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[beacon1]

OK guys and gals... a voice of reason. If a man dresses up in panties, he is mentally ill (or else has no other clean underwears and therefore steals his wife's). Maybe in higher education it is OK for a man to wear a dress to class, but in other circles (except for Scotland), it is just bizarre.

Please divert your high minded thinking in order to get your feet planted solidly on the ground. If it quacks like a duck, regretfully, it is a duck.

Unfortunately, many of you guys are more interested in moralizing the student population than you are concerned about teaching. You act as if everyone needs to bow to your feet and accept your moral teachings in order not to offend. I say be offensive. Tell David Dresswearer to go home and trade in his girdle and leggings for appropriate male dress. The Army wouldn't allow him to wear a dress into combat, so why should we allow him into (our - the publics') classroom with that eye drawing attention seeking garb - just so as not to offend him?

And lets think logically one more step... If a man or woman were to cut off his or her own private parts because "they offended" him/her, we would call them insane. Why does it become sanity when they pay someone else to do it for them? Have you looked at the suicide rates for folks that got sex changes and transgender folks in general? Suicide is not exactly a healthy activity...

You guys are on the precipice of insanity.

[ladeebug]

Beacon,

I have to say that your comments reek of fascism. Gender identity and the ability to be oneself have nothing to do with insanity. And all of your assumptions about what men and women should wear and overall do with their lives have nothing to do with 'nature' either...perhaps we are all insane, aren't we?

[beacon1]

Actually, allow me to correct myself.  Transgenderism is among the many conditions listed in the DSM.  However, to suggest that it an "illness" which would render one incapabile or unqualified to teach in higher education is WRONG WRONG WRONG!

Academicians have higher rates of OCD and OCD-like behaviors (not always reaching the clinical threshold) than the rest of the population.  It actually is a benefit to be somewhat obsessive about details, given what we do for a living.  

I am not transgendered, but I don't have to be to be offended by your post.

303.2 Transvestic Fetishism

302.9 Paraphilia NOS

302.85 Gender identity disorder

Yes, they are mental illnesses.

[helpful]

DNFTT (whatever gender hu may be).

[ladeebug]

Beacon,

Well, if you buy that transgender/transsexual people are mentally ill (and, mind you, you don't seem to recognize nuances and differences across terms such as transvestitism, gender identity and so forth...), you should also then conclude that gender identity disorder can indeed be 'healed' by means of changing one's gender to the correct one, that is, the one that one has always identified with despite being born with the sexual attributes of the opposite gender.

Once again, your comments sound very abusive.

[beacon1]

Beacon,

I have to say that your comments reek of fascism. Gender identity and the ability to be oneself have nothing to do with insanity. And all of your assumptions about what men and women should wear and overall do with their lives have nothing to do with 'nature' either...perhaps we are all insane, aren't we?

I have not been a practicing fascist for years...lol.. Maam, your remarks reek of insanity - I can always switch parties - how bout you?

No, we are not all insane. Insanity means to be totally disconnected from reality.

[beacon1]

you should also then conclude that gender identity disorder can indeed be 'healed' by means of changing one's gender to the correct one, that is, the one that one has always identified with despite being born with the sexual attributes of the opposite gender.

302. 2 Pedophilia

Hmm so this should be cured by just allowing the sufferer to rape children. Good solution!

[ladeebug]

Now I see, this guy only posts in the diversity forum to undermine any discussion about lived experiences of discrimination and the challenges that come with not being just like he is. I guess he can only find an outlet for his reactionary rants in an anonymous online forum. I am all of a sudden feeling more compassionate...

[kilpikonna]

Tell David Dresswearer to go home and trade in his girdle and leggings for appropriate male dress.

Who wears a girdle with leggings?  And who the hell teaches in a girdle anyway?  Are you picturing the transgender-led classroom as some 1980s porno?  Or a Ren Faire?  Your example makes me worry more about professionalism and fashion sense than about gender identity.

Okay, okay, IWNFTT, IWNFTT...

[ladeebug]

As I said before, I don't buy it that gender identity disorder or transvestitism are indeed 'disorders'. Not for one second. The way illnesses have been identified and categorized is not ideologically innocent (ever read Foucault, Beacon...that should be critical thinking 101 for people with graduate degrees like you).

But hey, I am now going to choose to ignore you. You don't deserve this degree of attention, I think.

[jonesey]

The Army wouldn't allow him to wear a dress into combat, so why should we allow him into (our - the publics') classroom with that eye drawing attention seeking garb - just so as not to offend him?

Thankfully, the requirements to attend a university are not the same as the requirements to join the Army.  

The Army doesn't allow people to be openly homosexual, either.  Are you suggesting that colleges and universities not allow homosexual students, either?  

[ladeebug]

Folks,

what does IWNFTT stand for? I feel it's an acronym with superpowers and want to be able to use it properly :-).

[neutralname]

Just because a diagnosis is listed in DSM doesn't mean that everyone agrees it should be there.  There's a literature about the medicalization of transgenderism.  One of the main reasons that has been embraced as a mental illness by people who classify themselves as transgendered is that it is the main way they can convince surgeons to do the operations on them and get health insurance to pay for the operations.  But there's plenty of discussion that has found this medicalization problematic, and has argued that we should reshape society to end the forced classification of people into one gender or another.  Then people might feel less need to change themselves surgically.

I'd also note that the IRS has also recently argued that being transgender is not a mental illness, so that the medical expenses are not tax deductable. 
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=15327911
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/30/AR2007093001194.html

Of course, Beacon1's arguments (arguments?) are just silly and offensive.

[beacon1]

You are correct. I only post in this forum. I find it entertaining, but rarely enlightening. You guys represent the most liberal, dunderheaded, folks out there and I feel it is my moral duty to guide you guys/gals out of darkness; hence the name Beacon.

If you don't like my views - you can always skip over my post... but I think many off you can't resist responding, because on some level you know I speak truth. You don't quite understand it, but you are led to it like a moth to the flame. My guess is that each of you is searching for something that has eluded you for a while. God doesn't fit the bill, because intellectually, God doesn't make sense for you. With knowledge comes sorrow.

I know this sounds like crazy talk, and in part, I am joking, but there is some seriousness to be had as well...

[beacon1]

Is there any behavior that should not be allowed? or is it an everything goes society?