I feel neutral on the article, and the causation of said consequences of SRS is really debatable. I have not seen the statisics he quotes; rather I had thought that the incidence of suicide to be very high in pre-ops. Hmmm. And, I think the cause of suicide in T folk, both pre and post is simply lack of acceptance and cruelty.

Actually, I have found out that my gender is the least important thing in my life. I did do an abortive attempt to reverse it all about a year and a half ago, and that put me in very serious trouble very soon.

Things are much better for us than they were in even ten years. I am just happy for the improvement.

Merry Christmas

Gwendolyn

I think watching the social impact of this coverage will be more interesting then anything else. My guess is that it will only be used a handful of times. Being at the intersection of transsexual, a Harvard student, and at the stage where SRS is the right next step isn't gong to happen that often I don't think.

I had to laugh at the comparison of being transgendered and being anorexic. There is a big difference between wishing your body matched the gender in your head and knowing you are fat when you're not. A lot of girls wish they were skinnier, but would never meet the clinical definition of anorexia because they would stop when they realized they were hurting themselves. GID is a hope, a wish, anorexia is an actual delusion.

...You remember that American Icon, Mary Twain?

There are four kinds of lies? 'Lies, damn lies, statistics, and the occasional editorial?'

Thanks, Nancy, for the heads up!

Dio vi benedica tutti
Con grande amore e di affetto
Andrea Lena

We note that there is an enormous elective surgery industry in the USA (and elsewhere) through which bald men can indulge their puerile fantasies of androgen-insensitivity in their hair follicles, "under-endowed" women can act out their girlhood dreams of big boobs -- or small boobs, if already "over-endowed" -- thereby finally outclassing Vanessa Jones from their home economics class, old people can pretend to be young people, and fat people can obtain various "resculptings" or surgical throttles either placed upon their appetites or attempting to correct the results thereof. Not one of these groups of body-change maniacs are required to undergo a year or more of expensive counselling, nor to undergo a "real-life" test, nor any other impositions upon their adult desires other than those imposed by their pocketbooks. Hell, I dye my hair to color the grey through pure vanity, so I can't claim any sort of "moral high ground," but all these things are the choices made by adults, many (even hair colouring) have very real dangers, for which one signs off on the appropriate warning and keeps on truckin'.

It seems to be only when one trips over religious proscriptions that one encounters landmines on the road to full agency and becomes a child again, begging a surrogate Mama or Papa for a permission slip.

Feh!

Puddin'

A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style

Ah, I feel much better now...

There's only one problem in statistics is how you pull the info from them you can make it look anyway you want them to look. Richard

such a poorly written piece in the Washington Post or New York Times. It's like the dribble one expects in the Daily Wail, only there one would expect to see an article praising some's courage for having SRS and the next week condemning the whole idea.

Very disappointed.

Angharad

First of all, we have to consider the authorship. This is an editorial in the Washington Times. Even here in South America we have heard something about the Washington Times' reputation. It's known to be so conservatively-slanted, that it makes Fox News look liberal in comparison. Oh, and it belongs to Reverend Moon, AND it has never ever shown a profit -- so it is run as a propaganda vehicle. Therefore, we can hardly expect a [ironic]"fair and balanced"[/ironic] coverage here. It has a history of anti-gay and anti-transgender rights stances.

Second, the sources cited. You might want to have a look at the Wikipedia's entry for the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons. Briefly stated, it's nothing like the AMA or other medical professional societies -- it's a politically-slanted organization that has little if any respect from mainstream doctors and scientists.

Note also how the supposed Swedish study is quoted in terms so vague that anybody would have a hard time tracking it down -- no names of the people or institutions involved, no date beyond "recent," and -- as has been pointed out -- a comparison that does not define what they are being compared with.

I might be doing a sort of ad hominem argument here -- dismissing the source -- but, sincerely, if they want to be taken seriously, they have to improve the level of their discourse.

A significant proportion of the article comments are more favourable to T* than the article, which appears to be the standard journalistic tripe of only interviewing people who agree with your pre-conceived viewpoint.

--B