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LGBT News Something Unique About the Transgender Brain

Discussion in 'Current Events, World News, & LGBT News' started by AlexJames, Jun 13, 2017.

  1. AlexJames

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    I thought this was a really cool article to read. What does everyone else think about the article? Any other good articles i should read?

    https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/is-there-something-unique-about-the-transgender-brain/

    I like to read up on trans articles cause i feel like i'm behind the kids on all this stuff. When i was in highschool we learned that it was simply a mental disorder and they didn't even touch on treatment for it, just mentioned it on the side for the sake of the test and that was it. My mom flips every time a pro-trans news article comes on tv, too, saying how 'no you need to just sit them down and tell them you are a boy' and stuff. It wasn't until i joined up here that i really 'got educated' on the whole world of having a non traditional non-cis-gender. I grew up hearing that it was wrong, a sin, a mental disorder at best, but i never really believed any of that, i really just pushed it aside cause i did not have a reason to learn about it. I just remained ignorant till i came on here. SO i don't get anything at all i like to educate myself on it. I mean i know on a simple level, a purely emotional one, and have for a long time - someone would never put themselves through all that shit just to make a statement or be different or whatever. So i've never been transphobic per say, i just didn't understand it. Does that make sense? Sorry i feel like i am all over the place. I've had a pretty hard week and i'm just at the point of i am so done with this that i can't even get my words out on the screen right. I intended to explain how excited i was to read this article cause i've wanted to learn about the world of trans and nonbinary and stuff from a medical and/or psychological point of view since i joined and why but i feel like i just fucked that up too.

    Edit: Yeah i fucked it up. I forgot to post the link. DAMNIT.
     
    #1 AlexJames, Jun 13, 2017
    Last edited: Jun 13, 2017
  2. More people need to know about this.
     
  3. Secrets5

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    Thank-you for the link, I think it will be useful in my university coursework.
     
  4. mnguy

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    I have no doubt that something in the brain is what makes people trans and gay too as well as lots of other things. What are emotions, thoughts and feelings? I'm not an expert and may not use the precise language, but seems to me they are all electrical signals in the brain and body. What exactly is the feeling of attraction to certain guys to me as a gay man? Why is it that I'm comfortable as a man? Whatever causes those are not things I decided, they're just natural for me.

    It's like a feedback system in the brain. I see a person, my brain gets the image, somehow processes the features of the person as attractive and is a guy, brain sends signal to dilate pupils and and other physical reactions. It's all electrical signals and depending how my brain is wired, how it interprets the signals, determines whether I have a feeling of attraction or not. It's like how I smell coffee (olfactory receptors send signal to brain) and I like it, but other people don't like it. Do their receptors send a different signal to the brain or does the brain process the same signal differently? Sexuality and gender identity are much more ingrained in us than taste and smell preferences, so I don't mean to trivialize them with that example.

    With gender, as a kid I was dressed, told I was and treated as a boy. I saw boys and girls and didn't identify or want to be like the girls I saw. I mostly wanted to be like other boys who were good at sports or other things that were associated with being a boy. I suppose some of that was the positive treatment boys got for being good at sports, but I was still comfortable as a boy even if not as aggressive as others. I didn't think all that at the time, it just was. Something in the brain saw other boys and identified that I was like them and it felt right. I believe the opposite would happen for trans kids and it's not something they ever chose, it's just how they are.

    I don't see why that's such a problem for some people. I guess they can't or haven't tried to grasp the concept of why they feel the gender they are. If they could stop and think about it and how the brain works, I hope more people can conclude that gender identity is like anything else that makes each of us who we are. People can't be their best selves when forced to be someone they're not. It's a tragedy how many people end up depressed, isolated, abused and dead rather than happy, supported, loved and contributing to a better world because one part of them was rejected by those around them. Maybe one of those people would have cured cancer had they been accepted and encouraged to flourish.
     
  5. Foxfeather

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    I think this is possible. I have a great inclination toward both traditionally masculine and feminine hobbies. And I'm attracted to the way women (naturally) smell, but I've never experienced the same thing towards men, even when I ID'd as straight.

    I wonder if there's something about the brain that is fluid. I'm all for the gayness-is-not-a-choice argument, but I also never identified as homosexual or trans as a kid. Something changed along the way and I can't change it back. it's like a chemical reaction. Once done, it's hard to undo because the chemical composition has changed completely.

    And that might be exactly what being trans and attracted to people of my birth gender might be for some people. A genuine chemical change or reaction that cannot be easily reversed. I'd love to donate my brain to a postmortem study on this, too bad I wont see the test results.

    The science of fabulousness.
     
  6. SebAndGin

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    Interesting stuff, thank you for sharing. And I am especially grateful for this quote:
    “It is simplistic to say that a female-to-male transgender person is a female trapped in a male body. It's not because they have a male brain but a transsexual brain.”

    (Side note - I am thinking recently of coming out to my mom and I´m trying different scenarios in my head. Now beginning with "Hey mom, guess what, I have a unique brain!" is my favourite option :grin: )