Transgender advice

[The Guid]

I should be clear that this isn't a debate I am in, nor is there a debate as such, but I thought this was the most appropriate forum for this post, if a mod wants to move it I shan't think ill of them!

I happened to stumble upon http://www.reasonablefaith.org/site/New ... le&id=6857 earlier which is a Q&A page for a man named Dr. William Lane Craig largely because a friend of mine is obsessed with him and I was writing him a letter of my criticism of one of his other articles. As issues of gender interest me I was curious and clicked. There are a couple of sections I want to highlight:

The original question relates to hermaphrodites but the answerer (not Craig in this instance) goes on to talk about transgender people:

It is perhaps best to start by making the distinction between gender and sex. Some think that one's sex determines one's gender, while others think gender is completely "socially constructed," so that differences between the male sex and the female sex are nothing different than one's sexual organs. It is important to realize that no one could ever prove that all gender is socially constructed. (At most what could be established is that some gender characteristics manifest themselves differently or not at all in certain communities or cultures.) I don't think taking a stand either way matters much to answering your question. (My own view is that not all gender is socially constructed, thus at least some gender is determined by sex).

Either there is a fact of the matter as to which sex a person is, or there isn't. Fortunately, there is good reason to think that a sex is determined genetically. Hermaphrodites suffer, as you are aware, a birth defect of having at least both sex organs partially developed. For the record: it's an extremely rare medical condition, and it is important to know that they are distinct from transgender folk—who usually suffer from hormonal imbalances or psychological problems (or both) causing gender confusion. I believe the proper treatment for them is psychiatric help (to normalize the hormonal levels) and therapy. Transgender people should also use medical science (DNA testing) to help identify their true gender.

So far then: sex is determined genetically. If it is, then a person is either a male or a female, and in either case, a homosexual relationship is morally prohibited. This implies that hermaphrodites cannot choose to date both sexes; they must date the person who has the opposite sex as them. Medical procedures could aid in restoring persons to their appropriate sex. If, indeed, they have a unique sex (i.e., are either male or female and not both), then dating becomes, as for non-hermaphrodite persons, morally permissible.

It is important (again) to make the distinction between transgender persons and hermaphrodite persons. Hermaphrodite persons suffer a biological defect, which, strictly speaking, implies nothing about gender confusion (although they might also be gender confused). Transgender persons suffer gender confusion because of psychological and/or hormonal reasons.

Some conclude that if someone is born with only a male sex organ but is strongly confused about his gender (or strongly thinks he is female) then he might really be female. The logical form of this reasoning, however, is completely fallacious. How one feels about one's gender doesn't determine gender. To give a crude example: If I wake up feeling like I can fly, am I a bird? No. Someone might object to this example because "being a bird" is determined physically, but on their view gender isn't. We could change the example, then: If I wake up feeling like the President of the U.S., am I he? Of course not; and it's important to this example that the property of being the President of the U.S. is a socially constructed property—e.g., it's not that some but not others are born with the attribute/property of "being a future President of the U.S."—that's crazy. So feeling doesn't determine gender.

Now usually when I come up against something I disagree with I can find a neat way of refuting it but I'm struggling with this one, particularly his "crude examples" which lead him to the idea of thinking not providing identity. Now I have transgender and transexual friends and I would never deny them their true gender identity, but I also spend some of my time trying to make people see things as much from a pro-trans. perspective as possible and as such I want to be fully prepared to deal with every argument I come against, and preferably as artfully as possible.

Advice/thoughts much appreciated. All I'd add for clarity is that I'm not asking you to persuade me on trans. issues, I'm on board, but I need ways to persuade others.

[Darth Wong]

I think you should point out that his argument, while reasonable on the surface, implicitly contains the assumption that the brain has no innate gender nature of its own: it is intrinsically genderless, so that gender is entirely determined by the rest of the body: its hormones and/or its genitalia.

Is this true? If so, then it would imply that transsexuals should not exist but for hormonal or psychological problems, as he suggests.

However, if it is not true, then it would be possible for someone to be born with a male-oriented brain in a female body, thus leading to a lifetime of gender confusion unless gender reassignment surgery is performed.

So the real question is: is that premise true or not? While we cannot say for certain, we can say that he has presented no evidence whatsoever that it is definitely true, yet his conclusion requires it to be true.

[Serafina]

So the real question is: is that premise true or not? While we cannot say for certain, we can say that he has presented no evidence whatsoever that it is definitely true, yet his conclusion requires it to be true.

Damn, i should look into Debatin Help more often.

Mike is correct - his premise is false.
The brain has a gender right from the start (at least at birth, i don't know about earlier dates). Therefore it is perfectly possible to have a brain-gender that does not fit the sex of the body.
He simply fails to realize that the gender of the brain (you could call it sex, too, since it is biological) is determined at another point and differently than that of the body.
While scientists are not sure about it, there are two different possiblities:
-Either the gender of the brain is determined later by hormonal means during pregnancy
-or it develops according to the genes, but the process involves way more and other genes than the development of the body - so it is perfectly possible to have a female body and yet a genetically determined male brain (and vice versa).

There are various scientific studies in that regard - you could PM The Duchess of Zeon for them or look them up yourself.
I will search for them and post them if i find something - but i suck at such searches, so don't rely on it.