Althouse: "When I was trying to live as a man, I was in conflict with God..."

December 19, 2010

"When I was trying to live as a man, I was in conflict with God..."

"... and only by living as the woman I was created to be am I in harmony with God."

66 comments:

Diane Wilson said...: Good for her.; 12/19/10, 5:24 PM
Trooper York said...: Well at least he can still be Chairman of the Joints Chiefs of Staff. That's something isn't it?; 12/19/10, 5:25 PM
Trooper York said...: Or she.; 12/19/10, 5:27 PM
Trooper York said...: Or whatever.; 12/19/10, 5:28 PM
Trooper York said...: Not that there's anything wrong with that.; 12/19/10, 5:28 PM
garage mahal said...: Sorry Trooper, I had some special MOJO going against your ass today. Just sayin.

You could just feel "it", couldn't ya?

Philly Booty Call. G Love style.; 12/19/10, 5:48 PM
Trooper York said...: Hey you win some you lose some.

I don't cry and whine and ask for recounts.

That's the Democrats.

We will get you next time.; 12/19/10, 5:55 PM
Trooper York said...: Plus that was the Eagles that beat us not the Packers.

The last time we played the Packers was....errrr....I think the Championship Game...and errrr....who won.....errrr....Oh yeah!; 12/19/10, 5:57 PM
chuck b. said...: Hmm. What music was playing on my iPhone when I clicked to Althouse just now:

She is benediction
She is addicted to thee
She is the root connection
She is connecting with he...; 12/19/10, 6:02 PM
madAsHell said...: As a woman, she can no longer pee into the wind!; 12/19/10, 6:24 PM
Bender said...: only by living as the woman I was created to be am I in harmony with God.

God created him to be a man, not a woman. You know how you can tell? He was born with a penis and not a vagina.

And now? He is still a man, not a woman. And he will still be a man after surgery, a man with mutilated genitalia.

By living as a "woman" that he was not created to be, he is in harmony with a lie, not God, unless it is a "god" of his own creation, as if one could surgically create that false reality as well.

It is really tragic, a tragedy compounded by those who would encourage him in this delusion.; 12/19/10, 6:32 PM
Unknown said...: Well, I hope this lasts. I have a feeling gender is not the issue here.

PS What Troop said.; 12/19/10, 6:33 PM
chuck b. said...: "You know how you can tell? He was born with a penis and not a vagina."

What if he/she was born with a penis and a vagina?; 12/19/10, 6:36 PM
kjbe said...: I was just rereading Mary Oliver's "The Traveler", today.

But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own...

Yes, good for her.; 12/19/10, 6:36 PM
woof said...: What if he/she was born with a penis and a vagina?

1 in 2000 babys are born inter-sexed, with some combination of male and female genitalia. All embryos start out female. Depending on hormones, you either end up with or female genitalia.; 12/19/10, 6:44 PM
ricpic said...: God is very tolerant because He knows people are schmucks.; 12/19/10, 6:53 PM
knox said...: By living as a "woman" that he was not created to be, he is in harmony with a lie, not God

Oh, how do you know... and what's it to you anyway?; 12/19/10, 7:21 PM
Ken Pidcock said...: "When I was trying to live as a man, I was in conflict with God, and only by living as the woman I was created to be am I in harmony with God," she said.

So was God on a cigarette break when she was born male?

Seriously, though, theologically liberal churches are a blessing for socially conservative people who find themselves out of the mainstream. Good for Stephanie Mott and good for the Metropolitan Community Church.; 12/19/10, 7:45 PM
KCFleming said...: Now there's some trouble with unit cohesion.; 12/19/10, 7:55 PM
Humperdink said...: What barracks does he/she reside during basic training?; 12/19/10, 8:10 PM
Geoff Matthews said...: It was my understanding that if a person has a Y chromosome, then they are male.

Or, if they have a barr body, then they are female.

No amount of surgery will change that.; 12/19/10, 8:17 PM
Wince said...: chuck b. said...
Hmm. What music was playing on my iPhone when I clicked to Althouse just now

Dancing Barefoot, by Patti Smith?

chuck b. said...
What if he/she was born with a penis and a vagina?

wv- "melders"; 12/19/10, 8:19 PM
MadisonMan said...: I think it's a mistake to assume you know what God is thinking.; 12/19/10, 8:19 PM
The Scythian said...: Bender wrote:

"...he is in harmony with a lie, not God, unless it is a 'god' of his own creation..."

Huh. So, you're speaking for God now?; 12/19/10, 8:23 PM
Harsh Pencil said...: Get this straight everyone! There will be a test.

1) Gender is a social construct. No one is objectively male or female. No one is BORN male or female. You are what you feel you are.

2) Sexual Orientation is NOT a social construct. If you are born gay, you ARE gay.

Thank you. That is all.; 12/19/10, 8:32 PM
woof said...: Then there are those who are born stupid.; 12/19/10, 8:35 PM
Harsh Pencil said...: "When I was trying to live as a human, I was in conflict with God..."

"... and only by living as the horse I was created to be am I in harmony with God."

(Thank God for the ability of the Hair Club for Men to get than mane put on me!!); 12/19/10, 8:35 PM
woof said...: Is there are brain club for men ?; 12/19/10, 8:42 PM
Harsh Pencil said...: This from someone who doesn't understand XX versus XY?; 12/19/10, 8:44 PM
woof said...: Fetal development is much more complicated than simply XX or XY chromosomes.

In addition to the most common XX and XY chromosomal sexes, there are quite a few other possible combinations such as Turner syndrome (XO), Triple X syndrome (XXX), Klinefelter's Syndrome (XXY/XXXY), XYY syndrome (XYY), de la Chapelle syndrome (XX male), Swyer syndrome (XY female), and there are many other individuals who do not follow the typical patterns (such as individuals with four or even more sex chromosomes).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intersexed#Disorders_of_sex_development; 12/19/10, 8:53 PM
Harsh Pencil said...: Gosh, I thought you said it was all just a matter of hormones? (without mentioning that the fetus's genes, normal or abnormal, are usually what determines whether those hormones are present.)

More seriously, the fact is that while their are indeed rare exceptions, humans basically come as XX or XY, just like, except with rare exceptions, humans come with two arms and two legs. You can bring all sorts of examples about this guy here was born with one leg or three arms, and they indeed are out there, but it doesn't negate the fact that humans come, generally, with two legs and two arms. Or, except in very rare exceptions, are XX or XY.

Is there ANY evidence that a majority of transexuals actually are examples of the genetic oddities to which you refer?; 12/19/10, 9:00 PM
DADvocate said...: ...love, inclusion and tolerance.

I'm waiting for the day when we get that for plain ole ordinary men.; 12/19/10, 9:31 PM
The Scythian said...: Harsh Pencil,

With the exception of some women I've known who have gone through a bi-curious phase, all of the gays and lesbians I've ever met knew that there was something different about themselves before puberty. (An example here would be my lesbian cousin who was "accidentally" tearing her dresses around age six or seven.)

Most of the gays and lesbians I've met tried to "exorcize" their desires at one point or another, or went through periods of self-loathing because they weren't romantically or sexually attracted to people of the opposite sex.

I have no idea if homosexuality is inborn, although everything I've ever scene or heard suggests that it is. I suspect that in some cases an element of choice is involved (such as bisexuals who are pressured to conform to a heterosexual or homosexual lifestyle).

Regardless, what consenting adults do with each other doesn't bother me at all.

While I have known a number of gays and lesbians, I haven't known any transexuals. But everything I've ever seen or heard suggests that, like homosexuals, their discomfort with their biological sex is deeply ingrained. I don't know if it's inborn or not and I don't really care.

I mean, the percentage of people who make the decision to transition represents a tiny, tiny fraction of the population -- it's not like this is a huge social problem that's going to render the human race extinct. And, at the end of the day, their transexualism doesn't negatively impact me.

My question for you is, well...

What's the deal? Why should I give a flying fuck who consenting adults sleep with or what they do with their bodies?; 12/19/10, 10:14 PM
Bruce Hayden said...: I think my libertarian bent is coming out here, but mostly, I don't care. Maybe we should come up with another gender, such as "s/he" or something, which we can use for anyone in the middle, who either is moving in one direction or another, or has done so already. Or, maybe use "it". Maybe the later, because the possessive of "s/he" is a bit problematic. Should it be "s/his"?

Society will take a bit to come to grips with the problem of trannies. For example, I think that it was in AZ a couple of years ago, where one club prohibited a certain person or persons from their premises. Apparently, they were moving from male to female, and were insisting on using the female facilities. But they hadn't gone through gender reassignment, and some still had noticeable beards. And a lot of XX females were uncomfortable with obvious males dressed as women hanging around in the women's bathroom. Likely not an issue in the more enlightened areas of this country, like CA and NYC, but AZ, Barry Goldwater's state, still has a conservative side to it.; 12/19/10, 10:19 PM
Fred4Pres said...: Transgendered often do not get better by surgery (because orientation is mostly in the brain, not the balls), but if she is better, great. Good for her.; 12/19/10, 10:24 PM
Joel C Anatoli said...: Hehee.. Thats something you dont read every day.; 12/19/10, 10:31 PM
Anonymous said...: And all the time I thought it was through baptism that we were restored to harmony with God.

Go figure!; 12/19/10, 10:31 PM
Bender said...: Look, I don't care if it is a Jewish lawyer who insists that he is a dolphin on the inside, and he undergoes dolphinoplasty.

He will still always be a Jewish lawyer, not a Jewfin.

Truth is what it is. We cannot create our own "truth."; 12/19/10, 10:35 PM
Bender said...: what's it to you anyway?

It wasn't anything to me. He is the one that wants to make it something to me. He is the one who wants me to call him "her."; 12/19/10, 10:37 PM
woof said...: What's wrong with being respectful and use the pronoun she decides is appropriate ?

How about a genetic male who was born inter-sexed and surgically reassigned (a barbaric practice) to female as an infant ?

1 in 2000 births result in babies with some sort of genital ambiguity.

How about trying some empathy ?; 12/19/10, 10:45 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: We had a situation like that were I used to work.. Jim wanted to go start using the ladies bathroom after the operation.

They compromised with the women that objected.. they could start using the bathroom down by the lobby.. we were up in the 12th floor.

He/she worked out great for our softball team because we were coed, meaning we had to field two women or we would default.

He/she was our pitcher..; 12/19/10, 10:47 PM
Bruce Hayden said...: That all said, I think that it is not surprising to me that some would think that they were born the wrong sex, and that is more likely men who believe that they should have been born women.

As noted earlier, the default, without the addition of male hormones during gestation, is a female brain. It is the presence of those male hormones that causes a brain to develop as male. There is also mounting evidence that at least male homosexuality is at least partially, and maybe primarily, a result of something interfering with male hormones at certain stages in prenatal brain development.

One of the interesting findings though that coincides with that is that male homosexual development is not just a binary thing. Rather, it appears that there are two different things that are involved, and they are developed at slightly different times during gestation. One is, of course, actual sexual orientation. Which sex is preferred as a mate (and which do we obsess about). This can, apparently, be fairly easily determined in males - you just have to wire them up, and show them naked pictures of males and females and see which they react to.

The other though is sexual approach. The male approach is active, and the female is passive. Most times, it is the male who is the overt aggressor in relationships, and the female is the one overtly pursued. And, yes, that is the way throughout much of the animal kingdom.

But with human homosexuality, it is clear that this may be separate from actual sexual orientation. And, I would suggest that the reason that there is more promiscuity in male homosexuals than in the general populace is that for many of them, it is a result of combining an active approach with an orientation towards each other.

But I think that it goes beyond this. My memory is that some brains of some male homosexuals appear noticeably more female than average for the brain of an XY person. And, this may be part of the reason behind many of our stereotypes of gay males.

But what about that person who may have been masculineized enough to be born with male genitalia, and may be able to operate sexually as a male, including the ability to father children, but whose brain otherwise failed to properly masculinize?

I find it eminently plausible that someone could be born with male genitalia, and ultimately generate sufficient male hormones to physically masculinize. But whose brain at certain points during gestation failed to do so, most likely I expect as a result of insufficient male hormones at that point. In short, someone with a male body and a brain that is more female than male.

And this is why I just can't get upset at someone moving physically in one direction or the other as far as apparent gender. It really isn't any of my business, until, and unless, they somehow impact my life. And, they probably won't.

But I would ask of those moving in one direction or another to be sensitive about the fact that when it comes to intimate relationships, this sort of thing really does matter. For example, if a guy is looking for a wife to bear his children, he most likely is not going to be interested in someone who has gone through male/female gender reassignment, because they could not bear those children. And, so, I think that failure to bring this up at the start of a relationship may be fraudulent. Maybe not as important as that someone has an STD, such as AIDS, but close.; 12/19/10, 10:55 PM
Blair said...: I generally don't have a problem with people living the way they want to live, but if they are going to start talking about God, I am going to argue with them.

As far as I can tell, God doesn't have a problem with you changing your name and wearing a dress. But he did give you a penis, a Y chromosome, and male hormones, so did God make a mistake? If s/he's going to talk about what God thinks of him/her, I'll argue that God made him/her a male, and s/he's not going to find any real peace until s/he accepts how God made him/her.

Behaviour is different. S/he can behave how s/he likes. But there's also a certain self-indulgence in behaving in a socially awkward way, and just expecting people to be cool and tolerant with it. I'm not saying people shouldn't be cool and tolerant, but to expect that is a rather indulgent thing. If you make the choice to be "weird", you should expect to be treated weird.; 12/19/10, 10:58 PM
woof said...: God also makes conjoined twins. Is this a mistake. Should they not be separated if possible ?; 12/19/10, 11:00 PM
Harsh Pencil said...: If I decide I'm a woman, get a "sex change", and write a book about it, I'd get on Oprah, except for the fact that she's already done it with someone else.

So I guess if I decide I'm really an African-American (you see, I've always been sure I'm an African-American stuck in an Irish-American's body), get a surgeon to make me look African-American, and write a book about it, Oprah and everyone else will accept me as an African-American?

What's it to you? What's your hang up man? Why can't you just be polite and accept me for who I really am?; 12/19/10, 11:14 PM
Bruce Hayden said...: Why not use the sexual pronouns that someone prefers used for them?

For the most part, I don't care. If it makes them feel better, then, fine, I will play along. I don't think that sex and gender are social constructs. But I also don't really approve of dividing the population through language into two mutually exclusive categories. And, I am especially troubled by the extent that the male is preferred in many instances by languages.

But that doesn't mean that I support accepting the entire transgendered agenda. For example, I totally emphasize with the XX women being freaked out by an XY guy with male genitalia and other male characteristics, who dresses as a woman and hangs out in women's rooms (and, worse, if there are couple of guys doing that). And, with the heterosexual guy who is making out with someone he thinks is female, just to discover that they have male genitalia. Or, even absent that, that they cannot bear children because they started out with testes and not ovaries.

In other words, I would say to transgendered individuals, that we will call you whatever you wish, as long as it isn't too absolutely ridiculous (e.g. no "jewfins"). But don't ask that we treat you as having whichever sex or gender you choose, when it is contrary to your chromosones, and insisting that we do so adversely impacts the rest of us.; 12/19/10, 11:14 PM
Bruce Hayden said...: Behaviour is different. S/he can behave how s/he likes. But there's also a certain self-indulgence in behaving in a socially awkward way, and just expecting people to be cool and tolerant with it. I'm not saying people shouldn't be cool and tolerant, but to expect that is a rather indulgent thing. If you make the choice to be "weird", you should expect to be treated weird.

I am mostly in agreement with this. Which is why I distinguish speech from behavior. And, will suggest that it is when someone is doing something out of apparent normality, that they be the ones to flex, and not expect the rest of us to cater to their differences, at least to the extent that they affect us individually.; 12/19/10, 11:18 PM
woof said...: Oprah has done stories about people who were surprised when it turned out that they had close relatives who were either African American or Caucasian.

You're being flippant about an important and life changing issue for people. Don't you have any empathy ? You should try walking in someone else's shoes some time. It might make you a better person.; 12/19/10, 11:21 PM
Bruce Hayden said...: So I guess if I decide I'm really an African-American (you see, I've always been sure I'm an African-American stuck in an Irish-American's body), get a surgeon to make me look African-American, and write a book about it, Oprah and everyone else will accept me as an African-American?

This is one of the places where gender reassignment, racial reassignment, etc. run contrary to the progressive idea of racial and sexual identity politics and quotas. If it doesn't matter what we call ourselves, then why not call ourselves whatever is most expedient at the current time? This was most famously done by Ward Churchill calling himself a Native American in order to get a job at CU, then get tenure, etc.

So, in order to get into college, we can all be Native American, or maybe African-American, males. And, identifying as such is likely to also result in much better scholarship opportunities. Win-win all the way around. But, then later, when applying for a job in a traditionally male dominated field, we can conveniently switch genders to female, again helping us to advance.

And, to make things even more fair, we can also throw in claiming some disabilities. Thus, someone may be able to get into Harvard by claiming to be a double amputee Native American male dwarf with severe dyslexia in their sole eye, despite having only 400 level SATs.; 12/19/10, 11:30 PM
Harsh Pencil said...: I have no doubt that there are men out there who truly in their hearts believe they are women and women who believe they are men. I don't think they are lying. What I object to is the current social convention, which we are supposed to go along with, that this belief of theirs implies that they are, in fact, the gender they believe they are. That somehow a person's confusion or mental illness creates a new reality.

As for Mr. or Ms. Woof, I've seen mental illness in my extended family. I know how devastating it is for all involved, especially the person suffering from it directly. It's not something I would wish on anyone. But it generally doesn't help anyone to pretend a disorder isn't a disorder.

For this particular disorder, there is no evidence at all that going along actually helps when a truly XY man is convinced he's a woman. A lot of surgeons who used to do these operations have stopped because the outcomes have not been good.; 12/19/10, 11:38 PM
Methadras said...: chuck b. said...

"You know how you can tell? He was born with a penis and not a vagina."

What if he/she was born with a penis and a vagina?

Hermy.; 12/20/10, 12:40 AM
Penny said...: The link didn't work for me, but you can go to the newspaper to find it.

It's a lovely story really, about someone whose life has turned around in many positive ways. While she seems to give the lion's share of credit to the inclusiveness of her new church, the homeless shelter and halfway house gave her a nice start.; 12/20/10, 1:12 AM
Fernandinande said...: God created him to be a man, not a woman. You know how you can tell? He was born with a penis and not a vagina.

You're right that he's a man in disguise, god or not, because "man" and "woman" are defined by chromosomes.; 12/20/10, 6:36 AM
jr565 said...: Harsh Pencil wrote:
1) Gender is a social construct. No one is objectively male or female. No one is BORN male or female. You are what you feel you are.

2) Sexual Orientation is NOT a social construct. If you are born gay, you ARE gay.

THe two are not compatible. If you are not objectively male or female then you can't objectively be gay. Being gay assumes that you are one gender, and like the same gender.If gender is a social construct then you could never define yourself as gay. All you could say is you like men or you like women. I might think you are gay because you look like a man and like other men, but as you say, gender is a social construct, so you could think you're a woman and like men, therefore you're not gay. See what I mean?
Which is why I'm wondering why you like transgendered in with the gays in the community. Transgendered NEED to have gender be paramount. If you really think the way you do you would tell your transgendered friends to save their money on getting their sex changed, since it's all a social construct anyway.; 12/20/10, 6:48 AM
Anonymous said...: I think sympathy is definitely in order. By one estimate 20% of transsexuals attempt suicide (fortunately far fewer succeed).

As for his/her concept of God I think it's confused, but sincere. He/She shows at least an interest in faith which is more than many in like circumstances. I'm surprised there's no hostility toward God.

From a Catholic perspective, we owe those who struggle with sexual roles both charity and truth. In this context the truth is that some children are born with nearly intractable physical/sexual problems for which they are entirely blameless. Only after they mature and begin to make choices do they become morally accountable. That is the Christian understanding of truth. However given heterosexual promiscuity, divorce etc Christians like me are in no position to judge or accuse. Instead we are called to reflect the Divine mercy we have received as best we can. This does not mean tolerance of sin, but it does mean empathy and acceptance of the dignity and humanity of other person whatever their state.

That's the ideal of course and hard to manage in practice. I tend to find it very hard to criticize behavior even with friends because it's so personal and easy to offend. This applies to heterosexual behavior as well. Can you imagine how socially disruptive, arrogant/self-righteous and ineffective it would be to rudely point out everyone else's faults? I doubt that more than a few people are entirely ignorant of the view of the Church. So that after a harsh critique, they are understandably likely to reject the Church instead of seeking reconciliation with God. Uncharitable corrections may do more harm than good.

Homosexuals are often unjustly singled out for rebukes because we heterosexual Christians find it easy to call out sexual sins that we are not tempted to, while ignoring our own analogous offenses before God. As a result we loose credibility with our intended audience and our efforts at correction become a display of vanity instead.; 12/20/10, 8:52 AM
The Musket said...: I don't know about the mental state of transgenders and I would be polite, but I do know I don't want to pay for their sex change surgeries.; 12/20/10, 8:59 AM
Anonymous said...: (site is coming up not found for me, so my comments are general)

I don't get it. I don't care; live your life the way you want (as long as I don't have to pay for it), but the concept of "changing genders" makes no sense to me.

As a woman, I can do pretty much anything that I want, other than get a BJ and pee standing up. I can fuck a man or fuck a woman, I can be (just about) any job I want to be, I can do pretty much anything. Society may look at me a little bit funny for some of it, but no funnier than it would for changing sexes.

So, is all of the everything involved in gender change surgery, hormones, etc., really worth it? For what payoff? To be called "she" instead of "he" strikes me as pretty meaningless symbolism. And I can't see how it has anything to do with God.

- Lyssa; 12/20/10, 9:20 AM
Anonymous said...: "And I can't see how it has anything to do with God."

To those of us with faith, everything relates God. To those of without it, nothing does.; 12/20/10, 10:43 AM
Freeman Hunt said...: I think every diagnosis now has a sort of script that the diagnosee is supposed to internalize.; 12/20/10, 12:47 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: Transgender coming of age stories always include a lot of material about a desire, nay, a compulsion to wear clothes stereotypical of the wished-to-be sex.

And yet, this seems relatively foreign to non-transgender people. If I'd been made to wear boys' clothes as a young child, I daresay I wouldn't have noticed. In fact, my father was once sent to get my school clothes for the year and accidentally bought them all in the wrong section. A year of pants and polos ensued, and I didn't notice at all.

Lots of clothing is totally androgynous, and no one seems to notice. So what's with the clothing thing? Part of the accepted script? Something else? What?; 12/20/10, 1:18 PM
jr565 said...: Harsh Pencil wrote:
"1) Gender is a social construct. No one is objectively male or female. No one is BORN male or female. You are what you feel you are.

2) Sexual Orientation is NOT a social construct. If you are born gay, you ARE gay."

To follow up on prevoius comments. If that is true (that gender is a social construct) when gays say they like MEN, what do they actually mean? I'm assuming it means guys with dicks, but if it's just a social construct it could just as easily mean women who have vaginas. To even define yourself as gay you'd have to reference what you like, and that would have to be defined by a gender not based on a social construct.
In short, i think the gay and lesbian community should kick out the transgendered because they are at odds philosophically in their views. besides the transgendered are really weird.; 12/20/10, 6:39 PM
knox said...: And yet, this seems relatively foreign to non-transgender people.

Transvestites feel the same compulsion, but they don't literally feel like they are in the wrong body, I think.

Which brings up another question: do female transvestites exist?; 12/20/10, 9:10 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: And would anyone know if they did?; 12/20/10, 9:57 PM
Zoe Brain said...: Maybe this will help, as there have been some good questions asked here by commenters, and while the medical profession is getting better educated about this all the time, the knowledge of the general public is still lagging.

Not too surprising, most of the evidence has come in since 1995, and much in the last 5 years.

Sound byte: Male brain in otherwise female body or the reverse.

I mean anatomically male, not "psychologically" or "mentally" or "spiritually", but physically, objectively.

A biologist, given a human brain to examine, can tell if it's from a man or a woman. While the two are very, very similar, there are physical differences in various structures. The distribution of white matter, the relative sizes of various parts, the distribution of various cell types in the lymbic nucleus, putamen, hypothalamus etc.

Some of these differences are visible at 26 weeks after conception (data from autopsies of miscarried babies).

Some of the differences can also be seen in fMRI imaging, though that doesn't go down to the cellular level, for that you need autopsy results.

Transsexuals have cross-sexed brains.

There's a short (about 20) selection of the hundreds of medical papers on the subject here. This is no longer controversial, at least to neurologists. There's some resistance to the idea from some members of the psychiatric profession, who prefer to believe in Ego, Id, the Collective Unconscious, Past Lives, Spirit Release Therapy, Exorcism etc.

Now as to why having the neuro-anatomy of one sex invariably leads to the person having a gender identity of that sex, regardless of their genitalia and upbringing, that we have a theory of - but no real way to test it. Not without being Mengele.

I'll give more details in the next post. Just remember, we're talking about a physical difference in the body here, not "feelings" or "beliefs".; 12/21/10, 8:29 AM
Zoe Brain said...: Boys and Girls have different neuro-anatomy even at birth. This causes them to have measurably different senses of smell and hearing, language ability, different emotional responses etc.

Trans women have the usual female acuity of smell.

See

Male-to-female transsexuals show sex-atypical hypothalamus activation when smelling odorous steroids. by Berglund et al Cerebral Cortex 2008 18(8):1900-1908;

...the data implicate that transsexuality may be associated with sex-atypical physiological responses in specific hypothalamic circuits, possibly as a consequence of a variant neuronal differentiation.

Some of the anatomical differences:

Male–to–female transsexuals have female neuron numbers in a limbic nucleus. Kruiver et al J Clin Endocrinol Metab (2000) 85:2034–2041

The present findings of somatostatin neuronal sex differences in the BSTc and its sex reversal in the transsexual brain clearly support the paradigm that in transsexuals sexual differentiation of the brain and genitals may go into opposite directions and point to a neurobiological basis of gender identity disorder.

White matter microstructure in female to male transsexuals before cross-sex hormonal treatment. A diffusion tensor imaging study. - Rametti et al, J Psychiatr Res. 2010 Jun 8.

CONCLUSIONS: Our results show that the white matter microstructure pattern in untreated FtM transsexuals is closer to the pattern of subjects who share their gender identity (males) than those who share their biological sex (females). Our results provide evidence for an inherent difference in the brain structure of FtM transsexuals.

And so on.

As regards "real sex" being determined by chromosomes - having a Y chromosome == male ;

A 46,XY mother who developed as a normal woman underwent spontaneous puberty, reached menarche, menstruated regularly, experienced two unassisted pregnancies, and gave birth to a 46,XY daughter with complete gonadal dysgenesis. -- J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2008 Jan;93(1):182-9; 12/21/10, 8:45 AM
Zoe Brain said...: As regards "real sex" being determined by genitalia at birth:

Male pseudohermaphroditism due to steroid 5A-reductase deficiency Peterson et al Am Jnl Med 1977 Vol. 62, Issue 2, Pages 170-191
A new inherited form of male pseudohermaphroditism has been investigated in a pedigree of 24 families with 38 affected males. At birth, the affected males (46 XY) have a clitoral-like phallus, bifid scrotum and urogenital sinus. The testes are in the inguinal canals or labial-scrotal folds. The Wolffian structures are normally differentiated; there are no Mullerian structures. At puberty a muscular male habitus develops with growth of the phallus and scrotum, voice change and no gynecomastia. The subjects have erections, ejaculations and a libido directed towards females.

Which is a fancy way of saying that they're born as little girls, but change sex later, growing male genitalia and having the vagina close up.

During the early 1970s, Dr. Julianne Imperato, a Cornell endocrinologist, conducted an expedition to the Dominican Republic to investigate reports of an isolated village where children appearing to be girls turned into men at puberty. In the village, these children were known as 'guevedoces' (literally, penis at 12 years). Also known locally as machihembras ('first women, then man'), these pseudohermaphrodites were documented serially in the following photographs published originally in the American Journal of Medicne (Am. J. Med. 62: 170-191, 1977):

In an isolated village of the southwestern Dominican Republic, 2% of the live births were in the 1970's, guevedoces (actually male pseudohermaphrodites). These children appeared to be girls at birth, but at puberty these 'girls' sprout muscles, testes, and a penis. For the rest of their lives they are men in nearly all respects (see photograph 6 below). Their underlying pathology was found to be a deficiency of the enzyme, 5-alpha Reductase.
The Guevedoces of the Dominican Republic

Such things are rare, but then, so is Transsexuality, where the brain is that of one sex, the genitalia of the other.

So if the definition of "sex" is to mean anything at all, it must reside in the seat of consciousness, the brain. The thing that determines if we feel, smell, hear, emote, think etc like one sex or the other (though there's plenty of overlap. individuals differ).

So yes, a transsexual woman forced to live like a man because she looked like one feels like she's living a lie. And anatomically speaking, she's right.; 12/21/10, 9:04 AM