We were the envy of the neighborhood. My parents instilled empathy in me, and raised me to be a good son. Their son.

 

But I refused to confide in them my deep, dark secret: No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t be their son. I couldn’t be a brother, or a boy. That’s just not who I was. From the time I hit puberty, I began to realize that I was a girl. I didn’t have role models for this feeling. I didn’t even have the word for it then: transgender. So I lived in fear that if they ever saw the real me, it would destroy our perfect family. I tried my best to suppress my feelings, hoping they would just go away.

 

 

[siliconrose]

I think the whole Manning thing is less that it's she's transgender but more being that it came seemingly out of nowhere. At least, that's my take/opinion.

 

Edit: You know, I think the world would be a lot more mellower if everyone had both sexes. I've heard about an old sci-fi book where the society was made up them, but have never been able to track it down. Either way, people wouldn't be so hidebound about gender roles because in that respect, we'd all be literally equals.

It may seem that way because the news wasn't fixated on it before the press release, but Chelsea had sent a mail to her superior indicating she was reconsidering her gender before her involvement with WikiLeaks was discovered.

[AraDarkfire]

Thanks for the link!

 

Anyway, most people just read the headlines - if they read anything at all...

[hydrargyrum]

I read a couple articles about it. It seems like a lot people still refer to her as "him". I think that even some of the more well-intentioned people still have this idea that a trans-woman is "a man who believes he's a woman", rather than actually a woman who was just born with the wrong anatomy.

[Faetan]

Ohh, now isn't this an interesting thread :Uc I have a bit to contribute to this. As a transsexual myself, I like to think I have a pretty insightful view on what it's like in the wonderful world of transsexualism. I've been needing to get some of this off my chest anyways. I have a bad feeling that expressing my opinion on the internet will do some nasty things, but meh.

 

Being transsexual raises a lot of strange moral issues.

I try to talk to people about how I feel about my body sometimes, and very very few people actually understand how it truly feels. Even I don't fully understand it sometimes. The way I feel about my body is so powerfully negative, so strong and pervades everything in my life that there's no real metaphor I can use to describe it.

I just described it as indescribable, but I'll try to describe it anyways.

It feels a lot like there's a gap between what my body is and what my brain thinks it is. When I'm not looking at myself and if it's a good day, I would describe myself with masculine traits. I will still become pretty upset if I focus on my chest or on my crotch, neither of which have been 'fixed up' yet. If I'm looking at myself, whether it be in a picture, on video, in a mirror, or just looking down, there's suddenly an abhorrent and disgusting feeling that arises from the back of my mind and it travels down my spine. It feels more as if this is a problem in my head rather than in my body, although I project it onto my body.

 

In that vein, there are a lot of studies floating around have proven being transsexual has to do with the way your brain perceives your body, or your body image/gender identity.

 

These facts makes me wonder whether or not being transsexual really does have more to do with me believing I am male as opposed to actually being a male in the wrong body. I wonder if one day there will be a drug or some kind that will eliminate the huge fissure between my brain and body, or whether a true sex change surgery will be invented, or which one I'll take when it comes along.

 

And that's my rant and ramble about being transsexual and the conflict between brain and body. Thank you for all of those who took the time to read this.

[Walker]

Honestly, I'm surprised no one has started discussing the fact that Manning's attorney plans to try and push to make the medication needed for transitioning available in the prison that Chelsea is currently in.

 

I'm completely for trangender rights. 100 percent. However, I'm not sure how I feel about that. I really need more details on it. But, honestly, I think that the top priority for inmate health should be people who are dying or who have very serious chronic conditions. I don't know how I would feel if tax money was going for that and possibly detracting from the resources for those with serious physical or mental illnesses.

 

Now, it's another thing entirely if the state wouldn't be fitting the bill for the medication. If Chelsea's family arranges to pay for it and all that...

 

But then again, I know transitioning can be very important to mental health and all that, but I think there needs to be a careful balancing of resources for prisons.

Edited August 25, 2013 by Walker

[Cecona]

Honestly, I'm surprised no one has started discussing the fact that Manning's attorney plans to try and push to make the medication needed for transitioning available in the prison that Chelsea is currently in.

 

I'm completely for trangender rights. 100 percent. However, I'm not sure how I feel about that. I really need more details on it. But, honestly, I think that the top priority for inmate health should be people who are dying or who have very serious chronic conditions. I don't know how I would feel if tax money was going for that and possibly detracting from the resources for those with serious physical or mental illnesses.

 

Now, it's another thing entirely if the state wouldn't be fitting the bill for the medication. If Chelsea's family arranges to pay for it and all that...

 

But then again, I know transitioning can be very important to mental health and all that, but I think there needs to be a careful balancing of resources for prisons.

While not being transgender I have serious mental illnesses and I can attest to certain mental issues being life threatening despite it not seeming like it would be. I honestly don't think that physical problems should be held as more important, and even discarding mental illness as not need for help even in prison. If she is having true Dysphoria she has every right to get hormonal treatment, if not then she should be given proper therapy- not the kind that would try to convince her she isn't female.

 

But I mean... just don't dismiss something because it's more of a mental problem than a physical problem, because if not for the treatment I'm receiving for my own problems I would have offed myself years ago.

[siliconrose]

Honestly, I'm surprised no one has started discussing the fact that Manning's attorney plans to try and push to make the medication needed for transitioning available in the prison that Chelsea is currently in.

 

I'm completely for trangender rights. 100 percent. However, I'm not sure how I feel about that. I really need more details on it. But, honestly, I think that the top priority for inmate health should be people who are dying or who have very serious chronic conditions. I don't know how I would feel if tax money was going for that and possibly detracting from the resources for those with serious physical or mental illnesses.

 

Now, it's another thing entirely if the state wouldn't be fitting the bill for the medication. If Chelsea's family arranges to pay for it and all that...

 

But then again, I know transitioning can be very important to mental health and all that, but I think there needs to be a careful balancing of resources for prisons.

I sort of agree, but I've read that there's a high rate of suicide among transgender people who are denied the opportunity to rectify the disconnect between their biological gender and their mental gender. If the dysphoria is significant enough to drive someone to suicide (it sounds like for some it might not be that severe, but there certainly are cases where it is), then denying them treatment is cruel.

[demonicvampiregirl]

 

Anyone see this yet? Totally disgusting. I hope that entire panel is fired for that. How could anyone say something so horrible about her? :/

[Cecona]

 

Anyone see this yet? Totally disgusting. I hope that entire panel is fired for that. How could anyone say something so horrible about her? :/

Wow... just wow

[Nightfrost]

Honestly, the amount of transgender hate is awfully confusing and disgusting to me.

 

I suppose my brain can't wrap itself around the idea that most people dislike it?

 

But honestly, the news doing that is really gross. It's due to things like that which makes it harder for people to just accept it as normal :T

[Pokemonfan13]

I obviously don't know what was said after that, but the lady at least looked like she had a face that was like "Is he really saying that?!"

[renlacarne]

male

[Obscure_Trash]

Hey! It seems that the IRS has affirmed that transition related care for transpeople is tax deductible. =o

[Bacon_Strips]

I have a problem that I may need help with.

 

My sex is male, which is clear for anyone to see. I look like a guy, dress like a guy, and no one has ever been confused by my physical appearance or mistook me for a girl. On the inside, I'm not sure what gender I truly am. I'm not a very masculine person (at my high school my words and actions make me seem odd compared to other guys), and I'm not very physically built either. I believe I have more feminine qualities than masculine qualities (I suppose they are stereotypical, though.). Sometimes I don't know what to think about these gender qualities, however. It is true that "feminine" qualities can be found in men, and vice versa. Does this truly make them gender qualities?

 

I sometimes feel like I'm a girl from within, which can happen pretty randomly and frequently. Other times I'm convinced I'm a guy, but looking back at it, I don't know whether or not if my physical body is making me assume that. Until four years ago, I was confused by the difference of sex and gender. I thought they were the same. Then, sometimes, I feel so out of touch with both ideas of gender that I wonder if I have no gender, or if I'm both genders. It's all really hopeless and confusing. Am I just a feminine guy, or are there other possibilities?

Edited November 15, 2013 by Bacon_Strips

[Obscure_Trash]

I have a problem that I may need help with.

 

My sex is male, which is clear for anyone to see. I look like a guy, dress like a guy, and no one has ever been confused by my physical appearance or mistook me for a girl. On the inside, I'm not sure what gender I truly am. I'm not a very masculine person (at my high school my words and actions make me seem odd compared to other guys), and I'm not very physically built either. I believe I have more feminine qualities than masculine qualities (I suppose they are stereotypical, though.). Sometimes I don't know what to think about these gender qualities, however. It is true that "feminine" qualities can be found in men, and vice versa. Does this truly make them gender qualities?

 

I sometimes feel like I'm a girl from within, which can happen pretty randomly and frequently. Other times I'm convinced I'm a guy, but looking back at it, I don't know whether or not if my physical body is making me assume that. Until four years ago, I was confused by the difference of sex and gender. I thought they were the same. Then, sometimes, I feel so out of touch with both ideas of gender that I wonder if I have no gender, or if I'm both genders. It's all really hopeless and confusing. Am I just a feminine guy, or are there other possibilities?

Well, nobody can label you for you.

 

No, there aren't really "gender qualities". If you are a man and you like to wear a skirt, you are still a man. If you are a man and you like football and knitting, you are still a man. You can have a buzz cut and play with toy soldiers and bake in an apron and only wear dresses and still be a man. Your behavior doesn't define your gender. What you feel defines your gender. Do you like being identified as a man? Would you prefer to be identified as a woman? Do you not mind either way? You might be agender/androgynous or maybe genderfluid. Maybe you are trans*. I can't really even give you a good guess on my part from the info you gave, except that it sounds like perhaps your gender indeed doesn't match up with your sex, since you mentioned you feel like a girl and wonder if you only feel like a guy due to your sex.

 

I encourage anyone who still thinks of gender in plain black and white terms or anyone struggling with gender identity to check out genderfork. It's a site for genderfluid and otherwise genderqueer folk to just be themselves and share who they are. You'll find all types of people and it may help you understand yourself better.

[Bacon_Strips]

Thank you for the response, Sock. I was not being very clear with my post, and I am finding it very hard to put my thoughts and feelings into words. I will check out that website, for sure. Since I'm so inexperienced with the subject, I will definitely make it a goal to get a better understanding about everything, especially the possibility of being genderfluid.

[Obscure_Trash]

Well, it wasn't really you being unclear. Gender is hard to put into words! Good luck, and perhaps others will come along and have something more helpful than I. ^^

[MasterWeavile898]

Since we're on the subject...

I feel sorta similarly. I am sexually male, and I'm perfectly happy with that most of the time. But I've been finding that I prefer referring to myself as female. (I talk about myself in third person a lot) It just feels more natural to me

It's more than that, but I can't really describe it :/

Sometimes I feel like I'm just wanting to be different though. (Not that I'm not different enough as it is)

I suppose I will never really understand myself

 

Just getting this out of my system, not really asking anything.

Edited November 15, 2013 by MasterWeavile898

[diannethegeek]

Today is Transgender Remembrance Day, honoring those who've been lost to violence or suicide.

 

The Equality House across the street from the Westboro Baptist compound got a new paint job: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/20/e...html?1384961286

[Cecona]

That house is awesome

[Oasis]

Today is Transgender Remembrance Day, honoring those who've been lost to violence or suicide.

 

The Equality House across the street from the Westboro Baptist compound got a new paint job: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/20/e...html?1384961286

Such swag this house have.

 

I swear I hate the Westboro Baptist church so much I just asdfghjkl want to kill all of them they go around bullying people that didn't do anything wrong just because they're different asdfghjkl I hate them so much and they're just scum and don't hit me with this "hating people is still hating" stuff, seriously they should just go crawl in ditches and die asdfghjkl I hate them and they have no morals asdfghjkl they need to learn acceptance, they think they're so great and stuff, ugh they're so wrong about everything they think asdfghjkl THIS IS NOT A CHURCH ITS A CULT asdfghjkl I bet one day when the government finally tells them to stfu and go away there's gonna be a WHITE priest with some cups of poison and he'll be all like, okay drink this and we'll all go to heaven asdghjkl I can't even believe them, how can anyone be this wrong god doesn't hate transgenders, gays, anyone. I bet the only people he hates are THEM asdfghjkl wasn't there like a part in the bible about false testimony about the lords wishes was wrong or something asdfghjkl because that's exactly what they're doing

[Bacon_Strips]

The Westboro Baptist "Church" is too much of a "trolling" group for me to take them seriously. Either they are an attention-seeking group of loudmouths or they are truly hateful people. Maybe both.

 

The WBA and the SBC denounce them anyways. I've always thought the "church" part was to gain publicity. I bet none of them actually believe in a god of any sorts.

Edited November 21, 2013 by Bacon_Strips