I came across the article from CNN the other day: Transgendered Kids: Painful Quest to Be Who They Are.
This article blew my mind. Seriously. I had no idea that someone could identify as transgendered as young as 3. I guess this helps me see why some people draw parallels between gender identity disorder and anorexia.
Except something bothers me about labeling people who are transgendered as having a disorder. It's like the most blatant way of saying they aren't normal, that there's something wrong with them. And this article doesn't help with that. Acting as if being transgendered is something kids will grow out of... that they will "just" be gay or bisexual.
People are so much more complex than labels. That's what psychology sometimes overlooks and what this article is absent of. But "queer theorists" don't have it right either - sometime I think they're too flexible and too... blinded by their own bias, perhaps. Saying that everyone is bisexual and that's that is just not reflecting how unique each person's experience is.
Not that labels aren't helpful; obviously I understand the need to have heuristics or schemas to organize our world. But sometimes, it just gets... well, awkward. Like the other day I learned that some transgendered people are offended by those who cross-dress - I guess because it seems to make light of their situation. This surprised me because I generally don't link cross-dressing with transgendered people - I link it with transvestites. So what does this do to transvestites? What if you're a transgendered transvestite? Are you upsetting people? Or is it only straight people who are causing offense when they cross-dress? But where do you draw the line - what's cross-dressing? Especially now that women wear pants A LOT.
It just gets murkier and murkier and murkier... I, of course, have no answers. I am simply the peanut gallery, standing out here on the edge of something that doesn't involve me and sharing my opinion. But I'd like to think my phrasing is a little less douchey than CNN's...
There is a big debate about whether or not transgendered people should be so automatically included in the gay community, because of the idea that maybe some people don't want to identify as "transgender" but just a man or a woman. Maybe a transgendered male-to-female wants to be identified as a straight woman, or a lesbian. Maybe a transgendered female-to-male wants to be identified as a straight man, or a gay man. You're right, it's not a disorder, and you're right in suggesting that too the rhetoric of uniqueness and "be whatever you want!" of the GLBT community academics is hypocritical often times.
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