Gender Identity

Most of us are lucky. Most of us have "chosen" to be the gender that matches our bodies' sex. We are born as girls or as boys and feel as such. Pink or blue.
But, due to physiological or psychological reasons, some are yellow. As there is grey between black and white, yellow can be found between the gender extremes painted in pink or blue.

Thomas Beatie, the "pregnant man" is one of the best examples. Just listen to the charming lady who interviews him at the beginning of the video. She clearly shows the intolerance of these people's environment. It's not just about being pregnant while living as a man. It's also about much simpler, everyday issues, such as a woman having to show an ID with a male name, or the last facial hair on the chin of a young transgender childminder...



Intersex

How can we tell that somebody is a man or a woman? Some men can perfectly disguise as and behave as women and are still physically male, so how do we know?
If we look at our chromosomes, a typical woman should have 2 X chromosomes and an average man an X and a Y chromosome. That means, that genetically, a standard woman has a so-called “46XX” karyotype and a standard man a 46XY karyotype.
But gender is not only defined by chromosomes, but only by hormones and, as we will see later, by the brain.


An intersex condition is present if the karyotype is neither XX nor XY or if the chromosomes are normal male or female but the individual hasn't been exposed to the correct hormones during the fetal development, producing genitals belonging to the opposite sex or any kind of mixture of male and female characteristics.
These latter would be called true hermaphrodites. Many people have an additional sex chromosome but still have a well defined gender. XYY men, for example, usually don't even know about their condition. It is said that these men are more violent and have stronger masculine traits than other, but there is no evidence. XXY males instead are almost always infertile and can have a range of learning and functional deficits. This is called the Klinefelter's Syndrome (in the photo) and does not occurr in all XXY males. Some of them may also turn out to be transgenders.

Normally, if a baby is diagnosed to be intersex, the big problem is to assign one of the two (accepted) genders. Nowadays, doctors are recommended that babies with ambiguous genitals should not be given "corrective" surgery (to turn a hermaphrodite into a man or woman) and should be left to decide their own gender during their childhood. However, most of the intersex people are raised as girls or boys from the very beginning on and also perfectly identify themselves as such.

In the case of Adele, the decision taken by the doctors and the parents was wrong. When she was born with ambiguous genitals, it was decided to turn her into a boy. The decision was maybe right from the physical point of view, but with time, it became evident that Adele felt as a girl. In the future, she would like to be able to choose an intersex gender, the third gender.



The person in the video is one of the few people that are real "in-betweens". If you look at her (the name is Kelly), she may look like a transgender man at first sight, but if you observe her gestures, you will realize that there's just both - female and male.



Transgenders

Some people are biologically male or female but feel belonging to the opposite sex almost from the very beginning on. They are called transgenders.

Sometimes, when intersex children are born, the more convenient of the two gender options is chosen (corrective surgery), and if the wrong decision is taken, the children have to live their lives as transgenders, trapped in a body of the wrong sex.
It was long believed that gender identity is only a question of environment. If a child is raised as a girl, it will be a girl. The case shown in the video is quite dramatic: two twin babies undergo circumcision and one loses his penis due to an accident during the surgery. The doctors encourage the parents to raise the child as a girl...




Nowadays, there are medical protocols to diagnose the Gender Identity Disorder (GID) and to help children find the gender that fits them. Sometimes, the disorder becomes evident at an age as early as two years. Parents are encouraged not to force their children to live their biological gender if they don't feel so. Before puberty, many doctors choose the option of a hormonal treatment to delay the physiological changes that turn a child into an adult - an adult of the wrong gender. At the age o 16, if the patient hasn't changed his/her mind, female or male hormones can be prescribed. The last step is sex reassignment surgery, which in serious cases is financed by the public health system (in Europe).


It is often said that transgender children commonly turn homosexuals in adulthood. I consider this a completely false approach. If a child born as a boy but feeling as a girl grows up, it is just natural that she feels attracted to men. Because in my opinion, our gender identity is in our head, so a transgender boy cannot be considered gay at all, because at the end of the day, he's soul is female and he's done everything to turn his body female, too.

From the news:
In March 2010, Italy will open the World's first jail for transgendered prisoners (read more)

Transsexuals

Of course there are what we commonly know as crossdressers or transsexuals, most of them working in the entertainment sector. Most of them are not real transgenders. They have been (homosexual) boys / men during a great part of their life and feel attracted by dressing as a woman. Some of them would have preferred to be born as a girl, others not.

Thailand

Talking about entertainment. One of the countries were transgenders are most accepted and integrated in society is Thailand. Recently, a school announced that from now on, it will offer toilets for transexuals. There is a complete industry to turn effeminate boys into kathoeys, or ladyboys. Even though the fate of most of them is to sell their body for money, some manage to gain fame as exotic dancers or beauty queens. Many families try to raise their boys as girls, as prostitution in Thailand is one of the most lucrative businesses.
The video shows a collection of sexy Thai kathoeys. I just can't believe how beautiful and perfectly female some of them look. Some may consider them "improved women" - the delightful and stimulating appearance of a goddess combined with the right tool to satisfy the client's or partner's sexual needs. And a lot of them have natural breasts due to hormone intake since their puberty.




From the news:
An English grandmother claims she was bound, beaten and robbed by a gang of ladyboys while on holiday in Thailand (read more)

Links

Transgendered children's bill of human rights
Intersex Society of North America
A true hermaphrodite over the years (in pictures)
Transsexuals, transgendered and crossdressers dating
Ladyboy beauty contest (video)