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Bradley Manning Wants To Live As a Woman
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes "Reuters reports that Bradley Manning, the U.S. soldier sentenced to 35 years in military prison for the biggest breach of classified documents in the nation's history, says he is female and wants to live as a woman named Chelsea. 'As I transition into this next phase of my life, I want everyone to know the real me. I am Chelsea Manning, I am a female,' Manning, 25, said in the statement read by anchorwoman Savannah Guthrie on NBC News' "Today" show. 'Given the way that I feel and have felt since childhood, I want to begin hormone therapy as soon as possible,' Manning said. 'I also request that starting today you refer to me by my new name and use the feminine pronoun.' A psychiatrist, Navy Reserve Captain David Moulton, testified during Manning's trial that Manning suffered from gender dysphoria, or wanting to be the opposite sex, as well as narcissism and obsessive-compulsive disorder."
I do believe he was struggling with gender identity issues before this whole ordeal.
In one sentence: Bradley was our hero. Now Chelsea is our hero.
It's a story that many of us have been following since the beginning. For those among us that are not robots the lives of the people involved are at least of passing interest to us. In my opinion Manning has done a great thing. He/she deserves better than being relegated to obscurity the moment the story is over.
How sad is it that prison rape and rape in general is such a joke in the US that one of the first comments on any forum when somebody talks about prisoner well-being is that they not drop the soap, because HA-HA some maleficent goon might RAPE them?
Tells us a lot about how the US prison system thinks of human dignity.
bickerdyke
Comedy is a legitimate form of social/political commentary.
Everything is funny, everything should be discussed and criticize, and joking is a way to do that.
Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
Never do. Gender identity people generally feel so much deeply foundational shame that they go their entire lives, telling no one. Wasn't there news media coverage of a 40 year old married man that finally decided (after raising the kids was done and they were well on their way) that she couldn't take it anymore and needed to transition. I think a lot of regular Joe's natural reaction to hearing something like this is that the TG individual must be incredibly selfish and perverse to put their family through the pain of having their family fractured in such a way (familial identity especially is immutable!) But I think the reality is that a TG is experiencing pain which equals the combined expected pain and discomfort of their loved ones -- why else would they wait so long?
In my anecdotal story my brother only told me, but didn't mention it in their suicide note, so I've told no one.. (... quadruple check that I'm posting anonymously..)
Cisgendered means your brain gender matches your physical gender. The whole point of not using the word 'normal' is to avoid saying that people who are not cisgendered are not normal.
Which is stupid PC crap. Being transgendered isn't normal. Which is not to say that's a bad thing, they're just being offended for no reason. Normal means, "according with, constituting, or not deviating from a norm, rule, or principle". Think normal distribution. Most people are not transgendered, therefore being transgendered is not not normal.
By itself, not being normal isn't offensive. Most people can't run as fast as Usain Bolt, therefore Usain Bolt isn't normal. That's not an insult.
I'm a bit mystified as to why we do this. Hear me out:
When people ask to have limbs amputated because the person feels that having the limb doesn't make them feel whole (strange how you don't feel whole until part of you is removed?! That and/or because they have a sexual fetish for amputated limbs,) modern medicine denies that request, considers it to be abhorrent, and any medical professional who obliges the request is jailed and/or has their license to practice revoked. The treatment for the above condition is the same as if the person had a mental illness, and the solution is to change thinking patterns rather than surgery.
http://drmarkgriffiths.wordpress.com/2012/02/13/whats-your-crutch-the-bizarre-world-of-amputee-fetishes/
Yet when they ask to have their genitals mutilated and hormones thrown so far out of whack to the point of permanently handicapping them to a degree, it is viewed as a human right, and in some cases this voluntary surgery must be provided for free by the government, and they are called brave in some circles? Worse is that today there is very little in the way of counseling done, and some half of them end up regretting it after the fact.
http://www.experienceproject.com/stories/Want-To-Reverse-Sex-Reassignment-Surgery/1608417
I'm not taking issue with transsexualism BTW, I'm taking issue with the idea that surgery is the answer.
Careful with names containing L slashdot.org/~AiphaWolf_HK slashdot.org/~AlphaWoif_HK slashdot.org/~AiphaWoif_HK
"Only" two. Why is it that the US claims to be the best country in the world, but it comfortable sharing a list mainly populated by other shining examples of leading countries, such as North Korea, Thailand and Rwanda?
Is 1563649 a prime number?
Egotistical nationalism?
There are two types of people in the world: Those who crave closure
You ever been raped? You ignorant asshole.
Why do you think so many rape victims commit suicide? Even after months or years of therapy and trying to forget?
At least if the person is killed, the torment is over.
This comment, and a few above, is from someone who knows what it feels like to have someone's dick inside them against their will. Also, someone who has contemplated suicide, as well as mass murder.
I certainly wish my attacker had been raped in prison, and then killed, so my tax dollars doesn't keep him alive.
If you can't appreciate that, you obviously have no experience in the subject, and can take your self-righteous indignation and shove it up your ass.
I suggest you go to a rape counseling center, and ask the women there is they care that the man who raped them may face the possibility of being raped in prison.
Go ask an adult survivor of child abuse if they feel upset that their uncle/father/priest/etc may be subjected to rape in prison.
Keep a running tally of which one are as horrified as you are, and which one feel it is the least that should happen to them. Report back here when you are done.
Done that; there are some people who have been so traumatized that even the subject of rape to anyone causes them to wall themselves off. There are others who consider their attackers so inhuman for doing the things they did that they take vindictive pleasure in the concept of their attacker being subjected to what they dished out. There are others who have healed more, who just want it all to stop, and share the same sadness (not horror) that this is perpetuated in prison.
You see, most of those rapists in prison, if you dig into their past, were sexually abused themselves. Being sexually abused seems to snap something in the brain that allows you to easily see people as "not human". Recovering from that is extremely difficult, and some people turn to a life of crime/abuse as their coping mechanism.
So my original point stands: it says something about the perspective US citizens (or at least some vocal minorities as I said) have on human dignity. Dehumanization never ends well; forgiveness is MUCH tougher (and some things may never be fully forgiven, especially if the person never really showed any regret or sorrow about what they did), but it's the best way to break the chain.
So mutilated is the word now. I'll remember to use that next time I ask a doctor to stitch a wound closed and he trims away some skin.
Infant circumcision is the deliberate wounding and sexual maiming of a child that removes 1/3 to 1/2 of the penile skin. The foreskin of an adult male is approximately FIFTEEN square inches of erogenous tissue which serves numerous functions throughout a man's lifetime. Not only does cutting up the genitals of healthy individuals without their consent violate human rights, it violates medical ethics to force unnecessary and damaging surgery upon healthy patients.
But yes, forced genital cutting (whether the victim is male, female, or intersex) is a form of mutilation. Only someone brainwashed into thinking that cutting up the genitals of healthy children is perfectly normal would claim otherwise.