If your child decided to have a sex change

[commander bunnypants]

would it bother you?


CB

[AlienGirl]

1. No

[ET Awful]

2. Not really. It'd take some getting used to, but nothing I couldn't

do, and willingly :)

[Cuban_Liberal]

3. It might, at first.

But it would never stop me from loving him/her, or being there for them.

:)

[progmom]

4. Only because

It would mean that they had gone though a period of pretty severe unhappiness and self-doubt. That's got to be the most terrible feeling, that you're trying to be someone you're not.


But I would support the decision to the fullest.

[johnnie]

5. First I would freak out that I had a child and never knew it

So, I don't know if it would or not.

[LiberalinNC]

6. As long as it made my kid happy, then NO!

The only thing I want for my child is for them to be happy and healthy!

[Placebo]

7. My dad is transgendered.

And even though I still love him the same, it's definitely changed things, and it wasn't/isn't fun.

[commander bunnypants]

8. Good, I was talking to a transgenered coworker

and just started thinking about it

CB

[progmom]

26. What was your coworker's experience with his/her parents?

[enigmatic]

9. nope.

[Xithras]

10. Yes.

But they'd never know it. I'll support my children in anything that makes them happy, but deep inside my son would always be my son and my daughter my daughter.

Just being honest.

[SheilaT]

11. I'd be a little startled

to learn that he (I have two sons) wasn't happy as a male/felt he should have been born a she. But I'd give as much comfort and support as humanly possible.

Same kind of thing if either one told me he's gay. They both seem extremely heterosexual, but I'd mainly be distressed I'd been oblivious, not bothered by the sexuality.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

12. No.

Interesting that you ask. My six year old asked me the other day if he was ever a girl. It made me think. :hi:

[foreigncorrespondent]

13. Absolutely not!

I don't have children, but if I did, I wouldn't be bothered by their decision at all.

Like all parents, I would want my kids to live life to the fullest. And to just be happy with themselves and their life.

[NorthernSpy]

14. of course it would bother me!

We're talking about a series of invasive procedures done to a healthy, normally-formed body, and we're talking about monkeying around with a previously-normal endocrine system for the rest of the person's life.

No small matter, that.

[Iris]

15. There's a novel about this called "Even a Blind Man Could See How Much

I Love You." In it, the parent laments the fact that her child wants to change a body that the parent has always considered utterly perfect.

[MissMillie]

16. I'd drive him to the hospital

and when it's all over, I'd take her home and go shopping w/ her. LOL

[Nikia]

17. If my potential child was an adult

I think that people need to go through puberty to really know if their body fits them or not. I think that a number of children don't really care much about their maleness or femaleness until then. This is also a big change that one should think about carefully before jumping into it.

[frictionlessO]

18. nope! think talk discuss support support and think and talk some

more and then maybe prepare and act...

Ill just leave it at that.

[Nicole]

19. Yes it would bother me

It also bothered me when she wanted to have cosmetic surgery. Any surgery is cause for concern. Too many things can & do go wrong.

However she never knew it bothered me. I was there to support her in her decision to do what she chooses with her body. I would do the same if she decided to have a sex change.

[LeftPeopleFinishFirst]

20. Yes and no

I'd be disappointed that they would take such an extreme measure to change who they are physically, because people should learn to be happy with what they are given. Sort of like people who get breast implants and plastic surgery. It's kind of changing what you were born with.

But on the other hand, I would also support them because it is their decision, not mine. It would be stupid to shut someone, especially my relative, out of my life for something so trivial. If they think this surgery is the only way for them to be happy, then I would support their decision, but I'd also tell them they were fine just the way they were. :)

[Hell Hath No Fury]

22. I don't think you know much about...

being transgendered.

It's not as simple as being happy with what they have been given. That's the whole point -- the sexual organs they have been given do not match who they are internally.

If, as a straight female, I were to wake up tomorrow with a dick and told I was supposed to have sex with women, I would run to the nearest doctor and demand it be cut off and a vagina created because every fiber of my being tells me that I am a woman, not a man.

Pre-op trans people are some of the most "in pain" folks I have ever seen. Spending sometimes half their lives in a body that it utterly alien to them can be devastating to them emotionally.

I saw the story of a young male baby whose penis had been destroyed during a circumcision. All his male genitalia were removed as a result, and female genital built. The doctors told his parents to raise him as a girl and that there would be no problem, that a person's sex was all about what their genitals looked like and had nothing to do with the brain. His family did just that. From the moment he was brought home he was dressed like a girl, treated like a girl, and forced to act like a girl. When he reached puberty he was given female hormones to produce feminization. Internally, the kid knew his entire life that something was seriously wrong with him. He was tortured by the fact that his brain told him he was a boy while the outside package said girl. His family finally told him the truth and he immediately began his life as it was intended -- as a man.

That is what trans experience -- waking up everyday with their brain telling them one thing and seeing a body that does not reflect that reality.

This isn't just breast augmentation, this isn't lipo or a chin implant for them or some "vanity" proceedure. It is often life or death for them -- change their bodies to reflect who they truly are or kill themselves because they can't live another day trapped in the wrong body.

[LeftPeopleFinishFirst]

23. Maybe I don't.

But if you woke up tomorrow with male organs, that'd be a pretty bad example... seeing as how you weren't born with those. That was my entire point. The story of the young boy is also not the same as wanting to get an operation done... because it was not him making the decision. I'm really sure it's a personal decision, and that's why I said I would still support the person if it made them feel happier or if it helped better their situation. By being happier, I believe that would include preventing something like suicide or extreme depression, no? I don't disagree with you. :shrug:

[gollygee]

21. If I knew it's what she needed . . .

If I knew it is what she needed for her to be at peace with herself, then no I would not be bothered. It might take me a little while to get used to the idea, but I would get used to it.

[brentspeak]

24. No way I could accept that

Absolutely no way I would be able to deal with that. I would make sure my child had a CAT-scan, in addition to a million other tests, and hire the world's most prestigious shrinks to check his/her head if they about to have a sex change. But then, the ultimate decision wouldn't be mine to make.

[stupid grin]

25. I couldn't answer that w/o it actually happening.

[fujiyama]

27. In all honesty

Yes, it would. First of all, it's a major surgery. You are after all, changing and modifying vital and sensitive areas of the human body.

It may be just me, but unless there would be absolutely no way they could survive in their original body, I would urge them to avoid surgery.