I think the issue here is tolerance versus acceptance. As a trans person I would loved to be accepted by everyone, but I don't expect it, or even demand it. But I'd appreciate your tolerance. To not actively despise me or anyone who is trans simply because you don't agree with...whatever. I mean, isn't that really what we all want. Isn't that why constitutions were drafted around the world to grant all individuals equal rights, or how it was put in the US.... life, liberty, pursuit of happiness?

All Trans people want is simply that - life liberty and the pursuit of happiness...

Please do not deprive me of my life.

Please do not deprive me of my ability to choose what I look like, how I present myself, who I sleep with.

Allow me to find that which makes me happy. There's no guarantee I'll find it. But it is assumed I have the right to pursue it.

And in addition, if you could manage to keep the hateful comments to yourself should you encounter me or someone like me in your life at any point, that would make getting around from point a to point b and living my life just a little less sucky... Cuz trust me, we hear the whispers and the snickers, We see the reactions on peoples faces when they suspect or figure out that we're different. Very rarely are interactions with people without a degree of fear.

Some background on the "Family Policy Institute":

http://equalitymatters.org/blog/201202030004

those young people are mentally disabled...retarded, I would say...and this phenomenon is spreading.

Until you have serious medically proven brain issue it is very hard to find "mentally disabled". But very easy to find people with lack of certain information.

Normally I would fall back on my libertarian ideology and say simply - "I don't give a fuck how someone else chooses to live out their life."

I really wish participating in society could be that easy.

Unfortunately, I recently heard about a woman who decided she was actually a "blind person living in a seeing person's body."

http://fox6now.com/2015/10/01/woman-desperate-to-be-blind-had-drain-cleaner-poured-in-eyes-now-happier-than-ever/

This woman was actually able to get a psychologist to help her burn her eyes out with drain cleaner. This "doctor" was not at all conflicted because her patient's happiness was, well - the most important thing to consider!!

I'm sorry, but that was just one step too damn far for me to take. I now find myself actively questioning the psychological norms of our evolving society and the "righteous" people who voraciously defend them.

To those who come out in support of helping other people disable themselves because you think their happiness is all that matters, you should look in the mirror because you are probably as mentally ill as the person who you claim to support.

I realize that the story is mostly off topic here and am in no way equating Shian's own life choices to that of the trans-blind woman, but my point is that people like @kurth should have every right to question the actions and motivations of our self-declared, cutting-edge, social engineering "professionals."

I believe it's ...

The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts

@Tron ... that's why I called attention to "body integrity disorder" in my first post. thanks for having the guts to step in.

@kurth jajaj ja I knew that wouldn't scape the scrutiny of your sharp eagle eyes, ja ja ja. Yes, despite it's heartfelt and honest my comment is borderline righteous drunk preacher asshole; though no hypocrite in any way. There =)

Now, I think my friend that you're putting two different things in the same bag. One is your legitimate concern for the future of humans (just a species) and other is THE LIMIT as individuals on how "far" are we allow to go in pursuit of happiness. And though there might be a relation, former does depend on much much more than later and "far" would always be the deviation to (and measured against) the majority norm.

As an optimist I agree that we are doomed alright, I visualise earth going happy enough without the flies. Those kids are lost it's true but humanity (included) is quite lost too. The problem I have is that those kids in the video are a targeted sample to illustrate a pre-stablished discourse in quite a manipulative fashion, they don't by any means represent all kids on this planet.

Despite we all strive for happiness/peace/realisation/success/whatnot it seems most people are unhappy and lost... and still that same people are telling other individuals they only can go as far in pursuit of their own happiness... and you see, for me if we were ants, that social (group) concern/self-limiting would probably work, the kind of ants that make lifeboats of themselves to protect the species; but we're not, we're much weaker, uglier, stupidly complex, individualistic (yet group dependant) and emotionally unstable. So (and stealing VK's words) unless you have serious medically proven brain issue, I believe that ideally happier individuals would surely contribute to a happier group - long ago someone told me my freedom doesn't end where yours begins, my freedom is (depends on) your freedom - in praxis there are too big forces that want individuals lost, unhappy... powerless

BTW

Pity doesn't convince me to not look at the larger issue....which is transhumanism

1 - I feel no pity whatsoever for Shian, but a strong empathy for any individual in the search of his/her true nature
2 - humans stopped to be humane a long time ago

@kurth youuuu, you devil forshiper, arrre you saying that individual me was betterr then collective social business of me?!!!
Kidding aside, I don't have kids, I'm not allowed, but I do love kids, they are the greatest teachers. There's this friend's couple that have 3 kids 18, 11, 3. From scratch they had always provide their children very different education, different values of what's "normal" and the kind of laid back context (some say careless/lazy) one often sees hippy parents raising their children with. When the second was borned, they even went to live in Brazil's jungle for some years.

Among common friends there was this, not even concern, more like a doubt about how would the children mingle afterwards into more "standard" school, jobs, life; about their social skills and common ground with others, about the possibility of them being prey of evil natured people and that sort of stuff. I dunno 'bout others but personally I never mentioned any of those with the couple as I fully trusted their judgment and could also see with my own eyes, the kids were healthy, and not only physically.

Fast forward some years and at a party I meet with the oldest (almost 18) and a gay friend of his. The last time I saw him was at his mother funeral some years back; she was consumed very fast to a second cancer, previously she had managed. After spending some time together (couldn't stop mentioning the pleasure of buying him a beer) any remaining doubts were forever gone. He talked about "normal" teenage things, parties, girls, drugs, etc.

But these children, they're not normal, they're the sweetest, most joyous, attentive and curious little people I've met.
It is just a story, a real one.

As good as it might look in the films, I believe revenge takes you nowhere, same as bashing, same as being a selfless prick. I do agree with you about practicing with the example, about actions and not appearance... but I was not always like this, I had piercings, many earrings, addiction problems and zero consciousness of what surrounded me. My own troubled childhood may or may not explain these and other things, nevertheless I'm the same person =)

@LPowell: Just because the interviewer supports some organization which promotes irrational anti-gay politics doesn't mean he doesn't have a point at all.

It's harmless to tolerate people living out personas as long as this is of no significant disadvantage to others. Some adult claiming to be a 7-year old is certainly not harmless if the answer to "If I wanted to enroll in a 1st grade class, should I be allowed to?" was "yes".

Think of some president who one day starts to claim he's actually some deity born in a mere mortal. Can we agree this would also be significantly dangerous and would require some serios "intolerance" for his claim?

I for one cannot understand the turmoil regarding marginal stuff like gender-specific toilets that recently filled US-media - to me "unisex-toilets" would be the most rational thing anyway, also saving lots of resources. But it seems that some double-X-chromosome people feel frightened by visitors with XY-chromosomes in what they regard "their" gender-specific toilet, and that fear is real regardless of how little it is justified.

@karl I evaluated the interviewer's talking points in a post above. I think he accurately identified himself as a juvenile provocateur.

juvenile provocateur

@LPowell...provocative surely, but the juvenile part is only your value judgement.It looks to me as if the responses he elicits are revealing. But as is usual strategy when people don't approve of the message, they go after the messenger. And in reference to your post with 4 points, only number 1 has any validity whatsoever, and coincidentally the only one with a scientific article attached. And while it appears a human embryo somehow miraculously chooses it's sex around 6 weeks, maybe the real answer is we don't understand the mechanism whereby it does it, and it's really done at conception w/o us understanding how. N 2 is absurd from an anthropological perspective, much less genetic sequencing, easily exposed by comparing an australian aborigine to a european. And 3 and 4 devolve into absurdist comedy. But of course, shooting the messenger is the easiest strategy.

sabes que @eatstoomuchham .... I've attempted to place the discussion beyond the personal...but truth be told....it was shian who publicized his world. Nobody forced him. I seriously doubt he only wanted "oh, you're so brave" comments. And actually the term "moral equivalence" is always applicable to both sides of an unresolvable conflict, and conversely both sides always feel the other is false. So it's redundant to say "false moral equivalency" ! And most likely, if interviewed and asked the same questions, you would have responded in the same inane manner as those lost kids, but that's only my regressive opinion !

Oregon outlines sweeping protections for transgender students http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/may/06/oregon-transgender-students-protection-guidelines Go Oregon!

Metamorphosis is happening whether the knuckledraggers like it or not.

@shian I have a few questions, strictly out of curiosity, which I'm going to ask simply because you seem amenable to discussing your transformation in a public forum.That being said, you're under no obligation to answer. Here we go...

Do you identify as a woman or a trans woman?