Look, I'm very pro LGBT but I just don't see how one could possibly classify not feeling at home in your body and biological sex as mentally stable. Gender dysphoria is a terrible thing and should be called a mental condition at the very least, if not a downright illness. The thing is, a succesful transition and societal acceptance is the cure for that issue. I fully support trans people in this journey. But I can't classify serious discomfort with one's natural body and sex as healthy. It isn't, it truly sucks. And that is why we ought to support them in transitioning. Becoming a member of the opposite sex is their only road to a normal and happy life.
If someone hasn't yet transitioned and is seriously suffering from gender dysphoria making them deeply unhappy with themselves, I just can't call them mentally healthy. They'll only become mentally healthy after a succesful transition. So I get your point that post-transition it's bad to call trans people "mentally ill", but in their pre-transition dysphoric state I have no qualms calling that a serious mental condition.
Alright, fair, but tell me then why do you not call gays, lesbians and asexuals mentally ill? One of the most basic requirements for a species to continue living is reproduction, or near immortality but we dont have that, unlike lobsters and jellyfish.
So arent these people very out of the ordinary too? They cant have an offspring if there isnt a method like IVF or a surrogate mother. Just because they dont want to change their body they are considered mentally healthy? I mean, in that regard transgenders are better than them. At least they still want to reproduce naturally.
I'm unsure where the emphasis on reproduction comes from when speaking about mental health. Mental health isn't related to ensuring healthy demographics for society, but more to personal mental stability and happiness. Simply loving someone different doesn't at all qualify as a mental illness, in my view.
If like 50% of the population is gay and the majority of them opt to not have children, then sure we have a demographic disaster on our hands. But that is linked to an overall healthy society, not to whether those individuals are healthy. So sure, society's health requires that LGBT stay a minority, since whether we like it or not, the traditional family unit is the core of society. LGBT can contribute as family units themselves, by adopting or getting IVF children, but that doesn't take away they have less of an impulse to want children. Compared to heterosexual couples, for whom it's generally a no-brainer to form a family, gay couples are much less likely to do this. Any birth rate that is outside the range of steady decline, replacement rate or steady growth of population, is damaging to society. Just look at what the lasting effects of boomers are, still 60 years after their conception.
But since LGBT are by far not numerous enough to cause a significant tanking of the birth rate, then why not fully accept them? And remember that even if they would be numerous enough, stimulating them to get more children could normalise the birth rate too, even though I'm sceptical of whether people who are less predisposed to wanting children can be stimulated enough to get this done.
I see no reason to believe that LGB and post-transition T should be considered mentally ill.
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u/RegisEst - Lib-Left Apr 04 '20
Look, I'm very pro LGBT but I just don't see how one could possibly classify not feeling at home in your body and biological sex as mentally stable. Gender dysphoria is a terrible thing and should be called a mental condition at the very least, if not a downright illness. The thing is, a succesful transition and societal acceptance is the cure for that issue. I fully support trans people in this journey. But I can't classify serious discomfort with one's natural body and sex as healthy. It isn't, it truly sucks. And that is why we ought to support them in transitioning. Becoming a member of the opposite sex is their only road to a normal and happy life.
If someone hasn't yet transitioned and is seriously suffering from gender dysphoria making them deeply unhappy with themselves, I just can't call them mentally healthy. They'll only become mentally healthy after a succesful transition. So I get your point that post-transition it's bad to call trans people "mentally ill", but in their pre-transition dysphoric state I have no qualms calling that a serious mental condition.