John Hawkins from Right Wing News posted a list of 20 issues which are considered too politically incorrect to discuss openly in America anymore. I am not a regular reader of this site but found this post through a link aggregator and recognized the list as topics on which I’ve written. These hot topics are great for discussions so I figured we’ll go over them and see what we come up with.
(Number 1) — People who want to change sexes should be treated by a psychologist, not deformed through surgery, given hormone treatments, and falsely told that they can change sexes.
Without taking any moral stance on the issue of sex-change surgery or sexuality, this should be uncontroversial. If one’s physical body is in ordinary working order why should we believe the problem is with the physical body? I think even more importantly we should ask why we should accept that the mind is in the correct state and the body isn’t?
For example, if someone believed they were born in the wrong body and believed they should be a rabbit, would we give credence to this feeling? Would we foster this belief and encourage surgeries to make this person more rabbitlike? Of course not. And this notion is patently absurd. Why then do we foster feelings about being in the “wrong body”; whether it’s a man who believes he should be a rabbit or a man who believes he should be a woman?
Hawkins rightly states that someone who has these feelings — regardless of how long they have felt this way or how early in life the feelings were discovered — should seek psychological treatment, not sex reassignment surgery. The problem is the mind, not the body.
If you believe that a sex-change surgery is a proper way to address these kinds of feelings, can you make a case for making the normal functioning body to conform to the mind rather than making the mind conform to the normal functioning body?
Sifting Reality 
I just watched a 2001 movie called, “Southern Comfort” about a woman who had a sex change (not sure of the extent but for sure a double mastectomy) who was dying of ovarian cancer as she did not have a total hysterectomy. She always said she was a man trapped inside a female’s body and was always attracted to women as a MAN, not as a lesbian. HOWEVER, in the movie she was dating a transsexual MAN (he was not transgendered, no surgery) so in the end we have a woman with a man!?? Makes no sense to me.
Not like it made a whole lot of sense in the first place
So John, you are “for” taking away the individuals rights and liberties to pay for and do what they want with “their” body? This seems like the government would be getting involved where you usually say it shouldn’t.
We are also talking about less than 1/10 of the population. It might fall under the heading, “Who really gives a shi!”. I mean seeing that about 35 people a year are getting this surgery in a country of 320 million I am confounded that it matters to the point where you would retract their right to do that.
Where do you draw the line? I feel like a woman who wants to get her rack tripled in size should see a psychologist but it is not my right to make laws revoking her rights to do so. Or the woman who takes her 14 year old daughter in for a nose or boob job, what about them?
And since we are close to the subject, what about the forcible revoking of rights for an infant male with regard to circumcision? He has had a blood sacrifice Bronze Age ritual forced upon him against his will. What about the individual liberty in this circumstance?
Nash
Where did you get the idea that I think people shouldnt be allowed to do it? They can do it if they want to. My point was something else that somehow you were able to miss. That being that the problem of believing youre in the “wrong body” is a problem of the mind, not the body. Therefore altering the body is not a proper solution.
I think its a mistake to foster and encourage physical mutilation as a remedy.
Since circumcision isnt anything like this topic, I’ll hold off on addtessing it. I dont want to go off on a tangent.
The problem is that most in the psych industry nowadays see nothing wrong with such surgery, and in fact that industry is where the whole “transgender” thing came from to begin with! I agree that the problem is with their thinking processes, but I don’t think going to anyone in the psych industry will fix their problem. Christian biblical counseling would be a fix if the person is a Christian. Otherwise, they just need good, smart friends.
So long as it harms nobody else, or society, I don’t give a damn what people do. I’m not sure such a small percentage of freaks harms society, so I don’t have a problem with transsexuals or whatever the “politically correct” term. I think they’re crazy and need serious help, but whatever.
http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/psychiatry-expert-scientifically-there-is-no-such-thing-as-transgender
We have plenty of laws that prevent us from doing whatever we want with our bodies to prevent self harm, such as laws against drug abuse, severe body modifications, etc. Self harm never harms only the person who does it, but affects everyone around them, too. It may just take longer, or be less obvious.
If someone is ill, they deserve proper treatment. When it comes to body dismorphia, someone convinced they live in a body that is the wrong gender is not really any different than someone who believes they would be happier if they amputate a leg, or someone convinced their body is fat, even as they starve themselves to death. Normalizing the behaviour is adding to their illness, not helping it. They need treatment.
“For example, if someone believed they were born in the wrong body and believed they should be a rabbit, would we give credence to this feeling? Would we foster this belief and encourage surgeries to make this person more rabbitlike? Of course not. And this notion is patently absurd. ”
Ah, but we already do. It’s already acceptable (apparently. :-P ) to be “otherkin” or “non-human” identified. There are people utterly convinced that they are really animals (or aliens, or a spirit being, or… the list is fairly long), and the gender eliminating culture being forced on us is enabling them rather then giving them the help that they need.
A rather famous example was the Native guy who believed his totem animal was a tiger. He had his teeth replaced – all of them – to look like tiger teeth. He had massive restructuring of his face done. He had tiger stripes tattooed. He had his ears restructured, too. He was very famous among the body modification community. Sadly, he committed suicide not long ago.
One could say his obsession harmed no one but himself, but his behaviour influenced others and normalized something that was decidedly abnormal.