The Trans Question

Question from Fraser:

Is it okay to be trans?

Answer by SmartLX:

From an atheist perspective, why wouldn’t it be?

So many of the condemnations of transgender people are rooted in the essentialist idea that God (or whoever) deliberately created two genders and the apparent gender at one’s birth is one’s divine destiny. Without this idea we are left with fairly simple facts.

Gender is in most cases determined by chromosomes, with most of us possessing either XX or XY. Transgender people’s brains have not received the usual effects of this, six to eight weeks after pregnancy, leaving them with traits putting them much closer to brains of those of the opposite gender. In a sense, they literally have a man’s brain in a woman’s body or vice versa.

There is nothing they can do about their brains, but they may choose to change their bodies or at least outwardly adopt a transgender identity. This is a far more honest expression of who they truly are than to simply accept the gender they were assigned at birth. If others have strongly negative emotional responses to this, they may try to rationalise them with the aforementioned essentialism but in the end it’s their own problem, until they start to attack trans people. When these attacks are justified using religion, atheists have an opportunity to point out that using religion to police the actions of others is counter to any secular society.

2 thoughts on “The Trans Question”

  1. It’s OK to let each and every human being live their life however they want to live it, as long as they do so without interfering with the rights of another human being. As “being trans” doesn’t conflict with anyone’s freedom of speech, or freedom or assembly, or right to the pursuit of happiness, then I can’t possibly see anything wrong with it.

    1. I think manipulating and brainwashing backed by government corporations and media with the goal of molding children into homosexuals is “interference”.

      Spreading sexually transmitted diseases while pushing the costs out onto society for treating those diseases as well as causing people to get those diseases who would not have otherwise gotten them is “interference”.

      Aligning with corporations and media to pressure people who disagree with you into losing their jobs (and the domino effect this causes) for exercising their freedom of speech is “interference”.

      Suing small business owners for exercising their religious beliefs, driving them out of business, for refusing to pander to your cause is also an “interference”.

      And the list goes on.

      Your comments could only possibly apply if America truly lived in a constitution based libertarian society that the founders of this nation intended; which they do not.

      Aside from all this, being a transexual is a sin. I don’t believe in hurting them or mistreating them but it’s not normal behavior and nobody should be forced (keyword: forced) to “accept” it. Up until recently in history it was rightfully considered a mental disorder and treated as such.

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