Cher's daughter Chastity Bono to undergo sex change

[caitlin1214]

I can't really explain why I feel this way, but it's hard for me to refer to Chastity/Chaz as "him" or "male" until the operation is complete. It has nothing to do with agreeing with it or not (I don't really care either way).

I understand and I totally get it.


I was trying to help people out because I don't want people to think that since they don't know which pronoun to use, they should just say "it."

People should never be referred to as an "it."

 

[bellafleur]

That's exactly the point. These people realize that a stuffed bra and lipstick don't define a person, so just dressing up doesn't achieve the end. I know that if I were suddenly catapulted into a man's body I would feel uncomfortable because I identify as female. Many transgendered individuals have been tortured with that feeling (waking up in the wrong body) since early childhood, and they just want to feel like their body matches their mind and their identity. Many transgendered individuals have been suicidal because they saw no way to rectify what they experience as being a colossal error, and I think that if the gender reassignment and surgery can help these people feel complete, then it is to be applauded.

This is really a great explanation. Those of us who identify with our given gender won't understand how it feels not to, but I personally think it's great that science and medicine have found ways to rectify nature's error.

Which brings me to another point, that it may not be "nature's error" at all. Statistically speaking about 1 child in every 500 births is born with ambiguous sexual organs (often termed a hermaphrodite), and doctors perform sexual assignment surgery at birth. So the doctors are essentially determining a person's gender for them, based on which organ would appear to be more functional. I know we never hear about this, but it's true! I may be a little off in my statistics, but here are whole bunch of resources from credible organizations and medical schools:

http://www.ibis-birthdefects.org/start/hermaphr.htm

So it follows that someone may be "assigned" to a certain gender at birth, but they grow up feeling like they should have been assigned to the other gender instead. There are genetic factors too that may explain it. I really believe this is a medical ethical issue, and it should be discussed more openly and publicly. People like Chaz shouldn't be shunned for being different, he should be considered lucky to have the resources to become what they he should have been in the first place!