I really liked this article. I thought he brought up some very valid points. One of my thoughts was the argument I have had for almost 20 years now. You either have a Y chromosome or you don't! Your gender is determined by your genes. . . your chromosomes.
I recently had a baby. Due to my age I had the opportunity to have my blood tested for birth defects in the baby's genes. In this test I was also able to find out the gender of the baby. This test was taken when I was 11 or 12 weeks along. Amazing, right? I found out I was having a boy! Then people would ask, "Wouldn't it be funny if when he was born it was a girl?" I said, "No, he has a Y chromosome. I don't. He is a boy." Other people wanted to wait until about 30 weeks when I had the ultrasound. They needed to see it to believe it. Sure enough, my son aimed to please and we got a wonderful shot of his manly organs to prove he indeed had a Y chromosome.
I read an article a while back (please forgive me for not remembering where I read the article) that talked about the legitimate, biological situations where someone might have two X chromosomes AND a Y chromosome. In such cases the gender dysphoria would make a lot of sense. He sited other chromosome situations but that was the only one I remember. Now, the opinions I am about to express do not include those people who legitimately have gender dysphoria due to their genes.
We live in a society where we try to be politically correct all the time but we are far from it. If we were truly "politically correct" then we wouldn't care if a boy liked the color pink and a girl liked to play with trucks. But society does care about that. "Oh, he likes pink, he must be homosexual." "Oh, she plays with trucks, she must be homosexual." Now you are putting labels on colors and toys. "Only girls like to play with dolls." "Only boys like to play with trucks." When you put those labels on things then you are confusing children.
My five year old daughter is a girly girl. She likes to dress up like a princess. She likes to play house. She likes to paint her nails. She loves to wear dresses. But oh my goodness, she can hold her own when she's playing with her boy cousins. She's tougher than they are. They fall and go crying their mother. My daughter falls, stands up, says, "I'm okay" and continues playing. She'll play their games and do all the things they like to do. That is acceptable in our society. The minute she suggests to play a "girl" activity they scoff at her and say that is for girls and refuse to play with her (well, the younger boys will still play with her). If it is okay for a girl to play with the boys doing "boy" activities, why isn't it okay for a boy to play "girl" activities with the girls?
Maybe we should stop labeling and just let kids be kids. My brother played with dolls growing up. Why? Because he had 3 older sisters who played dolls. Guess what? He is a great dad now. Perhaps playing house with his sisters helped him learn the skills he needed to be a great father. Who knows? Perhaps he just wanted to play with his siblings and his baby brother was just too young to play. (By the way he and his wife are happily married.)
When I was a little girl I didn't like boys. They had cooties. I only wanted to play with girls. Did that make me homosexual? No. First, puberty had not kicked in yet. Second, I wanted to play with other kids who had the same interests as me. I did not like playing sports. I liked to sit and talk or play Chinese jump rope. To say a pre-pubescent child is homosexual or transgender or whatever is denying him/her of a carefree childhood. Children should be free to experiment. Let the girls play with blocks, let the boys play with Barbies. Let them decide what they like and what they don't like. Don't label them or their activies. I believe a lot of this gender dysphoria has to do with the nurture side of the debate versus the nature side.
Now, as far as the bathroom situation goes - I go with the literal biological state of things. If you are female you use the female bathroom. If you are male, you use the male bathroom. It is a simple as that. How you feel about your gender has nothing to do with what your gender actually is. If you have penis and inside you feel like you are a woman, that does not change the fact that you have a penis. If you are a woman and you feel like internally you are a man, that does not change the fact you still have to pee sitting down. Whether or not you like to wear dresses or whether or not you like to kiss a man or a woman has absolutely nothing to do with how you go to the bathroom.
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