The Next Great Frontier in Human Rights: ‘Transabled’ People

Until yesterday, I had never heard of this.
At first, I thought it a joke, but it is, in fact, reality...and on the heels of the Jenner news, it appears to be getting much more media attention.

As absurd as the idea that some healthy, fully-able, people feeling that their fully-functional, natural-born, limbs and appendages feel so 'alien' and unnatural to them, that they have them surgically removed may seem, it does beg questions such as:

Are these people mentally ill?
Should they be lauded and celebrated as human rights' heroes and pioneers as Bruce/Caitlyn Jenner is?
Is there no room for comparison between 'Trans-abled' and 'Trans-gendered' people?

In the wake of Bruce Jenner’s gender-bending conversion and OSHA’s order that transgender people can use whatever bathroom they feel like in the workplace, comes the next great frontier in the battle to create more human rights than there are human beings on earth.

And this one’s a doozy.


They’re called “transabled.’ And like the transgendered who feel trapped in a body with the wrong sex organ, transabled people feel like imposters in their perfectly good bodies and have an overwhelming desire to chop off a limb, blind themselves, make themselves deaf, or otherwise disable themselves.

I frantically checked the internet to see if this was some kind of a hoax — but sadly, it is not as far as I can tell. For once in my career as a writer, I really, really hope that this is some kind of parody because if not, the world has gone mad and insanity has become the norm.

National Post:

When he cut off his right arm with a “very sharp power tool,” a man who now calls himself One Hand Jason let everyone believe it was an accident.

But he had for months tried different means of cutting and crushing the limb that never quite felt like his own, training himself on first aid so he wouldn’t bleed to death, even practicing on animal parts sourced from a butcher.

“My goal was to get the job done with no hope of reconstruction or re-attachment, and I wanted some method that I could actually bring myself to do,” he told the body modification website ModBlog.

His goal was to become disabled.

People like Jason have been classified as ‘‘transabled’’ — feeling like imposters in their bodies, their arms and legs in full working order.

“We define transability as the desire or the need for a person identified as able-bodied by other people to transform his or her body to obtain a physical impairment,” says Alexandre Baril, a Quebec born academic who will present on “transability” at this week’s Congress of the Social Sciences and Humanities at the University of Ottawa.

“The person could want to become deaf, blind, amputee, paraplegic. It’s a really, really strong desire.”

Researchers in Canada are trying to better understand how transabled people think and feel. Clive Baldwin, a Canada Research Chair in Narrative Studies who teaches social work at St. Thomas University in Fredericton, N.B., has interviewed 37 people worldwide who identify as transabled.

Most of them are men. About half are in Germany and Switzerland, but he knows of a few in Canada. Most crave an amputation or paralysis, though he has interviewed one person who wants his penis removed. Another wants to be blind.

Many people, like One Hand Jason, arrange “accidents” to help achieve the goal. One dropped an incredibly heavy concrete block on his legs — an attempt to injure himself so bad an amputation would be necessary. But doctors saved the leg. He limps, but it’s not the disability he wanted.

For an academic in social sciences, discovering new and exciting classes of the afflicted is the way to fame and fortune. My congratulations to Profs Baril and Baldwin for not only their creativity in discovering this previously unknown sub-sub group of fakirs and charlatans, but also their balls in publishing about it.

One can imagine agitation by activists to give people the right to disable themselves while making it illegal to discriminate against the transabled worker. A whole body of law will be created to deal with this new human right. The UN will create an agency to make sure the transabled are protected. And before too long, we’ll have the first celebrity transabled person televising their transformation from able bodied to disabled.

Source:
pjmedia.com...

More:
www.breitbart.com...
www.inquisitr.com...
www.hngn.com...

So what's the term for people pre/post op? Can I grab a pair of crutches from the ER and join this movement?

In my language transable is a good that you can sell or buy, when i saw the title i though the next great frontier in human rights was to be able to own slaves.

Whoops

a reply to: IAMTAT

Can I push the transDISabled movement? I don't want to be disabled in any way.

a reply to: Ultralight

Distransdisabled?

a reply to: Indigent

Apparently, this is the terminology which has been established by researchers into this condition.

a reply to: Ashirah

Sure, why not??

a reply to: Ultralight
lol

Yeah, I don't get it, wanting to be "transable". But what do I know, there are legions of adult men that worship cartoon ponies and I don't get that either.

a reply to: IAMTAT

Give me a break...

So I can get a break!

a reply to: IAMTAT

I'm fluffy-abled.

I want my check!

posted in a transgender thread a little while back. my prediction is that this is not an issue, but a symptom of the real issue. and that issue is...this: labels will become meaningless when impermanence is introduced as classification is not possible in an impermanent system.

something along the lines of this video.



dont get me wrong, im totally for the freedom to have a sex change or access hormonal treatments. but heres the thing: MAKE UP YOUR MIND. choose a seat, and sit in it. dont keep changing seats because you feel it improves your social standing or elicits sympathy because you are actually insecure and require constant positive feedback. decide who you are and get on with it. there are too many people i know for a fact would take advantage of this kind of movement for exactly the reasons i just described. people who are more comfortable with the chameleon lifestyle because they dont like who they actually are but cant figure out any other way to be. people who find safety in being flighty and will try every suit of clothes because it distracts them from what they are wearing on the inside.

I suppose a fair question would be whether or not 'Trans-ables' should eventually have their surgery covered by Obamacare?

Apparently, gender reassignment surgery will be covered by O.C.

As it stands, “federal law prohibits health insurance companies from discriminating against transgender people.” It also prevents insurers from denying healthcare coverage to those suffering from pre-existing conditions. These Obamacare-related laws together in turn make it possible for transgender men and women to obtain insurance plans that cover gender reassignment surgery.

Furthermore, the Washington Post reveals that back in May, the Obama administration axed a ban that prevented Medicare from covering gender reassignment surgery. This means that senior citizens who feel uncomfortable in their gender can now receive taxpayer-funded surgery to have their sex changed, all courtesy of Obamacare.

www.inquisitr.com...

So what? If someone wants to purposely disable themselves, I don't give a damn. Though convincing me to give them disability payments would be a tough sell.

a reply to: TzarChasm

But what if that is who you are? Someone who has NO permanent identity. I don't see any reason why such people can't exist. The mind is a strange thing and if there is a thought that can be entertained, leave it to some human to entertain it. If being flighty with your identity makes you happy, then great, go do it. It really doesn't matter to be honest.

originally posted by: Krazysh0t
So what? If someone wants to purposely disable themselves, I don't give a damn. Though convincing me to give them disability payments would be a tough sell.

Would you be willing to pay for their surgery through your increased insurance premiums?
If people should be made to pay for someone else to surgically lop off their own 'winkie', so they can feel normal...why not an arm or a leg?

a reply to: Krazysh0t

But what if that is who you are? Someone who has NO permanent identity. I don't see any reason why such people can't exist.

might as well throw an "impermanent identity" card every time someone wants to call you on your pity play. and then we can call them prejudiced even though it clearly IS a pity play.

If being flighty with your identity makes you happy, then great, go do it. It really doesn't matter to be honest.

pity raves are a thing, you know. when its cool to be upset about something that is really just a mountain made out of a mole hill.

I mean,if you want to cut off a body part Get your life... i thought this has been around for a while?

originally posted by: IAMTAT
Are these people mentally ill?

Probably have issues that are unhealthy. I cannot help feel these people have problems that are played upon by "experts". Yet another pseudo complex that people can "suffer" from and which someone can profit from.

I suffer from a lack of tolerance for morons, but that's just me.

a reply to: IAMTAT

This goes over the line and i award these people no special treatment or extra rights whatsoever. It is firmly in the category of mental illness.

Off topic, how in the world did Bruce Jenner arrive at 'Caitlyn' for his new name? That is not the name of a 60 year old "woman". He's/she's AT BEST a 'Blanch'.

originally posted by: paraphi

originally posted by: IAMTAT
Are these people mentally ill?

Probably have issues that are unhealthy. I cannot help feel these people have problems that are played upon by "experts". Yet another pseudo complex that people can "suffer" from and which someone can profit from.

I suffer from a lack of tolerance for morons, but that's just me.

You suffer from Moron Intolerance Syndrome. Better apply for disability.