If you understand, as I do, that one is born with their own particular gender identity...

[MrScorpio]

And sexual orientation, then quite plainly, any honest person would conclude that the person that we now know as Chelsea Manning has ALWAYS considered herself as female, even when we only knew her as "Bradley".

Quite simply, Manning didn't "change" into a female, Manning has been a female since day one. It's not like it's a "choice."

A transition isn't about changing anything that has to do with an already established self-identity. Transition is about adjusting various physical, cultural and legal attributes of a person to match established "norms" with what a person's gender identity already is.

Now we can have a discussion about how screwed up our current system of binary based, rigidly enforced and utterly inappropriate definitions of gender identity, and of course, it's quite clear that for most people... Even those that would rather chose not to be transphobic, there's always stuff to learn. I'm sure that it would be a lively and highly informative discussion... As long as all involved have open minds and are respectful.

So, in the interest of being as informative as I can, I'm adding a few graphics and links about the subject at hand from Tumblr, which I think is a great source of information because it relays the perspectives of trans people themselves.

http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/gender-identity

http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/cissexism

http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/transphobia









AND here's a vid:

Yes, it can all be confusing, but I think that we're all capable of learning.

By the way, I was born a straight man, but despite of that I do have a choice... I choose not to be narrow and uninformed.

[randome]

1. You don't know Manning. None of us do.

She has been very confused for much of her life. I'm not convinced she has it figured out yet so I don't think any group -including DU- needs to be 'rooting' for her one way or the other.

Leave her be and hopefully she'll figure it out on her own.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]There is nothing you can't do if you put your mind to it.
Nothing.[/center][/font][hr]

[MrScorpio]

3. When you say that you're convinced that she hasn't figured it out...

Now, yes there have been cases where individuals develop gender dysphoria in adolescence and early adulthood, but this doesn't seem to be the case with Chelsea.

But it seems to me that she knew what her own gender identity was since she was a child and capable of such understanding. And as an adult Chelsea has determined that transition is in order.

The point being is that, and I made it very clear what I was getting at, references to Chelsea... even when she was known as "Bradley"... Pronouns and such, should only be NOW in the feminine... i.e.: "she" "her" Since she's made it clear that she's understood herself as a female since childhood, she should also be referred to as female even the TIME prior to her announcement.

Unfortunately, some are acting as if there was switch that was turned and she should be only referred to in masculine pronouns in the time prior to her announcement.

Which is wrong.

Even though we didn't know then... We do know now.

[abbeyco]

2. Well said and well outlined with your graphics and the video

Honestly, is this the biggest thing we have to deal with as subscribing to being Democrats and/or Progressives? We have voting rights being trampled regularly and women's rights being cut at every turn and we have a rethuglican party opposing every goddamned word that comes out of our President's mouth. Not to diminish how Chelsea came out, but geez - there's a whole country to worry about.

Sure, Chelsea's admission is a startling turn of events and while some in our camp might not be comfortable with what Chelsea has done,
don't we owe it to ourselves and our beliefs to live and let live? I'll admit I'm late to the party on commenting about this and I've not
read the flame-bait stuff, but we're for tolerance and acceptance, bottom line....at least to me.

And I'm happy to be here and have DU instead of some soul-rupturing site like 'they' have where all they do is pile on the "hated entity
of the week".

Thank you, MrScorpio

[Bunnahabhain]

4. Cis scum?

[MrScorpio]

5. Great vid!

Thanks

[Ms. Toad]

6. Love the video!

Thanks!

[Synthesize]

7. As someone who seems well informed...

... are there cases of individuals coming out as one gender (as in Manning's case) and then later going back?

If so, are they deemed to have been the original gender all along or ....?

[MrScorpio]

8. I wouldn't know the answer to your question

However, since gender identity is, in actuality, something that's quite fluid, I wouldn't rule out the probability.

[whathehell]

9. Saw a documentary of a man who wanted to become female, had "the operation" and

then bitterly regretted it.

[JI7]

10. was that the news guy ? i think some confuse being a cross dresser with transgender

[whathehell]

11. No, I don't think so.

This was just some young guy who was interviewed for a documentary...it was

quite a few years ago, maybe fifteen. He was quite distraught..I felt sorry for him.

[JI7]

12. he was 15 when he got the surgery ?

[whathehell]

13. No, no...I saw the documentary about fifteen years ago...He looked to be in his

middle twenties or a bit older.

[freshwest]

14. Wonder why all the ignorance. This was Sex Ed 101 in 1970 at my college in the South.

I'd like to ask with an honest face:

What the hell happened to science since I left school?

Where do these people get these bigoted ideas?

But I know the answer. I saw it happening during the 80's with that RWR.

I just felt that enough people wouldn't buy that kool-aid and take us back in the dark ages.

But they have. And don't ever let anyone say that ignorance is bliss. It's damned dangerous.

Thanks for the graphics. Not that anyone I know personally is so ignorant as to not all of that...

I hope. Maybe I'm deluded.

[NuclearDem]

15. Thanks for those graphics.

Really good info in there.

[bhikkhu]

16. Good educational graphics

I figured out a long time ago in learning how the brain develops not just that there are no firm divisions between male and female in the human mind, but more importantly that the physical body doesn't determine the type of brain one has. There isn't one genetic template that builds only either a female body/female brain or a male body/male brain; the brain is really genetically independent.

Each of us is a pretty diverse mix of a whole lot of potentials. The template that culture tends to impose and enforce during our development is easy for some, but a painful straight-jacket (an apt term!) for others.