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The Real Issues in the Transgender Debate: Really, there are three issues. This one is the most important
American Thinker ^ | 12/11/2024 | Michael Egnor, MD

Posted on 12/11/2024 9:17:00 AM PST by SeekAndFind

In light of the U.S. v. Skrmetti Supreme Court case, about the Tennessee law that protects children with gender dysphoria from destructive hormone treatments and surgery, it is helpful to consider the actual issues involved.  The transgender debate is not a single issue, but three issues, which to some degree bear on one another but are logically separate questions.

The first issue is the broad logical, philosophical, and biological questions at the root of transgender ideology.  What is a woman?  What is a man?  Can a man become a woman, and a woman become a man?  What is gender?  What is sex?  When is sexual identity fixed, if it is fixed?  What is the relationship between gender and sex?  What is the biological definition of male and female?  Is the human species sexually binary (male or female) or bimorphic (a continuum between male and female)?

These issues are of enormous importance for our culture, and they bear on questions of biology, medical care, and ethics, but they are not the same thing as the issues of medical care and ethics and should not be conflated with them.

The second issue is the effectiveness of transgender medical care.  Do children who are given puberty-blockers really benefit from the treatment?  What are the short-term and long-term risks of puberty-blockers?  What are the effects of cross-sex hormones in patients, especially children?  What effect do cross-sex hormones have on fertility, metabolism, bone strength, cancer risk, and long-term psychological health?  What are the medical and psychosocial consequences of lifelong dependence on powerful mind- and body-altering drugs?  Do castration and the surgical fashioning of fake genitals really make mentally ill children and adults psychologically healthier?

All of these “second issue” questions are straightforward science, unlike the “first issue” questions, which are heavily laden with metaphysics.


(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: bigpharma; bigprofit; bloggers; homosexualagenda; lgbt; mutilation; notnews; plannedparenthood; trans; transgender; transgenderism
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1 posted on 12/11/2024 9:17:00 AM PST by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind
The third issue is the ethics of transgender treatments, irrespective of the philosophical and scientific rationale for the treatments.  Is it ethical to destroy normal body parts and functions with drugs and surgery?

Note that this ethics question is distinct from the questions about the logical coherence of transgender ideology and the scientific effectiveness of transgender treatments. Even if transgender ideology made sense (it doesn’t), and even if transgender medical care helped people (it doesn’t), is it ethical to damage a healthy body in service to these goals?

2 posted on 12/11/2024 9:17:32 AM PST by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

Although there are some exceptions, I feel that overwhelmingly the Medical Establishment has thrown ethics out the window. They don’t care about right and wrong. They care about money. Lots of money. The COVID situation showed that plainly, and the trans butchery shows it just as much. “Do no harm”? Hey, if the money is good, they’ll do all the harm you want.


3 posted on 12/11/2024 9:21:45 AM PST by ClearCase_guy
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To: SeekAndFind

He’s making it way too hard. There are two sexes or genders, same thing. If you can’t accept the one you are, then you have a mental illness and should be treated accordingly. That’s it.


4 posted on 12/11/2024 9:27:05 AM PST by bigbob (Yes. We ARE going back!)
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To: SeekAndFind

If anyone wonders about whether the “Great Deception” is really possible in the Bible. Then half of society becoming confused about gender should convince them.


5 posted on 12/11/2024 9:32:37 AM PST by DannyTN
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To: DannyTN

I figure AI will be the source of the Great Deception, who knows what is real anymore?


6 posted on 12/11/2024 9:33:17 AM PST by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: SeekAndFind

Transgender-affirming surgery is the equivalent of a “sexual lobotomy.” Good analogy. Thanks for posting this article.


7 posted on 12/11/2024 9:52:12 AM PST by DeweyCA ( )
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To: SeekAndFind

later


8 posted on 12/11/2024 9:55:52 AM PST by libertylover (Our biggest problem, by far, is that almost all of big media is AGENDA-DRIVEN, not-truth driven.)
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To: SeekAndFind

He compares this to lobotomy, which is not invalid. But let’s not forget about Eunuchs and Castrati. I don’t know how prevalent these things were, where or for how long they went on, and I’m way too lazy to research. But they did happen and were also similar to sex-changes.

In general females escaped this stuff, not Muslim females of course. And it was generally considered acceptable (and still is in many places) to do in your female offspring if you considered them useless to the family enterprise.

There really is nothing new under the sun!


9 posted on 12/11/2024 10:02:10 AM PST by jocon307
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To: SeekAndFind
It's a question of sanity.

Man: I'm a woman.
Sane person: Are you insane?

10 posted on 12/11/2024 10:14:46 AM PST by philman_36 (Pride breakfasted with plenty, dined with poverty and supped with infamy. Benjamin Franklin)
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To: SeekAndFind
The first issue is the broad logical, philosophical, and biological questions at the root of transgender ideology. What is a woman? What is a man? Can a man become a woman, and a woman become a man? What is gender? What is sex? When is sexual identity fixed, if it is fixed? What is the relationship between gender and sex? What is the biological definition of male and female? Is the human species sexually binary (male or female) or bimorphic (a continuum between male and female)?

This is not an "issue." Normal people know the answers to these questions. They are not matters of debate.

I am now sorry I bothered to look at this essay.

11 posted on 12/11/2024 10:16:59 AM PST by DiogenesLamp ("of parents owing allegiance to no other sovereignty.")
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To: bigbob

Agreed.

We need to slam dunk this down the Democrat’s throats.

No compromise.

No “being fair and reasonable”.

No “middle ground”.

Make the Democrats die on this hill.


12 posted on 12/11/2024 10:19:16 AM PST by cgbg (It is time to pull the Deep State out of the mass media--like ticks from a dog.)
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To: SeekAndFind
The basic issue is defying God. He assigns your gender: deal with it.

The problem with all sexual rebellion is that it adds another layer of defiance against God, erecting yet another barrier to repentance and regeneration.

13 posted on 12/11/2024 10:28:49 AM PST by Hebrews 11:6 (“It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in man.” Psalm 118:8)
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To: SeekAndFind

“All of these “second issue” questions are straightforward science, unlike the “first issue” questions, which are heavily laden with metaphysics.”

NONSENSE - Academia theoretical nonsense.

The issue is whether to admit or try to hide the fact that someone has a mental illness - identity dysphoria, and specifically identity dysphoria manifested in an errant obsession that someone is not the biological sex that they in fact are - gender dysphoria; a mental health issue, not a problem of the “wrong body”.

The issue is whether to go along with the errant obsession, because just like a heavy addiction it is easier mentally to just go along with it, that fighting, just like fighting a heavy addicition is hard and stressful. Yet, is our answer to a heavy addicition to just figure out how to give them a lifetime supply of what they are addicted to? No.

Using the term “gender affirming care” for physical mutilation and a lifetime of aritificial hormones is fraud.

The gender affirming care that is needed is sympathetic, compassionate but professional mental health care to help the person get rid of the obsession behind their identify dyshoria and affirm their biological reality.


14 posted on 12/11/2024 10:36:26 AM PST by Wuli
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To: dfwgator

It was getting hard to tell truth from fiction even before AI.

I was thinking about telling AI to just create me a deep fake world where everything is as it ought to be, and I’ll just live there.


15 posted on 12/11/2024 11:17:27 AM PST by DannyTN
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To: SeekAndFind

But first a question: WHY does a person want to change genders? It seems to be just stereotyping of behavior. Is there something I’m missing?


16 posted on 12/11/2024 12:56:18 PM PST by eccentric
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To: SeekAndFind
The first issue is the broad logical, philosophical, and biological questions at the root of transgender ideology. What is a woman? What is a man? Can a man become a woman, and a woman become a man? What is gender? What is sex? When is sexual identity fixed, if it is fixed? What is the relationship between gender and sex? What is the biological definition of male and female? Is the human species sexually binary (male or female) or bimorphic (a continuum between male and female)?

All of these can be answered by a third grader.

Adult human female.

Adult human male.

No.

A language construct.

The biological state of being either a man or a woman.

When sperm meets egg and forms Zygote.

None.

XX and XY.

Humans are mammals.

There is no such thing as a bimorphic mammal dumb butt.

There all questions now answered.

Now, in the kindest way possible, stop mutilating human children before I feel compelled to come over there and do something that you will not like you mentally ill pervert.

Get it?

Got it.

Good.

Now buzz off you annoying little crustacean.

17 posted on 12/11/2024 1:20:26 PM PST by Harmless Teddy Bear ( Not my circus. Not my monkeys. But I can pick out the clowns at 100 yards.)
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To: bigbob
There are two sexes.

Sex and gender is not the same thing and until the nasty little pervert child molester John Money came up with the concept no one on planet earth thought there was.

The word is sex.

18 posted on 12/11/2024 1:22:34 PM PST by Harmless Teddy Bear ( Not my circus. Not my monkeys. But I can pick out the clowns at 100 yards.)
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To: SeekAndFind

I’m not even convinced that “gender dysphoria” is a real thing, just one of those do-it-yourself designer “diseases” that people who crave attention seem to so often have.

There is NO objective medical evidence to confirm the existence of this disorder, conveniently. Psycho-babble terminology doesn’t count. It’s on the far edge of junk science.


19 posted on 12/11/2024 1:59:31 PM PST by fwdude (Why is there a "far/radical right," but damned if they'll admit that there is a far/radical left?)
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To: SeekAndFind

bump


20 posted on 12/11/2024 2:08:25 PM PST by Albion Wilde (“Did you ever meet a woke person that’s happy? There’s no such thing.” —Donald J. Trump)
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