Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Questions That Must Be Asked at "Transgender Rights" Hearing

More on the Body Mutilation Bill, H1728/S1687:

  • Why does the state want to promote mental illness in its populace? (See DSM-IV, "gender identity disorder.") "Sex-change surgery is a collaboration with a mental disorder, not a treatment."
  • What are the long-term health effects of years or decades of opposite-sex hormone injections? (If the medical profession so concerned about female hormone replacement therapies for women, why should we not be even more concerned about transgender hormone treatments?)
  • What about the children? Experimenting on young children’s bodies is reminiscent of the Nazi era. Yet a doctor at Boston Children’s Hospital is doing just that. It was this blog that first broke the story on Dr. Norman Spack -- the endocrinologist who is injecting supposedly “transgender” children (who are not physically "intersex") with puberty-blocking chemicals so their "gender reassignment" will be easier later. Should the state condone such horrific medical experimentation? (Dr. Spack’s treatments will most likely make the young person infertile, so too bad if they should change their mind later and remain their actual sex.)
  • What will happen when confused teens are pushed into this world by their schools (through the “Gay Straight Alliances” and GLBT events)? The transsexual world is especially dangerous for male youth who want to behave as women. Do we want our public schools suggesting to young girls that they might have their breasts removed to become "bois"?
  • What are the long-term physical effects of the various bodily mutilations of sex-change surgeries? An unnecessary hysterectomy? Removal of healthy breasts? Penis amputation? -- especially when done early in one’s life?
  • What are other risks of sex "reassignment" surgeries -- especially an artificially constructed vagina or penis (with techniques constantly evolving)?
  • What are typical psychological outcomes of sex-change surgeries? Reports suggest that patients continue to suffer psychological distress, are not satisfied with their “new” bodies, and continue to demand more surgeries and treatments.
  • What happens when an individual changes his or her mind after sex-reassignment? They can’t go back. Will the state continue to pay for this person's coninuing demand for therapy and physical change?
  • Why should we let mentally disturbed individuals be in charge of their sexual identification? What does that mean for people they interact with? Dr. Paul McHugh described a situation which will surely arise:
    Dr McHugh warned the [NYC Health] board that such changes would make sexual identification impossible. "I’ve already heard of a ‘transgendered’ man who claimed at work to be ‘a woman in a man’s body but a lesbian’ and who had to be expelled from the ladies’ restroom because he was propositioning women there," he said. "He saw this as a great injustice in that his behavior was justified in his mind by the idea that the categories he claimed for himself were all ‘official’ and had legal rights attached to them."