Transgenderism as Mental Illness vs A Rights Movement

[Mitchell7]

If someone thought that they were supposed to be born a dog, wanted to have fur surgically attached to them and eat dog food out of a bowl all day then they could do that, there is no law preventing them from doing that. If someone thought that they were supposed to be a tree and wanted to glue bark onto themselves and stand out in the sun all day then they could do that. In both of these cases there is nothing illegal about what they are doing and no one is going to stop them. This does not mean that people who thought that they were always supposed to be a dog or a tree do not suffer from some type of mental illness. So when someone thinks that they were supposed to be another gender, takes hormone replacement therapy, and has their genitals and other parts of their body surgically altered then they can do that, but that does not mean that they do not suffer from a type of mental illness and that certainly does not mean that there is or should be any type of "rights movement" to normalize or encourage these people to engage in activities which can have hugely detrimental effects on both their physical and psychological health.

[Smertrios]

I have no proof but even so I believe that gays and trans people are like that because of bad influences that may or may not have been intentional. Parents really have to be more active in helping their kids think about things or someone/something else will (like inappropriate language, pervs and tv). That said if they are past about age 9-12 which in when our "identities" are suppose to be pretty well set then trying to force them to be something else would mean making them suffer more abuse IMO. I really don't believe people are born gay or trans they are made that way...

EDIT: One of the most blatant shows that I think proves my point is Jazz. That kid is tiny and asking mom a question about being a boy or a girl and she asks him what he thinks he is. Hmm... maybe there is far too much estrogen not taking into account they have a BOY there and no male role model or at least no male role model that gives a shit. That was when Jazz was small now the idea of her ever having to be forced into a boys role could be nothing but cruel I can see that.

[admin]

I apologize for not having our policies published yet. so this discussion will proceed. Note that part of the forum management provided by vBulletin is to automatically clean up spam, so if a couple people complain about something said here it may disappear before I even see it.

It is the policy of this forum that:
- Gender exists on 4 axes: chromosomal gender, gender attraction, physical (genital) appearance, and gender identity.
- Each attribute of gender can independently fall on any point of the spectrum between 100% male and 100% female, or at points not directly between male and female.
- A person can inhabit seemingly inconsistent combinations of these attributes and it is natural for that person, determined by DNA, by gestational factors, and yes even by nurture.
- Regardless of whether we agree with the assertion that someone is "born that way" or has instead made a "choice" we recognize every person's right to pursuit of happiness and place no burden on that person to conform to what our expectations may be.

If someone thought that they were supposed to be born a dog

While human gender factors naturally and normally occur somewhere between 100% male and 100% female, there is no evidence we normally vary in our degree of human-ness vs dogness.

[mjwise]

Oh brother. People are not gay because of bad influences or magic words that they heard once. I'm surprised that someone who believed that would even want to hang out here lest all the penis talk make them catch gay.