By: Zoe Brain

Zoe Brain — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 01:37:09 +0000

Albert levy – you’ve made some strong statements there. Ones that condemn parents as either evil or sick, and the children as irrational.
What evidence have you to back those statements up? Or is it something you just “know” without having to look at the data, like everyone “knows” the Earth is flat?
I do have one piece of data that immediately contradicts you. The fact that people who get Genital Reconstructive Surgery have to be cleared by not one, but two mental health professionals, including a post-doctoral specialist. They have to stake their professional reputations that the patient is not psychotic.
You talk about people being born male. But how do you know they are? What criteria do you use for judging their masculinity or femininity? Look, I completely agree that in over 98% of cases, the question is a matter of common sense, obvious, and can be considered a “stupid question”. But we’re not dealing with that majority here, we’re dealing with cases that are anything but average.
Sex can be determined on the basis of several biological criteria:
1. Genitalia – primary sex characteristics
2. Secondary sex characteristics
3. Endocrine (Hormonal) balance
4. Genes, either XX vs XY, or presence/absence of SrY complex
5. Neuroanatomy, sexually dimorphic development of the brain.
None of these are strict binaries though. They all have gradations with 2 distinct peaks, one for female, one for male, but some in the middle.
The Gender Binary is an excellent approximation, where all 5 criteria align 59 times out of 60. The difficulties begin when we try to make an approximation into an absolute: biologically, this is senseless.
Some common examples:
1. Kleinfelter syndrome, with neither 46xx nor 46xy but 47xxy chromosomes. Most are sterile males, some are infertile males, a very few are infertile masculinised females, and there’s a handful of fertile females.
2. CAIS or “Complete Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome” where the endocrine system is male, but a mutation in cellular receptors causes insensitivity to the male sex hormones. The women concerned have got underdeveloped female genitalia, male endocrinology, but all the rest is strongly female. Having insensitivity to testosterone makes them look very female indeed, and their neurology is very female too.
3. Transsexuality or “Harry Benjamin Syndrome”, where the neurology is strongly cross-gendered and mismatches (most of) the rest, I say “most of” because about 10% have other mismatches too.
There are other, less common, conditions where the primary and secondary sex characteristics can naturally change, due to endocrinal and cellular receptor anomalies (5ARD and 17BHDD syndromes). Configuration at birth may not be the configuration after puberty. There’s also a handful of cases where such changes are Idiopathic – they happen, but we haven’t found the cause yet. These are only 1 in several million though.
The subject is complex, I’m afraid. 59 times out of 60, it’s easy. The other 1 in 60 can be very difficult, and neither “male” nor “female” may be accurate 1 time in 1000.
The majority view – though this is still disputed and certainly not proven beyond all doubt – is that most, and perhaps all, cases of transsexuality are caused by cross-gendered neuro-anatomy. Certainly there’s correlation, but causation is another matter. On the balance of probabilities, this cross-gendered neurology is caused by any of a number of genetic pre-dispositions (though only a few have been positively identified), plus anomalous endocrine levels in the womb. There’s a mountain of evidence in support of this, and none against.
So please, what’s your evidence? Because what you’ve said is not just hurtful but harmful to some, so we should be very sure before we give it credence.

By: albert levy

albert levy — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 02:14:09 +0000

To be born a male and think you are a girl or a woman is…..a delusion no matter how you slice it.No pun intended.
It is totally abnormal to want to mutilate or amputate one’s sexual organs.
It is,to be blunt,psychotic.
Be a fly on a wall of these homes when the kid starts to get derailed and you will clearly see how all this craziness got started.The suicidal impulses occurred way way early on in these kids lives.It’s the self-destructiveness which causes these kids to want to amputate their organs.

By: Jayhuck

Jayhuck — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 05:09:34 +0000

Well – I was talking about single parenting in general – but I suppose that’s a possibility.

By: Evan

Evan — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 05:07:00 +0000

In reply to Jayhuck.

What if it doesn’t depend on the parent as much as it depends on what kind of child gets single parenting?
I mean, maybe Tina was her middle son’s “GID germ”, but not the others’.

By: Jayhuck

Jayhuck — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 01:13:23 +0000

David,

Regarding blaming parents…single parenting loads negatively on all sorts of factors from drug abuse to being a high school dropout to violence. Sorry, but the buck has to stop somewhere.

That is true, but since many people who grow up having single parents do absolutely fine in life, I wonder if perhaps there is a right way and a wrong way to handle being a single parent, and if there is more we can do as a society to help them out? 🙂

Comments on: More on the Dr. Phil episode on gender identity: Reparative drive theory

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