^^^I totally know what you mean. I meant it more for intersexed people, but thought if I wrote that, would it be leaving out transgendered. I agree with you.
Intersexed? People who feel they are both male/female? I thought transgender was what Syntagma described on her 1st post.
Intersexed is actually people with both sexual organs otherwise known as hermaphrodites (spelling?). Typically the sex is determined by the Dr.'s and parents at birth though and one of the set of organs is removed.
OH! I misunderstood. Don't they correct that pretty early on? Or do they wait till they are adults?
I think most of the time it is "corrected" soon after birth, and usually the child is not told that there is anything unusual. There is definitely some feeling, though, that surgery should be put off until the child is old enough to decide whether it feels like a boy or a girl. I think the vast majority of the time the penis/clitoris is cut down and made to look like a normal clitoris, and the child is raised as a female for the reason that this is much easier than trying to make it into a regular penis.
There is an interesting novel called Middlesex that won the Pulitzer in which the protagonist is an intersexed person who does not figure it out until puberty.
This is why I asked the question in the first place. I think people should be happy the way the are. Maybe some people weren't meant to be a "man" or a "woman". So, we as a society, should accept them. Imagine having to have a surgery to fit in.
I don't think its necessarily about fitting in as much as it is being at peace with themselves. Not all people like this are happy the way they are. Thats the problem. What a thing to have to go through early in life, huh? Its hard enough to get through childhood without this also constantly on your mind. If the person wants to go one way more than the other they should be able to make that choice for themselves regardless of what others want them to be. IMO