In my mind, I'm George Bush. So I'm asking co-FReepers to please refer to me as "Mr. President".
So it took him 40 years to figure this out, and pink fingernails and earrings are as far as he got?
Uh-uh. Nope. Do the surgery and then we'll see. Until then, you're just a cross-dresser.
Y'know, I don't have a problem with homosexuals. I'm atheist, and just don't have some ancient book telling me what to think.
I don't even have a problem with cross-dressers. I don't even hold Rudy in contempt for that, any more than I hold Milton Berle, Flip Wilson, or Jamie Farr in any disrespect for trying to entertain people in a funny way. Heck, I even find women dressing as men to be somewhat practical. We have pants with pockets, and we can almost always find two things in the closet that match up reasonably. If a man wants to wear a skirt, that's no different to me than wearing a kilt, fundamentally.
But I really do have a problem wrapping my brain around the "I was born in the wrong gender body, and need to change it," mentality. Acceptance of ourself the way we are is a sign of mental health, and if that includes an attraction to the same sex, rather than the opposite one, I say, fine, so be it. But the need to change gender strikes me as mentally disturbed as people who feel they need plastic surgery, when they already look good enough.
Maybe someone will explain it all to me in a way that I can understand, but right now, that looks damn tough. MSNBC.com had a series of "Pictures of Transgendered Americans" on their website about a week or two ago, and they ranged from merely pathetic-looking, to downright butt-ugly.