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Humanist_Activist

(7,670 posts)
Wed Jun 3, 2015, 10:21 PM Jun 2015

Beyond Creationism, denial of evidence when it contradicts dogma or belief....

particularly in religion, and the subjects in question will be sexuality and gender. This has exploded online recently due to Caitlyn finishing her transition and is now able to live her life as a woman. This has brought to the fore people whose prejudices they reinforce with outdated or discredited studies, poor philosophy, and, of course, assumptions about LGBT people that have very little relation to reality.

I shall give an example, with the favorite priest of some DUers, Father Dwight Longenecker:

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/standingonmyhead/2015/06/vanity-fair-call-me-confused.html

Select Excerpt:

[div class="excerpt" style="margin-left:1em; border:1px solid #bfbfbf; border-radius:0.4615em; box-shadow:-1px -1px 3px #999999 inset;"]Readers may remember the original Vanity Fair appeared in John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress. Vanity Fair is a place where every earthly delight and fancy is up for sale. This aspect of Bruce Jenner’s transformation can’t be put on one side. Here’s a guy who is on TV and is caught up in a huge publicity machine to sell himself and now to sell his sexual confusion and medical and cosmetic transformation into a female. When I see that Vanity Fair cover I don’t see an attractive woman.
I see a man dressed up as a whore…which of course is just what you would expect to find in the original Vanity Fair where every human delight is up for sale. OK. That’s tough talk, but Caitlyn is not really presenting as a modest, beautiful and chaste woman is she? Wasn’t the swimsuit-lingerie outfit supposed to be provocative? Wasn’t her expression supposed to be steamy?

Now, this is rather obvious transphobic bigotry, but it gets even better, like here:

[div class="excerpt" style="margin-left:1em; border:1px solid #bfbfbf; border-radius:0.4615em; box-shadow:-1px -1px 3px #999999 inset;"]An excellent article from First Things from 2004 has surfaced in a timely way today. It is probably the best thing I have ever read on the transgender issue because it is written by a psychiatrist who has actually been involved in treating this very condition. He writes objectively about the condition using something called research and facts. As such the article is refreshing because this issue, like the same sex marriage issue, has now been caught up in a maelstrom of emotion and sentimentality.

He is referencing an apparent expert on transgender issues, Dr. Paul R. McHugh, who is a retired Catholic psychiatrist from John Hopkins University. I think a nice summation of this psychiatrist can be found here: http://www.transadvocate.com/clinging-to-a-dangerous-past-dr-paul-mchughs-selective-reading-of-transgender-medical-literature_n_13842.htm

Its a biased website, but sourced excellently, but to sum things up, this Doctor is ignoring the latest research on gender identity and sexuality so he can cling to his prejudices. Fr. Longenecker is doing the same, in referencing this outdated dinosaur of science.

He then goes on to reference another study, Dr. William Reiner, who is a urologist and psychiatrist who specializes in treating children with genitalia and intersex anomolies. He misconstrues and misuses Dr. Reiner's study to support his transphobia. What I found interesting is what Dr. Reiner thinks about the conclusions of his study, found here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/31/science/declaring-with-clarity-when-gender-is-ambiguous.html

[div class="excerpt" style="margin-left:1em; border:1px solid #bfbfbf; border-radius:0.4615em; box-shadow:-1px -1px 3px #999999 inset;"]Q. What conclusions do you draw from your study?

A. That sexual identity is individual, unique and intuitive and that the only person who really knows what it is is the person themselves. If we as physicians or scientists want to know about a person's sexual identity, we have to ask them.

What I see here is a type of pseudoscience, declaring certainty based on outdated information, the data was bad, not adequate or the conclusions from the data are practically the opposite of what the data shows. Another examples is the now long debunked Regenerus Study, its rather infamous as being poorly executed, fails in the most basic of classical studies of its type, sample size was far too small, and the conclusions were far too sweeping, but Mark Regenerus is a homophobic "scientist" who tried to abuse the word science to advance his point of view. What I find disconcerting is that what is behind these motivations seem to be religious beliefs of various sorts.

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Beyond Creationism, denial of evidence when it contradicts dogma or belief.... (Original Post) Humanist_Activist Jun 2015 OP
The issues here seem extremely complicated to me, and unfortunately struggle4progress Jun 2015 #1
Its not really that complicated, when you focus on the individual transgender in question... Humanist_Activist Jun 2015 #4
I'm sure spectrum is the right word struggle4progress Jun 2015 #5
What I'm always puzzled by is the lack of empathy or understanding that many cis-gendered people... Humanist_Activist Jun 2015 #6
Sexuality is one area where religion did/does lots of harm Yorktown Jun 2015 #2
Well this just can't be. trotsky Jun 2015 #3

struggle4progress

(118,041 posts)
1. The issues here seem extremely complicated to me, and unfortunately
Thu Jun 4, 2015, 02:12 AM
Jun 2015

there often seems to be a component of community expectation and social pressure in the construction of gender roles

Perhaps we can do little more than hint at this, since many of the underlying ideas may be inculcated from childhood, but two stories I found here at DU in recent years might suggest something about one possible dynamic:

(1) Bradley Manning (before deciding to become Chelsea) had at one point indicated (s)he joined the army in hopes this would teach manhood: there is a quite definite social gender-stereotype at work in such ideation;

(2) Similarly, the very rigid gender roles in Iran seem closely tied to the notion that apparent physical gender is destiny -- with the surprising consequence that the very conservative society of Iran apparently allows persons to switch their gender roles PROVIDED there is a corresponding sex-reassignment surgery

 

Humanist_Activist

(7,670 posts)
4. Its not really that complicated, when you focus on the individual transgender in question...
Fri Jun 5, 2015, 02:17 AM
Jun 2015

for many, they suffer severe gender dysphoria, they feel, very strongly, that they are in the wrong body, that the gender and sex do not match. Successful treatment would be delay in puberty, hormone therapy and possibly surgery, including lower surgery, if they feel that is necessary for themselves.

This goes far beyond cross-dressing, and from what the latest research has been building on, it appears that transgender may be best described as a type of intersex condition, but of the brain rather than genitalia/secondary sexual characteristics. There are slight, physiological difference between male and female brains, and it appears that everyone will likely identify with the gender their brain structures point to. However, there is an exception, a few people identify as neuter, for lack of a better word, an that gender identity is just as valid. This entire argument is best described to be on a spectrum.

The fact is that you could have a transgender MtF person who behaves as a tomboy, and still identify as female. Just because you identify as a particular gender should not restrict your choice of expression. Considering how subjective and culturally dependent gender expression is, it is probably not a very useful to even identify these expressions as activities by gender at all.

 

Humanist_Activist

(7,670 posts)
6. What I'm always puzzled by is the lack of empathy or understanding that many cis-gendered people...
Fri Jun 5, 2015, 02:43 AM
Jun 2015

display.

Even those that aren't transphobic will usually say that they don't understand transgender issues while displaying empathy for homosexuals, for example.

I find it easy enough to imagine, I'm a cis-gendered male, if, tomorrow, I work up with a clitoris instead of a penis, it would be horrible for me, I would want that corrected as quickly as possible. I imagine feeling this, every day, is somewhat similar to what transgender individuals feel. It would be a dissonance similar to questioning your own sanity and/or reality. Doesn't help that those surrounding you, some of them the closest people to you emotionally, who should, ideally, protect and love you, tell you that you are wrong about your own body and mind. Such a rejection is perhaps one of the worst horrors people can face.

This is why we need to try to increase funding for safe places for LGBT people, particularly teens and young adults, we need to alter the culture to be more accepting of everyone, where variances are celebrated, not shunned.

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