Mumsnet Talk

Well I've got a Masters in Biochemistry, did a thesis in brain biochemistry and spent several years doing genetic research so I know a little about science.

All I can say is the brain is complicated. Genetics is complicated. There's a gene called the SRY gene found in the Y chromosome that makes you "male". But then there's hormones in the womb, genes being turned on and off etc.

But that argument leads to the male / female brain which is a wholely separate discussion. Especially on this section.

I just wish some people would be less prejudiced and more supportive. People don't do all this stuff for fun.

eats Do you think homosexuality is a mental illness that can be cured? Or do you just think it happens and people should accept it without any prejudice?

I have never suggested women have mutilating surgery for fun.

No you only suggested they do so because they are mentally ill!

What about homosexuality? Is it a mentall illness? Should it be treated by a psychiatrist? I don't think there's a sexual identity region in the brain, is there?

You're avoiding the question on homosexuals.

Are you serious? Homosexuals have a psychological disorder?

No. No they do not.

Being lesbian or gay is not a psychological disorder. Lesbian and gay people do not mutilate their bodies to be lesbian or gay

No - I'm seeing what Eats thinks. I don't think that.

You have yet to provide the evidence for that, LRD and others have asked you several times but still no show. Until you provide proper documentation that can be read by everyone, it is only your assessment of what mental state others are in.

Interesting answer - how do you know it is not a psychological disorder?

Transsexual people feel something is wrong and this is what they have to do. In the same way homosexuals feel that they have to be with people of the same sex.

Are men also mentally ill to want to transform from M to F?

What's a mental illness anyway? Just a different way of being to someone else. Just something different in the wiring of the brain.

How are we to know if we are not all mentally ill in someway?

Why does it bother you so much anyway? It's not like anyone's making you undergo surgery.

It bothers me because young women are going through mutilating surgery. These young women are suffering psychologically. They should have proper help, not just be offered mutilating surgery

So women who have healthy breasts reduced in size, women who undergo cosmetic surgery, women who have healthy breast tissue but who fear they are going to develop breast cancer they must all be mad as well then?

What about men and women who scar themselves, have implants placed inside themselves, have permanent skin bleaching. All mad as hatters eh? In fact who would you say is sane eats?

You might just accept that FTMs are happy with the treatment, surgery and, like homosexuality, being transsexual is a "state of mind" that we know nothing about why it happens but it does happen and the outcomes are generally accepted as positive.

And if people treated them with more respect, understanding and compassion, this world would be a much nicer place.

Or maybe you think you're trying to do them a favour with your offer of psychiatry? What would you suggest - CBT, electric shock, ridicule, aversion therapy - think most of those have been tried before.

Apart from I said something along those lines earlier Kim I agree with you, lets bring back the big victorian asylums and put all the gay and slightly odd people in them and be done with it eh!

Why do you insist that they are not of sound mind? Don't you see how insulting that is?

I haven't researched this, but I would assume by the time a person gets to the stage of considering surgery, that they have been working through their issues for quite some time.

It's hardly a spur of the moment thing to decide to do.

You'll be pleased to know that homosexuality was no longer an official mental illness from 1973.

And that California has banned from today people trying to cure children who are homosexual.

usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/09/30/14159337-california-becomes-first-state-in-nation-to-ban-gay-cure-therapy-for-children?lite

Bad news is - in Malaysia, people still think you can cure it.

www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/sep/14/malaysia-seminars-spot-gay-children

Not that I'm saying there's any link between these modern attitudes towards homosexuals and your views towards transsexuals. Not at all

But lesbian and gay people dont need surgery and hormones to become lesbian or gay. How is it comparable?

OK, I didn't follow the link, because I don't like to follow links when no one has said what I am linking to.

I have read various people's comments, so Eats let me make this personal.

I had my ears pierced when I was 14, I'd wanted them done from age 5. It is a form of mutilation, I asked for repeatedly.

Now in my 40s I am not happier than just after they were pierced.

Do I think I should have had psychological treatment instead of a piercing gun?