As with most topics in the culture wars, the trojan horse of starting the conversation¹ has been trotted out to mask the desire to change belief systems [if there were a scrabble point system in blogging, this sentence would be highlighted as ‘triple’]. I give our opponents in the culture wars credit for being effective, but I believe their effectiveness is partly due to a public uninformed due to a lack of interest in topics fringe to their lives.

Perception: Sex change means a man becomes a woman
Conversation begun revealed:

Sex change surgery is only a cosmetic procedure to make it look like a change was made, when in fact no female “parts” are used…. No amount of surgery, hormone injection or anything else can, or will, change the birth gender DNA. It is absolute. The only thing the surgeon can change is the medical record, birth records and the perception that a change took place on the operating table. A DNA test would prove no sex change took place.

Please do not call C. Jenner a woman around Matt Walsh, he seems to have lost his sense of humor about the inexact use of language. Alan Finch, an Australian who began transitioning at 19, underwent gential surgery in his 20’s and described the process in his 30’s:

…. You fundamentally can’t change sex … the surgery doesn’t alter you genetically. It’s genital mutilation. My ‘vagina’ was just the bag of my scrotum. It’s like a pouch, like a kangaroo. What’s scary is you still feel like you have a penis when you’re sexually aroused. It’s like phantom limb syndrome. It’s all been a terrible misadventure. I’ve never been a woman, just Alan . . . the analogy I use about giving surgery to someone desperate to change sex is it’s a bit like offering liposuction to an anorexic.

Perception: Person happier after procedure, can now be themselves
Conversation begun revealed:

Suicide is a major concern. Even a cursory search revealed attempted suicide rates of 18%, 31% and 41%. Check out the ultimate politically incorrect web site for sex change regret. Devastated families are about the only consistent outcome.

Mike Penner lived out that regret. An LA Times sportswriter became Christine Daniels in 2007 and a hero to the transgender community. But he went back to being a man and eventually committed suicide in 2009.

Rene Richards described in 1999 how she discourages people from seeking surgery:

If there was a drug that I could have taken that would have reduced the pressure, I would have been better off staying the way I was—a totally intact person. I know deep down that I’m a second-class woman. I get a lot of inquiries from would-be transsexuals, but I don’t want anyone to hold me out as an example to follow. Today there are better choices, including medication, for dealing with the compulsion to cross dress and the depression that comes from gender confusion. As far as being fulfilled as a woman, I’m not as fulfilled as I dreamed of being. I get a lot of letters from people who are considering having this operation … and I discourage them all.

I could go on, but what for? The sad landscape is about what I would have expected.

Dear culture warriors, glad we could talk. Lets do it again soon. Polygamy? Bestiality? Aw heck, just surprise me.

¹ Starting the conversation outlines beliefs traditionalists [people whose morality began forming prior to the advent of smartphones] must adopt or be ostracized as insensitive and judgmental.