What the hell is "transgender"?

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These PC words keep changing; I can't keep up with them. As far as I can tell, this "transgender" person is a former male who had his dick amputated, probably takes hormones, and wears female clothes and affects female behavior. Does "she" have sex with men or women? If she has sex with men, why not skip the surgery and just be a homosexual? What hetero male would be interested anyway? Yuck.

"She" is a former "he" that wants to be a "she" but also wants everyone to know that she used to be a "he". What does this this person want, a medal?

Can transgenders also be former women who have had some some sort of weird reconstructive surgery that creates a penis?

Where do heterosexual cross-dresser fit in this mix? Where do true hermaphrodites "fit"? (pun intended)

Call me insensitive but if I had to prioritize all the world's problems, transgenderism would be 5287th.

a href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2001/02/03/MNW143897.DTL">dickless in SF

-- Lars (larsguy@yahoo.com), February 03, 2001

Answers

a href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archiv e/2001/02/03/MNW143897.DTL">transgender

-- Lars (larsguy@yahoo.com), February 03, 2001.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2001 /02/03/MNW143897.DTL

-- Lars (larsguy@yahoo.com), February 03, 2001.

I'm not savvy about current PC terms.

My sister once knew a guy who honestly believed that he had been born into the "wrong" body. He was unhappy as a man and spent countless hours either in counselling or shopping at the finer women's stores at the mall. My sister enjoyed his company on clothes shopping trips because she claimed that he had impecable taste.

Last I heard, he moved to LA and was working in an exclusive hair salon as a female stylist.

Good place for him, sez I.

-- kb (kb8um8@yahoo.com), February 03, 2001.


Need some help Lars? Here ya go -

dickless in SF/transgender

-- Debra (Thisis@it.com), February 03, 2001.


Here's the link for ya Lars!

Several months ago there was an incident in these parts concerning a male that was undergoing transgender therapy. Seems he was dressed as a woman at the time and lured a 12 year old boy into his car under the guise that she needed help looking for a lost boy. So needless to say the boy was sexually molested.

The judge in the case, Maria Lopez, was extremely lenient on the sentencing. She basically gave him a slap on the wrist with home confinement with an ankle monitoring bracelet. She sited all the PC stuff about him being a transgender and getting his life in order while he was incarcerated awaiting trial.

The community went into an uproar. She now faces the chance of losing her judgeship for being too lenient with a child molester.

I'll see if I can dig up a story.

-- Peg (pegmcleod@mediaone.net), February 03, 2001.



A transgender is one of them their tranvestites that soaks up a lot of beer on Saturday nite and lets his hair hang down. Then he drops his defenses and gets in his mom's herbal cabinet and takes too much of that ginger to settle his stomach. Ginger taken in excess will cause one of em to turn into a transgender. Read that in a book one time!

-- Boswell (fudown@thefarm.net), February 03, 2001.

Gee, my link didn't work..hmm, oh well!

Here's a story on the Wrist slapping/leinent sentencing of child molesters judge!

She makes my skin crawl!

-- Peg (pegmcleod@mediaone.net), February 03, 2001.


This is an opinion piece by a political writer.

Link

Child Molester On Probation: The Screwed-Up Ethics of Judge Maria Lopez

by Shelley McKinney

If this world were perfect, there would be perfect justice. Bad deeds – if there ever were any – would be accordingly punished with a fit sentence and everybody would look out for the best interests of his fellow man. (If this life were perfect, there wouldn't be people reading that last sentence and thinking "She should have written "Everybody would look out for the best interests of his or her fellow human beings.")

The innocence of children would be cherished and protected, and Judge Maria Lopez would be working in a Dairy Queen, if this world were perfect. That way, the worst harm she could inflict would be to put peanuts on someone's ice cream cone instead of sprinkles.

Since this world isn't perfect, "transgendered" Boston-area resident Charles Horton was undeterred by whatever remains of his conscience on November 20, 1999 when he – in his female persona – lured a twelve year old boy into his car under the pretense of needing help in looking for a "lost child." The boy was forced into the car and driven off.

Horton took the boy to a deserted parking lot where he forced the boy to suck on one of his fingers. When the boy resisted, Horton intimidated him by holding a screwdriver at his neck until he complied. According to an account in the Boston Globe, the child was rescued by patrolling police officers, who "noticed a head bobbing in the car."

"In a statement he gave police after being read his Miranda rights, Horton allegedly admitted kissing the child and said that he had used the lot as a place to perform oral sex on teenagers," stated Globe reporter John Ellement.

Horton was charged with kidnapping, indecent assault and battery, and assault with intent to rape. His case proceeded to trial and that was where he unfortunately met up with Superior Court Judge Maria I. Lopez.

After hearing all the evidence, Judge Lopez chose to reward evil. She was apparently very concerned about Horton's status as a sexually confused person and asked Assistant District Attorney David Deakin what kind of prison Horton would be sent to – male or female. When Mr. Deakin replied that either type of prison could keep Horton in protective custody, Lopez snapped at Deakin, asking if Horton would be "locked up for 23 hours a day." That's evidently a problem, right?

On Wednesday, September 6, 2000, Lopez denied David Deakin's request that Horton be sent to prison for 8-10 years and sentenced him to a probation of five years. Horton will be monitored by wearing an electronic ankle bracelet only for the first year of his sentence. He will be permitted to go to church and attend counseling sessions and university classes. You might be interested to know that Judge Lopez handed down this sentence knowing that Horton lives in a housing project that some six hundred children also call home.

(Incidentally, the child Horton molested is now serving a life sentence of painful and terrifying memories, but who cares about him?)

Lopez's decision to not jail Horton was based upon the psychological evaluation which determined that he is not a predator. Huh?!? I find this inexcusable, since the crime Horton was being tried for was predatory in nature: he kidnapped, sexually assaulted, and threatened a child with bodily harm. What more could it possibly take to prove that a person is willing to prey upon a child? I suppose we should feel grateful that the psychological assessment did admit that Horton has "impulses." Don't we all? For example, my own personal impulse at this point is to move to Massachusetts and lobby long and loud from Governor Paul Cellucci's office to make sure that this woman and her job are soon parted.

Writes Globe staff reporter Frank Phillips: "Lopez appeared to reject prison for the transgender Horton not because of any doubts about his guilt, but because she feared for his safety and emotional well-being behind bars." She also referred to this crime as a "low-scale" matter. Since Horton expressed regret for what he had done to the boy, that made everything just peachy again. All of you who disagree just need to get over yourselves and stop being so judgmental.

When judges are on the bench in order to assist the villains rather than support the victims, where does that leave us? As long as judges like Maria Lopez are dispensing their peculiar form of "justice," we're left with a deep moral quicksand that threatens to suck the innocent under and denies them what they deserve: This twelve-year- old boy deserves to know that Charles Horton is behind bars for a long, long time. What he did was wrong and evil and there are times when saying "Gee, I'm sure sorry" just doesn't cut it. This is one of them.

Since Lopez couldn't bring herself to make Horton face the consequences of his actions, she has become his accessory after the fact. If he has another "impulse" and violates his probation by molesting another child, maybe these two girlfriends could share a cozy little cell together. Twenty to thirty years ought to do it.

That's what would happen if this world were perfect.

September 19, 2000

Shelley McKinney is a political writer whose work regularly appears in several Internet journals. She takes great pleasure in exposing the politically correct for their lack of logical thought.

-- Peg (pegmcleod@mediaone.net), February 03, 2001.


Maybe someone can help me out here....

In Native American culture weren't transgenders those that 'lived between the worlds' and worshipped or at least looked up to?

I suppose the men could have amputated their penises but I doubt the women could have had reconstructive surgery to create one. :)

-- Debra (Thisis@it.com), February 03, 2001.


Transgender Language and Definitions according to the Society of Human Sexuality. An excerpt, "There is still a lack of standardization of the language used to talk about issues of transgenderism, with advocates of one word or another often heatedly sparring in print over which is a more 'correct' word or meaning."

-- David L (bumpkin@dnet.net), February 03, 2001.


Debra--

That rings a vague bell. Maybe in Little Big Man?

-- Lars (larsguy@yahoo.com), February 03, 2001.


http://www.users.qwest.net/~ajgoodrum/gender101.htm

LINK

The term Transgender (or TG) refers to people whose appearance and behavior do not conform to the cultural "norm" for the gender into which they were born. In other words, TG people, to varying degrees, "transgress" cultural norms as to what a man or a woman "should be."

Of course, not all people who transgress cultural norms in regards to gender are, or should be, considered TG as we are discussing here. In that case, that would include a woman who works as a pipefitter or a male nurse. However, when transgender is used in the case of a "sexual minority", we are generally referring to one of the following five categories:

* Transsexuals were born into one gender but identify psychologically and emotionally as the other. Transsexuals are generally thought to have a condition called gender dysphoria (also called Gender Identity Disorder). Those who are born physically male but are emotionally and psychologically female are called Male to Female or MTF's. Those who are born female but are emotionally and psychologically male are called Female to Male or FTM's. There is some disagreement as to whether gender dysphoria is a physical condition, a psychological condition or both. Some scientists believe that gender dysphoria occurs when the developing fetus is in the womb and that a chemical imbalance occurs their development, that affects sexual difference.

The primary way transsexuals differ from other TG people is that in almost all cases, they seek to modify their bodies through hormones, SRS (Sexual Reassignment Surgery) or both. This process (which may take several months or many years) is called Transition, where transsexuals will make major life changes in order to bring their physical appearance in line with their gender identity. Some of those changes include changing their name and gender designation on legal documents such as birth certificates, driver's licenses and social security records. However it is achieved, the ultimate goal of transition is to enable the transsexual to live completely as the gender with which they identify.

It is extremely important to remember that male to female transsexuals are women, just as female to male transsexuals are men and should be referred to and treated as such.

* Intersexed people were born exhibiting some combination of both male and female genitalia (usually determined by the doctor to be either a clitoris that is "too large" or a penis that is "too small.") As one can imagine, such a diagnosis is entirely subjective. At birth, the attending physician or parents or both "choose" which gender to raise the child, necessitating surgery and/or hormonal treatment that must be continued throughout the child's life. Many intersexed people, now adults, are advocating for an end to the way intersexed children are seen as "damaged goods" needing to be fixed.

* Crossdressers (previously known as transvestites) identify as, and are completely comfortable with, their physical gender at birth, but will occasionally dress and take on the mannerisms of the opposite gender. Of course, crossdressing is more onerous on men, since our culture accepts the idea of a woman wearing pants, but not a man wearing a skirt. Most crossdressers are heterosexual men. The term transvestite is now considered offensive and should not be used because it is associated with negative images of sexual fetishism.

* Drag Performers include people like RuPaul, or Elvis Herselvis (a well known lesbian Elvis impersonator). Drag performers are precisely that - performers. They dress and act like the "opposite" sex for the entertainment of an audience. For them, drag is a job - not an identity. Some are gay - some are not. Some identify as transgendered - most do not. It is important to be aware of the fact that some people, including many drag performers themselves, do not consider drag performers to be members of the transgendered community.

* Gender blenders, bi-gendered, androgynes and others - Not all transgendered people fit neatly into the above categories. For some, such characterizations of gender and gender identity are more constraining than liberating. Gender blenders may or may not identify as one or the other in a binary gender system (i.e. either/or, male/female) and many times will assume a mixture of male and female dress and characteristics, combining elements of both.

-- (Gender@Identity.101), February 03, 2001.


ever heard of demon possesion & opression????

-- al-d (dogs@zianet.com), February 03, 2001.

Gender-blenders were formerly known as Mixmasters.

-- (nemesis@awol.com), February 03, 2001.

"It is extremely important to remember that male to female transsexuals are women, just as female to male transsexuals are men and should be referred to and treated to as such".

Yeah, I'll be sure to remember that.

-- J (Y2J@home.comm), February 03, 2001.


Thanks Debra. I awoke this morning in a fugue-state and forgot how to post links. Thanks too Peg except for some reason your link doesn't work for me.

-- Lars (larsguy@yahoo.com), February 03, 2001.

What do you call an operation to change a woman to a man?

-- KoFE (your@town.USA), February 03, 2001.

A Stickadicktomy.

-- KoFE (your@town.USA), February 03, 2001.

Gender Identity 101,

What do you call a man who wears panty hose under leather motor cycle pants, loves to be beaten and take shit-showers, is a life-time member of NAMBLA and gets-off when sheep bleat as he fucks them while slitting their throats?

Please be politically correct.

-- (Paracelsus@Pb.Au), February 03, 2001.


Hawk?

-- Jack Booted Thug (governmentconspiracy@NWO.com), February 03, 2001.

Hey, KoFE,

What do you get if you cross a penis and a potato?

-- Debra (Thisis@it.com), February 03, 2001.


A dictator.

-- Debra (Thisis@it.com), February 03, 2001.

Good one Debra, lol

-- KoFE (your@town.USA), February 03, 2001.

You can't cross an Idaho potato and come up with that. It would have to be a spud grown in Maine!

-- Boswell (fundown@thefarm.net), February 04, 2001.

Debra-

Are you talking about the berdache?

-- Tarzan the Ape Man (tarzan@swingingthroughthejunglewithouta.net), February 04, 2001.


Thanks Tarzan.

Instant recognition when I saw the word. (Why I can't remember these things on my own I don't know.)

The Berdache Spirit

snips-

They were named by Europeans as berdache" from the Persian "bardaj," originally a derogatory term meaning a passive homosexual partner usually a "pretty" or feminine young boy. Yet, Indian berdache are very different from the European view of "berdaj" as "sodomite heretics" as written about by the Crusaders invading Persia in the Middle Ages.

Instead, native cultures seem to embrace the notion of an opposite gender identity, different from one's anatomical sex WITHOUT any implied sexual preference. They were viewed by native tribes as having an almost Sacred" status for the most part. Indian spiritual philosophy not only accepts a "third gender" status, but almost encourages it. With few exceptions by some of the more warlike tribes like the Apache and Comanche, the berdache are found to comfortably coexist in almost every single North American tribe, especially in the midwest, great plains and the southwest.

Unlike European Americans, gender or sexual divergence did not threaten the Indians. Berdache males in particular often became healers, surgeons, counselors, therapists, high religious priests, shamans, witch doctors and medicine men. They were regarded as a kind of "holy men." Berdache males could also become one of the multiple wives of Indian braves and, in rare cases, of genetic females who became "men" by proving themselves as warriors. The term berdache" is, of course, a generic one, as they were called by different -terms depending on the tribe. They were "winktes" in the Lakota Sioux, "Nadle" in Navaho tribes, "Shamans" in the Mojave and "Mahu" in the Polynesian culture of Tahiti.

Since the berdache could mix characteristics of both genders, they were viewed as having a special status as if "blessed" by the gods. They were thought to be the "middle gender," and seen as prophets and visionaries having an almost mystic and psychic vision into the future. They were often consulted by tribal elders and chieftains because they were thought to have a kind of "universal knowledge" and special connection to the "great spirit."

It is extremely interesting to note that the concept of a "transsexual" is a Western one based on the notion that there are two "opposite" sexes with distinct, culturally "Approved" gender characteristics. Western philosophy seems much narrower in this respect than Eastern philosophies as it allows only for strict stereotypes...

Because of these polar stereotypes, people who are merely dissatisfied with their GENDER ROLE feel they have only ONE alternative: to anatomically become the other sex through surgery. Since this was impossible before the surgical techniques and synthesized hormones of the 20th century, Native American Indians allowed for more gender role flexibility without the social stigma of our modern culture. In our myopic modern society, restrictive western social values see only two diametrically opposed possibilities, yin OR yang, rather than the unifying combination of both in an androgynous mix.

In comparison with Native Indian berdache, it is arguable that many transsexuals of today become "post-op" only because of the pressure of a Polarized" western society of EXTREMES.

...The Indians of North America constructed a beautiful option of alternative gender possibilities WITHOUT stigma. As part of their "vision quest" to search for higher truths, they allowed a kind of personal freedom which we don't ever enjoy today. We are not given the personal-life choices that were readily available in what we arrogantly call Primitive cultures.

By allowing the flexibility of lifestyle variations, the Indians liberated themselves in a spiritual sense in a way we could learn from today. The emphasis among the Indians was more towards social role choices and expectations than focusing on sexual behavior.



-- Debra (Thisis@it.com), February 04, 2001.


What do you call a man who wears panty hose under leather motor cycle pants, loves to be beaten and take shit-showers, is a life-time member of NAMBLA and gets-off when sheep bleat as he fucks them while slitting their throats?

A gay son of heterosexual Larry Flynt.

-- (Gender@Identity.101), February 04, 2001.


Lars,

In the movie Little Big Man, the character's name was Little Horse, and he was called a "hee-man-eh."

In the Cheyenne tribe, which is the tribe that was featured in the movie, "hee-man-eh" is the word for what anthropologists often call a "berdache."

-- Debra (Thisis@it.com), February 04, 2001.


Debra,

Could you milk that down regular speak? How did the dis-engendered one integrate into the tribe? Were the braves allowed to have their way with "shim" if he agreed to wear a dress or cook for them? Just curious.

-- capnfun (capnfun1@excite.com), February 04, 2001.


Hey capn, how are you?

You want regular speak from me? You know not what you ask! :o)

How did the dis-engendered one integrate into the tribe? What is it that you are saying here? A male changes his social role to that of a female and you call it DIS-engendered? The TWICE-engendered were viewed as having a special status. "As if blessed by the Gods."

Were the braves allowed to have their way with "shim" if he agreed to wear a dress or cook for them? If I agreed to wear a dress and cook for you would you be allowed to have your way with me? Even if 'your way' is very good you don't get it simply because I wear a dress and cook.

OK, maybe that's not what you are asking here. If a brave took shim to be one of his wives then yes, I suppose, that brave could have his way with shim. And as it is with females, some got better husbands than others. And as it is with males, some have better ways than others.

On the other hand, if God truly 'blessed' shim, then s/he would not be in the position that another could simply 'have their way.' We could ask if sometimes braves raped shim. And we could ask if s/he accepted it as God's will or if s/he began to question God.

What exactly was the life of a berdache like? Capn, I don't know. All I know is that they were believed to be blessed by the God's and that they married men.

-- Debra (Thisis@it.com), February 04, 2001.


Hi Deb,

Pretty good I reckon,thanks,hope all is well with you too.

Like I said,I was just curious and didn't know how far your knowledge went on this.My knowledge of that culture is little and none but from what you say it looks like everybody was satisfied and happy.Thanks for the info.

-- capnfun (capnfun1@excite.com), February 04, 2001.


http://www.anet.net/~scorpio/Moondance/Nonfiction/berdache.htm

Berdache

-- (Worth@a.read), February 05, 2001.


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