Transgenderism

[Ice_nine]

@Aloysius just broke it all the way down. Excellent post.

 

[Luigi]

What follows is true. The names have been changed to protect the ignorant. 

So I know a ... person... genetically and physically male, known throughout most of his life as Alex, smart as a whip, but socially inept. Some combination of ADD, autism spectrum, I don't know what all. His father, Charlie, is quite liberal and a professional counselor. His mother considers herself a professional liberal and an urban pioneer. They divorced and Charlie remarried Susie, a nominal Catholic from a family with double-digit kids and old-school Catholic parents, George & Martha. 

Alex goes off to the most liberal college in America (according to his mother, Beloit in Wisconsin). He dates, he gets engaged, they break the engagement, he graduates - double major in political science and women's studies. Mother is pleased. 

Alex gets a job in a liberal local candidate's campaign office. One day Alex puts on a dress and changes his name to Stella.

Alex informs his mother that he is now Stella. Mother is pleased as punch - she is, by virtue of her liberality, perfectly accepting of every person's personal decisions, and she now has a liberal poster child in the flesh.

Alex informs his father that he is now transgender and wishes to be called Stella. Charlie is not at all pleased. Charlie lives in a rural area and is not sure how the neighbors will react to Alex-in-a-dress (they've all met and know him as Alex - he used to spend every other weekend on the farm). Additionally, Charlie and Susie sell at the local farmers' market - they tell Alex/Stella that s/he can't come to the farm or the market wearing a dress - it might hurt business.

Alex informs the liberal local candidate that he is now Stella and will be wearing a dress to the office. The local liberal candidate accepts this decision, but after a week or so, she informs Stella that she's transferring her from the receptionist position to the housekeeping position - Stella is not attractive enough to be the receptionist and needs to "improve her look" (hair, makeup, and clothing were named specifically) if she wants to go back to being the receptionist.

Alex informs George and Martha that he is now a woman and wants to be called Stella. George keeps his mouth shut, but after the visit says to Martha, "Pardon me while I puke." Martha is the only one of Alex's relatives who consistently call him Stella - not one name-reversion to date. Martha talks to Stella just like she did when she was Alex - Martha is, after all, very maternal and concerned with young people & supporting them as they try to find their way in the world. Martha doesn't bring up sex - "don't ask, don't tell," plus she was simply raised not to speak of such things - but Stella volunteers that she is still interested in women, she just wants to have lesbian relationships with them instead of heterosexual relationships.

When asked why she was so tolerant of Stella, Martha replies, "I'm old and expect to die soon. I want God to go easy on me when he judges me." 

 

BTW, I know that Jesus befriended the marginalized. But he also told them to go and sin no more. I know that's not very liberal of me, but I did read it in the Bible, so...

Edited May 31, 2016 by Luigi

[Era Might]

3 hours ago, Luigi said:

BTW, I know that Jesus befriended the marginalized. But he also told them to go and sin no more. I know that's not very liberal of me, but I did read it in the Bible, so...

I think the genius of the Gospel is this: not that Alex/Stella is a sinner (Jesus would take that for granted), but that he's probably the person in this story closest to grace. The best part of the story is the scandalized townspeople at the market, and the scandalized office workers, whose delicate normality has been so offended. In the Gospels, they would be the villains, while Alex/Stella would be either a sinner or a saint, but not a villain. That's what makes the Gospel such a unique moral text, it's interested in conversion, not conformity. Our morality is usually just conformity by another name...including the liberal morality of Alex's mother and the repressed morality of the rural folk.

Edited May 31, 2016 by Era Might

[little2add]

On May 29, 2016 at 3:31 PM, IgnatiusofLoyola said:

 

Bottom line: Be nice to other people--you don't know what they are going through. Listen and try to be respectful. The feelings are not the sin--it's the behavior that goes against Church teachings. Jesus was able to be merciful, kind, and loving to people whose behaviors he did not condone and had preached against--such as the woman sentenced to be stoned for adultery. I think we need to try our best to be as merciful and Jesus was.

 

 

true

i can't help but wonder about the quality of life for a a transgendered, having children or starting a family?  i'm sorry but a man can not be a mother, in practice or physically 

men look at things differently 

every child deserves a mother and father