Gender

Gender

First thing to say is, I'm not influenced by personal experience. This is a topic- current and virally debated in our culture- that I look at only as an observer. I have no close transgender friends, family, or neighbors. So, not directly informed here beyond my own reading, conversation with others, my thoughts.

The core of the issue: I'm not persuaded that actually changing gender is even possible. It's like asking or expecting x and y chromosomes to switch seats. Can't happen in science. You can change hormones, physical structures, and psychological or attitudinal beliefs. The merits of doing so are endlessly discussed pro and con. 

Yet, there's no doubt the suffering of feeling disconnected, wrongly oriented or misaligned in ones own life and body, it must be excruciating. The motivation for drastically ending this suffering is readily understandable. But, could it be the wrong remedy for the wrong problem? Misdiagnosis via yet incomplete psychological inquiry? Could more identity therapy better assist someone in accepting themself? 

Hormones, surgery, and other artificial attempts to alter gender don't change the original chromosomal profile at all. Culture cannot create a new gender. Society cannot divine a category of natural order, nor conflate science or biology with personal preference. Self-discover is always the challenge. We may not be able to assume any identity we prefer, an illusion of entitlement nature cannot fulfill.