RE: Transexuals
April 11, 2016 at 2:11 pm
(This post was last modified: April 11, 2016 at 2:12 pm by TheRealJoeFish.)
(April 11, 2016 at 2:06 pm)ChadWooters Wrote:(April 11, 2016 at 10:55 am)Chad32 Wrote: Because they're fully capable of functioning within society, as long as they're allowed to modify their body/style to fit how they see themselves... and they won't have more destructive issues later. If you don't allow them to express themselves properly, it will only make things worse. Higher suicide rates, for instance. Being gay or transgender doesn't make people more suicidal. How society treats them does.
The issue seems much more complicated that what either you or Drich have said. Mental health problems are often a constellation of issues and cannot be attributed to a single specific illness or cause. The problems associated with gender-dysphoria cannot be fully attributed to social attitudes. Most often the mentally ill are better served by accepting themselves as they are. That seems to me to be a very important difference between being gay and being transgendered. Positive self-acceptance for a gay person does not require a regime of hormonal treatments and/or invasive surgical procedures. Absent a serious physical illness, trying to change your existing biology to conform to how you think it "should be" is the exact opposite of self-acceptance.
See, though, I think this presumes a certain idea about "self" that may or may not be valid. To clarify, why should it be better to accept whatever part of yourself is your body while denying whatever part of yourself is your mind, instead of the other? Because the first one involves less (physical) medical intervention?
Also, wouldn't your statement apply to weight-loss supplements?
I do certainly agree, though, about the complexity of the topic; it would be hard to overstate the complexity of this, I think.
How will we know, when the morning comes, we are still human? - 2D
Don't worry, my friend. If this be the end, then so shall it be.
Don't worry, my friend. If this be the end, then so shall it be.