# A matter of more than linguistics

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-matter-of-more-than-linguistics/53463>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [February 7, 2001, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-matter-of-more-than-linguistics/53463 "2001-02-07T05:34:32Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 2

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Pjen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Pjen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pjen)\
**Post date:** [February 12, 2001, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-matter-of-more-than-linguistics/53463/21 "2001-02-12T16:05:32Z")

</div>

> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by matt\_mcl \*
> 
> Of course she’s emotional about it; this issue deeply affects her life. I’m very emotional when it comes to issues of homophobia, Canadian nationalism, university education, police brutality, and the like. That doesn’t mean what I - or she - had to say can be dismissed! \*\*

I did not dismiss what she said, but felt it necessary to rebut her comment “The problem is that you don’t understand the purpose of psychotherapeutic intervention (which I find frightening since you seem to be in the field).” which was not based on what I had posted, but only on her reaction to the emotion of the subject. I made it plain in my original post, and in my reply, that I was in favor of reassignment surgery.

I also feel emotional about having my practice criticized without foundation, hence the strength of my reply.

It must be possible to debate contentious subjects without resorting to personal abuse.

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-matter-of-more-than-linguistics/53463.md?page=1)