Re: Does transgender surgery really make one a member of the new sex?
Posted: Fri Jun 21, 2002 10:53 am
I think the question, does having surgery change your sex or gender, is impossible to answer.
The terms, the words, the concepts are so ill-defined, all of them, that there's no answer that will be adequate, complete, and non-hurtful.
If the question is, does it change your identity, my answer is "no, it doesn't."
You are who you are. You define that. For example, let's ask about a completely separate thing: are you young-at-heart? Can anything you do to your body, or your name, or your residence, change that? No. You are what you are.
That's why it's so helpful to define "transgender" as a mind-thing, not a body-thing. Because that particular definition allows us to say things like "raised as a girl, but identified as a boy as early as we can remember" without having to spend lots of time analyzing body parts.
But it's still definitions. In this conversation, labels are very limiting.
I think that answering with an immediate "yes!" or an immediate "no!" to the question is really not answering the question, but trying to provide a response that is supportive and nuturing. It's truly not a yes/no question, because of all the nuance and issues that come along for the ride.
If you rephrase the question to be, should someone who identifies as a particular gender, who has had surgery to create sexual genitalia corresponding to that identity, be treated in the eyes of the law and of society as being that gender?, the question is easier to answer.
"Yes". "Sure." "Why not?" and "What's the harm in that?". All good responses, to my book. It's a live-and-let-live sort of thing.
However, don't expect me to pay for it, which is to say paying for the surgery. I'm not convinced that it's not an expensive elective surgery, given that it doesn't change the person inside. (And taxpayer money is public money, which means that it's my money and yours. Just because the surgery serves your needs doesn't mean that it serves the public's needs, and therefore that's not a great argument for paying for it with public funds.)
That's just my opinion. (Try to respond without words like "racist" or "misogynist" or the like, because those will pollute any discussion they appear in. They always do. Always.)
The terms, the words, the concepts are so ill-defined, all of them, that there's no answer that will be adequate, complete, and non-hurtful.
If the question is, does it change your identity, my answer is "no, it doesn't."
You are who you are. You define that. For example, let's ask about a completely separate thing: are you young-at-heart? Can anything you do to your body, or your name, or your residence, change that? No. You are what you are.
That's why it's so helpful to define "transgender" as a mind-thing, not a body-thing. Because that particular definition allows us to say things like "raised as a girl, but identified as a boy as early as we can remember" without having to spend lots of time analyzing body parts.
But it's still definitions. In this conversation, labels are very limiting.
I think that answering with an immediate "yes!" or an immediate "no!" to the question is really not answering the question, but trying to provide a response that is supportive and nuturing. It's truly not a yes/no question, because of all the nuance and issues that come along for the ride.
If you rephrase the question to be, should someone who identifies as a particular gender, who has had surgery to create sexual genitalia corresponding to that identity, be treated in the eyes of the law and of society as being that gender?, the question is easier to answer.
"Yes". "Sure." "Why not?" and "What's the harm in that?". All good responses, to my book. It's a live-and-let-live sort of thing.
However, don't expect me to pay for it, which is to say paying for the surgery. I'm not convinced that it's not an expensive elective surgery, given that it doesn't change the person inside. (And taxpayer money is public money, which means that it's my money and yours. Just because the surgery serves your needs doesn't mean that it serves the public's needs, and therefore that's not a great argument for paying for it with public funds.)
That's just my opinion. (Try to respond without words like "racist" or "misogynist" or the like, because those will pollute any discussion they appear in. They always do. Always.)
