On Transgender

When I was younger, and more naive, I saw little difference between an individual who dressed as a woman, and someone who was a woman but in a man’s body. I remember my first trip to a gay club for a uni’ mate’s birthday and seeing a drag queen; at the time I was unsettled, however now I don’t bat an eye. Of course a drag queen is someone who dresses up for occasion and is completely different from someone who is transgender. Between then and now I have gone on my own journey of discovery, and struggled with the realisation of my own identity.

However as much as I struggled with my own personal acceptance I can’t imagine what it is to feel like to be born as the wrong sex.

Recently I was forwarded this video:

                                                             

The video brings up an interesting point on medical care for transgendered individuals. Currently the UK offers hormonal treatment and gender realignment surgery (GRS) through the NHS; it’s estimated that 1 in 4,000 are receiving such treatment. Such procedures look to improve in the future; recently urinary tubes have been engineered in the US and could be potentially used to make more fully functioning urethras during GRS.

However I think such readily available treatment brings up ethical questions on the moral choices facing transgendered people:

Should someone retain the right to have a child if they have already begun the hormonal procedure to become a man? Thomas Beattie’s story, of a trans-man who became pregnant due to still having functioning female organs, is well known. By retaining his reproductive rights he appears to straddle both sexes, and emphasises the debate about the rights of an individual and the distortion of nature.

In the pursuit of the body of the opposite sex GRS will definitely be involved in order to achieve the optimum physique. But where does the boundary lie between, say, a man becoming a woman or a man becoming a woman obsessed with plastic surgery? GRS does not mean a transgendered individual will continue to pursue surgery, but there’s the option of continual surgery to create a more optimum figure. Amanda Lepore appears as the perfect example of the pursuit of womanhood achieving extremes:

Of course this more depends on the individual’s state of mind and their content post-surgery; the NHS states that a review of a number of studies carried out over the last 20 years found that 96% of people who had GRS were satisfied.

However I find the the most pressing issue with treatment is when should an individual be given the right to alter their body in such a way? In the UK prepubescent children are not allowed to take hormone therapy; the NHS states that a study by The Endocrine Society found that 75-80% of children grew out of gender dysphoria after puberty. However it is easier to treat gender dysphoria before puberty begins, and for the remaining 25-20% this would be most ideal option. Individual cases change; Kim Petras became the youngest person in the world in 1998 to start gender realignment at the age of 12. Her situation is seen as one of the rare ‘clear-cut’ examples however.

If such issues are to be fully, openly and seriously addressed then the more pressing problem of inequality and discrimination, as mentioned in the video, must be rectified.If the issue of transgender inequality is not rectified then what hope is there for a full, considered approach to gender realignment ethics to be implemented? Absolute Human equality is often seen as one of the pinnacles of an enlightened society but we still have a long way to go yet. The majority of transgender discrimination occurs in the workplace; at least 4/10 transgendered people feel like they are unable to be their true selves at work. Such discrimination is generated by a lack of understanding, something which needs to be tackled as transgender issues become more prominent. Challenging people’s own perceptions, as the video above does, is much more productive than waiting for law to enforce it. Such laws are obviously progressive, but cultural change and societal acceptance is needed for transgendered people to be fully integrated as an undsicriminated part of the populace. In the end generating understanding of another individual, of another group of people, is the only way fully eliminate inequality. 

"Nine-tenths of wisdom is appreciation. Go find somebody's hand and squeeze it, while there's still time"- Dale Dauten.