Zachary Amaranth said:
The unfortunate thing for your argument is that gender is not wrapped up in the nice neat package that the argument would purport. XY women walk among us. They never have to change their name or birth certificate, they can menstruate and carry children, they can be biological mothers and the whole nine.
Never heard of such a thing. If you're referring to Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome (AIS), then they are externally women, but internally have no uterus, therefore no periods, at least so I thought. They have testicles, undescended, they have a vagina and presumably breasts, but no ovaries or fallopian tubes or womb.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Androgen_insensitivity_syndrome
"Clinical phenotypes in these individuals range from a normal male habitus with mild spermatogenic defect or reduced secondary terminal hair, to a full female habitus, despite the presence of a Y-chromosome"
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complete_androgen_insensitivity_syndrome"
Look at the pics, they appear to be a woman, but CANNOT produce children or have a period.
Get your facts straight.
Hmm.. looking more closely at the article on CAIS:
"External genitalia is normal, although the labia and clitoris are sometimes underdeveloped.[20][21] The vaginal depth is widely variable, but is typically shorter than unaffected women;[1] one study of eight women with CAIS measured the average vaginal depth to be 5.9 cm [22] (vs. 11.1 ± 1.0 cm for unaffected women [23])"
"The gonads in these women are not ovaries, but instead, are testes; during the embryonic stage of development, testes form in an androgen-independent process"
"The Müllerian system (the fallopian tubes, uterus, and upper portion of the vagina) typically regresses due to the presence of anti-Müllerian hormone originating from the Sertoli cells of the testes.[18] These women are thus born without fallopian tubes, a cervix, or a uterus,[18] and the vagina ends "blindly" in a pouch.[1] Müllerian regression does not fully complete in approximately one third of all cases, resulting in Müllerian "remnants".[18] Although rare, a few cases of women with CAIS and fully developed Müllerian structures have been reported. In one exceptional case, a 22 year old with CAIS was found to have a normal cervix, uterus, and fallopian tubes.[38] In an unrelated case, a fully developed uterus was found in a 22 year old adult with CAIS."
So, some *very* rare people can have the cervix, uterus and fallopian tubes - my bad. But still no ovaries.
Anyway, speaking from a personal perspective, I'm not going to waste time, or make enemies, by acting like an asshole to people who are transexuals. I sympathise with their situation and would hate to be treated like they too often are treated.
However, I would very likely not want to sexually be with a transexual (I'm a male with strong heterosexual preference for females, and if you think that being a woman with the mind of a man or vice versa is perfectly natural, then you can't criticise someone for their sexual preference either - both are biochemical processes, with possibly some societal expectation influencing them) if they declared their status up front and I'd be a little leery of women I thought looked too masculine for my liking, even if they really were XX women with all the plumbing and feminised brain.
I could be friends with one though, assuming they weren't super needy or demanding/annoying as hell (like some people seem to be claiming). If not, they'd be fine by me. Plus I'd be happy to call them he or she as desired.
If I slept with one unknowingly, perhaps because they might not have thought to mention it, or I didn't think to ask etc, and found out later, I wouldn't resort to violence, that would be cruel/immature. I would however very likely imo, say "Umm, I'm not cool with sleeping with you any more, because I was under false impressions and I want a relationship with the prospect of having (biological) children, and quite frankly, I don't want to sleep with a person with your background."
Hopefully that's not too offensive to transexuals, but it's a damn sight better than some idiots would treat you.
