I can't be the only person who would read this article and think that it shows zero skepticism regarding the complete swing in attitude towards this issue. It is obviously a difficult issue for parents to deal with, but it is also obviously prone to great swings in medical fashion, too, as are all cases of how to respond to very unusual thoughts that can lodge in some people's heads.
Update: the latest post at 4th Wave Now notes the unintended consequence of puberty blocking for boys who want to be girls is that they don't grow enough, um, genital material in order for surgeons to later do the desired reconstruction of it into ersatz female genitalia.
2 comments:
Awww, how sweet of you to join the concern tolling, a speciality of the denizens of Catallaxy, and elsewhere. A friend who was born with micro-penis had a perfectly fine result. I also had very little donor material and also ended up with a good result. The poor results are due to the old-fashioned 'inversion' technique, which is ignorant of the anatomical echoes of sexual development. You can do your own research, if you care for fact over folklore.
With respect to the concerns about childhood transition, I also have some concerns. However, mine are informed by research rather than Catholic dogma. The research is clear that, while those who report a trans identity in early childhood often reverse that, those who continue with a trans identity post puberty are pretty much always are the real deal.
Combining the two, I know a couple of women who transitioned in their teens, had SRS (same surgeon as me and my friend) in their late teens/early 20s, and have had excellent results. So, the concern trolling over androgen blockers is just that: professed concern hiding hatred and contempt, born of ignorance.
A few random things:
a) There are more people born intersex than is commonly realised. The meddling of surgeons results in many appearing to be trans.
b) There is a community in Latin America where some children spontaneously change sex around puberty. Yet, they hear in church that there are only two categories of human, never to be mistaken or altered.
c) Following from a), how can anyone cling to the dogma of there being an clear, unmistakable, immutable bifurcation of humanity into male and female in the face of biological evidence?
d) Various trditions, including those described in the Talmud, recognised the reality of this variety. Strangely, despite the benefit of modern science, today's religious people double down on ignorance. Perhaps more tribal identity than anything else.
Mayan,
You won't get me, or I am assuming, anyone on that 4th Wave blog, arguing about the utility of surgery for the genuinely intersex.
As for your contention about surgery, no I don't have time for researching an operation I don't expect to need, but the issue about puberty blockers making the construction of a "vagina" more difficult seems to come from a couple of doctors shown on that transgender reality TV show.
You're a bit obsessed with transgender skepticism being motivated by Catholic belief - something which you may have reason to prosecute over at Catallaxy, but it's hardly a warranted tactic here.
Post a Comment