Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Forwarding New Hope or Running

After a Mirage?

Christina's World’, the painting above( source: Wikipedia), a mid 20th century master piece of U.S. painter Andrew Wyeth, depicts the theme of my this essay and I think, readers could find a compatibility of this painting with my view on this rare discussed topic.



People often mix up ‘gender’ with ‘sex.’ That is why we put the term LGBT together. Lesbians, Gays or Bisexuals have a fixed sexual orientations while transgenders are a different community related to ‘gender identity.’ Gays or bisexuals never think to change their ‘gender’ any day but transgendered people feel their gender expression and identity do not conform to society's expectations.

They identify and present themselves in many different ways. In doing so, transgendered people push the boundaries of both sex and gender. The dilemma is most of the people don’t know the proper difference between sex and gender and that misconception in people’s mind makes the transgendered feel alien from the mainstream. The common attitudes of people towards transgendered push them to lead a life of hatred, disgust, transphobia, and discrimination.

We have to make it clear that gender is a social creation, not a natural function of sex. Sex is related to our biological sexual make up (such as our chromosomal arrangements) and uses certain biological markers (like our genitals and other reproductive sex organs). Society pronounced us with the help of those markers, a newborn is a girl or a boy. What is really discovered about each of us at that point is not our gender, per se, but simply our sex.

‘Gender’ is a common social expectation which puts borderlines for each sex and expects that men, for instance, should be more active and dominant than women, and are seen to be rational, objective individuals. Men are more often associated with the public sphere of life, and are expected to be dependable income earners. Men are expected to love and marry a woman and to become fathers. Society has fixed a different set of expectations for ‘ men’ about how to act, what to do, and who to love. On the other hand, ‘women’ are generally expected in mainstream society to be more passive, submissive and dependent than men. There are certain expectations of society from them about how to act, what to do, who to love, and so on. Women are often seen to be subjective, emotional beings; are usually associated with the private sphere of life; and tend to be the caregivers. Women are expected to love and marry a man and become mothers. Often from our childhood, we are taught how to be a ‘good girls’ or how to be a ‘good boys,’ which satisfies the expectations of our respective societies in which we live. From the beginning of the life of a child, society assumed that gender characteristics as natural with the idea that ‘boys will be boys’ and ‘girls will be girls’ suggests that particular behaviours referred to are to be expected from male children and particular behaviours referred to are to be expected from girls. Another meaning of these preoccupied norms is whether behavours will be tolerated in a boy but would likely not be tolerated in girls and vice versa.

But in a changing society, these descriptions have also been becoming worthless. More and more women are recognized as active, participating members of the public sphere while men are increasingly assuming care-giving roles. It does not mean that there is no rigid division between the two categories. In behaviourial characteristics, these gender differences are still prevailing. What I find myself thinking nowadays is that it is usually assumed there are no more differences between ‘women’ and ‘men.’ The two gender categories are, in other words, also interdependent: the idea of ‘feminine’ behaviour says as much about how men are not supposed to act as it does about how women are supposed to act.

Transgenders in Literature

The Well of Loneliness is a 1928 controversial novel by the English author Radclyffe Hall. The protagonist Stephen Gordon finds herself in a wrong body and tries to cross dress. Later, she falls in the love with Mary Llewellyn, whom she meets while serving as an ambulance driver in World War I. For decades, it was the best-known lesbian novel in English and a British court even judged it obscene because it defended “unnatural practices between women.”

Virginia Woolf’s novel Orlando, also published in 1928, is also a much-acclaimed novel which tells the story of a man named Orlando, born in England during the reign of Elizabeth I, who falls asleep for a lengthy period of time, resisting all efforts to rouse him. Upon awakening, he finds that he has metamorphosed into a woman—the same person, with the same personality and intellect, but in a woman's body. Neither Radclyffe Hall nor Virginia Woolf used the word ‘transgender’ in their novels.

The term ‘transgender’ was first used in 1960 by Prince Virginia (original name: Arnold Lowman), an American transgender activist, who published a magazine Transvestia and started the Society for the Second Self for male heterosexual cross-dressers, where transsexuals and homosexuals were not admitted. Later, Judith Butler made clearer the differences between ‘gender’ and ‘sex’ but did not use the term ‘transgender’ in her research. Before Virginia Prince and Judith Butler, the term was not publicly accepted. Even the great pianist Billy Tipton (1914-1989) who passed his whole life as a ‘man’ socially, got married and adopted three sons, was discovered to have been female-bodied after his death. By 1990, the term received wide acceptance and legal support. But, though the meaning of gender variance may vary from culture-to-culture or time-to-time, transgender persons have been documented in myths and in the history of different cultures in both East and West.

Misconceptions About the Transgender Community

Who is a transgender person? There are different sub-groups among transgenders prevailing among this main group. There are intersexual, androgens, transvestites, drag kings and queens, cross-dressers, gender-benders, women who pass as men, and men who pass as women, “masculine-looking” women, “feminine-looking” men, bearded women, and women bodybuilders (that is, women who have crossed the line of what is considered socially acceptable for a female body). To put all of them in a single group is the first fallacy I think, as all of them are different and totally opposite to each other. In fact, this gender problem is also the personal creation of each and every one of us.

Among them, intersexuals are totally different from other transgenders as they have a separate biological make-up at birth, which is not exclusively male or female. They exist on the biological continuum between the poles of male and female and they struggle against our rigid two-sex system for the right to physical ambiguity and the acknowledgement that there are more than two sexes. Intersexed babies have a right to grow up and make their own decisions about the body they will live in for the rest of their lives. Other transgenders have totally different problems but still, we put both transsexuals and other transgenders into a single group.

Misleading Ideas

Transgenders often used to think that they have the right soul in the wrong body. Now there are some pop-culture clichés to express these feelings like “man trapped in a woman's body” or “woman trapped in a man's body.” A transgender is created when he/she chooses the means of gender expression from a pre-determined set of ‘rules’ provided by society. Transgendered people identify in ways that do not correspond to some or all of the acceptable behaviours encouraged in them since birth. In this way, gender can be seen as the product of the complex interaction between the individual and society. But a lot of confusion still remains while we are talking about them as it is an umbrella-termed group and still the actual position and problems have been kept hidden from the public.

The problems of transsexuals and cross-dressers are not the same. There is also no awareness in the mind of the general public who are habituated with a binary gender system. The social acceptance to them is very negative and recently, some activists are trying to make it generalized so that the group should not feel so alien from the mainstream of society. But among them, there are also so many contradictions and confusions which have lead the movement into a mess. The obscene websites make vulgar and porno pictures of some transgenders and try to attract the young people and sometimes create ‘transgender euphoria’ (i.e., the ‘subject’ feels there's something really great about being perceived as the opposite sex) in them. This is the first and foremost obstacle to detect actual ‘gender dysphoria’ (i.e., the ‘subject’ feels there's something really bad about being perceived as one’s biological sex) cases.

There are also some activists who are making emotional mistakes to increase the numerical statistics of their community. Some private TV channels are also pursuing talk shows or chat shows in their programming. Recently for my study on this topic, I have surfed for different blogs on transgenders and I found a very critical blog (http://gazalhopes.blogspot.com/) owned by Ghazal Bhaliwal, a transgender activist, film writer and lyricist, who avidly supports surgical transition for the people who think they are trapped in a wrong body.

To deal with the issues of transgenders, our main goal will be to provide a beautiful happy life to those people who could remain in the mainstream. First of all, we have to focus on the need for suitable parameters in which to classify the sub-culture groups of transgenders and would have to eliminate intersexuals or transsexuals (i.e., the ‘subject’ finds and feels something deformed in one’s biological sex) and homosexuals ( gays and lesbians ) from the transgender group. In the case of other transgenders, we should have to keep in mind that the problem is not genetic but a problem related with gender identity. It is strange that we often suggest sex transformation for people who suffer from a gender crisis. Sex transition is not always a solution for these people.

In my homeland Orissa, opera is a popular folk art form and till now, this folk theatre form is prevailing with a boost from commercial support. Up until the 1970s, male performers had been playing female roles by growing their hair long, wearing only ‘lungi’ and ‘banyan’ to make themselves comfortable as woman, and they make their voice and speech style more feminine to better capture the roles they play. But I have seen that these artists also have their own families. They have been married and have offspring. I have also seen many of the intellectuals in India who have hidden feminine characteristics in their personality as well and who are playing leading roles in the mainstream.

The Price of Transition

Transition is also a critical and expensive process. Prince Virginia, the creator of this term transgender, was also against any type of surgical transition. Transition surgery makes the person a patient for his/her whole lfe. He/she has to take hormone therapy for a long time which also can have adverse reactions over the body and mind. He/she has to have electrolyte therapy, which is also very painful, and costly. The transition process also needs the help of a psychologist. This type of emotional urge to change gender may also have negative results, resulting in the patient experiencing ‘transgender euphoria’ instead of ‘gender dysphoria.’

Accessibility of finances plays a key role for those wishing to change genders. Most of those who have adopted transition are from elite classes or higher income groups and most live in ‘Metro’ cities (in India, big cities are popularly known by this name). What will be the fate, then, for a middle-class transgender who lives in smaller cities like Patna, Lucknow, Kochi or Bhopal?

As a result of the gender change, transgender people in most cities and states can be denied housing or employment, lose custody of their children, or have difficulty achieving legal recognition of their marriages, solely because they are transgender. Many transgender people are the targets of hate crimes. The widespread nature of discrimination based on gender identity and gender expression can cause transgender people to feel unsafe or ashamed, even when they are not directly victimized.

Transgender people experience the same kinds of mental health problems that non-transgender people do. However, the stigma, discrimination, and internal conflict that many transgender people experience may place them at increased risk for certain mental health problems. Discrimination, lack of social support, and inadequate access to care can exacerbate mental health problems in transgender people while support from peers, family, and helping professionals may counteract these problems.

Here I want to quote some advice of transgender scientist Madeline Wyndzen from her article “Questions to Help Thinking about Your Gender Identity.”

Wyndzen, though she has had surgery for her transition, makes it clear that surgical transition is not at all a solution for transgender problems. She writes, “Everybody who transitions is not happy with their decision! I even know several post-op transsexuals who, though they say they're happier, that's not so easy to tell. I have met several post-op transsexuals who are filled with anger and hate and have never move passed it. I have met several transsexuals who live in a ‘transgender’ sub-culture rather than being a part of the larger world. I've seen people who once had families and careers that give up everything and ‘fortunately’ have a huge divorce settlement. I've seen people who quit their jobs (with some rationalization about why they couldn't possibly transition while there) and move into a small apartment. Others are fired. I've seen people use their life savings to stay hidden in the ‘transgender’ sub-culture for years but be able to transition because they would spend their life savings. I've asked a transsexual who had plenty of money but hid why she didn't get a job so she could explore what it's like to live as a woman. Why not get a job as a waitress to interact with other people who aren't transsexuals? I was worried about her because she became reclusive and she didn't act anything like what most women act like. But being a waitress was ‘beneath her’ and getting a job in her field was ‘obviously’ not possible because no women could have her resume. I've seen people who say I just ‘had’ to transition. They're ‘happier’ now but all they ever talk about is their past. They never seem to have hopes and dreams for their future. They dwell in anger towards religious institutions, or ex-spouses, or family members, or somebody else who's to blame. I've even had to stop talking to some transsexuals because it was just too much for me to hear their same angry stories over and over again. They couldn't stop and they couldn't change their stories because their stories were all about the past. Though how could they change? They had no life except their past as their biological sex.”

She again writes, “I'm not the only one who notices this. When I mentioned it to my therapist, she said she saw the same thing. She said there are transsexuals who ‘rather than coming out of the closet, merely come out into a bigger closet.’ I don't mean to suggest that this is inherently bad. You might really love a life as part of a ‘transgender’ subculture. But that's very different from a life as a man or woman. Please be clear about what you're trying to achieve when you transition. Some people really are transgenderists. Overall, I feel they're pretty cool even though I don't personally identify with them. Transgenderists really are happy and self-confident with their choice to challenge a binary gender system. But there are also other people who live outside of their real culture because they're too scared or angry or lack the confidence to join the world. Throwing out powerful rhetoric of ‘thwarting the binary gender system’ means nothing if it comes from somebody who hates the world, loses his or her confidence to face life, and doesn't like himself or herself as a person. Sometimes ‘transgenderism’ is just big fancy words for hiding a big mistake.”

Conclusion

I am not against transgendered individuals. People often show their sympathy for trees, animals and other inferior species but are often rude in their behaviour towards transgenders while the transgender community, on the other hand, generally do not make any harm to anybody. I can understand the positions of intersexuals or transsexuals who are born with differed biological bodies. There should be rational steps to make all feel comfortable and to mix up everyone into the mainstream.

In the comments area of Ghazal’s blog, I found an anonymous reader asked her, “You say that you were born in a wrong body...well, bending nature according to wishes of mind is not so good, Ghazal. Our mind concocts a hell of a lot of wishes, but you can't fulfill all of them... it's impossible. Let’s say after five years from now, you may wish to become a man.. then .. what will you do?” I think that question has potentiality and we should reconsider it.

Finally, I want to quote again Madeline Wyndzen’s few last lines from her essay as my conclusion:

She writes, “It's doesn't really matter if you are or aren't a transsexual. You are you! And people can redefine transsexual, so it means just about anything! There are even many psychologists who define a transsexual solely as somebody who transitions. That's it. And it's possible for people to get caught up in debates about if they ‘really are a transsexual.’”

But the real question and the only question you need to answer is this: What path for your life will let you be happy?

18 comments:

  1. Transexual is the origination of psycological feelings of a person.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Well done friend! You have brought to light in a very detalied manner the problems of the transgenders quoting characters from famous works. They, as you have pointed out, deserve our sympathy and fellow feeling. Moreover most of them are as innocent as lambs.

    -Prof. K. V. Dominic, Editor, IJPCL, Thodupuzha, Kerala

    ReplyDelete
  3. A very interesting post. I disagree with your conclusions, however, "sex" is as much a social construction as "gender." It is a long discussion to have. Here is my article on the subject: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1454867

    It concerns a US law prohibiting "sex" discrimination, which some courts have interpreted to include "gender" discrimination.

    I agree this is a complicated discussion on which there may be many viewpoints.

    Dr. Jillian T. Weiss
    Professor of Law and Society
    Ramapo College of New Jersey
    USA

    ReplyDelete
  4. Your article makes me think about my need to put people into categories that do not fit them, and why I feel uncomfortable with ambiguity when it comes to gender. You have gave me much to consider.

    Thank You.
    Judaye
    Tales From Under a Middle-Aged Woman.

    ReplyDelete
  5. your article is quite exhaustive and reseach oriented and too much knowledge giving and never lets the reader to think or delfelt to other things and i am really surprised by the hard work you had put in the article ..very nice and beautiful one and had broadened my points of views about the people my best wishes and thanks

    ReplyDelete
  6. You said... To deal with the issues of transgenders, our main goal will be to provide a beautiful happy life to those people who could remain in the mainstream

    As someone who identifies as transgender and transsexual, I have to ask who the "our" is in "our main goal," and whether or not I can ask you to leave the trans community alone.

    Your post uses a lot of anecdotes and selective sources in an attempt to seem unbiased. Yet, you end up strongly hinting that transitioning is a poor decision and would not be necessary if people would just get over their "gender crisis."

    Likewise, what does it matter if being trans is genetic or not? I have dozens of anecdotal stories (including my own) of people who are happier after transitioning. Of doctors and therapists who support the process. Where are those stories? Where is that evidence?

    ReplyDelete
  7. @ Rebecca:
    Don’t misunderstand for the word ‘our’, as the word includes all who are transgrnders and those who are not. I have never written or believed that Transgender people belong from other community.
    I have written transitions may be required for transsexuals or intersexuals, but it is not at all necessary for other people who feel another soul in a wrong body. Actually Transgender is such an umbrella term norm that you could not assimilate all in these groups and I have stated the fact clearly. Don’t confuse that all Transgenders as Transsexuals or Intersexuals. There are other people who are not found with any biological deformation in their body. Why we would impose a ‘gender euphoria’ to them? Lastly, I can’t think why sex transition would be preferred for a problem related to gender, when sex and gender are completely different issue?

    ReplyDelete
  8. I confessed that I have not enough knowledge about physical structure of transgender people. I work in company, where my coworker has almost all female hobbits, but he was a male. He was very intelligent friendly, hard working and was very brave person. We work together for many years. One day he gives me an invitation card and said I am going to marry next week. He shows me the photograph of his bride. Despite of all my reservations, he is passing a good marital life. He has two children’s. Once I went to his office, I found him in good position, but when I was talking to him, other coworkers are laughing, the way he was talking to me. Certainly every one cannot face this situation.
    There is law for sexually harassment for women; similar law should be for transgender people, by admitting that there are more than two sexes (Man & women)
    This is an example for transgender people, how they can live in dignified way and face society despite lacking something biologically or physically.
    By a common sense if person is born with some defect in bodies, he must be treated medically or surgically, but if transgender people can live with body as they are born, why they should be treated medically to satisfy the society.
    This is like a black color is supposed to be inferior than white, the black person is advised to go through a cosmetic surgery. This is stupidity.
    To solve the problem of women, someone can suggest going through surgery, and try to make them men.
    Transgender people are people are treated very badly, they are supposed to be not 100% human, male or female are only human. They required being motivated, as no one gives rights to weaker person easily.
    Women are still not given their rights, in many parts of the world, they are living like slave. Many things are written for women about their physical structure, even their mind structure, which someone thinks determine the behavior of women, like shyness, submissiveness ,tendency to become beautiful and so on.
    But I still believe that muscle power is driving force of their behavior. If women arms are stronger than men, than one can imagine who will be bashful, submissive, household, men or women.
    Transgender people acquire or force to acquire the profession, which society thinks that they are inferior jobs. Like singing dancing in front of street people. People give them money just as they are beggars
    People mind cannot be changed overnight. A long time ago, first Pashto (language of Pathans) film was released. There was scene in the film; a woman was produced before Jirgah. As result of derogatory remarks, the women give slap to the head of jirgah. Viewers (all Pathans) become furious; how a woman can slap a man, start burning everything. Police is called, which fire tear gas to disperse the crowd. Crowd demanded no Pashto film should produced next time.
    But situation is changed; now Pashto films are successful at box office.
    For doing any job apparently transgender people’s mind and body as good as any men or women.

    There is famous saying “Find yourself and be yourself”, this is for those people who tries to imitate others, just as one singer tries to sing like any famous singer consequently lost his identity.
    Think that imitation is bad, than try to change once body medically or surgically to look liked acceptable to society.
    How foolish and dangerous idea is this?
    But thoughts are always changed with the passage of time.
    सबात एक तग़यर को हॆ ज़माने में

    ReplyDelete
  9. I must compliment you that you have done a great deed in artistically portraying a controversial subject. People find the issue farsical. Your aestetic take on the issue definitely makes sense of this off-beat sensuality.

    ReplyDelete
  10. reading you is a great experience to me. you are genius. my opinion is people have more sex in their than in bed. the same thing spoils every thing. you have written is all correct.

    ReplyDelete
  11. @Shally Khadatkar:
    Sex never spoils everything if it is adopted in proper manner. It is a great power.

    ReplyDelete
  12. @ Dinesh S. Padwal: If mind is polluted with it then what happens? Its really a power if in a right way.

    ReplyDelete
  13. exhaustive look at the issue of inclusion and exclusion. I want to read some of the resources you point to.

    the systemic belief in narrow definitions of gender-based or sex-based roles play a part in creating the safe harbour of sub-culture, counter-culture.

    at the same time, around all of us are individuals who may have begun life as one gender and transitioned seamlessly. invisible is the story of people who adapt and it is not contentious.

    it is a bias filter issue such as the case of anyone, gay, bi, straight of lesbian, cisgendered or transgendered, who has a characteristic not locally accepted who feels opposed and therefore needs to petition for understanding.

    those who happen to be in circles of people who accept as a non-event a progression to transgender don't make the news.

    ReplyDelete
  14. You write with such authority and flare .
    Loved your article on Transgender, you have given the subject a totally
    different holistic perspective.
    Your take on the subject is quiet revolutionary and I for one am now
    wanting to let my thinking evolve on the issues
    of Transgender away from the sexual stereotyping and myths that has been
    part of the cultural education our so called advanced societies.
    Your writings on the Caste system and how Religious scriptures is
    manipulated and distorted to advance and perpetuate an inhuman form of
    slavery
    It's all about the people in power wanting to give this abhorrent system
    respectability. These are not holy scriptures, there is nothing holy
    about them, Holy is just a superficial Label, Those that read and
    practice these archaic dogmas do so wanting to maintain and defend
    their privileged positions in society and will not let anything
    interfere with the status quo.
    Anyone with limited intelligence can create a new religion and produce a
    doctrine and then go on to proclaim that it is the word of some divine
    being, given to them verbatim in a dream. There will be in no time at
    all gullible people who will give their lives, and wealth to follow such
    buffoons without questioning their credentials.
    Hypnotically speaking if it is true that Adam and Eve were the first
    humans on this planet and we, all of us are the descendents of these
    first two people
    Where did the Caste System originate, surly it did not originate from
    the garden of Eden. (I, Don't believe in Adam & Eve to me it is just
    mythology ).
    Back to the question of the Origin of caste, yes to my way of thinking
    it's origin developed in the fertile mind of some bigot who wanted
    unlimited power over other people, the power to rule and decide over
    Life and Death. Throughout History, scan the pages of History and you
    will find Power drunk bigots, who designed Rules, Regulations and Laws
    mostly through brutal force and the blade of the sword dripping with the
    blood of the innocent.
    There is no being superior to another , just perhaps more fortunate to
    being born into a wealthy and privileged family and given opportunities
    to advance educationally and materially . On the other hand you have
    perhaps the most brilliant and acute mind born into abject poverty and
    because of his/her circumstances opportunities are not there for the
    individual to advance from the poverty through education and equal
    affirmative action,
    it does not give us the right to undermine that child through Labels of
    caste. We as the wider society together with government will do well to
    embrace that child and help that child reach its full potential.
    Danny Naicker

    ReplyDelete
  15. Sarojini,

    It is unfortunate and sadly, a discriminate way of using my blog as a source on your post by referring to it as an ‘emotional mistake’ even before mentioning it, and pointing out the one and only negative-sounding comment on my blog from among the thousands of comments that I have received in over a year now. As a fair, unbiased writer which several commenters here believe that you are, the least you ought to have done is post my response to that comment.

    It is interesting how people who have absolutely no clue as to what being transgender or transsexual means (including the author of the post) have discussed and commented upon it, viewing the subject through their own tinted glasses. While nobody has a right to question or demand an explanation about a person’s choice to change his or her sex OR gender (unless you’re related or a psychiatrist), it is also presumptuous to assume an unwarranted authority to pass judgment about a community one has seemingly no connection with, except a few literature references or the eagle-eyed view of the surface.

    Surface – is where this post begins and sadly, ends too.

    Yes, ‘transgender’ is an umbrella term and yes, there are varied expressions of transgender-ism, sex reassignment being one of them, but to assume that all the people under this umbrella want or are being led towards a sex reassignment is perhaps the biggest folly of this offering, and I find it atrocious that such an assumption be made. There are transvestites whose desire is merely to cross-dress, there are drag queens and kings who are trans-performers and may or may not want an SRS, but referring to female body-builders, ‘masculine-looking’ females and ‘feminine-looking’ males as transgender is at worst, silly, and at best, arbitrary, unless they themselves choose to identify as one.

    Vulgar transgender sites, it has been said, lead one to indulge in euphoria and to want to change one’s sex. I would bracket it under the same category of arguments which say that gay and lesbian vulgar sites lead to people’s minds being polluted. There is porn all over the internet and it is the most thriving industry of our times. Porn creates euphoria. Period. There is nothing more than that to that argument.

    There are people who need a Sex Reassignment, and there are those, among the trans-community, who do not. Yes, instances of people being confused exist, which is essentially why, it is critical to go through 2-3 independent psychiatric evaluations before one proceeds towards transition. Yes, despite that, there are instances of people post transition who regret their decision, but, the good news is that a large number of people are happy too! To just look at the numbers which support YOUR line of thought, again, doesn’t help your cause as an unbiased thinker. (contd)

    ReplyDelete
  16. (contd)

    Your post makes me out to be a transgender activist who is an avid supporter of sex reassignment, but conveniently, it misses out on the innumerable comments I get from people who are confused and the fact that I guide them to take time to be sure before they proceed, that I ask them to have intensive psychiatric consultation first.

    An expression of one’s identity, as long as it does not harm anybody outside one’s personal sphere, is a totally valid expression. Sex reassignment is one of them. In conclusion, I am simply going to post my response to the singular negative comment on my blog – a response, which if you had mentioned, would have let me have at least a certain respect for your viewpoint. And if, God forbid, you had ever had an experience of transsexuality, you would recognize not the potentiality, but the ridiculousness of that question.

    “If it IS possible to fulfill the mind’s wishes and those wishes are not destructive towards anybody, I do not see any harm in fulfilling those wishes. If a child is born with a hole in his/her heart, a surgery is done to cure him/her. Isn’t that bending the nature? Gender Dysphoria is a medical condition wherein the mental gender of a person is different from his/her physical gender. The medically recognized cure of this condition is Sex Reassignment. You ask – what if I wish to be a man 5 years from now? Well, you must understand that it’s not somebody’s whim and fancy to change their gender. It is not a matter of thoughts and wishes; it is a matter of identity. My identity was, is and will always be – I’m a woman. It’s the identity I was born with, irrespective of my physical gender.”

    Gazal

    ReplyDelete
  17. Also, would request you to spell my name correctly. Misspelt names don't reflect too well on a thinker and a writer.

    ReplyDelete