New Study: Being Transgender Is Not A Mental Disorder

originally posted by: seeker1963
a reply to: RainbowPhoenix


That was brave to say what you said and post your pic! You are beautiful. With that being said would you hate me for being a straight male and not wanting to date you?


I think this is the question that needs to be discussed to be honest....

Not at all, I can totally respect that and thanks for the compliment. For me that amounts to an aesthetic preference like for example a person can prefer not to date outside of their race without being racist. It's just a preference and most girls that I know approach it with the same outlook. Were not all rabid social justice warriors but we all do wish to be treated with respect and dignity and that is it.

originally posted by: RainbowPhoenix

originally posted by: seeker1963
a reply to: RainbowPhoenix


That was brave to say what you said and post your pic! You are beautiful. With that being said would you hate me for being a straight male and not wanting to date you?


I think this is the question that needs to be discussed to be honest....

Not at all, I can totally respect that and thanks for the compliment. For me that amounts to an aesthetic preference like for example a person can prefer not to date outside of their race without being racist. It's just a preference and most girls that I know approach it with the same outlook. Were not all rabid social justice warriors but we all do wish to be treated with respect and dignity and that is it.

Nice to hear that! Not that you would date me anyways.

I am also a fan of Blair White.

a reply to: Sheye

Andrew Scheer is getting my vote. I've never voted in my life before. In Canada, we don't really vote.. but I think I will cast my first ever vote for Andrew.

To me he sounds like the classic liberal, mixed with strong core values, and a smart conservative approach.

originally posted by: Sheye

originally posted by: dukeofjive696969
Hey op thanks for sharing a great article, also dont let the haters or naysayers that have no clue as usual what it is to feel different.

Keep up the good fight.

Really? We have no clue as what it feels like to be different and to be judged for opposing viewpoints. Tell that to those who get physically assaulted simply for wearing a hat.

You also have no idea how much flack Christians tolerate just for having a different viewpoint.

Make your own thread!!!

originally posted by: seeker1963
a reply to: RainbowPhoenix


That was brave to say what you said and post your pic! You are beautiful. With that being said would you hate me for being a straight male and not wanting to date you?


I think this is the question that needs to be discussed to be honest....

I give you mad props for this commentary. I know that in political discussions we are more often than not, coming from very different points of view but this is one of the things that I love about ATS. That there is such a diversity of topics to discuss here, the more common ground we find that we actually have with people and that the world isn't. Early as bleak or black and white as many would like us to believe. It wasn't over the top, it was super respectful and I truly applaud you for that. It was a pretty ballsy move for her to put herself out there like that and it could easily have backfired. I'm really glad that this thread turned out the way it did.

a reply to: RainbowPhoenix

I just eat to say thank you for making this thread. It took a lot of balls (metaphorically and the pun was unintentional) to put yourself out there like this. I know you likely deal with a monumental number of naysayers and extraordinary amounts of rudeness on a regular basis, so if nothing else, I hope there are some people lurking the forums who may be aided by your bravery with the realization that they aren't alone and no matter what anyone else may try to tell them, that they aren't broken. This is the first time I've mentioned it on ATS, but I'm going to haven't step daughter read your posts. She's in the midst of trying to figure out where she fits in and what her place in the world is and struggling with her own gender fluidity. So as a parent who wants to see their kids thrive in a terribly hostile world despite the deck being stacked against her, thank you. I wish you nothing but happiness and love and I'm glad that you at least appear to be doing well and look to be as happy as you are beautiful. If more people were as brave as you are, the world would be moving in a better direction.

a reply to: knowledgehunter0986

So from what I've gathered up to this point, is at that age, memories are really vague and incoherent, and a child doesn't quite comprehend what is happening yet, internally or externally. Do you remember how you felt on a regular basis, when you weren't looking at yourself in a mirror? Like maybe at school, when you looked at a boy or girl, did you recognize the difference and did you instinctively relate to one more than the other?

Let me start by saying that I am really putting myself out there for abuse at the hands of the "armchair shrinks" in our midst by opening up here. That being said I will try to answer as honestly and throughly as I can while still attempting to maintain some discretion. As for memories from our youth whose to say why we remember certain things but not others whereas one person may remember their second birthday while the majority will not.

I don't remember much of my early years, I have certain events here and there. For example I will never forget watching Mt Etna erupt from atop our apartment building despite being 4-5 years old, the glow of lava against the night sky was beautiful and not something many people can say they witnessed firsthand. My first memory of my stepfather was when I was 4 and shortly after my father was killed. I remember him asking me to count to 10, I proceeded to count to I think 5 and then refused to go any further. He picked me up by my neck and choked me against the wall with my feet dangling as I tried to gurgle my way to 10. I remember in kindergarten having the same last name as my teacher and at some point drawing a picture of A landed UFO with an ET descending the ramp as what I can only assume was supposed to be me standing in a field extending a flower to it and talking with my teacher about it. These are all things I can remember from the age range of 4-5. I remember some little girl liked me and kissed me which I thought was yucky but that is fairly normal at that age I would suppose. I don't really know how to get into all of this without going into my whole life story which I'm certainly not willing to do. I remember not liking most other kids at that age, I thought they were frivolous and mean. I always made friends with the other outcast's and quiet kids, the weird and different ones. They always seemed to be more compassionate with more interesting things to say.

I played barbie and dress up with my sister till I was about 10 or so, to the point I would cry if they didn't let me. All I wanted to do was play house and dress up with her and her friends. I never had an epiphany like you did, I never thought about genders, and I don't think I've ever seen a female up until that point. So the possibility or thought of it never crossed my mind. I was just obsessed with Barbies. I did grow out of it, but I wonder had I been exposed like you were from a young age, and had I seen a transexual on TV, would I have gotten an epiphany? We'll never know.

What I was doing was not "playing dress up" though it was very much a secret because I knew that it was frowned upon and I didn't want to draw any negative attention to myself. I had a mildly abusive stepfather that never really liked me in the first place. So needless to say anything that I thought would draw any scrutiny I kept to myself. When I dressed up it was so that I could see myself as I knew myself to be even if only temporarily. I didn't get sexual pleasure from it I just liked seeing myself in the mirror as I did in my head. It was a form of relief not play or make believe time. I didn't start messing around with make up until into my teens though. As for toys and clothes in my earliest years I wore and played with whatever was bought for me which was usually stuff like He-man and G.i. Joe because those were the popular boy's cartoons of the time. I personally always liked toy guns because well Grandaddy had a bunch of guns and for the first 4 years of my life I was heavily immersed in redneck outdoorsman type culture down south. Everybody had guns and hunted and fished even some of the girls, it's just how it was. In some of my earliest photo's where I'm standing on my own accord I'm wearing camouflage and/or standing in from of a flayed buck hanging on the rack. So if anything I was actually probably encouraged/influenced to be the exact opposite of what I am. However as it stands I turned out to be a Tom-boy T-girl lol oh the irony lol.

I'm not sure I answered anything as it can be hard to nail down exactly what causes one to be this way but I can certainly say that I was not influenced by external factors to be this way but rather if anything encouraged to be a manly outdoorsman type. Well the outdoorsman part stuck a little bit but obviously being a man didn't take so who knows?

a reply to: RainbowPhoenix

Great job, star and flag.

originally posted by: crazyewok
a reply to: OtherSideOfTheCoin

a reply to: Lucid Lunacy


It has not reached the UK yet thank goodness but I am refering to laws starting to emerge in liberal loony lands (looking at you canada) where you can be procecuted forbusing innocorrect gender pronouns.

Care to link a case where someone was successfully prosecuted for this in Canada?

Ps. Not saying it's untrue, and with Mr. Sunny Ways in charge, I wouldn't be surprised. Simply curious to read up on it. And your country is pretty freaking liberal itself, stop looking down your nose.

a reply to: RainbowPhoenix

I remember "wanting" to be a boy. I was in the middle of 2 brothers, in an all boy neighborhood. I did not have a girlfriend until I was 12 - - when she moved into the neighborhood.

But, I KNEW I was a girl.

This is where the understanding gets stuck: "I KNOW" - - is not: I wish, I want,
I believe, I think, I feel, I pretend, etc.

I KNOW is I KNOW.

originally posted by: OtherSideOfTheCoin

originally posted by: xSEEKxNxSTRIKEx
There is something wrong, we are not sea horses nor do we have more then two types of genders. XX or XY its quite simple

Never fails to amaze me how simplistic some people on ATS think when it comes to the use of language.

This quote for example, you are not talking about gender you are talking about biological assigned sex the two are totally different.

Its like you have your apples and oranges all mixed up.

You do know XX=Female and XY=Male, whats so difficult about this?

a reply to: Annee

My cousin did the same..always getting a chuckle from the family when she repeatedly over and over again..

"When I grow up to be a boy, I'm gonna do X,Y and Z"

The interesting thing is how someone is supposed to make a diagnosis off of that, or what happens when the child changes their minds..

I remember an orange is the new black star specifically saying she wen through her childhood thinking she was trans, then just realized she was gay in her late teens..

Well what if she had been given hormones all her life??

I've got no problem with any trans/gay issue.. if your not hurting anyone else, then do what you do..

But making life changing decisions like that on the evidence you have at 4 or 5 is just crazy talk..

Dress the kid unisex.. come up with a unisex name, and let any really drastic or medical decisions wait until they are grown.

The emperor is naked. I don't care how good you say his clothes look

a reply to: xSEEKxNxSTRIKEx

Gender is the cultural things we do that are not biological..

Such as women wearing dresses.. there is no biological reason a culture couldn't evolve where the women wear pants and men wearing dresses..

Sex is the biological aspect.. a culture can't evolve for men to have periods..

Or something pretty close to that..

No use in fighting over semantics or misunderstood verbage.

a reply to: xSEEKxNxSTRIKEx

Yeah, that seems like a pretty economical reason. It's not like it would waste thousands of dollars unnecessarily.

a reply to: xSEEKxNxSTRIKEx

And not everyone is born with those exact chromosomes. Some are just one , Some are XXY, others just Y and several other combinations. And then there are the genes involved such as WNT4 and DAX1 that also influence gender, testis and ovaries.

WNT4 factors into development of ovaries but these genes are present in all humans. Too much WNT4 and the person will be much more masculine, too little, much more feminine. These are just a couple of examples off the top of my wad. There are numerous conditions that are well known within the medical community and well known to geneticists who study these conditions. To say that a person can only be XX or XY with no incongruities is a demonstration of a persons unwillingness to look st the entire problem and acknowledge that they might not know as much as they think they do.

So no... not just XX or XY and nowhere near as simplistic as your views on the subject are. Please educate yourself on genes, gene expression and their role in gender before condescending towards other people when you clearly aren't as aware of the science as you seek to think you are.

a reply to: peter vlar

I just eat to say thank you for making this thread. It took a lot of balls (metaphorically and the pun was unintentional) to put yourself out there like this.

Lol yeah I joke sometimes with friends about my "big ol lady balls of steel". A person can't have done my job in the Corps without having developed nerves of steel and a general attitude of "eff it gotta do what it takes to get the job done, here we go". I'd also like to say thank you to all of those of you who have been kind and supportive in this thread or even of the whole Trans community in general. It's one day at a time but progress is made every day even if it's as simple as someone meeting a Trans person in real life for the first time and having a stereotype breaking conversation with them face to face.

a reply to: nightbringr

Here is an actual link to the law..

en.m.wikipedia.org...

originally posted by: xSEEKxNxSTRIKEx
I have a solution, lets send all transgenders to an island or big chunk of land, feed them, house them until we figure this out

Hey you might be onto something here! It would probably end up being a lot like Themyscira, ya know where Wonder Woman is from. It would be a tropical paradise full of culture and inhabited by tall statuesque warrior women who practiced both their minds and bodies to be prepared for the possibility of foreign invaders. Let those who bear us ill will encroach upon our lands at their own folly and demise. Yeah that could work...well at least if I was running the joint anyway.