Colorado parents of transgender 1st-grader file complaint over restroom ban

[Angrboda]

Allow me to take inventory.

Daniel is intimately familiar with the inside of a brothel.
And intimately familiar with the inside of a woman's restroom.
I'm tempted to ask if he's intimately familiar with the inside of a woman's vagina, but I won't.


I guess I only have one question. Daniel/Aractus, are you not in point of fact a male-to-female transsexual?

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I've been doing my best to avoid getting drawn into this thread because I see no answer where people don't end up getting hurt in important ways.


But I want to offer my two cents on at least one thing. In my opinion, which is not particularly well informed, biological sex and gender refer to two distinct things. Biological sex refers to the sex typing of the development of the body, whereas gender refers to the sex typing of the development of the brain (there is some overlap because of things like the endocrine system). We know a good deal about this process with respect to the body, but there is a vast chasm of ignorance as to the specifics of the process of sex typing of the brain, and as with any aspect of the brain, there are multiple vectors (genetics, pre-natal and post-natal development, social and sexual environment, experience, hormonal, and so on). (I also want to stick in a note here that the whole question of a child's cognitive ability to form notions of gender and social roles at various ages in childhood is an important untouched question here, which surely relates to how we determine the needs and capacities of a six year old with reference to sex and gender identity.) And while the sex typing of the brain certainly includes laying down patterns of sexual arousal and sexual response, it also includes a whole host of other things related to personality traits, cognitive styles, self-image, and more. To attempt to reduce gender to it's association with sex typing of the body, or patterns of sexual arousal and response (most of which will develop considerably later than 6 years), is to my view either too narrow a view of gender, or the result of a different conception of gender, or simple confusion about what gender is, period. Given our current level of technological and ethical sophistication, if there is a mismatch between the sex typing of the body and the sex typing of the brain which results in distress, our only real, effective option at this point is to attempt to adjust the physical sex typing of the body to match the sex typing of the brain. It's not clear that we would or might do otherwise even if the technology were available. (see TEGH's thread on the question of "if homosexuality could be prevented...")

As to the question of this specific case, I have concerns about both sides. If forcing a 6 year old child to adopt social roles, behaviors, practices and an environment that is fundamentally at odds with the developmental process of sex typing in her brain, I think it eminently reasonable to expect said contradiction to also impact the development of a girl-girl if violations of that development are allowed to occur. (Though, perhaps likely to a much lesser extent.) We are, as a species, strongly dependent on taking our cues about sex and gender from our environment, such that our sexual arousal is basically a function of visual and auditory cues, the movement of the body, the pattern of dark and light that make up our ability to recognize and distinguish animal from human, human non-sex partner from human sex partner, and human sex partner sexual body part from human sex partner non-sexual body part ("Not in the eye!"). And part of our socio-sexual experience has to do with things like privacy and sacredness of the body. I'm not making an argument here, but I rather suspect that the idea that this separation of private spaces is simply a reflection of a prudish and immature society is a gross and inaccurate simplification. I have no idea what the science says on the question, but I rather suspect that the call to "abandon" our worries about exposing our nudity to either the public or members of the opposite sex (orientation, whatever) is less motivated by actual science and knowledge as much as it is by political or sexual ideology.


I guess I've come to the end of my rant. It came out more pear shaped than I had envisioned, but fuck it. I have places to be.
I may get a second opinion, but I'm worried that I'm not meeting my quota for raping straight-women in public restrooms.

gtg.