Gary Childress wrote: ↑Sun Aug 01, 2021 4:57 am
Immanuel Can wrote: ↑Sun Aug 01, 2021 4:36 am
Gary Childress wrote: ↑Sun Aug 01, 2021 4:24 am
I think the idea is to be more accepting of some people and not stigmatize them because they have a desire to dress or be the opposite sex.
Wait a minute, though, Gary.
Everything, and I mean everything depends on whether or not that desire is a mental illness. It's no kindness at all to normalize somebody's sickness. It just means you're denying them any help, or any hope of being cured.
So it's not about "stigmatizing." It's about
diagnosing, realizing there's a problem, and getting the poor person the help they need. And what good person wouldn't want to do that? In fact, what kind of a twisted individual would want to encourage the sick to remain sick?
But all of this doesn't explain Advocate's use of the word "valid" to describe a body-dysmorphic person's confusion.
Maybe the person doesn't want to be pitied, though?
Is it "pity" to free somebody from a damaging delusion? Maybe. But if we need pity in order to get up the gumption to do the right thing for them, what does that matter? A better motive would be the desire to see them healthy, happy and well. And I don't think you need pity per se for that.
And what's the relevance of whether they "want" it or not? After all, we're not talking about somebody in touch with who and where they really are. We're talking about a man who looks in the mirror and imagines a woman, or a woman who imagines man. They're not in shape to make good decisions, and if we join them in their delusions, how will that help them?
Like I say, just be truthful and say, "i'm transexual and would like to go by the pronoun ___."
You don't have the right to compel the speech of others. You don't get to dictate what others say. You can ask them NOT to say something hurtful, or even make it illegal for them to say something actually destructive, like crying "Fire" in a movie theatre. But you can't tell them what TO say. Nobody has a right to do that. You can't make them parrot your nonsense, if you're delusional.
So what a transsexual should say is, "Please don't call me 'sir' or 'he.'" And you can choose or refuse. But he has no right at all to insist you must call him "she" or "her." That's compelled speech, and it's a violation of others' rights.