IF this is true: Could this possibly because we as society have marginalized these people? Could it be due to family and society created self-destructive behaviors inculcated by the message of self-hate? Could they be coping mechanisms to deal with the hypocrisy of society at large? Could the fear (or side effects) of being abandoned by family, friends and church be a root cause of a lot of these pathologies? Maybe it is NOT inherent in the orientation, but in the lack of acceptance!
Have there been any studies as to the relation of acceptance and family caring versus these damaging behaviors?

I promise you, IF AMA and PFLAG saw some sort of good coming from Reparative Therapy, they would not be so quick to cast it aside; there are still thinking individuals in the organizations noted; not all will ‘toe the line.’ Reparative Therapy appears to be on the level of Creationist Science: religion doesn’t belong in science – it cannot be quantified, and that is the point of science. Until more has been proven that Reparative Therapy actually works on a large scale, of course these organizations will decry it as harmful.

Anirb, show me the money. I need to see the proof, as in clinical studies etc. Depression was once considered “all in your head.” After enough study and medical studies, we know SOME depression is, but a lot is chemically induced. Right now you are saying to these transpeople, “it’s all in your head”, perhaps that, like clinical Depression, is an over-simplification of a complex chemical and mental problem.

Besides all this, WHAT RIGHT IS IT OF YOURS to tell my son or my daughter, or some other poor person, that elective surgical changes aren’t right for them? Are you a doctor with proof that far more people are harmed by these procedures than are helped? SHOW ME THE MONEY!

Kathryn, you are right, and my God is big enough to allow complexities and challenges in everything I do; including gender, sex and orientation.

To all others, until you have lived with your own child being a transperson, or you are a transperson, you cannot begin to fathom the depth of these beliefs and the apparent inability to change the mind compared to the ease of changing body to match mind. When all it takes is some acceptance and support for a transchild to transform into a much better, happier individual, why is it so hard to love and accept them as persons? You don’t understand it, okay, but what is the ROI on repression vs acceptance?

How many transpersons do you actually know? Have you seen reparative therapy work, with actual clear results, where the gender identification dysphoria is totally cured? How do you know that it isn’t just being repressed and later to emerge as some far more destructive complex?

I notice that you state that the harelip and burn victim are not good examples. How about hysterectomy? How about the idea that under some cases the prevention of suicide is a higher
goal than avoiding surgical reconstruction? I note in some studies of the amputees, they will actually do damage to themselves to bring about the removal of the limb whether or not they do it in a clean safe environment. Transpersons have done this too – will it require transpersons in the future to physically mutilate themselves so that doctors will complete the process? Is it not better off the bat to avoid numerous deaths by giving these people what they want? (With medical and psychiatric oversight of course.)

Rather than take up arms against the 10’s to 100’s of thousands of cosmetic surgeries done in the U.S., you want to classify transpersons at the same level as necrophiliacs and these pour souls with the amputee “needs.” A 50 year old woman wants to remove a large portion of her nose surgically so that she can ‘feel better about herself’, and that’s ok, but SRS/GRS (for this argument, cosmetic surgery on a much higher level) isn’t? Isn’t that a hypocritical thought? Where does your right to my body start and end? What damage is done to society when GRS/SRS is performed on a consenting and wanting adult? Couldn’t you apply those same thoughts to any non-life threatening related body changes (including piercings?)

As to genetics, it could also serve to create replacement clone organs such that excepting a DNA study, you couldn’t tell if the patient was ‘actually’ born a man or a woman. A transperson with these organs can reproduce sexually, thereby meeting the “requirement of procreation” by many stated. I won’t go more into Eugenics than this: removal of “the gay gene” by medical society should not be allowed for by referring to the very same argument is made against transpersons having SRS/GRS: it’s not what “God intended”. As usual, we have no idea of what the long term effects are from such ‘genetic pruning.’ Perhaps there is some correlation between the “gay gene” and positive effects on other gene workings that are not clearly evident but possibly life-saving?

I will support you 100% on banning GRS/SRS IF you can show me a large number of actual cases where, over the long haul 10, 15, 20 years, medical society is unable to refute the fact that reparative therapy did more good than it did damage. (say, insert arbitrary number here, 500+ cases.)

Treading waters of yearning
I search the horizon
For an island of resolve
Finding solace
On a beach of self Indentity

Jesus, Is our rock, our fortress
He is the great phyicain
He knows our Pain, through that we gain
So use self- restraint
Be strong in Him
Our hearts may yearn, for love
That comes from the Lord above
For He is our Creator, Our hope is in Him
The saviour of Mankind
For we were made in His image
Never left to our own device
Ask Jesus in, seek his advice

They’re trying to do what’s right in their eyes.

We just have to educate, and the great majority who are not merely using sanctimony as an excuse for Divinely-sanctioned hatred will come around.

We have to say “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

This is all so far outside most people’s experience that of course they have difficulty with the concepts! It goes as much against common-sense as, well, the Earth not being flat, or the Earth moving round the Sun. Common-sense is a really good guide, and we ignore it at our peril, it’s just not infallible.

So please don’t be too hard on them. Explain, don’t condemn. And though by their actions they are condemning children to misery and death, they don’t realise that. We mustn’t hate them. They’re trying to do what’s right too, they just don’t see the consequences. Only a very few don’t care.

With hermaphrodite, they must keep all parts intact (in medical terms that is not a sex change because the genitals are already intact). But hermpahrodites are a small # & what they have is a physical deformity, it’s no different than if a baby was born with 3 arms & you amputate 1 arm to make them a normal person. It would be an abomination however, if a Dr. amputated the healthy limbs because the patient has apotemnophilia & thinks they should not have limbs. Your comparison of sex change mutilations to harelip surgeries & plastic surgeries for burn victims are silly. Harelips are a physical deformity & a burn victim needs healthy skin. If they made it a crime to perform Artifical Insemination & vasectomies I would be for it. The pill, condoms & the Rhythm Method will suffice for birth control. Incidentally, I’m pro-choice on abortion (though it has risks) but I won’t do an abortion discussion here.

Whether Gender Dysphoria (GID) is because of genes doesn’t change the belief that it’s wrong to perform sex change maimings & make a patient what they’re not. Ethnic Dysphoria & apotemnophilia could also be inborn. But that doesn’t change the belief that it’s wrong for Drs. to change some1’s skin color, because the patient wants to be White instead of Black & vice versa. Gender Dysphoria (GID) must be treated the same way as Ethnic Dysphoria is-cure the mind. Mutilation must not be an option & the puberty delaying drugs must not be allowed. The transexual has to take a lifetime of hormones & the hormones will take their toll later in life.

While homosexuality & GID are 2 different things, the fact remains that most homo&lesbian groups such as PFLAG see nothing wrong with sex change maimings. What’s sad is that there are so many people who see nothing wrong with the mutilations that these Drs. do. Even if reversal surgery happens, the harms done by sex change maimings are irreversible. It wouldn’t be surprising if Darya & the other apologists for sex change maimings who post here oppose repair therapy to search for the cure for homosexuality. As I noted earlier, there are homos&lesbians who want to be straight, but have been told by mainstream psychologists since the mid 1990s that repair therapy to treat homosexuality is not allowed. While homosexuality was removed from the DSM in 1973, mainstream psychologists still offered repair therapy to homos&lesbians who wanted to change to straight sexual activity, though from the late 1980s, the shift was trending to affirm lives as homosexuals rather than seek lives as straights. Esp. after the 1992 Simon LaVey report which supposedly found the gay gene, mainstream psychologists completely abandoned repair therapy altogether to treat homosexuality & from 1998 onwards, groups such as the AMA & others have decried repair therapy & called for banning it.

The reason homosexuality is discussed, is because there are groups who want to remove Gender Dysphoria (GID) from the DSM. If this happens, then over time, you will hear psychologists saying that repair therapy to cure GID should not be offered & that only sex change mutilations are to be given. They’ll say that for therapists to offer treatments to cure GID is the same as offering treatments to cure or better treat homosexuality, because such therapy would reinforce bad beliefs people have of GID. It’s sad how politics have beaten science when it comes to homosexuality & how it is dominating the topic of GID.

With that said, it doesn’t mean that scientists won’t eventually discover the cures for homosexuality & GID. Given that science has discovered cloning, they can eventually discover how to cure homoexuality & GID. Dr. Robert L. Spitzer concluded in 2001 that some homos&lesbians can change not only sexual behavior but even orientation, though it was a long journey. If they eventually find the cures for homosexuality&GID, we’ll hear more about the co-pathologies of those who engage in homo&lesbian activities & we’ll hear more about the harms of sex change maimings, which sadly only get minor coverage.

Amen!!! Praise Jesus!!!!

Bite Me! If a person is in an accident and loses her womb is she still a woman? What about a hysterectomy to save her life? She’s not a woman now? What about a girl born without a womb? What about a person born with XXYY? XXXY? What about someone XXYY with both sets of parts? It has a womb = “girl”, but has penis = “boy” – it’s a “girlboy”? Get a grip and grow up – sex is far more complicated than you or I think – and being transgendered is about GENDER not SEX – Sex is between the legs, Gender between the ears and orientation is who you want to passionately kiss.

You have no idea what these kids and others have gone through – if you really cared – you’d learn a whole lot more and have far more empathy. Become a REAL Human.

This is about a voluntary program trying to help a group of people who are different, have always been different, and will always be different from you. Just because you don’t understand it doesn’t make it wrong – only confusing. And we are talking about helping kids with the experience of adults (who have friends and family who died indirectly because people wouldn’t accept a simple fact) , parents helping their kids, doctors holding back time so that the mind within the body is allowed to mature and either they have become ok with themselves (and go off the hormone regimen with no known side-effects) or are of age to decide to change in ways that HAVE NO HARMFUL effects to YOU!

I don’t understand nose and lip and tongue piercings, they just don’t make sense to me but as long as they are old enough to choose, I support those who choose to do so.

Cross-sexed is much farther up the changes menu but it’s still the same – WHAT MATTER IS IT TO YOU? As long as the parents and Doctors are working to the good of the child, I support them.

And do some studies. Find out how many people as adults have had the surgeries and it was wrong for them.

And what of the intersexed children? Is that the same? Then why do many advocate slicing off their parts – “Because it’s mean to the child no to”? But you proclaim to know the mind of God – if he doesn’t make mistakes – then a lot of Doctor’s have a lot of evil to pay back for the pain they’ve caused these children. You can’t have it both ways.

What of depression? That can run in families and can be treated with therapy AND medication AND prayer. BUT God doesn’t make mistakes – you’re suicidally depressed and that’s the way God made you! No Medication for you!!!!

What about circumcision? Excess surgery that means nothing anymore – it’s not done for religious reasons – it just because “we’ve always done it like that.” Isn’t that now far more frivolous than any surgery done for the heart of a person who can barely go on without it.