[QUOTE=VCO3]
I find the whole transgenered thing to be fascinating, because in my book the whole “transgendered” identification - being wholly convinced that one is a different sex that one’s physical body, which is what determines one’s sex - is directly commensurate with mental illness. I know this might sound a little spicy, but I see no difference between someone saying, “while I am physically a man, I’ve felt that I was a woman since I was a child and I think of myself as a woman even though I have a penis and no breasts” and someone saying, “I’ve thought that I was a dog since I was a child, and I insist on eating Alpo out of a dog bowl, being walked on a leash, and peeing on fire hydrants.” There is *no * difference between those two things in my opinion, yet the first is a protected class that’s managed to somehow become allied with the gays and lesbians and the second would be placed in a mental hospital.
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Aside from the peeing on fire hydrants part (public urination being illegal, and all) none of the behaviors you’ve attributed to your would-be-canine would land one in an institution. People get institutionalized when their behavior presents an obvious threat to themselves or others. Someone who thinks they’re a dog isn’t likely to fall into that category, unless they insist on biting the mailman when he shows up at their door.
That aside, transexuality is definitly an illness, no question about that. But is it a mental illness, or a physical illness? There’s growing evidence that transexualism has at its root a physical cause. Autopsies of male-to-female transexuals reveal that their brains contain structures similiar to those in the brains of natal women. Quite literally, they have the mind of a woman trapped in the body of a man. The research is not yet conclusive, but it does indicate that transexuals do not suffer from a mental illness so much as an extreme birth defect. The issue is further supported by the surprising number of people who are born intersexed: they have some physical characteristic from both genders. Sometimes, these characteristics are not externally expressed, such as a person who is externally female in all respects, but has undescended gonads in her pelvis. If such a person is unaware of her condition, but nonetheless feels ill at ease with her conventional gender, is she mentally ill? Or is there a further physiological cause for her sense of gender which is, like her extra genitalia, not outwardly obvious to the eye?
But let’s leave that aside, and address the concept of transexualism as mental illness as a given. Let’s start by clearing up a common misconception: a transexual is not delusional. They are very much aware of the reality of their situation. They know they have a penis. They know they don’t have breasts. They just would prefer to have a tits and a vagina. Transexualism refers to an internal desire, not an external reality. As such, by definition, it cannot be delusional.
Of course, one can be mentally ill and not be delusional, so that doesn’t necessarily dispose of the “transexuals = mentally ill” argument. But as Guinastasia points out, so what if it is a mental illness? Gender dysphoria, in its most extreme expressions, is virtually immune to psychological treatment. It’s not something that can be cured through therapy or medication. The most effective treatment we’ve found so far for these cases is gender reassignment surgery. The end goal of any sort of medical treatment is always the health and happiness of the patient. If the options for a transexual are remaining in their birth sex, and being miserable and depressed, or transitioning through hormones and surgery and being happy as their preferred gender, is that not the best course of action for that person?