As many of you have seen, an article was written by content creator Moriah Dufrin entitled "My Child Will Not Be Allowed To Be Transgender." This article can be found here at: https://www.theodysseyonline.com/my-child-will-not-be-allowed-to-be-transgender.While I respect all views written by fellow Odyssey writers, this is one that I absolutely have to take a stand for.
It is okay if you are against the idea of someone being transgender because of your own personal or religious beliefs. It is okay to share those views, and you are not wrong for wanting to let your voice be heard. Everyone is entitled to their own opinions even if those opinions do not agree with your own. It is absolutely fine if you do not support the views and beliefs of another person, and this is where I feel that I can come in and propose my disagreement to her highly controversial article.
However, some things about this article seriously alarmed me. Her statement of "In my opinion, transgender humans are suffering from a mental illness, in a similar fashion to those fighting sicknesses such as anorexia and depression" was beyond disrespectful to me. Calling someone a transgender human is belittling them and not labeling them as a person. Yes, we are all humans. But, do you call your straight friends "female humans" or "male humans"? No, you call them either boy or girl, woman or man, or by their name. You acknowledge that they are people, and you don't make them out to be less than yourself. By saying "transgender human", you are making them out to be less than an actual person, and less than yourself. Just because transgender people are taking part in a lifestyle that you do not agree with, does not allow you to make them seem like they are not actual people.
First and foremost, anorexia, depression, and other mental illnesses are just that- mental illnesses. Actual diagnosed illnesses. Just because her beliefs do not allow her to agree with transgender views does not entitle her to compare life choices to actual illnesses. Coming from someone who suffers from anxiety and depression, I was appalled. I am on medication for the rest of my life to regulate my anxiety. Mental disorders are because of an imbalance in the brain, not because of a life-choice. Someone who has an actual mental disorder should never be compared to a personal view of disbelief in something, and someone who is transgender should not be labeled as having a disability. Yes, you are right about people who are transitioning potentially needing counseling- but that counseling is to help them find themselves and be at peace with themselves. That counseling is used to help them become accepting of who they are, and help them cope with those who may not be so accepting of who they are. That counseling is not treatment for there "disability" just because they want to switch genders.
Moriah then goes on to say that she "cannot accept psychological illness as a part of this world." So, because your religious and personal beliefs do not allow you to accept your twisted view of what a mental illness is, you want to stigmatize the rest of us who have actual mental illnesses as not being accepted? Quite frankly, I could care less who accepts me because of my mental illness. Nobody is saying that you have to support the idea of someone being transgender, but don't you dare make them to be less of a person because of it.
Transgender people are not "half man and half woman." They are whole man and whole women. If a woman is transitioning to become a man, they are taking testosterone. There are also surgeries to eliminate breasts, and surgeries to give a male appendage to a woman who is becoming a man. If a man is transitioning to a man, they are taking estrogen. They have the option of getting breasts, and getting a womans' genitalia if they choose. Many people who are transgender know from a very young age as not only what sex they identify with and they prefer, but as the sex that they want to carry out their lives by. It isn't just a simple choice; it is a lifestyle choice and change that they go to in order to become the sex that they identify as. Yes there are two genders- male and female. But, someone transitioning is not half and half.
If you want to raise your kids to follow your beliefs and force them to follow the sex that they were given at birth, by all means that is your prerogative. However, it is not your place to stigmatize, downplay, and disrespect mental illness and those who are transitioning as "less than people."
