Earlier in the month I wrote that transgenderism is a mental problem, not a case of being "issued" at birth the wrong set of plumbing. I was wondering when this concept would appear somewhere in print, and it has.
Writing at The American Spectator, Scott McKay has a column entitled "Let's Just Say It: Transgenderism Is a Mental Illness." The point he makes at some length is that whatever medical interventions are attempted or undertaken, they truly never produce a member of the other sex. At best they produce a sad, imperfect imitation which most often fails to satisfy the individual in question.
We aren't very good at repairing broken minds. And therein lies the difficulty for those who are uncomfortable in their own skins.
Allowing children who we deem too young to vote, buy liquor, or choose to be sexually active to nevertheless choose to have life-altering surgery and/or hormone treatments is wrong. Especially when parents are kept "out of the loop" by school personnel or others in the quasi-official community.
If adults choose to undergo self-destructive procedures that's another matter. I'm enough of a libertarian to say to them, “it's your funeral, go for it."
