PotluckBrigand said:
2012 Wont Happen said:
Very much heterosexual.
Also, why is transgender in a poll regarding sexuality? It has nothing to do with sexuality. It's all about gender identity.
I'm not one of those uptight Liberal "don't hurt their feelings by confusing them" types. That's not what I'm getting at. I'm just very confused why people lump a mental condition which causes people to surgically mutilate themselves into conversations of sexual preference.
Well you've answered your own question. I know you're not trying to start a fight and by God trust me neither am I, but if you believe being transgendered is a mental condition, you would pretty much have to believe that homosexuality is, too (although when I think about it, I guess ANY orientation is technically a mental condition).
You've drawn the line and called their alterations "mutilations," but to some people (again, not starting a fight, please), homosexuality is just as abominable. Heterosexuality, homosexuality, and transgender...ality (?) are all part of our individual identities, and I guess I think it's important to understand that. These aren't (for the most part) sick, fetishistic sexual perverts. Many of them don't even go under the knife, they just choose to live however makes them happy, with whoever makes them happy, and as someone who has never had a heterosexual relationship end well, I can hardly blame them for that.
I respect your opinion and I, like you, and not trying to start a fight. However, I would like to explain myself a little bit more.
When you get down to what transgender is, its somebody feeling like, because of what they love in life, enjoy in life, what have you, they shouldn't be the gender they are. I think that is a psychological backlash occurring from a culture that, despite our assertions otherwise, still has strong gender rolls built in as cultural norms. People should be able to feel comfortable being the person who they are mentally regardless of who they are biologically. However, transgenders, I believe at no fault of their own but at the fault of the society around them, have a problem in that they cannot feel happy with who they are without surgery to alter their fundamental physical structure. I think that they should be given therapy to come to terms with who they are emotionally and mentally and be able to deal with who they are physically.
In my mind, it's largely similar to any other body image disorder. People with anorexia, for example, are not satisfied with the physical body they have and so they starve themselves to destroy it rather than just coming to terms with the fact that they may never be a super model, but that doesn't mean they can't enjoy being them. Similarly, it seems to me that transgender surgery is also a radical way of addressing an issue of what, fundamentally, comes down to body image.
