Quote From: michelle555As I said earlier, I am a transsexual woman and a former Computer Programmer. I also have a BA in Pastoral Ministry and love Jesus Christ very much.
Jesus, the Bible, and Christian Religion do not teach against transgenderism -
Self-important, Attention Seeking Preachers Do (along with their mindless followers).
The question of accepting your childs need to transition comes down to just ONE THING -
DO YOU WANT A LIVE DAUGHTER - OR A DEAD SON (or vice-versa). About half of the many transsexuals I know decided to transition to the opposite sex after attempting suicide. Fortunately, I was never among them, but I was very unhappy playing male nonetheless.
There is a rule among Psychologists called "
The 40 Percent Rule." It says that 40 percent of all people who feel they were born the wrong sex will be dead by the age of 30, usually by their own hand. That's because they can't stand to play male (or female) when they don't feel that way inside. Unfortunately, current Diagnostic Imaging and Brain Scanning equipment is
not yet available to medically diagnose whether someone's
Gender Identity (as defined by 12 states and the District of Columbia's governments in the U.S., along with many cities and counties and other countries' governments).
I've known I had Gender DyspHoria (the opposite of Euphoria) since I was very young. When I first found some girls' clothes in our attic at the age of nine and put them on, my parents made it very clear that
They Would Never Accept a Transsexual Child, nor tolerate an "
outwardly male" child dressing in girls' clothing. So much for
The Myth of Unconditional Love. After that, until I was 16, they would occasionally come home and find me wearing girls' clothing - but
I never told them why I did. And they always got mad, although
they never PHYSICALLY hurt me. VERBAL ABUSE was another matter though
- and I still have trouble trusting my parents, knowing they thought I should live by the motto, as seen on the old television show, "I Dream Of Jeannie," "
Does It Please You Master? My father often said, "I don't live my life to please others, and
if they don't like what I do, then THEY have a problem.
I remember thinking many times over the years, "If I woke up a girl, I would NOT be disappointed." When I was 16, my mother said to me, "If you don't stop wearing girls' clothes, I'm going to
EVICT you. I had no job, no money, and didn't know where I would go if I did get evicted, so I was a lot more careful about when I did it. Unlike gay people, whom my pastor said were "sinful," no one had ever of transsexuals, except rumors that they lived in distant places like New York, Amsterdam, and the like.
Since I had never heard of transsexualism, other than rumors, I thought I was the only one like me. I didn't find out differently until I was about 30 years old. When I was 43, I called my mother (I was living in a distant city) and said, "I just changed my legal name - it is now Michelle," and she said, "Oh, is that all?" I thought she'd be the first to disown me, based on what she'd said earlier. After she told my father, I called him and asked what he thought, and he said, "I don't approve, but I accept you anyway." And I thought, "well, I don't approve either, but I'm trans anyway," because
I wouldn't wish Gender Dysphoria on my worst enemy - because pretending to be someone I wasn't for 24 hours a day for many years was no fun. But neither was transitioning. I had my life threatened a couple times, because people could tell I was transgender (although I have no problem being accepted as a natal woman now - even though I've never had any facial feminization surgery). For the first few months after transitioning I was harrassed by "friends" who had known me before, and disowned by some of my relatives.
The last two Thanksgivings and the last Christmas that I lived in their state, my brother and sister "Un-invited me" to their celebrations."
A couple years later, when I was living in another state, I went to visit my parents, and my father said, "You seem a lot happier now," and thought to myself, "Yes, the only acting I do now is when I'm paid to do it (as a Background Actress in Hollywood), instead of
playing male for your entertainment, as I did for most of my life.
Even though I'm almost always apparently accepted as a natal woman,
I'm still
very careful who I tell my history to, because even though I like the internet,
I Really want to stay off the transgender web site ***Remembering Our Dead .org*** I would definitely not go to your church. You were not called by God to be a preacher. And there will never be a Diagnostic Imaging and Brain Scanning equipment because you are not born this way.
Dr. Phil tackles the sensitive topic of children who identify more with the opposite sex. What do you do if your son wants to wear dresses and play with dolls? Or if your daughter tells you she wants to be a boy? Should parents chock it up to being a phase that their children will grow out of, or should they intervene right away? Meet Melissa and Tim, whose 8-year-old son declared himself to be a girl when he was just 3 years old. Now, they allow their child to live as a girl and wonder if and when they should begin hormone therapy. Then, when Mary’s son was 8, he told her he felt like a girl, and Mary allowed him to experiment with dressing as a female. Now a teenager, her son is more comfortable living as a male -- but Mary wonders if she caused his confusion. Joining the discussion are experts with differing points of view: Dr. Dan Siegel, professor and clinical psychiatrist at UCLA School of Medicine, and Glenn Stanton, author and research fellow with the organization Focus on the Family. Is gender identity something we’re born with, or is it influenced by parents and environment? Don’t miss this heated discussion, then talk about the show here..
