> On Jan. 20, a state court judge here sided
> with Joe Gardiner, issuing, in essence, a
> once-a-man-always-a-man ruling.
This is precisely why the two recent Zhou et al (and related) articles
demonstrating that the physical somatic structure of transsexual brains do
not match apparent gender based on superficial observation at birth and in
point of fact match the characteristics of the opposite gender are so
important. Nature 378:68-70 (1995) and J Clin Endocrinology & Metabolism
85(5):2034-2041 (2000).
The argument must be made that in the case of transexuals no so-called "sex
change" ever took place -- instead, a superficial physical birth defect was
repaired by appropriate medical/surgical intervention -- and the
individual's birth, social security, and other records were properly
updated with the correct gender designation (the true gender at birth)
based on somewhat delayed expert physician specialist examination and
determination.
The state governments and the courts would be operating in an entirely
arbitrary and capricious manner if they attempt to ignore medical expert
gender determination. Indeed, given the formal legal recognition of
intersex reassigned at the whim of whatever surgeon was handy and recorded
in official records shortly after birth -- frequently contrary to
chromosomal and dominant genitalia because it is surgically easier to
reconstruct female genitalia -- what is the rational basis for the state or
the courts to pretend that the somewhat delayed surgical reassignment of a
transsexual patient together with identical updating of official records is
any less valid?
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