There is No Such Thing as “Transgender Rights”
Tags: Morality.
Click here to get Caucus of Corruption: The Truth About The New Democratic Majority by Matt Margolis and Mark Noonan.
The story:
When Ethan St. Pierre decided in 2001 to begin a public transformation from woman to man, he said the security company he worked for at first supported his decision.
Then his features began looking more like a man’s.
“Once they saw the changes that my body was making they decided that I could no longer do my job,” said St. Pierre, 47, a transgender man living in Haverhill, Mass. “They started taking my responsibilities away from me one at a time until finally they told me that I was no longer welcome.”
Supporters of a transgender rights bill making its way through the Massachusetts Statehouse say their goal is to give transgender people like St. Pierre legal protections at work, in public accommodations and in housing.
The bill would accomplish that by adding “gender identity or expression” to a list of protected categories in the state’s civil rights and hate crime laws. “Gender identity” refers to an inner sense of being male or female. “Gender expression” refers to the expression of that feeling in clothing, make-up and speech.
It is being pointed out that such a bill would allow a pervert to go to the woman’s restroom by claiming his “inner being” is female – you in favor of this idea, ladies? Aside from such practical objections, there is also the fact that a person cannot have a “right” to be transgender.
Regardless of how one’s “inner being” is feeling today, one is either male, or female. One can engage in major surgery to alter physical appearance, but no amount of surgery will alter the fact that one is biologically male or female. Any action which denies things as they are, or requires major modifications of nature to make it so, is not a human right – its a preference, and thus is only to be accorded respect in line with public mores. If you don’t like people taking a negative view of you because you whack off the willy and add some silicone boobs to your chest, then the problem lies entirely in you – in your rather bizarre choice.
We really need to knock off this foolishness – we cannot allow that a person’s least indulgence be accorded the status of rights, requiring the rest of us to modify our lives to suit their bizarre fancies. If it takes a constitutional amendment to ensure that absurdity is not enshrined in law, then that is just what we’ll have to do.
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20 Responses to “There is No Such Thing as “Transgender Rights””
Caucus of Corruption
Good grief! I’m afraid I don’t understand the argument; you write “no amount of surgery will alter the fact that one is biologically male or female” but it is the “physical appearance” and corresponding accoutrements that are the physical characteristics of a male or female.
Personally I don’t see how ignoring an individual’s “physical appearance” causes another to modify one’s life to suit anyone’s bizarre fantasy. If a fella walks into the Men’s room, whips one out and pees into a urinal I can ignore him whether or not the one is real or after-market.
Cal,
If you have a lot of surgery, you could be a man sans penis, with boobs attached…but you’d still be a man.
And, remember, the way this law is being written it won’t just cover people who had a “sex change”…it will cover people who “feel” female…or, at least, claim to feel that way when they’re caught ogling women in the ladies room.
A man sans penis? By that standard would you let Helen Thomas stand in the stall next to you without objection?
Can they have a “right” to be in a wheelchair? How about a “right” to be blind? Gender identity disorder is just that, a disorder. It is every bit as much a medical condition as is lameness or blindness. At the moment, there is no cure, and in the most severe cases the only way that the person’s suffering can be alleviated is through surgery. I’m sorry if thinking about people’s naughty bits makes you blush; this matter is between them and their doctor.
You do realize that women use stalls, right?
Sergei,
If Senators can get it on in a restroom, peeping Tom’s can, too. Don’t discount human ingenuity combined with human depravity.
Cal,
ROFL – that was a good one.
Don’t you think that an argument predicated on the existence of a coed toe-tapping fetish is a little weak?
RE: At the moment, there is no cure
I’m afraid you’d be wrong about that. Of course, no doubt is it a disorder as you say. But it is a spiritual disorder.
There is a cure; and the cure is Jesus Christ.
Didn’t we have this whole transgender thing awhile back?
I don’t know how you get special rights for an inner feeling.
My inner feeling is that I am Donald Trump’s long lost daughter. I want my rights….and show me the money!
Anyway, “touched on a feeling” takes a whole new meaning with this.
Is there anyone sane within the Beltway?
Here’s something novel. A person’s employment at a firm depends entirely on that person’s ability to do that job, regardless of race, creed, sexual orientation or sexual identity.
Frankly, I would rather have a Pagan transgender lesbian who could do a job well than someone else.
Jeremy-
Last time I checked, prayer wasn’t more effective at treating medical conditions than a placebo.
rana,
Not really – I wouldn’t employ someone covered in tattoos visible in business attire.
You get to choose, but you have to accept what comes with your choices.
Sergei,
If that was all there was to it, you’d have a point – but there’s a vital principle at stake here: what, exactly, are human rights?
My contention is that a right is something that someone can do inherent to themselves – a man can’t, inherent to himself, be a woman, and thus being transgendered is a choice, not a right.
It is a physical disorder, and Christ is a treatment, not a cure.
You have my deepest sympathies.
Depends on the study. It’s rather difficult to tell for sure, though, because you’re trying to hit a moving target.
Ah, but my contention is that a choice is not truly a choice unless it is made with full knowledge of all the options, which a person with gender identity disorder, by definition, does not have, inasmuch as they have never known the state in which Dasein and Geist are one. Moreover, such a state of not-being-one is in fact inherent in the patient, and as is the case with all such paradoxes, its resolution is in turn inherent in it, as it is the nature of things to seek a resolution (cf. “nature abhors a vacuum”). Therefore, the resolution of the situation is in fact inherent in the patient.
“My contention is that a right is something that someone can do inherent to themselves – a man can’t, inherent to himself, be a woman, and thus being transgendered is a choice, not a right.”
By your definitnion, a foetus, until he can be sustained outside of the womb, has no “human right” to live. After all, biologically, a foetus cannot survive “inherent to himself”.
Welcome to the ranks of pro-choicers, Mark. That is, if you were consistent. Don’t worry, I don’t expect you to be.
my understanding is that pre-op transgendered are screened then required to live the opposite lifestyle, along w hormonal & extensive psychotherapy, YEARS before surgery.
so mark is correct that “One can engage in major surgery to alter physical appearance, but no amount of surgery will alter the fact that one is biologically male or female”…since the process is much, much more involved.
Every theocratic argument against transgenderism always devolves into “which bathroom will they use?” As if in their hearts and souls they are going through massive hormone therapy doses, some of the most painful surgery known on Terra and the potential to become addicted to pain killers to sneak a peek at someone’s genitals and demand that is their constitutional right. You Mr. Noonan are a religiously conditioned nincompoop.
This isn’t an urine issue Mr. Noonan and if you weren’t stuffed to the eyebrows with novenas and rosaries you might actually be able to see that an individual was discriminated against and their civil rights were violated. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is debating a bill that would protect the rights of transgender people and I support the passage of that bill for economic as well as legal reasons. A workforce that is itself happy with personal expression is a far better workforce.
Ideally, nobody would need special treatment because we’d all be caring and results-based people that wouldn’t give two hoots about how someone looked. One’s physical characteristics, assuming they don’t get in the way of work, should not be the focus of ill-intent by any wise person.
I agree with the official diagnosis of the APA and DSM-IV of Gender Identity Disorder as a true psychological disorder.
Well, Mark? Are you going to respond to my post or are you just going to chicken out like the Neo-Hegelian you are?
I quite agree, Mr. Onomist.
jeremy says:
July 16th, 2009 at 9:40 pm
Religion is a momentary sedative for Reason.