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So tonight I find myself in a bit of a quandry. There’s a story out about a post-op transsexual that is suing a Catholic hospital because said hospital won’t give this individual fake breasts. The hospital argues that gender reassignment goes against their operating principles, while the plantiff argues that it’s a violation of California law to discriminate against her because of her sexual reassignment.

I’ve always more or less felt that individuals that wanted to have surgery to switch genders were suffering from a psychological disorder that should be corrected psychologically rather than physically. Ultimately though, I’m a live and let live kind of guy, so I’m not necessarily opposed to individuals getting the surgery if they have the money and really desperately want to.

I don’t think that anyone can argue that this isn’t a psychological problem of some sort. Clearly, there’s a disconnect between reality (being male), and what the brain desires (being female). That’s black and white. Mentally, this individual feels that they would be happier if they underwent surgery to change visible sexes (I say visible, because genetically that individual will not actually change sexes). In this case, science gives in to the urges of the mind and rearranges the body.

I’m not certain, but as far as I can remember, this is the only situation in which the medical establishment will allow someone with mental discomfort to actually modify themselves in this way. For example, there are people who have mental disorders in which they desperately want to have a limb or two amputated. Many, so I’ve read, report that they’re much happier once they do have the limb removed (via illegal channels). I can’t imagine that this is a surgery a hospital would do, or that psychologists would support.

I’m not sure then, why the amputation of the penis or the permanent destruction of the vagina are treated differently. If counseling is preferred in the case of limb amputees, I wonder why the medical establishment has determined that the two are different. Why not treat people with gender dystopia in the same fashion?

In any event, I find myself having a hard time picking a position on this. If the surgery makes people feel better about themselves (like breast augmentation for a “regular” woman might), I’m not sure I can really oppose it. On the other hand, if I feel that the medical establishment is correct in its psychological, medicinal, and therapeutic treatment of people with other mental dystopias, I’m not sure how this is any different.

I’m no fool, and understand that the mental constructs of gender are complex, to say the least. I just hate to see someone undergo irreversible surgery to satisfy a condition that would be treated very differently if it did not involve gender. Then again, what do I know?

On a different note, it would be interesting if mankind died off overnight, and in a thousand years aliens land and start exhuming bodies. I wonder what the hell they would make of all the silicon, mismatched genes (i.e. transsexuals), and so on?

Link of the day: The worst video game…ever