Some points on Transgender - minus the keyboard warriors

Well well, Julie Burchill & Suzanne Moore have brought the trans debate to the mainstream hasn't it. Rather unfortunatre that any worthwhile point Burchill had to make about the treatment of her friend Moore got lost in a triade of abuse. Writing with passion is good, writing when obviously angry is very very bad. I have been on the recieving end of keyboard warriors, agenda pushers and people who are just angry. Often on twitter the measly 140 charecters is not sufficiant and the group of people I mentioned are only to happy to take something the wrong way. So here is me explaining a few of the areas of contention around my opinions on the transgender subject.

Sex/gender

Two areas to this for me, biological and mental. I will address the latter later and focus on the biological first.

Dictionary definition of sex, "either the male or female division of a species, especially as differentiated with reference to the reproductive functions." Which seems straightforward but as there is more than one definition it can get more complicated than it seems with one offering up divisions on a behavioral characteristics basis. Sticking to biology you can't change your DNA, so on a microscopic level you will always be male or female. The obvious exception of course being hermaphrodites, I honestly don't know if this can be seen at a DNA level. I did find this explanation on how it happens. "True hermaphrodites are due to specific mutations that cause the development of the sexual organs to be altered. They are usually born ambiguous (although there is a condition where what looks more like a female suddenly has tests drop at puberty)." In short it can be random. My feeling is someone will always, from a scientific point of view (biologically at least) you will always be a male or a female.

Now the mental. The definition for gender is more open to interpretation on who could fall in to what category and this is why, when you read the tweets on the subject gender is often used by trans people to explain things but as people don't understand the difference between sex and gender it gets confusing and debate descends in to chaos. This area is one where the nature/nurture argument comes up and it is never as straight forward as that. Sure if you brought up a girl as a boy their whole life chances are they would think they are a boy, but be honest, if it does happen (send me details if it has) it will be rare. All our brains are wired in a certain way and I wouldn't suggest, even for a moment, that you suddenly just choose to think that you are a woman/man. It just wouldn't make sense. Much like sexuality and sexual attraction something just clicks a certain way.

How you live

Now this is the one area where there is choice. You can choose to live as a woman or a man, and I say this as a positive thing so hear me out before you get angry. I did a bit of twitter research and noticed a few times that people would put down that they are a "part time" living as a trans man/woman. It struck me that this is similar to a gay person who hasn't "come out" to their friends and family. Living a lie as it were, scared of what may happen when they do reveal all. This is perfectly understandable. By revealing the truth you are bound to come in to some prejudice at some point so making that decision  is something that requires bravery.

You can't change your DNA, you can't change how you are wired but you can choose how to live. If you have been brave enough to take that leap then you should be proud of your choice because it was honest and brave. 

Robert

UPDATE: This from @MsRobynN to add weight to some of my points http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-11814300 

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