[Jack_]

Originally Posted by Vicky.

Heh yeah I suppose. I have opened one gigantic can of worms tonight, lets not do another.

Do you agree, that its good to be able to actually talk about stuff though without it always being shut down? This was my main point in all of that essay tbh as I have been in the dark about everything to do with this issue for so long as the second the matter is mentioned, if you have any view other than the currently accepted 'right one' thats it, you are told to shut up and get lost as you are bigoted etc etc.

Absolutely, until taboo subjects and minority rights are discussed openly and widely in the public domain nothing can progress, no one can be enlightened or educated. My main opposition to these kind of topics just comes from bad experience, there was a period this forum went through where civilised discussions were out of the window and it was just full of dismissive, patronising, passive aggressive and downright insulting posts and it was all just completely miserable. Hence why I've not liked discussions like these being started ever since, but hey maybe things have changed now

Originally Posted by Tom*

The main thing I can't fathom is the mental illness thing. That isn't true at all. If they want surgery to make themselves THEM then that is their choice not a damn mental illness

No I agree, it is less about mental illness and more about societal pressure to conform to a binary and the false notion that your sex is your true marker of your identity when it isn't, it's your gender.

What needs to happen is we need as a society to stop peddling this idea that to be a true 'woman' or 'man' you need to have sex reassignment surgery. It's unnecessarily damaging to so many people and it's an operation of which the effects are going to be seen by very little people.

Do I think people should be allowed to go through with transitioning and surgery if they so choose? Of course, but I'd much rather we tried to establish a society free of pointless binaries and categories and just allowed people to dress, act and self define how they wish without being mocked or told they need to conform to some particular ideal