What do you really think of transexuals?

alcomoholic wrote: »

What do you think of them?
Seems to be a lot of political correctness on boards, but honestly beyond all that, what do you genuinely think of them.
If your son came home and told you he was getting a sex change, how would you feel? I for one would be absolutely humiliated and disgusted, the whole thing is just wrong in my eyes

Don't know why you'd be humiliated or disgusted, it's no reflection on you.

I don't know any transsexuals so I can't comment from the experience of knowing one, doesn't stop many.

Some people aren't cut out for it.

I only know 1 personally, M-->F, not sure if they've gone the whole way yet.
It must take a great deal of courage IMO, and determination to go down that route.

A neighbour of mine is a tranny. Since the operation there was an air of confidence about him/her (still can't get used to it) but a couple of years went by and he's now on leave from his job and has spent a week in hospital being treated for depression and suicide.

I suppose there was an initial happiness in becoming the person he wanted to be. But as time went by he realised life is sh!t besides whatever gender you are.

DebDynamite wrote: »

I was always totally supportive of transexuals and had no problem with it at all until I actually met one.

When I lived abroad a girl started in my job and after a while she announced she was a transexual and wanted to be known as, let's just say Tom.

She started hormone treatment changed gender on her passport to a male. Well I'm not exagerating when I say that this girl was the girliest girl you'd ever meet in interests, mannerisms, etc. There was nothing masculine about her whatsoever, except she would dress like a boy.

We we all totally supportive of her but will admit I was totally baffled as to how this girlie girl could feel like a man. How on earth did she feel she was born in the wrong body? How can someone like her know what it feels like to be a man, iykwim? She said she knew from the time she was around 16 that she was born into the wrong body. Most transexuals I'd ever heard discussing it would say they'd always felt all their lives they were born in the wrong body. I'm certainly no doctor but I said there was no way she'd ever go through with the full sex change.

Anyway, in the end she stopped her hormonal treatment, changed the gender on her passport back to female and started wearing dresses into work!

I'd always assumed you would have to go through rounds and rounds of psychology tests before you'd even get to the stage of hormonal treatment. I guess I was shocked at how far this person got in her treatment, when I could even tell that she'd never to through with it.

I always thought that transexuals always knew without doubt that they were were the sex they were looking to change to but meeting that person totally confused me about the whole thing.

Thats not actually uncommon. Unfortunately there are a lot of obstacles to cross in altering the physical gender so there is always a small risk that a few people may creep through without full checks being in place. While psychological and psychiatric assessment is deep, at least one trans friend has said that because you cannot get surgery (and so the govt doesn't have to pay unless you REALLY fight your case) there are a few doctors that pretty casually refer people, and one person claims that Ireland is the easiest place in the world to get referred because they think you won't actually go ahead with it.

I have a few trans friends (all M2f) and all are fairly happy in their decisions. One did say that sometimes she did have regrets because a lot of other people in her family got hurt in the process and because it created a huge gap between her past life as a boy and her later life as a woman. In reterospect, she felt it somehow transitioning created a false impression that her old male life was "fake" as opposed to real and on maturity she felt this was a bad thing psychologically. Also she regretted that it created a gap with relationships as people didn't recognise her for obvious reasons.

I think its fine, we really don't know much about gender identity and despite the myth that its some kind of physical condition of the brain, in fact there is really no definitive evidence and we don't know why some people identify as the opposite gender or why sometimes this doesn't emerge until much later in life. That said it does no harm at all to others and there is no reason why we should deny trans people their full rights in allocating passports, etc. Birth certs I can understand the problem with but I think there is room for exceptions as such documents are really important in life.

I think its really hard in Ireland, there is a lot of ignorance and it challenges peoples own perceptions about their own gender what you expect from a man or woman in ways that is quite a jolt. We need to understand that it is not harmful to others or society in any way and there is no need at all for any form of discrimination. As for silly stuff like changing rooms and public loos, really this is a bit crazy and people are not doing anybody any harm.

im thinkin about becoming one just so i can finger myself