I skimmed the article, but I didn't see a comparison with non-transgender students. Those numbers are about what I'd guess for any group of students.
http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/da...down-at-schools-but-more-students-feel-unsafe
...So, no, not really. 7.1% vs. 84% is a pretty big difference. I can't compare "doesn't feel safe at school" with "doesn't feel safe to the degree that they refused to go", but there's still a pretty huge gulf between those numbers. Similar figures can be found
here. Your estimates seem
extremely pessimistic, and somehow I doubt that a major bullying website would make a point of bringing up LGBT bullying if it wasn't an actual issue.
There are folks who identify as parrots, cats, a dragon, and who knows what else. What you identify as doesn't make you what you are. If you were born male, you're a male. That's it. Forget the arguments about ambiguous genitalia. Those are exceptions. The kid in Kindergarten Cop had it right.
If you are born male, but say you identify as a female, you are in reality still a male. More accurately, you are a male that claims to be female. You're not a female just because you think you are. You are only if you really are.
Based on...?
No, seriously, I fail to see why this is a meaningful way to define "male" or "female". You are aware that there are numerous physiological components to gender identity, right? This isn't even really a matter for debate - transgendered people simply have differences in brain structure, hormone regulation, and more.
https://www.quora.com/What-makes-a-...-to-be-one-or-the-other/answer/Jae-Alexis-Lee
Scientifically, there really isn't any doubt that gender identity is a discrete thing. It's not just some PC invention to help the delusional, it's
actually there. And given how prevalent it is in one's self-awareness, given that
even very young children recognize on their own whether they are boys or girls based
not on what's in their pants but apparently what's in their brains... Well, not only am I pretty sure that strict terms of "male" or "female" become increasingly blurry, even if we were to assume that, defining it entirely by whether you had a penis or a vagina when you were born would be a poor way to go about doing things...
Even if it actually worked, because intersex people are a thing.
Meanwhile, do those other identities have
any similar evidence base? Is there some structural issue in the brain that causes a man to think he's a parrot or a dragon or a night elf or an Apache Helicopter? Do people who believe they belong to these groups suffer dysphoria when they are unable or forbidden from living in accordance to their "identity"? There may be a cause for more research here, but there are numerous considerable differences here - for starters, there's simply no definition of "dragon" that has anything to do with what a person
identifies as, whereas the definitions of "male" and "female" actually have legitimate problems and may need rethinking.
Yes but it describes something else that doesn't correspond to reality.
You are simply factually in error. There's no nicer way to put this - what you are saying is
factually inaccurate. Gender identity is a very real thing, and pretending it isn't does not diminish that fact.
It's also a fact that kids who identify as different from their birth gender revert back to their birth gender by in excess of 80%
This figure seems to come from
this paper. It has a handful of noteworthy methodological problems, not least of which is the sample size of
25 - a little on the small size, if you ask me, particularly for such a counterintuitive result. Like, just for comparison,
this article talks about a study with a sample size of 55 where the number was not over 80%, but rather
0%. Weird, huh? Maybe the beta blockers would cause that, but given that they don't
cause gender dysphoria in those who aren't transgender, it seems like an iffy proposal.
You used some interesting words: "suffering" and "the condition." I don't suffer for being a male (I don't identify as male - I am a male) nor has it ever been considered a "condition" to be male. But apparently it's a condition to be transgendered? How is that normal then?
Gender Dysphoria is a recognized mental disorder, wherein the misalignment of your gender with your sex causes the more general condition of dysphoria. It's typically resolved by bringing your sex in line with your gender, as we currently know of no way to bring one's gender in alignment with one's sex.
It's not that simple. If it is, then just use a neutral bathroom and be done with it.
Just to clarify, I have no problem with gender-neutral bathrooms, changing rooms, whatever. What I have a problem with is forcing trans individuals to use those facilities when they are not the norm and not used by other people, thus
outing them as trans.