<p>First, please don't spam me as a LBGT hater. =D I'm a nice guy just hungry for knowledge.</p>
<p>So I went to this great summer camp (not going to go into specifics). But there I saw a transgender "girl"! (I guess she's legally a girl) I'm not trying to be immature and rude, but I've never seen a transgender person in real life. Let alone a teenager! It was so weird... The first time our counselor saw "her" he burst out laughing. LOL. The other counselor hit him...</p>
<p>So it was weird because this was real life and not Oprah or Dr. Phil. But I don't even know what she is. o__o</p>
<p>Her face was definitely a girl's and her voice sounded 100% girl. Not raspy or anything like South Park style. But her body was like a boy's! Her torso was not naturally curvy but more like a "man" (I SOUND SO WEIRD SAYING THIS). No boobs. Wore boys' shirts which are more loose fitting. Wore loose fitting boys' pants. Her wide and HAIRY! As much hair as my legs! SHE WORE BOXERS! Ok, so I'm thinking she has a Mr. Wiggly. I also noticed that she walked differently because her hips were "swaying" but her torso was shaped like a guys'. But then what is she called scientifically?</p>
<p>Yeah so a girl had a girl face a personality. But everything below her head was a guy. AH. And I'm 99.99% she isn't a tomboy because everyone else there thought the same thing.</p>
<p>^It’s nice to know that you tolerate someone’s lifestyle. I’m sure all the GLBT people tolerate you being straight, too. Isn’t that nice of them? ;)</p>
<p>Yeah it sounds like you’re unintentionally bashing the decision to like people of the same gender. Tolerate sounds like live with but don’t like.</p>
That’s a bad analogy. If you were born black and made yourself white (like MJ), then that would be the racial equivalent. In that case as well, I’d rather talk to someone else.</p>
<p>Similarity is always relevant. Race isn’t “relevant” either but people are still more likely to become friends with people of the same race as them. </p>
<p>And if you’re a guy, it is. I’d say at least 20% of the conversation that goes on between groups of guys at school is at least indirectly related to women and sex. The gay guy in the group can’t relate to that conversation…</p>
<p>I am usually very accepting on LGBT related social issues. But for the sake of being the devil’s advocate: if a person adamantly claims that he or she is Napoleon, Joan of Arc, or a North American Bison, that person would be diagnosed as having dissociative identity and thrown in the asylum. </p>
<p>However, if you’re a transgender who doesn’t identify with a so called “assigned sex” or “gender identity”; then you’re a progressive minority oppressed by an inconsiderate, backwards system of conservative bigots.</p>
<p>I can see that.
I’m actually read Blink right now, and it’s about the stuff that goes on in our minds in our subconscious. He wrote about these Harvard tests (Implicit Association Tests), where you have two categories (Black and White) and you have to put faces into the categories. Then, you have something like Good and Evil, and you have to put certain words into those categories. Thirdly, the two are combined to have White/Good and Black/Evil, where you’d have a face to put in, but afterward you’d have the same words as the second round. People were still pretty good with that. Finally, you have the categories White/Evil and Black/Good. The studies showed/show that people (even blacks) are 200-400 milliseconds slower with the last category than the third, which shows an implicit association between blacks and evil. It’s not conscious or desired, but it’s there.
They have the same thing for sexism: <a href=“Project Implicit”>Project Implicit;
<p>^ Yes, some of our prejudices are due to biological factors beyond our conscious control. Much of it has to do with the formation of categorizations during our infant/childhood years. While learning about the world, the human brain makes automatic categorizations based on what is normal, and what is different. A parrot would be classified as a bird, while a cat would be rejected as a “bird” through the process of learning. Overtime, such categorizations are hardwired into our brains and by our age, rejection and acceptance of norms is a process that takes faster than to blink an eye. </p>
<p>This is not to say our brains are correct. For example, those living in a largely homogeneous area in terms of racial characteristics would classify those of the same race as being in part of an “in-group” and those of other races as being part of the “out-group”. A new stimuli that does not conform with our brain’s hardwired prejudices will lead to the activation of the fear system in the amygdala, bringing out an unintentional “fight or flight response”. </p>
<p>However, it is extraordinarily important to note that these automatic categorizations are not absolute and change with increasing contact with other groups who may not share the same racial, sexual, or cultural characteristics. Fear activation with multiple contacts is reduced and becomes negligible after some time. Racism is not intrinsic, it is because of a closed learning environment that allows the formation of prejudices, and a lack of interaction with those you grow to classify as part of a different “out-group”. Consciously understanding this reaction does help a lot in understanding our prejudices and our actions.</p>
<p>First off, she may not have been transgendered. I wear boy’s clothes all the time. I have a friend who wears boys clothes, doesn’t shave, and just happens to have a more square body. From the neck down, she looks like a man, but I can assure you that she is 100% female.</p>
<p>You can’t get gender reassignment surgery until you are over 18. So she is probably a she that just happens to have a masculine body. </p>
<p>I have 3 friends that are in various stages of gender reassignment surgery. One of them looks completely female (born male), one looks completely male but is in the process of transitioning to female, and one kind of looks like an in-between (she is m-to-f). It is impossible to tell that the first two are in gender reassignment phases. </p>
<p>Btw- those of you who are bashing transgendered as a lifestyle choice, you DO know that there is growing evidence that transgendered is biological, right? It’s also not a new phenomenon. It’s been going on since the beginning of human history and throughout all civilizations. </p>
<p><em>Sigh</em> In many Native American cultures, transgendered people were considered sacred. “Two-spirits” as they were commonly called.</p>