People who kill Transgender people to get longer sentences...

Delusions DO exist though, and are present in many mental illnesses. Delusions can be defined as "false beliefs about oneself or others" - e.g, someone might believe themselves to be the Pope.

Delusions DO exist though, and are present in many mental illnesses. Delusions can be defined as "false beliefs about oneself or others" - e.g, someone might believe themselves to be the Pope.

They have not isolated a cause for transgenderism yet. It's all possible. Making your opinion to be that there is not a fixed gender that isn't dependent on sex is pure prejudice without evidence to back it up. Yes, transgendered people do jump on their favoured explanation too quickly (as there is not the evidence to solidly say their side either). At least their biased opinions aren't hurting anyone though.

But a person that believes they are the Pope does not then understand that they are actually a man from Luton.

However, a transsexual person isn't deluded. They understand they are in a males body and they wish to change to a female, which is possible. They are not holding a false belief.

But a person that believes they are the Pope does not then understand that they are actually a man from Luton.

However, a transsexual person isn't deluded. They understand they are in a males body and they wish to change to a female, which is possible. They are not holding a false belief.

Yeah, and that's why you have to be thoroughly assessed by a psychiatrist before any sort of treatment (hormones, surgery, etc). Also, before surgery and hormones and things, you have to live as the sex which you are transitioning to. It's not nearly as easy as walking into your GP and saying "Hey, you know what I fancy doing today?"

Male and female have biological proof as to why they have those genders, they either have 2 X chromosomes or a X and Y chromosome, or in some cases XXX, but thats non-disjunction. Transgenderism will have either one of two, the rest is due to hormone differences.

I'm not hating, I have my opinions you have yours. Changing your gender will not fix the problem, that will make it so that you won't be accepted in society, you will neither be that or this, while you may be more accepting, the majority will not be and I am sorry, but if they were born a male, I will consider them a male for the rest of their life. But you do what you wanna do.

If doctors are told "you can't call someone ill if they believe they're a woman/man because that would be politically incorrect" then surely they'll pass them as sane despite their own judgement?

The question is whether there are a whole load of other things going on.

Likely not deluded:
Indicators of gender identity disorder in early life (wearing other gender's clothes, engaging in behaviour typical of other gender, naming self with a name typical of other gender).
Consistent perception of self as the gender opposite to their sex.
No mental disorders or other strange things believed.
No trauma or such that could push them into a delusion.

Greater likelihood of delusion:
No indicators of gender identity disorder in early life.
Changing perception of self ("today I'm a girl! no no, yesterday was wrong, I'm a boy. No! I was wrong before, I actually am a girl 100%!")
Other mental disorders, confirmed delusions of other things.
Trauma e.g. mother passed away and must look after young siblings, take on role of mother inc. gender.
_____________________

This was a quick example just off the top of my head. All I'm trying to illustrate is that they look at the rest of your life, and see if there are signs of sanity or not. A large number of people who fit the former model suggest to me that transgenderism is not a delusion.

I don't get how it changes the meaning of what the guy said before. It's late maybe I've misunderstood him :P

Yeah, I know. But a lot of that could be down to upbringing - I've heard stories of, say, a boy growing up in a female-only environment whose mother dressed him as a girl from an early age growing up to believe he was a girl in a boy's body.

Yep, that's something that would put the individual in the dodgy second model.

Transgendered people I've talked to, which is a fair few, weren't brought up like that. That will be a rare occurrence. It's far more likely for parents to push them into the standard, so female with a penis will not be allowed to wear dresses. Completely pushed the opposite direction.

I'll explain

He implied that people choose to be transgender. Here's why that is wrong (and he accepted that it is wrong):

Generally, and broadly:

Transgender is feeling that your are the opposite gender to the one that you were assigned at birth. For example, a person born 'female' who feels that they are male. It is a feeling/belief. Therefore they do not choose it. It's like saying someone 'chooses' to feel something like sadness or joy - or whatever. We don't choose our feelings - we only choose how we cope with them...

Which leads us to Transsexuals. Transsexuals are people who feel transgendered - they feel the wrong gender. The difference is that they choose to do something about it - e.g. wear different clothes than the ones typically worn by people of their birth gender, take hormones to affect their body and give them traits of the gender they feel they are, have surgeries to change their body to suit the gender they feel they are.

So do you see, one can be transgender but not transsexual. But if one is transsexual one is transgender.

Hope that's cleared it up for you

"A female with a penis"... see, for me, a girl will always be a girl, and a boy a boy. If they want to call themselves a boy/girl/whatever, that's up to them, but I would never see them as anything but a boy pretending to be a girl, or vice versa.

Do you agree that there are people who exist who have sexual characteristics of both sexes (e.g. someone who has all male characteristics, but also breasts, or someone who has genitals in between, or someone who has XX chromosomes but male characteristics)?

If yes: How do you define who is a male or a female? Or is there a grey area of 'I don't know' or 'there is no clear sex'?

There may be people born with extra bits, although I don't know of any cases... it's bound to have happened at some point. However, there's also people born with two heads.