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I Do Not Understand Gender Reassignment [I Am In Support of Transgender and Genderqueer People]

I have people in my life who have undergone reassignment. I also respect the contributions of some folks here who have either transitioned or who are transitioning.

That said, I don't get it.

I completely understand gender fluidity. I understand the notion of not willing to adhere to societal expectations for behavior and interpersonal relationships. Two of my closest friends in the world are in a committed homosexual relationship and I consider that relationship to be more idealized that my sister and brother in law who wouldn't be able to find love on a map.

That said, I don't understand the notion that gender reassignment.

Gender dysmorphia can, logically, only be based on social programming. One's DNA will designate literal sex. The desire to live a life as a gendered female or male, I suppose, is a choice. But the need to alter one's biology seems forced to me.

I wonder if we are able to have an open and honest converation about this.

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iamonfire696 · 41-45, F

I can’t imagine how it feels to be in a body that doesn’t feel right to you. What a hard journey it must be to transition into who you know you are.

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JustGoneNow

@iamonfire696 Same. 🖤

JoeyFoxx · 56-60, M

@iamonfire696 that’s the part that I can’t wrap my head around.

How can one not feel right with the body they have had since birth?

How is this anything other than a societal influence?

iamonfire696 · 41-45, F

@JoeyFoxx I don’t think it is a societal influence.

JustGoneNow

@JoeyFoxx People could say the same thing about being gay, honestly.

JoeyFoxx · 56-60, M

@iamonfire696 how can it not be?

JustGoneNow

@iamonfire696 I agree. I would argue it is the opposite.

JoeyFoxx · 56-60, M

@JustGoneNow I don’t think it’s the same. Choosing the people we love is one thing.

Altering who we are is another and different thing.

JustGoneNow

@JoeyFoxx Says you. I don’t think they’d agree.

iamonfire696 · 41-45, F

@JoeyFoxx you know and feel that you are a man right, just as I know and feel that I am a woman. I was born with all the right parts for my gender, fortunately. I don’t think society has anything to do with it.

JoeyFoxx · 56-60, M

@iamonfire696 how do I baseline my perspective?

Just as racism is learned, are not gender expectations?

iamonfire696 · 41-45, F

@JoeyFoxx a person that wants to transition knows and feels they are the other gender. They just have a hell of a lot to overcome to get to the place they need and want to be in. I don’t expect that if you are born as a male, you need to be a male. You can be anything you want to be. I think in this day and age we are progressing in gender expectations like the woman needs to stay at home and serve a man. That’s not the normal now.

JustGoneNow

@JoeyFoxx Gender expectations and feeling like your boy or girl parts literally don’t match what you feel you are, is two different things. It’s sort of the difference between gender and sex. Gender can be many things (I.e. gender fluid,) but sex is only 2. This is an issue of sex, not gender. While we lack the tech to make someone fully female, we can get close. This reassignment surgery is for them.

JoeyFoxx · 56-60, M

@JustGoneNow @iamonfire696
Zero people to date have explained to me what it means to be male vs female.

Zero people to date have explain why what's expected about being male or female isn't based on societal expectations.

Zero people to date have explained how it's possible that the genetics of who you are mandates a change.

iamonfire696 · 41-45, F

@JoeyFoxx sex are the parts you are born with, gender is the socially constructed roles, behaviours, expressions, etc. Gender is completely based on society. Transgendered people are born without the parts of their gender that they identify with and feel.

They want to feel whole so that’s when sex reassignment surgery comes into play. Again I can’t imagine how it feels to be in a body that you don’t identify with and that’s why they make that change.

JoeyFoxx · 56-60, M

@iamonfire696 but how did they establish the identity?

How is this not based on societal expectations?

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JoeyFoxx · 56-60, M

@iamonfire696 if I am an infant, the only thing I know is what I possess. Where would I possibly learn that I am something else?

iamonfire696 · 41-45, F

@JoeyFoxx you don’t need to learn it because you feel it. You don’t feel right in the body you are in. It’s not learned, that’s gender that is taught. My brothers best friend is transitioning to a female. She said she just felt that the body she was in, wasn’t right for her. She didn’t need to be taught about genders because she knew who she was.

JoeyFoxx · 56-60, M

@iamonfire696 again, the way we “feel” is based on DNA and social programming.

Zero people have been able to demonstrate where gender dysmorphia is based on genetics. Therefore, it is based on society.

JustGoneNow

@JoeyFoxx LordShadowfirethesarcastic had the best explanation on this thread.

iamonfire696 · 41-45, F

@JoeyFoxx so based on DNA a transgendered person knows they aren’t the correct sex and want to correct this.

Most people don’t even have to think of their gender identity because it matches their sex at birth. For transgender people their gender identity does not match their sex at birth. The cause of Gender dysphoria isn’t known but has many factors such as genetic and biological environment and cultural factors. They are still studying gender dysphoria but this study has found that there is a genetic link.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7415463/

JoeyFoxx · 56-60, M

@iamonfire696 As far as I can tell, this article suggest that we really still don't know....

JustGoneNow

@JoeyFoxx Right. We still have no idea exactly how DNA works, but it stands to reason the part of the code that writes the body could be in wrong for the part that writes the mind. And you could literally have a woman mind, in a male body getting flooded with testosterone. Based on my conversations with trans people, that appears to be the case… even though science hasn’t definitively said one way or the other. I just lead with kindness. The rest sort of sorts itself.

JoeyFoxx · 56-60, M

@JustGoneNow but, who declares what’s “right” vs “wrong”?

DNA doesn’t have a perspective or a narrative. It’s just the way things are.

Just as I think it’s ridiculous for cities like New Orleans and Houston to be built below sea level, I cannot understand why we need to intervene to biologically alter the way someone was born.

Is male vs female the same as having ten finger and ten toes?

JustGoneNow

@JoeyFoxx You are really picking at my words rn in an effort to invalidate my point and I don’t get why. You are normally a very understanding person but I’m literally embarrassed that I brought my friend to your thread. Many of the things you have said have come across very insensitive to a trans person and I haven’t really known you ever to be a dick like that until today.

It’s not that anything is right or wrong… it’s that they don’t match. The mind is of a sex that doesn’t feel like the body it’s attached to, should look like mine… and yet they’re still a man. Who declares what is “right” vs “wrong” in regards to their assigned birth body. I suppose fucking them… it’s their goddamn body. Who are you to question that?

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