Maharshi Desai
It is biologically impossible to change ur chromosomes, which decide ur gender. Therefore, transgendered people don't exist.
jessica
this is actually scientifically wrong and just another stupid right-wing talking point to throw down beside climate change denial and intelligent design.
what your chromosomes code for is not your biological sex but your hormone configuration. it's your hormones that then actually determine your biological sex. so, the chromosomes determine your hormones, which determine your sex. it follows that you can actually change your sex by modifying your hormones.
now, you obviously can't undo the biological changes that happen during development - you can't suck your penis back in or blow your vagina out. well, not without surgery anyways. but, if you take a fetus that is at the stage before sexual differentiation then you can actually stimulate opposite reactions with hormonal flushes. that is, if you take an xy fetus and flush it in estrogen, then the testes will not descend - it will develop a vagina. and if you take an xx fetus and flush it in testosterone, then the testes will descend - it will develop a penis.
it's another take on the evangelical idea of life at conception, god's plan, etc. but it's wrong. sex = hormones. chromosomes just tell your body which hormones to make. and, if you flip the chemistry, you flip the outcome.
UTubeHobby
Isn't hormones the problem? I know a pregnant woman takes on more male hormones when she is pregnant, so she deals with facial hair, for example. Everything goes back to normal after she gives birth, so why wouldn't the people who 'feel' like a female or male just balance out their hormones?
jessica
well, that is what they're doing. but i don't think i'm really following the question.
Utubehobby
For those who feel like they are a woman let's say. Why don't they just take more male hormones? Isn't it an imbalance? Sorry, I don't mean to be rude or silly. I'm trying to understand.
jessica
gender is really just a way to arbitrarily categorize your personality and is mostly, if not entirely, learned behaviour. there's no such thing as brain sex, and no evidence that gender identity has anything to do with hormone imbalances. so, transsexuality is mostly not a genetic condition, but a consequence of environmental conditions. the short answer is that it consequently wouldn't actually address the issue at hand, it would just lead to stronger feelings of alienation.
but, the way that gender identity interacts with hormones is in truth not at all currently understood and is actually probably very complicated. as one random example, i can state that i've never grown any hair on my chest - which is strange, because all the men on both sides of my family are very hairy (my father is jewish, cree, french & italian and was the type that actually had his shirt puff out from hair growth kind of thing - a practical gorilla). it could be a coincidence, no doubt. but, it's certainly curious, anyways, that i've simply never grown any chest hair. there are a number of similar physical curiosities i could run off that strike me as likely genetic in origin.
so, if i were to take testosterone, it would no doubt put hair on my chest, sure. and, i'm open to the idea that the fact that i don't have any hair on my chest may have the same partial cause as the gender identity (even if i'll argue that it's mostly learned). but, that testosterone is not going to affect my personality, and consequently is not going to affect my gender, even as it exaggerates my physical sex in the other direction.
i'm just trying to avoid the typical "gender and sex are different things" response, because the terms you normally get it in are both insufficient and broadly wrong.
sf
They tried that, resulting in the individuals killing themselves. If you give a person the wrong hormones, they end up depressed, having dysphoria and kill themselves eventually if they aren't allowed to stop. So, giving a cis male, female hormones would result in them being depressed and killing themselves. Giving a trans woman female hormones does the opposite. It reduces dysphoria and depression and improving quality of life.
here a study about hormones in trans people and quality of life:
http://www.jsm.jsexmed.org/article/S1743-6095(15)33856-X/abstract
jessica
i just want to point out that this is overly reductionist in thought. it's not just a chemical imbalance, and isn't magically fixed with a set of coloured pills. there's a lot more to it than that.
hormones can help in reducing depression, in certain circumstances - which include a positive, supportive environment. however, they can also lead to horrific outcomes in other circumstances. and, the reality is that the rate of reversion is actually quite high.
there's a big part of this that reduces to the idea of a life choice. there is a decision that is made to transition, and sometimes it turns out to be the wrong one. but, as liberals, that is something that should be embraced and celebrated, not something that should be explained away or swept aside with what is, in truth, largely pseudo-science.
i have no shame in standing up in an auditorium and saying this is my decision and i expect you to respect it.