Transphobia is the last bastion of prejudice and ignorance and should not be tolerated, says John McDonald.
Transgendered people deserve to live the lives their mind dictates
Transgendered people deserve to live the lives their mind dictates
| Started 2 years ago by John McDonald | (16 posts) (3 voices) |
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Posted 2 years ago #
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Posted by unregistered user: Dana Lane
Very interesting article ending with a simple way to look at the entire situation. I began my transition from male to female about 6 months ago and am trying to get prepared for the hate and discrimination. Not sure if anyone can actually be prepared for that, though.
Thanks for your support!
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Posted by unregistered user: Rikki
Thank you for this column John.
Our world seems to revolve around hatred and fear of anything we don’t understand, or our religious and social institutions tell us to. Without any personal responsibility to think for ourselves whatsover.
I have lived 10 years as a woman and it certainly has not been for the hatred, prejudice and fear for my life that I’ve experienced.
Interesting point: It can be impossible for a lot of trans people to find work except in the sex trade industry. Where all the manly he men putting us down publicly,are now paying for a chance to bed us. Hypocrisy, hallmark of the “good citizen” it seems?Posted 2 years ago # -
Posted by unregistered user: Tammy
I applaud you for your column John. Everyone needs to be a bit more understanding. I can’t imagine how difficult it must be for some of these people to be “out” in a town like Kelowna.
Live and let live.Posted 2 years ago # -
“I know there’s many who think of transsexuality as deviant behaviour, but ask yourself this simple question; would someone knowingly put themselves through all that hate, prejudice and pain just so they could get off wearing a dress?”
A pretty common thing to hear is that transsexuals transition for sexual reasons, but male to female transsexuals take anti-androgens in order to stop further damage from testosterone. This also effectively kills libido. If someone has no sex drive, it seems difficult to say they are doing it for sexual reasons.
We don’t know the actual suicide rate for transpeople, as there is no way of identifying the entire population – many trans people kill themselves before seeking out a mental health professional and being identified as such.
We can only really study the people who have accessed mental health resources and currently, we study people who have had attempts (and not actually been successful) – of that group, 34% have had at least one attempt, 14% at least 3 unsuccessful attempts.
To put that in perspective, the suicide rate in Canada is approximately 11.4 in 100,000 people or 0.000114%
About 1 in 20 suicides are “successful” – and 34%/20=1.7% vs 0.000114% – the risk appears to be at least 15,000 times higher – again, this doesn’t count successful suicides, or suicides before people are labeled as trans.
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Posted by unregistered user: Seàn
I view it as a mental illness and will continue to do so until some real scientific evidence is put forward, proving that this is even remotely possible, because this smells an awful lot like Schizophrenia;
Schizophrenia – A mental disorder characterized by abnormalities in the perception or expression of reality. Distortions in perception may affect all five senses, including sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch.
Undifferentiatied Type – Psychotic symptoms are present but the criteria for paranoid, disorganized, or catatonic types have not been met.
I hold no ill for the transsexualists themselves because it isn’t their fault, but the people presenting false evidence and the people believing said false evidence are standing in the way of these people recieving the help needed.
To believe the crazy man is to suffer it yourself, to believe the liar is to ignore the truth.Posted 2 years ago # -
Posted by unregistered user: Emily
Thank you John, for this article. It gives some much-needed perspective to a an issue that is far to often misunderstood in a way that leads to hatred and violence.
Posted 2 years ago # -
Posted by unregistered user: Tammy
Sean, there is quite a bit of scientific research on people who suffer from gender dysphoria. It is not a case of being unable to perceive or express reality.
Posted 2 years ago # -
“I view it as a mental illness and will continue to do so until some real scientific evidence is put forward, proving that this is even remotely possible, because this smells an awful lot like Schizophrenia;”
Sean, thanks for your contribution.
Unfortunately, you don’t seem to know anything about the condition and haven’t cared enough to do any decent amount of research on transsexuality (or schizophrenia) before you typed your post.If you had, you would have discovered that during the assessment process in the treatment of transsexuals by mental health experts, schizophrenic psychosis must be ruled out – otherwise the patient will not be permitted to proceed to the next stage (whether that be the start of cross sex hormones or the more comprehensive assessment done by 2 independent psychiatrists / PhD level psychologists before surgery)
This is relatively easy for the mental health professional, since;
1.) The assessment period normally involves multiple, regular visits over a period of several months. During that period, psychosis would be discovered.
2.) Schizophrenic psychosis presents completely differently.
If you do actually have any theories that are even somewhat plausible, I welcome you to post them here.
I’d be interested in hearing about “people presenting false evidence”Posted 2 years ago # -
Posted by unregistered user: Jane
“Seàn says: I view it as a mental illness and will continue to do so until some real scientific evidence is put forward, proving that this is even remotely possible.”
For some of us, the scientific evidence is there, chromosones are not absolute. We assume that there are only two possiblities but even that is in error.
In my situation I found out that I was XXY not XX (female) or XY (male). I was born with the outward male characteristics but as puberty arrived massive doses of testosterone where pumped into me to keep me that way. I am now much older and have fought the depression, anxiety, suicide and ultimately being myself until I could fight it no longer. I am well into transitioning and now feel more alive, healthy and passionate for life than I ever did in the past.
But the lack of understanding and education of others makes it scary to head out each day to live a normal life. It shouldn’t be that way for anyone, but many of us live in fear for our lives everyday in a country that is one of the safest in the world.
In answer to Seàn, yes there is a mental component to it, Gender Dysphoria which is rather well documented. But then everyone has a mental component to who they are. Why would you need scientific proof?
That would be like asking one to prove oneself “normal”. For most of us the only way to get any where near “normal” is to transition to who we are, so that our presentation matches our expectations.
John, as far as the “man in a dress” I would venture to say that when one’s mindset is female it’s hard to understand what “man in a dress” really means, knowing full well that when that has been directed at me it has really hurt deeply.
Thank you for venturing into this subject.
Posted 2 years ago #
