Quote From: philfan2007I have been working with the transgender community for 5+ years, have attended many transgender events as well as several trangender leadership/media training sessions.
I am not shocked by the lack of educated comments here, as this is par for the coarse where gender disphoria issues are concerned. What shocks and concerns me is the grand scale lack of openminded communication and willingness to learn about those who were born different or have grown to feel their core gender does not fit that of what society has deemed as the 'norm'.
It is a very quick and simple remedy to these issues to close our eyes, pretend everyone in the world who is different from us, lives a unique lifestyle or makes different choices for THEIR lifepath is mentally unstable or a 'pervert'. This is a very closed minded, confused and scared way to respond to others. It is this very same mind set that gives way to poor relationships between races, genders and human beings as a whole.
Open you minds and understand that though you can burry your heads in the sand, the issues will not go away and the trans community has been, is and will continue to be an active part of our communities as a whole.
Things you may not know about the transgendered:
-Each transgender individual is required to attend several years of theropy with a professional who has been trained in transender issues and have appropriate documents signed and in hand before visiting a heath professional seeking hormone theropy or they will be denied the treatment. This is not an overnight decision.
-All those seeking to change their name legally to a cross gender name is required to seek legal counceling and present valid documents before a judge to prove their name chance is a legal and valid step on their path to a new life as the opposite gender or they will be denied this service. This is not an overnight decision.
-Many trans people choose not to proceed with the highly costly reassignment surgeries currently available to the trans community. They simply live their daily lives in a constant acting a role, performing for society's sake. They themselves are happy, productive people who often feel the need to play the roles that society has required of them in order to 'fit in'.
-All transgender individuals will need to remain on hormone theropy for the rest of their lives in order to maintain their new identity. This is a lifelong decision and is not something to be taken lightly.
Perhaps this person has not followed the above mentioned steps and perhaps she is not certain if this is the lifepath she is meant to take, but this is also not our choice to make for her.
Thank you for your time
One needs only go through a 3 month waiting period and have 12
hours or the equivalent of gender therapy in order to get on
hormones. I'm not sure where you got your information, but this
is what I had to do and jells with all the info I learned when I
started to transition back in Sept. 06. One also must have a letter or
report from the therapist saying that the person is ready to progress
to the next step.
One can change one's name anytime one wishes for any reason. I
have done this 5 times for different reasons and never had to have any
sort of counselling. I recently asked the courthouse about this
very issue and they said there was no problem doing it. Changing
the gender markers on documents is a different matter and varies from
state to state.
The main reason many transpeople don't go through SRS is due to the
cost alone. Medical insurance refuses to pay for this, claiming
it's experimental" and the issue is a mental health, not surgical
one. These insurance companies are in denial and don't know what
the trans doctors and patients know as facts. Being trans is not
a mental condition.
If a person choses to stop HRT, they will generally retain the changes
they acquired physically. FTM will retain their deep voices and
hairier bodies. What might change back is the fat to muscle
ratio. Hormones can only change the body so much, and surgery is
a viable option to further the transition.
The tranpeople I know, and there's many of them, are very unhappy and
frustrated with the roles assigned to them at birth. That's why
we have such a high number of mental health issues and suicides.
Please get your information straight.
Imagine waking up one morning and realizing that you’ve been living in the wrong body. That’s what Dr. Phil’s first guest says happened to her. Bernadette started dressing like a boy in high school. Now 37, she wants to be referred to as Cameron, and wants her breasts surgically removed. Cameron’s mom, Antoinette, and her aunts say she’s just angry, lost and confused. Will they ever accept her decision to become a man? Then, Sylvia’s 17-year-old daughter, Gwen, was murdered when a group of boys found out that she was one of them. The grieving mother weighs in on this important discussion. And, should a high school boy who dresses like a girl be allowed to use the girls’ bathroom? That’s the issue one Florida high school faced. The boy’s lawyer and two moms from the community engage in a heated debate. Plus, Jim and Linda’s 4-year-old daughter, Kayleigh, was born with Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome, a condition where she looks like a female on the outside, but inside, she’s an underdeveloped male. Should the parents be forced to decide Kayleigh’s gender? Talk about the show here.
