• Transgender Query

    From Hactar@21:1/5 to brett.bayne@gmail.com on Sun Apr 3 12:09:24 2016
    XPost: alt.fan.cecil-adams

    In article <62fec0be-52f6-4854-a27d-2cee3772ca9f@googlegroups.com>,
    Brettster <brett.bayne@gmail.com> wrote:

    I know you can operate and add body parts and take them away. That's obviously helpful for the person born as, say, a man but who
    identifies as a woman. The more you can sculpt your body to appear
    like the gender you identify with, that's great! If that's what you
    have done, I applaud you, and I will vote against the gentleman or
    lady who wants to pass a law that requires you to show your ID before entering the restroom.

    But can a person born a man truly become a woman in the eyes of
    science?

    Depends what the science looks at.

    We can certainly treat Caitlyn Jenner as a woman, and even
    call her a woman. But like the old riddle goes, "If you call a tail
    a leg, how many legs does a dog have?" Surely surgery can't give a
    man XX chromosomes.

    No. The right hormones can affect breast development, teste size,
    hair growth, voice timbre, etc. Basically the attributes that make a
    (clothed) person appear to be a particular gender. What it can't
    affect are genetics and genitalia presence or type. So a DNA test would
    always return the same thing. But if a transgendered person walked up to
    and talked with you, you might not know that he/she wasn't born with the current gender.

    Am I wrong in saying that sex-change surgery is
    not an authentic thing? Can you really become a woman without first
    having been a girl? I know much of this doesn't sound very PC, but my interest is purely scientific.

    It depends how much authenticity you want. They're getting better with reconstructive surgery.

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