GenderLife Forum: The Information Exchange

Interesting article here for anyone that hasn't seen it. It's a study about gay people, but it might have some relevance to TS people. Somehow. Maybe. Who knows? Heh. Interesting anyhow.

http://www.newscientist.com/channel/sex/...posite-sex.html

Ah yes, they are getting closer and closer to the cause. In a decade they'll be working on the cure.

ahh the cure and the cause ....... fish go deep good tune

That kind of sophisticated research requires massive funding and an academic facility willing to put its reputation on the line to conduct it. What corporation(s) or medical school are going to want to be publicly linked to eugenics, even anti-gay eugenics? The outcry will be "What about diabetes or Parkinson's?" As much as the homophobes would love to see that kind of research, I don't believe there is anywhere near enough public sentiment in favor of that, especially given the priority of true medical problems with a genetic basis.

I've always suspicioned that a key difference between gay and trans (they're not mutually exclusive) is that trans are uncomfortable with their sex, there genitals. Gays, generally, are not. A gay’s genitals are the source of their sexual pleasure, and it would be counter to their best interest to have them surgically removed.

A trans actively pursues having their genitals altered. Then we see loooong posts here about whether they are orgasmic after SRS, and apparently some never are. How many gays would have their genitals surgically altered knowing ahead of time there was a distinct possibility they would never climax/orgasm again for the rest of their lives. In my mind there is a huge difference between gay and trans.

Assuming both trans and gay have the same risks of societal discrimination and family alienation (and I’m not sure they share the same risks – a gay walking down the street or at the family BBQ is still a guy in pants, not a man in a dress), what’s left at risk is their bodies. A trans person gambles everything on the turn of a knife; a gay gambles nothing. And, based on the ENDA debacle, the gay community in the U.S. isn’t even willing to gamble passage of legislative protections to the inclusion of trans.

Having said that, there is also a substantial percentage of trans gals who identify as lesbian. However, they are trans because of their discomfort with their genitals, not because they are lesbian.

Whew, I’ll bet I’ve put my foot in it now.

Actually sounds reasonable to me.

i remember when gay meant happy


gay is sooo 80s/90s they wanna get up to speed as bein ts is the new trend

Personally, and I know this isn't necessarily a popular opinion, I think the separation of gay and trans at the biological level is not useful.

If you believe our identity and behaviors are biologically founded (soul or spirit aside), then generally the difference between male and female would be tendencies towards two different sets of physical and behavioral characteristics.
Physical genitalia, how our brain is wired for the genitalia, secondary sex characteristics, social identity, etc. would all fall into gendered or sexual elements of who we are. Sexual preference, I would consider, is also a gendered behavior, with upwards of 90% of humans tending towards mates of the opposite sex.

Biologically, we're made up of billions of cells, trillions of synaptic connections, etc. It makes sense to me that the various portions of our brain that relate to gendered behavior such as social interaction and temperament, somatic identity, and sexual preference would vary greatly from person to person, although tending towards two polar genders.

So, in short, I consider sexual orientation a gendered behavior, and don't necessarily believe it's useful to separate gender and sex at the biological level.

I'm not quite so big on the scientific explanations of these things, though I wonder why they're looking for opposite sex brains in gay people rather than trans people. It begged the question, "what the fuck?" since being gay is just this thing that is more acceptable to society as time goes by ya know and it doesn't involve any surgery or anything like that so finding a 'reason' that the poor huddled masses can wrap their heads around to understand 'us' better would be nice. (But I'm not bitter about our social plight, I swear...)

Also, it's weird logic but maybe the thought process itself changes the brain structure instead of vice versa.

I'm not personally so sure on the spirit thing since I'm an atheist, but it's something anyhow and I have an open mind I guess.

It's nearly impossible for me to describe to others how it feels inside to be trans, but I know that to the people closest to me, my coming out was like an enjoyable party 'til they busted open the pinata and all the meat came out.

I would like to see the same kind of study done on a number of transgendered subjects. We already know about the studies done by the Dutch researchers, Swaab, Krujiver, et al, where the BSTC region of transgendered indivicuals more closely matches that of the gender with with they identify. Now, let's find more of the functional differences.