Sunday, December 03, 2006

Transgender Nonsense

We have the technology ...

Back a generation ago a fictional government program was able to rebuild a man to be "better in every way." And now, with the science of biology advancing daily, the PC secularists are wanting to follow the path of least resistence.

Some children, it seems, show early "transgender" tendencies. Pre-school boys want to be girls, and vice versa. The solution seems obvious to me:

The writer of a recent NY Times article writes:

"The biological underpinnings of gender identity, much like sexual orientation, remain something of a mystery, though many researchers suspect it is linked with hormone exposure in the developing fetus."

So, why not develop tests to check those hormone levels to keep it from effecting the developing child? And meanwhile, figure out how to tweak those hormones just a bit to relieve the abnormal tendencies within the children.

At least one researcher has the right idea:

"But Dr. Kenneth Zucker, a psychologist and head of the gender-identity service at the Center for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto, disagrees with the “free to be” approach with young children and cross-dressing in public. Over the past 30 years, Dr. Zucker has treated about 500 preadolescent gender-variant children. In his studies, 80 percent grow out of the behavior, but 15 percent to 20 percent continue to be distressed about their gender and may ultimately change their sex.

Dr. Zucker tries to “help these kids be more content in their biological gender” until they are older and can determine their sexual identity — accomplished, he said, by encouraging same-sex friendships and activities like board games that move beyond strict gender roles."

But those PC administrators in California don't see it that way. Nope, they want to play to the children's "self esteem."

"The Los Angeles Unified School District, for instance, requires that students be addressed with “a name and pronoun that corresponds to the gender identity.” It also asks schools to provide a locker room or changing area that corresponds to a student’s chosen gender."

It seems that the hormone treatment is not totally out of the question in FAVOR of the transgendered:

"One of the most controversial issues concerns the use of “blockers,” hormones used to delay the onset of puberty in cases where it could be psychologically devastating (for instance, a girl who identifies as a boy might slice her wrists when she gets her period). Some doctors disapprove of blockers, arguing that only at puberty does an individual fully appreciate their gender identity."

Yep, just make them STAY that way until they can "decide for themselves" if they are "normal."

It brings to mind the alternate interpretation of Prov. 22:6

Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

Taken as a WARNING, this means: "If you let a child determine what is right, that is the way he will act when he grows up."

Transgendered children, indeed!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

training the truly transgendered doesn't work. besides the incredible suicide rates because adults don't believe them, it has been shown with the "great" dr money himself that going so far as to reassign external sexual organs and raising the child as male/female from birth is disastrous.

given the outcomes, it is better to let the child come to grips with their identity first, then allow them to make the appropriate decisions, rather than follow the inexcusable course that forces the child into what is obviously not the child's gender.

proverbs may be handy for bandying witticisms, many of which are true, but in this particular case, proverbs are just words strung together that don't help.

Henry Martin said...

I really should disable "anonymous" since responding to such is like talking to air!

However, in the chance that that this blogger returns to see this, and to any who might wish to know if I read my own blog, here is my answer.

First, though I might think that the old ways of dealing with "sissies" and "tomboys" might work, that is not what I suggested in my blog. I can see where a child might have a hormone imbalance, and so I just suggested that we try to go to the root of the problem. One does not have to believe in God to see that it is NOT NORMAL for a three year old boy to want to BE a girl. And even many in the "gay rights" movement will tell you that they would not "choose" that lifestyle. IF there IS a physical cause, it could be diagnosed and corrected.

With the "transgendered" it is even more likely that hormone theorpy would be called for. The gist of the cited article was just what the WARNING of Proverbs 22:6 says. In agreeing with the article, you are in effect agreeing to what amounts to a truism. It almost goes without saying that if you let someone believe something is right they will tend to act on that belief. Thus "he will not depart from it."

Anonymous has called into question the veracity of this proverb while AGREEING with it. Another proverb comes to mind:

A double-minded man is unstable in all of his ways."
James 1:8

Anonymous said...

I would like not to be anonymous. My name is Alex. I am 23. I'm a software programmer. I’m 5’4”. I like listening to hardcore punk, blues music, and classic rock. I grew up just like any other suburban lower-middle class boy. I was popular and well adjusted. I even won a “most artistic” senior superlative in high school. I took my girlfriend to the prom. I paid my own way through college working 2 or 3 jobs at a time, and kept a 4.0. So you could say I’m pretty much what the average American dad wants in a son, right?

I’m also genetically female. That is something that you wouldn’t know if you met me. People are usually pretty shocked; I guess the mustache throws them off.

I ran across this blog entry while looking for resources on legally changing my name as I do live in the sort of backward state of South Carolina, and I wanted to have a good picture of anything I could possibly not have thought of before just doing it and finding out later that I somehow shot myself in the foot. Amazing what comes up in a google search.

I’m not on hormones and I don’t plan to be (although I have nothing against an adult making that decision). My parents are conservative Christians. It was unfortunate in their eyes that I was born gender variant. What a loss.

Sure, some kids were pretty mean to me when I was a kid because I was different. But if my parents had somehow corrected my hormonal ‘imbalance’? THAT would have been cruel and unnatural. Being a three year old ‘girl’ and wanting to be a ‘boy’ WAS natural for me, even if it wouldn’t be for someone else.

I know that a person like you probably isn’t going to re-evaluate the way you feel about the subject because of what someone tells you. On the other hand you can’t say that my hormones are any more ‘unnatural’ than someone who was born biologically male. That’s just gut feeling on my part; I don’t claim to understand how god or the Universe works. All I’m saying is that if I had been somehow made to be female because that’s what my DNA is I’d be pretty miserable.

There are probably a lot more people in the world like that than you realize. I don’t go around waving a banner saying 'I’m intersexed' or 'I’m transgender' and it doesn’t come up at work. I’m not unstable, I’m just another guy who shaves and goes to work at 9. I’m sorry if that makes people like you uncomfortable, but I have a right to be myself.

Anyway I know it is silly to comment on such an old post, but the post itself is pretty silly.

Henry Martin said...

Thank you Alex, for commenting to my blog. It is good to hear from other points of view.

I see that you were allowed to follow your childhood wishes all the way to adulthood. It is not a given that you would have been "warped" if you had been encouraged to act a little more like a girl than a boy as you were maturing, though.

I am sorry that children in preschool were "mean" to you. But then again they WERE in preschool as well. I always counseled my children to be kind to those that were "different" for I was bullied for being overweight when I was young. And because it is the right way to treat people.

You are free to change your name as an adult in the state of South Carolina. Or you could just go by your initials and no one would be the wiser.

As for "unnatural" hormones, I can and will hold that if it is the hormones that cause your choices (and I don't fully buy into that), then it IS unnatural for you to live as a man if you are female. From a purely materialistic point of view (as defined by those who take God OUT of the equation), hormones guide a person to a potential mate. Certain behavior seems to assure certain results, thus raising the possibility for children to result.

As you failed to capitalize "God," and DID capitalize "universe," I deduce that you have somewhat rejected the "conservative Christianity" of your parents. That is sad. You deny both the clear indications of naturalistic science and the super-naturalistic belief system of your parents at the SAME time.

The point of my blog was not to deny that certain people have these feelings. I was only pointing to the reality that gender is NOT a choice. To SAY you are male just because you feel male does not MAKE you male. If you allow your self-deception and masquerade to lead you into sexual relationships with female partners, then you will be seeking those relationships for unnatural reasons. This would be an affront to God.

As you say, you do not "advertise" your preferred role, going about each day doing your job. I am NOT uncomfortable with that. It matters not to me how you live at home as long as you do your job at work.

A couple of other things: I am sure you noticed that I, too, am a resident of this dear "sort of backward state." If it is "backward" to hold to traditional values, then let us be "backward." If it is "backward" to stand against the change to the "brave new world," then I will be "backward."

And you twice referred to me as "people like you" as if my pointing out what seems obvious is the sign of bigotry. I am not a bigot. I am perfectly willing to live and let live. Unless you are changed by God Himself, nothing I say will make much of a difference. You will continue to live "as yourself" until that "self" is somehow changed.

It would be "nice" if it were as simple as a hormone adjustment.