I know, right? I'm so angry I don't even know what to do.

I'm noticing you in a lot of the journals I read. You has good taste in artists.

Although I believe you should accept what gender you were born with I also believe people should be able to do whatever they want to their body when it comes to sex changes.

Thanks for that, but I have to say, trans people are accepting the gender they're born with: the gender of their brains. Doctors already tried everything to make trans people be their birth sex and none of it works.

This is what sucks about other countries when they do things like this. Change.org would be a good thing for this mother to do a petition on to get the courts of her country not to do this.

http://www.change.org/petitions/may.....old-transexual

Nice. Did you start or make it or was it already around?

Nah, I didn't start it, someone linked it in a comments page of another blog. ~:3

Cool. I know it'll get a ton of people signing it. ^^

That is just sad, I really feel sorry for the little girl. There has been some improvement in how people look to others who identify as LGB, but trans is something people are still getting used to. I dont see why it should be a problem, this is their choice and their own discovery of finding the physical sex that matches their internal gender. *Sigh* Honestly I'd be more worried about the trauma this girl may experience at being institutionalized and ripped out of her mother's arms and into a stranger's at such a young age than her choice in sex.

Yeah. What's more, this girl is going to be starting puberty soon (in saner places, she would go on hormone blockers to harmlessly delay puberty until she's an adult, since you have to be an adult to consent to hormone therapy and surgery), and the government is essentially going to be forcing her to go through the wrong puberty and suffer irreversible physical changes against her will. That's something almost all trans people have to go through anyway, but to know that she could have escaped it and had her mother's support, but had that taken away by the state? That's some weapons-grade trauma.

For crying out loud, that is just down right inhumane and cruel, this is seriously tugging at my heart strings here...how some states carry out their opinions on these matters can just be disgraceful :\

wtf? Its not like she is hurting anyone.

Oh the folks at my university have probably already heard about this. If not, they will. They've been advocating LGBT rights in the school paper for weeks now.

You might want to let whoever is behind that stuff know; they might not actually know yet, since a lot of LGbt news orgs aren't paying much attention to this story.

I'll see if I can.

oh my...That sounds extremely harsh for a mother to do that to her own child.

Oh, no, the mother is the one supporting her child, it's the government that wants to take the child and try to force her to be a boy (because the child's father doesn't want the kid to be trans).

oh. Then the government is one cruel group.

Goddamn. If there going to throw an 11year old in a mental ward she should have at least killed a few people.

I completely agree that this is wrong. The girl should have chance to make her own choice.

That said, I feel raising the issue of Germany's nazi history is entirely inappropriate and offensive in that article - the reason they want to institutionalize the girl (and I stress, I disagree with that ruling quite vehemently) is out of a misfounded and heavy handed attempt to protect a child the government doesn't believe is old enough to make the decision, not becuase of "its torrid history with respect to forced sterilization and aspirations towards racial purity."

Regardless of its origins, though, the decision is wrong, upsetting, and will hopefully be overturned by the higher court. I've noticed this in British press, too, so likelihood is if they don't, it'll end up going higher still. I wish her all the best.

Yeah, they probably shouldn't have gone there, but I think their point wasn't that nazi history caused this current situation, but rather that memory of the nazis should have made government officials more wary of acting like facists. Either way, they should have just avoided the point because it distracts from the real issue.

Not to downplay the importance of this issue...but...I always thought it illogical to lump in transgender issues with homosexuals. They're far from the same thing.

Regardless, this is sick. No government should have the right to do this, EVER.

Well, as I understand it, it's more because trans people and gay/bi people undergo similar forms of discrimination and the oppressors of both groups attack them together (as in, trans people are frequently accused of being confused homosexuals, and gays are often accused of being gender confused), so it's more like banding together against a common enemy. Further, the gains that both groups make inadvertently benefit the other group, so it's good for both of them to work together. Besides which, there are plenty of trans people who are also gay or bi, so helping trans people also helps gay people and vice versa.

...wait what? O_o

Why wasn' this on the news? <.<

Wow, sorry guy. After reading that article, I think I must apologize on behalf of all germans. ._.

It could have happened in any country, since they're all pretty fail on this issue. But, if you can, see if there are any German petitions you can sign or whatever? It probably carries more weight coming from within. ~:3

I don't even want to imagine that happening here in America X_X

Don't want to burst your bubble, but it happens, just not by the government. There's some high profile doctors that run "ex-trans" treatment on children at their parent's request.

I know it happens.
And if we'd let psycho Republicans like Santorum or their kind get to the White House, you can bet the government will start endorsing that shit.

For real. If they get in power, anyone that's not a rich straight cis white man is in for a living hell.

We need LESS religion in this country

Isn't that because it is a minor? I mean, 11yo is way too young and for good or worse it is gonna stick with it until it hits the magical 18yo age and whatever do it wants to do.

It sir? Fucking it? You're calling a human being it? If you would kindly turn in your humanity card, please do so. I find your lack of respect for someone with such a difficult condition and state completely disturbing, and your lack of empathy utterly nauseating. Come back to the internet when you've learned how to refer to people. If you don't know what gender pronoun to use, use they. Don't use it, and certainly not in italics. It sounds very much like you lack respect for the transgender condition. If that is not what you intended to convey, I apologize for my wrath. If it is, then kindly educate yourself as to what exactly these people(That's right, individuals with thoughts, feelings, pain, joy, love, ambition, and dreams, you know, those individuals you treat with respect?) prefer to be referred to as. There are other, less well known pronouns, but they are many, and hard to remember. They is, in my opinion an acceptable compromise.

Don't call a person it. They're people. Not objects. Their feelings regarding their gender do not make them an object.

Hoo boy, opened a can of worms here. It's not about lack of respect. At this point in that child's life to just jump and call itself of a different gender that said child is born is to be reckless. Nobody at that age is emotionally/psychologically mature. I'm siding with the father and the government. To just jump into clonclusion and say was born a girl but I'm a dude! or vice versa at this early in life should be thread with care and with professional help assure that what this child is going through is real.

Since you appear to have genuine ignorance on the subject, I accept your statement. Just use "they" instead of it.

Agreed. Need to talk to my tranny buddy for a better understanding. I just simply ignore everything else because he was born a female and now after taking hormones looks more like a brunnette Link. And since his gender change (no surgery, he says double penetration is much more fun this way) doesn't affect me in any way I just don't care. His life, his way.

Are you FUCKING kidding me?! You're seriously referring to a child as an "it"? What the fuck is wrong with you?

It as in genderless, not as an object. If my depiction offended you I apologize but I do have a concern on a child that young claiming to be transgender. No one at that age is 100% of who they are. I mean, 11yo? At that age I had no idea what boners were like.

SHE IS NOT GENDERLESS. SHE has a gender! Trans people often realize that they are trans at a very young age, usually much younger than this girl. She doesn't need to know what boners are like to know if she's a girl or not. At any rate, the treatment for trans children is to medically block their puberty until they're adults so they can make the final decision on permanent transition and surgery as adults;the father and the government want to take this option away from the girl and try to brainwash her. It's barbaric and sick.

Hmm.. Had no idea about that. Sorry for the inconveniences. It wasn't my intention to offend in that matter.

It's really not unusual to figure out transgender feelings at a young age, since it's who you are, and not who you're attracted to. Though it does become even more obvious after puberty. I think it's still classified as a mental disorder in most psych books, yet...it such a commonplace thing. There are so many trans people it's impossible to deny. No, we don't have perfect surgery or treatment for reassigning sex to match one's gender, but I would hardly qualify it as a mental disorder, so much as a state of being.

As for halting puberty as you suggest, I'm not certain if we have that technology perfected. I would hesitate to perform such an act for such a young person. I hardly knew what I was, or who I was at that age. However, I feel institutionalization is completely out of the question. People should be able to wear the clothes they want to wear(within reason, as far as being distracting at school), and wear their hair as they wish. And yes, I guess some students might be distracted by non-gender-normative individuals, but if the phenomenon was simply explained, it wouldn't bother them. The people who really get bothered are the children's parents typically. Oh...the education I would provide to adults...oh the anger and vitriol I would spew at the parents who insist that transgender and gay people are somehow evil and wrong.

On the other hand, they don't understand and they don't listen anymore at that point usually, so I'd mostly be blowing steam.

Actually, yes, they can easily block puberty and it doesn't damage the person, merely stalls secondary-sex development; if they for some reason decide to go through with natural puberty it proceeds normally as soon as the blocking treatment stops. As for doing it for so young a person, well ... it's young people that have puberty. And they usually start it around this girl's age, and once it happens, the changes (bone structure, voice, body and facial hair) are irreversible, unlike puberty blockers which are reversible.

I'll admit I am ill informed with regard to this treatment. If it really is as simple as that, and prevents puberty without causing trouble with development later on(if the individual decides that they are comfortable with their sex), then by all means, it should be gone through with. There are ethical questions about performing such tests, but if they've already been done, and they are conclusive, then there is no ethical reason not to halt puberty at the individual's request. If only we were perfectly capable shape-shifters that could freely change our forms from one day to the next, we wouldn't be so hung up on these issues. People would just be what they want to be, and love who they want to love.

yet another aspect of life that gets classed as a mental disease, and I have no idea why, but still, if the daughter wants to change, then one should let her, from what I hear halting puberty n such would be a much better option than waiting till she's older, o3o still unsure as to why it's even classed as a disease but oh well. D:

There's a big push to reclassify transsexuality itself as not being a disease (like they did for homosexuality decades ago), but to classify the pain caused by the body mismatch as a disorder so that people can still get the medical treatment they need.

Poor Girl. I wish there was a way to help her...

Im telling my friend Anne about this.

Tell everyone you can, that's about all we can do. We have all this power to know everything that happens in the world, there has to be some way to use it.

My God... *shakes his head* I really wish people would stop doing things to make me weep for the species. But then, the outpouring of support here gives me hope. If only that could be directed to actually make a difference where it is needed...

Yeah, I'm really impressed with how supportive people are being. The last couple of times I posted on this topic I got a lot more bullshit than this time. ~:3