Serious Question: Why are so Many People Afraid/Unaccepting of Transgender People?

originally posted by: CranialSponge
a reply to: Nyiah

And a kilt by any other name is still a freakin' skirt.

Heresy !!

i'll take two

originally posted by: Khaleesi

originally posted by: kaylaluv
a reply to: Khaleesi

Do you think you should keep your sexuality a secret? That you should never ever mention your girlfriend/wife/significant other in conversations with co-workers? That you should never bring your girlfriend/wife/significant other to social functions along with other couples? Because that's the only way to totally keep your sexuality a secret.

No, I do not. I also don't feel the need to shout it constantly from the roof tops. As I said, it is part of me, not my totality. I never said I believe anyone should keep it a secret. I just find people suspect that feel the need to announce it every 5 minutes.

Reminds me of the young women today who didn't have to fight for Women's Rights.

They just reap the reward on the backs of those who came before and did fight the fight.

originally posted by: Annee

originally posted by: Khaleesi

originally posted by: Annee

originally posted by: Khaleesi
My life is not defined by who I sleep with. It is just part of who I am, not the totality of who I am.

You do realize that is where we are trying to get to.

The only way to do that is awareness and then acceptance.

No, the only way to do that is to treat people with respect and not dig into their personal lives. I don't need to be aware or accept your sexuality to treat you with respect.

Tell that to the Right Wing Fundamental Christian political machine legislating against your "invisible" difference.

Respect is earned. Sometimes it requires a loud voice and awareness.

Please do not pretend to know me or my life. I am from the Deep South. born and raised in a conservative, religious family in a small town. I take my wife to family and social functions. She is accepted as family by the Right Wing Fundamental Christian Republicans in my family. The reality of life is much different from the propaganda you have heard and believe in.

originally posted by: kaylaluv
a reply to: ketsuko

Why not?

Because I have no need to spend that kind of money, time, pain and effort to prove such a petty point to someone I don't even know by name on an anonymous Internet forum.

Do I really even need to say it?

What's next? Are you going to ... triple dog dare me?

a reply to: Stormdancer777

I will two, but that is obviously not a dress or intended to wear as one.

originally posted by: ketsuko
a reply to: Stormdancer777

I will two, but that is obviously not a dress or intended to wear as one.

Just out of curiosity, if it were a black skirt, would you not be attracted to him? Is it the cultural association with kilts that make it okay? If so, does that mean your selective attraction to men in certain clothing really boils down to an enculturated learned attraction?

Seriously, I'm not trapping you or anything. I'm curious about this about myself, as well, when I think about why I'm attracted to the types of people I'm attracted to.

a reply to: theabsolutetruth

Cool. I have links too.

Instead, current scientific results strongly suggest neurobiological origins for transsexualism: Something appears to happen during the in-utero development of the transsexual child's central nervous system (CNS) so that the child is left with innate, strongly perceived cross-gender body feelings and self-perceptions. We still don't know for sure what causes this neurological development, and more research needs to be done. But the neurobiological direction for these explorations seem clear.

However, even without any scientific evidence to back them up, many psychiatrists and psychologists over the past four decades have simply assumed that transsexualism is a "mental illness". By DEFINING this socially unpopular condition to be a mental illness, these mental health professionals have shaped much of the medical establishment's and society's views of transsexuals as psychopathological "sexual deviants".

Believing transsexualism to be a mental illness, behaviorist psychiatrists often try to treat transsexual people by "conditioning" and/or "aversion therapy". Many transsexuals, especially young transsexuals taken to psychiatrists by their parents, have undergone years of costly psychiatric counseling to "cure their transsexualism". There have no reports of permanent cures. After inevitably failing to cure a transsexual, and considering her to be "permanently mentally ill", these psychiatrists may sometimes approve her for SRS. Of course the years of useless therapy cost thousands of dollars and waste valuable gender-corrected living-time that can never be recovered.

ai.eecs.umich.edu...

Differences in the brain's white matter that clash with a person's genetic sex may hold the key to identifying transsexual people before puberty. Doctors could use this information to make a case for delaying puberty to improve the success of a sex change later.

Antonio Guilamon's team at the National University of Distance Education in Madrid, Spain, think they have found a better way to spot a transsexual brain. In a study due to be published next month, the team ran MRI scans on the brains of 18 female-to-male transsexual people who'd had no treatment and compared them with those of 24 males and 19 females.

They found significant differences between male and female brains in four regions of white matter – and the female-to-male transsexual people had white matter in these regions that resembled a male brain (Journal of Psychiatric Research, DOI: 10.1016/j.jpsychires.2010.05.006). "It's the first time it has been shown that the brains of female-to-male transsexual people are masculinised," Guillamon says.

www.newscientist.com...#

originally posted by: Annee

originally posted by: Khaleesi

originally posted by: kaylaluv
a reply to: Khaleesi

Do you think you should keep your sexuality a secret? That you should never ever mention your girlfriend/wife/significant other in conversations with co-workers? That you should never bring your girlfriend/wife/significant other to social functions along with other couples? Because that's the only way to totally keep your sexuality a secret.

No, I do not. I also don't feel the need to shout it constantly from the roof tops. As I said, it is part of me, not my totality. I never said I believe anyone should keep it a secret. I just find people suspect that feel the need to announce it every 5 minutes.

Reminds me of the young women today who didn't have to fight for Women's Rights.

They just reap the reward on the backs of those who came before and did fight the fight.

Wow. You really went there. Shows how much respect you treat people that you disagree with.

a reply to: Khaleesi

I'm from the deep south too (Texas) and my mom has a friend who has said that she'd rather see her son dead than be "one of them gays". Hell, I have conservative members of my own family say that they would disown a child who came out as gay. The GOP in Texas has been trying to pass a bill that would basically force state officials to refuse to hand out marriage licenses if the Supreme Court rules against banning gay marriage (luckily the Democrats killed the bill). So don't try to tell me it's just propaganda.

a reply to: ketsuko

Yeah, I knew you'd chicken out. Cuz you don't really want to be a guy. It does matter.

originally posted by: Khaleesi

originally posted by: Annee

originally posted by: Khaleesi

originally posted by: Annee

originally posted by: Khaleesi
My life is not defined by who I sleep with. It is just part of who I am, not the totality of who I am.

You do realize that is where we are trying to get to.

The only way to do that is awareness and then acceptance.

No, the only way to do that is to treat people with respect and not dig into their personal lives. I don't need to be aware or accept your sexuality to treat you with respect.

Tell that to the Right Wing Fundamental Christian political machine legislating against your "invisible" difference.

Respect is earned. Sometimes it requires a loud voice and awareness.

Please do not pretend to know me or my life. I am from the Deep South. born and raised in a conservative, religious family in a small town. I take my wife to family and social functions. She is accepted as family by the Right Wing Fundamental Christian Republicans in my family. The reality of life is much different from the propaganda you have heard and believe in.

Can't wait to read the response to this one!

It's funny when the Republican bad, Christianity bad puppets get put in their place by someone living the life with real world experience.

I'm sure she knows better than you though because of what she has been indoctrinated with or read on the internet.

originally posted by: Khaleesi

originally posted by: Annee

originally posted by: Khaleesi

originally posted by: Annee

originally posted by: Khaleesi
My life is not defined by who I sleep with. It is just part of who I am, not the totality of who I am.

You do realize that is where we are trying to get to.

The only way to do that is awareness and then acceptance.

No, the only way to do that is to treat people with respect and not dig into their personal lives. I don't need to be aware or accept your sexuality to treat you with respect.

Tell that to the Right Wing Fundamental Christian political machine legislating against your "invisible" difference.

Respect is earned. Sometimes it requires a loud voice and awareness.

Please do not pretend to know me or my life. I am from the Deep South. born and raised in a conservative, religious family in a small town. I take my wife to family and social functions. She is accepted as family by the Right Wing Fundamental Christian Republicans in my family. The reality of life is much different from the propaganda you have heard and believe in.

I don't.

My prejudice and inequality experience comes from disability (mom) and being a woman born in the late 40s.

Doesn't matter what the prejudice. If equality isn't fought for --- it isn't going to just happen.

a reply to: Cuervo

Kilts are cut a bit differently than skirts for one. The waist is done differently even though the pleating is very similar.

For another, it's how a man holds himself and moves when he's obviously trying to be a man. Even a man in a strappy sundress as a gag is still obviously a man. It's very different than say ... Ru Paul who knows how to move and carry himself in such a way that the dress looks like it should on him (like it's on a woman).

The problem people have with it I think is when we see clothing that is obviously made for one gender on someone who sends off signals of the other gender and is trying to wear that clothing in a serious way. Women have an easier time getting away with it than men do. I know because I have seriously albatross wingspan long arms, so I often wear men's shirts when it comes to long sleeve tees so that I don't feel like I'm wearing terminal 3/4 length sleeves. Women's sleeves tend to just not be cut long enough. But even so, when women's styles go through really feminine trends, I stick out.

That and the male and female form are different enough that unless you happen to be outside the norm, clothing of the opposite gender will tend to fit poorly on your frame. That sundress is going to look funny on the average male frame having been cut to accommodate curves most men don't have. And the women is going to look a little off in a kilt which is cut for the slim waisted, straight hipped man.

originally posted by: kaylaluv
a reply to: ketsuko

Yeah, I knew you'd chicken out. Cuz you don't really want to be a guy. It does matter.

I can only chicken out of something I agreed to do in the first place. Please quote where I agreed to get a sex change.

a reply to: ketsuko

Star for that. A far more detailed answer than I expected and it answered my question in a few ways.

When I really dissect my tastes in people, I'm always fascinated when I realize how much of it comes down to conditioning and it makes me wonder what I would be attracted to if I never had any suggestions presented to me growing up.

originally posted by: kaylaluv
a reply to: Khaleesi

I'm from the deep south too (Texas) and my mom has a friend who has said that she'd rather see her son dead than be "one of them gays". Hell, I have conservative members of my own family say that they would disown a child who came out as gay. The GOP in Texas has been trying to pass a bill that would basically force state officials to refuse to hand out marriage licenses if the Supreme Court rules against banning gay marriage (luckily the Democrats killed the bill). So don't try to tell me it's just propaganda.

From January 2009 till January 2011 the oh so enlightened Democrats controlled the House, the Senate and the White House. They did precious little to make things 'equal' for us. It is propaganda because it's the sword they hold over our heads. "Vote for us because THEY hate you!" It's classic divide and conquer. Neither party cares about anything but lining their pockets. They distract us and people keep believing the propaganda.

originally posted by: Cuervo
a reply to: ketsuko

Star for that. A far more detailed answer than I expected and it answered my question in a few ways.

When I really dissect my tastes in people, I'm always fascinated when I realize how much of it comes down to conditioning and it makes me wonder what I would be attracted to if I never had any suggestions presented to me growing up.

My husband had a really strange biology prof in college who would disagree somewhat. He taught that part of our innate attraction has to do with evolution in the sense that there are certain characteristics in the form of the opposite sex we are programmed to find attractive because they are generally associated with a desirable mate.

His example was curves in the female form. Curves are generally the result of being well-fed which generally indicates a certain level of health (and a layer of supporting stored fat) which indicated a healthy individual to propagate one's genes with. He then illustrated his point by claiming that many fashion trends revolved around emphasizing those characteristics to make one gender or the other more attractive. He use a pair of heels to emphasize the point by showing how they created and embellished the curves of the wearer's calves.

There are worse things that could be shoved down your throat I promise. Just ask any of the trans women that have been sexually assaulted by "fist shaking god wills it..." types. There are plenty of ways to tune out things that you do not wish to be exposed to such as turning the t.v. off, leaving the area, putting headphones, stop reading the article etc. a reply to: Legman

a reply to: Cuervo

I saw Sting in a skirt once and yes he was still hot.

If they were wearing tutus, not so much,lol

well the body might cancel out the tutu
ha

a reply to: interupt42

You explained that really well. I feel the same as you. At the same time I can understand it might be taken as insulting to the transgender reader.

You were honest and spoke up .
Well said