To all of you trans ladies out there

catoboros · 2020-07-21T03:15:10+00:00

Some of them, including YouTubers Blaire White and Rose of Dawn, have done a great job standing up against TRAs.

catoboros · 2020-07-20T03:46:31+00:00

In the last paragraph, the article inconsistently refers to trans men as trans males in comparison to males. Trans men are female, of course. This confusion is another consequence of the linguistic muddle promoted by TRAs in an attempt erase any language that might contradict them. Newspeak, anyone?

catoboros · 2020-07-20T03:56:31+00:00

Many trans people are harmed by the actions of TRAs, which are eroding the public image of trans people. Dissenting trans people lost our subs too. We were not prepared at all for the bans. Much respect for GC demonstrating the futility of censorship.

catoboros · 2020-07-21T03:34:45+00:00

My view on validation is that those seeking it need to find not validation but an understanding of their need for it.

catoboros · 2020-07-18T22:54:51+00:00

There is also evidence that masks reduce inoculum size, that is, droplets that get through are smaller, resulting in less severe disease because the immune system has longer to mount a defence.

catoboros · 2020-07-18T23:05:38+00:00

There is some medical evidence that many people with mild or asymptomatic disease have permanent subclinical lung damage. Countries with widespread infection may face a large future health burden.

catoboros · 2020-09-10T23:34:14+00:00

Already set to private, which is a common prelude to a ban, typically while mods fight in vain to save their sub. We have seen this all before.

catoboros · 2021-08-19T01:46:34+00:00

Because gender identity is entirely subjective, it is not possible to determine whether reports of gender identity are true or false.

catoboros · 2021-06-17T01:30:00+00:00

The banwave has instilled fear in mods, who now feel compelled to remove even the most innocuous comments or risk their sub being banned. Chilling effects far beyond the original bans.

catoboros · 2021-05-31T01:28:41+00:00

I think that, for many if not most people, sexual attraction is based on sex not gender. Those for whom sexual orientation is based on gender have no place attacking those for whom it is based on sex, or vice versa.

catoboros · 2020-08-30T01:49:13+00:00

Hint: "np" Reddit links prevent participation. Just replace "www" with "np".

catoboros · 2020-07-20T03:36:25+00:00

I know another trans person who is afraid to come out, not because of transphobia, but because of the stigma of being associated with TRAs.

catoboros · 2020-09-10T23:32:34+00:00

That sub has been set to private. There is a post on r/AHS calling it a ban evasion sub, #6 on the AHS home page.

catoboros · 2020-10-15T23:07:32+00:00

I disagree. Cis men lack the experience of living in a female body, but I know many kind and empathic cis men.

catoboros · 2020-09-07T01:32:26+00:00

I was already rolling my eyes but I had to close the tab completely when he said "nonbinary people are interesting by default." No. No they are not.

Am nonbinary. Can confirm. Any character whose gender identity is the most interesting thing about them is going to be dull, dull, dull. Same is true in real life.

catoboros · 2020-08-24T02:23:20+00:00

I feel welcomed by the trans community in general, but my opinions often attract hostile responses from trans ideologues, and even threats.

I believe that sex is binary and immutable; some trans people change sex characteristics.
I support freedom of speech, like to hear opinions that differ from mine, and oppose deplatforming.
I do not accept or provide validation.

I have been called a TERF, and told that my views on the binary and immutable nature of sex reflect internalised transphobia. The worst hostility I have received is from other nonbinary people, especially "they/them+antifascist" types. Most trans people are chill. The nasty ones self-identify as community leaders and give the rest of us a bad name.

catoboros · 2020-07-20T03:39:34+00:00

According to TRAs, we have "internalised transphobia". I am not GC, but we loathe the same people.

catoboros · 2020-07-18T23:02:12+00:00

The placebo effect is real. Placebos have a place where evidence-based medicine is ineffective or has intolerable side-effects.

catoboros · 2021-04-28T01:12:38+00:00

If I, as a hard atheist, can work with a young-earth creationist manager, who thinks that I am going to hell because I am not saved, to successfully deliver multimillion dollar projects, there is absolutely no reason why trans people such as myself cannot work with gender critical feminists. Even though I disagree with some of Maya Forstater's opinions, I support her right to hold and express her views. The more I read of her writing, the more I like her. Workplace safetyism is illiberal and corrosive. I really hope the unjust judgement against Maya is overturned.

catoboros · 2021-04-14T02:04:04+00:00

Handicapping based on age/height/weight/past-performance is one way to include trans people in competitive sport. Masters games already has classes. Current testosterone levels are only one part of a much broader picture.

catoboros · 2020-09-16T01:15:21+00:00

Affirming the consequent is the formal fallacy of inferring that, because A implies B, B then implies A. For example, it is false to infer that, because dogs have four legs, animals with four legs are all dogs. Tiger will not fetch.

In this case, the fallacy is to infer that, because "X hates trans people" implies "X disagrees with trans ideology", then "X disagrees with trans ideology" implies "X hates trans people". This fallacy is being used to smear and silence people who disagree with trans ideology, including some trans people.

catoboros · 2020-09-12T01:50:53+00:00

Leonard Sax estimates that the true prevalence of intersex is [...] about 0.018%, which would mean 99.982% are not. Many intersex activists are super annoyed with trans activist appropriation of their cause.

catoboros · 2020-08-15T01:59:56+00:00

I came here to mention Scottish speakers of English. George Bernard Shaw once quipped that the United States and Great Britain were divided by a common language. The same applies to regional dialects, not to mention Seth Efrica, Straya, and Nuzilnd.

catoboros · 2020-07-24T01:21:08+00:00

Masterpiece did not refuse all service, just the custom writing. The offered other products. The Supreme Court found in their favour.

catoboros · 2020-07-21T03:09:10+00:00

Patreon censors. Many prominent culture warriors switched to SubscribeStar after being banned from Patreon for their views (even views expressed on other platforms), often under pressure from Visa/Mastercard, who were under pressure from Sleeping Giants. Many others switched in protest against Patreon's bans.

catoboros · 2020-07-20T04:06:55+00:00

I am hoping that science-denying ideologies are self-limiting because there is a limit to the pool of available imbeciles, but I fear that I am overly optimistic.

catoboros · 2020-07-20T04:01:28+00:00

I did get one commenter on r/asktransgender to admit that trans women were "not canonically female". Nonbinary people seem more open to acknowledging the reality and immutability of the sex binary; maybe that is why I do? Is biology denial stronger amongst binary trans?

catoboros · 2020-07-18T23:25:38+00:00

Social media echo chambers enforce mollycoddling with the threat of exclusion. I am shocked how many young adults are intolerant of any form of dissent. Not only do they demand validation for themselves, they demand validation for others to demonstrate their own virtue.

catoboros · 2021-05-06T01:10:09+00:00

Most of these stereotypes are about gender expression, not gender identity. I am male and pretty much masculine gender conforming. I am nonbinary because my gender self-image does not match my sex, causing gender dysphoria, which I treated with surgical transition. I do not see how I am breaking a stereotype.

My theory is that social gender roles emerge from biological sex differences, and there is something innate that causes most humans to latch on to one binary gender identity in early childhood. Those that do not latch on to the gender identity associated with their sex are trans.

catoboros · 2021-03-29T01:03:25+00:00

Freedom of expression is my primary concern. I want trans rights activists to stop trying to silence those with dissenting views. Trans rights are human rights, but no one can use the human rights of one group as an excuse to destroy the human rights of others. I especially want trans rights activists to stop denying existence of biological sex because denying reality makes trans people look like loons. We are also not perpetual victims.

catoboros · 2021-03-25T00:44:57+00:00

This is one of my major objections to the trans activist narrative. Trans people cannot change sex (by which I mean biological sex), only some sex characteristics. Claiming otherwise does not make sense. We do not have the technology. Not only does this claim make us look like loons, it makes it impossible to explain, for example, nonbinary lesbians, and suggests that trans people who do not physically transition are not trans because they do not change sex. I think the problem arises because many people use the term "sex" to mean social sex, that is, gender.

Biological sex: binary* and immutable (but some sex characteristics can be changed with surgery and/or hormones).
Gender identity: entirely subjective.

* Except for a tiny number of people with disorders of sexual development.

catoboros · 2020-10-15T23:15:54+00:00

Merriam-Webster just updated their definition of "preference" to describe it as "offensive" in this context. I guess "genital preferences" are now also recognised as offensive!

catoboros · 2020-09-12T01:39:03+00:00

Can confirm. I am a eunuch and am still male.

catoboros · 2020-09-10T01:51:47+00:00

While there is no legislated right to free speech, the High Court of Australia has found that there is an implied right to freedom of political communication, primarily from sections 7 and 24 of the Constitution. However, it takes deep pockets to seek a judicial review of an administrative tribunal decision.

catoboros · 2020-08-30T02:11:20+00:00

This model is a failure because it causes secrecy. It was imposed on sex workers. By comparison, New Zealand's 2003 decriminalisation is a great success because it was led by sex workers. See my other comment.

catoboros · 2020-08-24T02:29:51+00:00

I think access to women's spaces should be determined by living full time as a woman or feminine person; identity alone is not enough. Self-ID becomes a non-issue if applied only to identity documents. We do not have guards outside bathrooms checking identity documents.

I agree entirely with your aversion to those who claim to have authoritative new meanings for words. They are attempting to control thought by controlling language. Trans activists do not want to hear honest opinions: they want ideological compliance.

catoboros · 2020-08-17T01:34:17+00:00

If Reddit were willing to ban r/uncensoredLGBT, no one is safe.

catoboros · 2020-08-10T01:16:48+00:00

Meghan Murphy also interviewed Buck on YouTube.

catoboros · 2020-07-23T22:45:43+00:00

Saidit Terms and Conditions:

2. No pornography.

catoboros · 2020-07-23T22:11:05+00:00

Never apologise for being a lesbian. Check out s/lesbians, the new home of the banned Reddit community r/truelesbians. Twitter and Reddit are controlled by narrow-minded authoritarian zealots and do not reflect the wider community.

catoboros · 2020-07-20T04:02:38+00:00

Yes, the whole oppression olympics is so destructive.

catoboros · 2020-07-18T23:20:19+00:00

No mention of autism spectrum, which would have been nice (ASD is overrepresented in the trans community). Nor complex PTSD (not in DSM-5), which is a differential diagnosis for borderline, and also commonly found in abuse survivors..

catoboros · 2021-08-20T02:10:51+00:00

No, they are either true or false. Furthermore, they could be false but the reporter could believe them to be true. There are those who do not understand their gender identity and genuinely believe themselves to be trans when they are not. There are also those who repress their trans identity and believe themselves to cis. Not only do we not know whether someone is being honest, we do not know how much thought they have put into the matter. People are terrible at understanding themselves. Psychotherapy can help, but work is hard and people are frightened and/or lazy.

catoboros · 2020-10-15T23:04:21+00:00

Much of human society is built on the "niceness" of women and their "willingness" to work for little or no pay.

catoboros · 2020-10-15T23:01:24+00:00

Well said. Every human being should read your post. I wish I could vote for it 1000 times.

catoboros · 2020-09-16T01:24:14+00:00

Free speech is a human right, and yes, that includes freedom from disproportionate consequences. There are exceptions, including directed speech that causes actual harm, including harassment, bullying, and psychological domestic violence, not to mention incitement to actual violence, but disagreeing is never violence.

catoboros · 2020-09-02T00:50:23+00:00

Yes, it is an attempt to muddy the waters, to erase our ability to even discuss sex, and prevent any discussion that might undermine their preprepared conclusions that "trans women are women" and that lesbians with "genital preferences" are horrible bigots. Newspeak, anyone?

catoboros · 2020-08-30T02:21:05+00:00

Social media may influence trans identification, especially amongst adolescent females. A psychiatrist I spoke with told me that, 10 years ago, 75% of his trans patients were MtF in the 20s, now they are 60% FtM in their teens. A huge shift. Whether it is a social contagion or peer support allowing treatment of previously unmet need, I do not know.

catoboros · 2020-08-27T20:52:16+00:00

I recommend first watching Logic & Science: Emotional Violence? | Prelude to an Interview.

catoboros · 2020-08-27T20:46:28+00:00

Not even his views: his willingness to discuss the issues. Violence! I will post the Benjamin A Boyce interview.

catoboros · 2020-07-24T01:42:27+00:00

Safe, sane, and consensual. There are many women super-keen on BDSM. Hand wringing denies women their agency.

I always hoped that society would change and women would eventually be free to express their sexuality without fear, but I have to admit that the younger generation have succeeded so much that they now terrify me.

catoboros · 2020-07-24T01:19:03+00:00

Selling a cake is providing a service, refusal of which is discrimination, whereas compelled speech violates the rights of the proprietors. The actual cake case revolved around not the cake, but the custom writing on it, which is why the Supreme Court found in favour of the cake shop.

catoboros · 2020-07-23T22:36:09+00:00

Trancels.

catoboros · 2020-07-23T22:34:52+00:00

Yes, it is awful. Apparently anyone can use any label they like, have it mean what they like, not explain what it means to them, yet still claim that others are misusing those labels, without explaining why. A seething cesspool of hate. Objecting is transphobia.

catoboros · 2020-07-23T02:41:46+00:00

Yes, trans people do not change sex, only sex characteristics (and not all change these). This is one reason why we now use the term transgender rather than transsexual.

catoboros · 2020-07-21T03:27:28+00:00

Freedom of religion includes freedom from religion. Gender identity is entirely subjective, not falsifiable, and thus shares many characteristics with religion. To coexist in a secular society, religious adherents must accept that their faith is not shared by all.

catoboros · 2020-07-19T13:16:19+00:00

None of this explains the massive wave of excess mortality, which is calculated from all causes regardless of comorbidities or diagnosis. It is nothing like a seasonal influenza. Just count the total weekly deaths from all causes and compare to previous years. The impact of coronavirus is clear.

Case fatality rate is not all that high, especially now that we have better treatments (dexamethasone), but coronavirus is much more infectious than influenza so there are many, many more cases and many, many more deaths. Coronavirus is only getting started.

catoboros · 2020-07-19T11:17:23+00:00

Morgues are overflowing. Excess mortality is a robust measure immune to testing variations or misdiagnosis. The impact of covid is nothing like any other coronavirus on record.

catoboros · 2020-07-17T03:27:14+00:00

I also came from uncensored. The totally unjust ban emptied my Reddit inbox. I am more active on Ruqqus +LGBT.

catoboros · 2021-03-25T00:33:08+00:00

Australian moral philosopher Peter Singer is famous for his views on the arbitrary nature of divisions between humans and animals, amongst other things.

catoboros · 2020-11-29T20:17:33+00:00

Appetite for risk seems to be the key factor, and this is sexually dimorphic on average. Everything from average speed of Uber drivers to psychological tests of reactions to smears on towelling. While there is great individual variation, females seem to favour survival (low-risk strategy) while males favour status and are willing to take life-threatening risks to get it. Select for the top extreme in any field and it is full of successful risk-taking males. The unsuccessful risk-taking males are dead or in prison, for the same reason. Pure evolutionary biology: females have to survive to have offspring, whereas males do not.

catoboros · 2020-10-15T23:21:58+00:00

You know how bad things have gotten when lesbians need the protection of religious fanatics.

catoboros · 2020-10-15T22:54:13+00:00

I am in almost total agreement with you, but I also recognise that language is descriptive and not prescriptive, and some trans women use the term lesbian to describe themselves. Some people are attracted to the feminine sex characteristics that some trans women have, and some of those people are women. This is not my experience, and for many including myself, sexual attraction is a primitive instinct tied closely to immutable biological sex. But this is not everyone's experience. It seems strange to call a trans woman attracted to women straight. I am cool with trans women describing themselves as lesbians, but trans women have precisely zero right to demand that cis lesbians find them attractive. Trancel talk of "genital preferences" is homophobia.

catoboros · 2020-10-15T22:20:18+00:00

No objective difference. Gender identity is entirely subjective.

catoboros · 2020-09-23T02:03:54+00:00

Mental illness

Gender dysphoria is a mental disorder.

catoboros · 2020-09-12T01:36:07+00:00

And banned two subs with many active trans participants: rightwingLGBT, and uncensoredLGBT, which was created by someone banned from rightwingLGBT for being too left wing. The real crime was that these were LGBT subs not controlled by the woke cabal.

catoboros · 2020-09-12T01:28:37+00:00

AHS full of crab emoji cancer.

catoboros · 2020-09-02T00:55:09+00:00

I have never before seen such furious agreement on this sub! All humans, except for a tiny number of intersex people, have one of two immutable binary sexes. Sex does not change with fertility, sexual orientation, or gender identity.

For the record, I am nonbinary, a eunuch and therefore sterile, but still male.

catoboros · 2020-08-30T02:17:24+00:00

My feelings were there long before I knew anything about gender. The internet helped me learn more. Eventually I learned about gender identity, DSM-IV-TR Gender Identity Disorder, DSM-5 Gender Dysphoria, and realised that I had a nonbinary transgender identity. The internet did not cause my feelings, which were there before Google. The internet helped me to understand my feelings, name them, and place myself in relation to other transgender people.

catoboros · 2020-08-30T01:54:36+00:00

I prefer to use female/male to refer only to biological sex, but I recognise that female/male are often used to refer to gender. For example, female/male on identity documents is a social sex (i.e. gender), because if you can change it with a legal document, it is a social construct. Female/male are also more convenient because they do not connote age like woman/girl or man/boy.

Language is messy and our dictionaries are descriptive not prescriptive. There are experts, but no authorities, on the meanings of words, which emerge from use.

catoboros · 2020-08-29T01:06:55+00:00

I agree wholeheartedly. While I do not agree with all of James Cantor's views, I share his liberal values and welcome honest debate. I am sure that there is a pragmatic middle ground. Extremists are the problem. Cantor is quite pro-trans, but was cancelled for not being a trans extremist. Just awful.

catoboros · 2020-08-27T20:51:21+00:00

This prelude to The Rise of Unreason | with James Cantor, PhD contains the email thread.

catoboros · 2020-08-08T04:07:27+00:00

cat+~~our~~oboros. Inspired by Styxhexenhammer666's ouroboros avatar on YouTube. I am a cat person and often chase my tail so it seemed apt.

catoboros · 2020-08-06T00:49:33+00:00

I loved one of my parents, but their narcissism, strongest and most toxic in my other parent, has irreparably damaged me as a human being.

catoboros · 2020-08-06T00:32:24+00:00

My first reaction was "is that Sargon?" but there is not enough grey in her beard. ;-)

catoboros · 2020-08-05T01:02:14+00:00

People on the autism spectrum are well overrepresented in the trans community.

catoboros · 2020-07-25T23:57:36+00:00

This is not a legal issue. This is a Saidit T&C issue. Saidit has a general ban on porn of all forms. I am a social libertarian and totally fine with all consenting-adult porn (although I choose to avoid genres that I find eww-that's-not-right). Anyone posting porn on Saidit risks a permanent ban. Saidit's house, Saidit's rules. I like Ruqqus because it is a free-speech platform. Saidit is not a free-speech platform: it is a platform that attempts to improve the quality of debate and reduce domination by cliques by limiting moderator power and imposing moderation transparency.

catoboros · 2020-07-24T01:35:34+00:00

Yes, it is exhausting dealing with these TRAs because we do not share a common view of reality.

catoboros · 2020-07-23T22:36:46+00:00

"Everyone is valid". Except those who acknowledge reality.

catoboros · 2020-07-23T22:31:58+00:00

I am guessing that a he/him lesbian is a same-sex attracted female with a transmasculine gender identity (e.g. trans man). I also see many nonbinary lesbians.

catoboros · 2020-07-23T22:02:59+00:00

Interesting. I was not there when the switch happened, so I do not know the motivation. I get a lot of rage from the trans community for suggesting that sex is real, binary, and immutable, but it does the trans community no good at all to deny objective biological facts.

catoboros · 2020-07-23T02:55:20+00:00

Elon?

catoboros · 2020-07-23T02:07:53+00:00

I am willing to compromise. Ideologically rigid TRAs do not represent the entire trans community (if that is even a thing). No one elected them. They appointed themselves. The worst kind of people are overrepresented amongst their ranks.

catoboros · 2020-07-21T21:51:54+00:00

In the trans context, validation is asking someone to agree with and support one's own subjective self-image, which they cannot possibly know. Given that gender identity is entirely subjective, it is pointless and futile to seek external validation of it. Anyone who claims to be able to validate the gender identity of another person is telling a white lie. That said, I am trans and not GC, and I respect names and paleopronouns, but do not expect me to deny biological facts.

catoboros · 2020-07-21T02:48:57+00:00

r/rightwingLGBT (banned in the first wave) and and r/uncensoredLGBT (banned in the second wave).

r/rightwingLGBT had some right wing nastiness, but was about two-thirds disaffected liberals moaning about leftists, most of the rest being libertarians, with a few token actual conservatives. Many trans people of all viewpoints and robust debate. Many GC and droptheT types. Anti-trans comments were widely rebutted by the community. No one there liked TRAs at all. It was a great community. This was my top sub. (GC was still my #4 after six months of inactivity, for a handful of posts.) r/rightwingLGBT was banned to protect dissenting trans from ourselves, I guess.

r/uncensoredLGBT was founded by a leftist who was banned from r/rightwingLGBT for being too left wing. Trans inclusive. Completely miquetoast totally uncontroversial sub. The mod brought on a second mod to fend off false flag posts and ensure compliance with the new Reddit rules on "hate" content. This was my home after the first banwave. The ban was totally unexpected and emptied my inbox. I guess it was banned for being an LGBT sub not controlled by the ruling clique. Or my fact-based discussion of why I disagreed with some of JK Rowling's essay but respected her right to free speech. We have reformed on Ruqqus +LGBT.

catoboros · 2020-07-20T04:10:23+00:00

Mid-20s is the peak age for MtF transition so not all that surprising. ROGD normally describes adolescents transitioning in groups, leading to suspicion of social contagion.

catoboros · 2020-07-19T11:11:36+00:00

Not quite. Double-blind studies have shown prayer to have either no effect (if unknown to the object) or be slightly harmful (if known to the object). Cardiac patients, if I recall correctly.

catoboros · 2020-07-18T23:36:08+00:00

Including moderate and reasonable trans people. We also got our subreddits banned. We are also called transphobic, and worse, by TRAs, just for refusing to deny the existence of biological sex.

catoboros · 2020-07-18T22:59:12+00:00

I wonder if this is caused by a safetyist generational culture that discourages contradicting obviously false identity statements, amplified by social media echo chambers in which any dissent runs the risk of exclusion?

catoboros · 2021-10-22T01:11:07+00:00

I am saying that these things are not choices. Sexual orientation and handedness seem to be innate. I think gender identity is similar in that people are not choosing it, they are identifying the thing they already have but that no one else can see.

catoboros · 2021-10-22T01:08:01+00:00

DSM-IV certainly defined Gender Identity Disorder (and Gender Identity Disorder Not Otherwise Specified for us nonbinary types) as mental disorders, and I was fine with that. DSM-5 unifies many of the concepts into Gender Dysphoria. There are still people who describe homosexuality as a mental illness; it was removed in DSM-II.

No one should be forcing their beliefs on anyone. I oppose ideology and encourage everyone to examine their beliefs.

The concept of gender identity seems to simplify explanations of various types of gender incongruence, as distinct from biological sex which we can measure. That said, everyone must remember that it is only a model, and just because it seems to explain things does not mean that it is a "real" thing. I have a physics background, and think of luminiferous aether as an example of a discarded model, and zero-point energy and dark matter where there is still no consensus.

My theory is that there is something like gender identity, analogous to sexual orientation, and both have strong roots in sexual dimorphism and evolutionary biology: the benefit of having these and them being strong is more important than their "accurate" alignment with reproductive goals in every case. A homosexuality and transgender identity could be described as spandrels.

catoboros · 2021-10-20T23:26:17+00:00

It’s just literally physically having "transitioned"

Not all trans people transition.

I think the ones who believe TWAW or believe in sex spectrums and gender identity are more deeply mentally ill.

I am a surgically transitioned nonbinary person. I have an opinion from an old-school senior consultant psychiatrist that I have no signs of any mental disorder. You are welcome to believe what you like, but I offer myself as a data point in refutation of your views. It is worth noting that autism spectrum disorders are highly overrepresented in the trans community, perhaps at the level of 25%(?) of the trans population.

I think sex is binary* and immutable. *Except for intersex people, who comprise around 0.018% of the population, according to Leonard Sax.

Cult-like leftist trans activists can be fanatical ideologues, but I would hesitate to call them mentally ill. Would we call the deeply religious or political ideologues mentally ill? QAnon? Anyone else who disagrees with me? No doubt there is some correlation with mental disorders or abuse history but correlation does not prove causation.

catoboros · 2021-10-20T23:21:40+00:00

Gender dysphoria is a mental disorder, the distress experienced by someone with a mismatch between gender identity and biological sex. Transgender identity is part of normal human variation, analogous to homosexual orientation or lefthandedness.

catoboros · 2021-08-12T05:17:04+00:00

Not applicable.
I was raised Anglican, but in a family that respected reason and science. At around age ten, I tested the existence of a god by praying for a minor thing, with the full understanding that failure to deliver would result in my atheism.
While I support freedom of religion, opinion, and expression, I respect only beliefs grounded in reason and science. My views on sex are based in my understanding of biology as a science. My views on gender are informed by the subjective opinions of many but must be self-consistent and evidence-based (even when that evidence is untestable subjective experiences).
The main parallel for me is the ideological rigidity at the extremes of the debate.

catoboros · 2021-02-19T01:18:12+00:00

I am certain that the root cause of my nonbinary gender identity was my cruel and highly gendered early childhood ("toxic masculinity" if you must), which caused me to reject my masculinity. Even being "sensitive" was enough to incur the wrath of powerful men.

My theory is that children are hard-wired to latch on to some sort of gender identity at an early age and this process can be disrupted from its typical outcome by environmental influences.

catoboros · 2020-12-16T21:48:34+00:00

DSM-IV-TR Gender Identity Disorder Not Otherwise Specified was a nice home for nonbinary people. I know one senior psychiatrist who prefers the DSM-IV-TR gender categories. That said, DSM-5 Gender Dysphoria made sense to me as a unifying concept. There is still a long way to go to describe the observed range of clinical presentations, and increasingly blurry categories seem to undermine the value of the ontology.

catoboros