That’s the title of an article on Slate dot com on
Tuesday, February 28, 2017. I’d say that the title puts it mildly. It puts lots
of people in an impossible position.
The trans boy, I’m pretty sure he was in an impossible
position already. (“Trans boy,” isn’t that a boy at birth who is transitioning
to female? I’m just checking the math.) Most people suffer from a certain
amount of confusion as teenagers, but I can’t even imagine what these kids go
through.
His parents, or her parents, I’m trying to be sensitive,
they might just have been in an impossible position already, even without this
championship. I hope that they are being very supportive of their child through
the entire process, that’s the only thing to do, but I’d be surprised if they
weren’t thinking, just a little bit, “does he have to bring the entire world’s
attention to this thing?”
The state officials who ran this competition, they were
caught between a rock and a hard place. If they don’t let him compete, they are
roundly condemned for being insensitive to the needs of diversity. If they do
allow it, they are roundly condemned for violating at least the rights of the
other girls to participate in a girls competition, and at most of violating the
very laws of God almighty, and probably everything in between, too. Better them
than me. I prefer not to be condemned at all.
I’m sure that there was a sanctioning body for this
event, and maybe a state agency that runs these kinds of affairs. I wonder if
they have a policy these days regarding transsexuals, but one way or the other
they were probably in an impossible position as well.
The impossible position raised by the article’s title
has become general. We all share it. I can only speak for myself, of course,
but I always assume that my own feelings about something cannot, statistically
speaking, be unique. I, and maybe most people, are of the opinion that our
brothers and sisters, and all of them, should be allowed to live their lives in
the manner that they find most appropriate. That’s an easy thing to support.
People should be able to love whom they choose, even marry whom they choose. They
should be able to smoke cigarettes, if they choose, without being condemned
later on if they come down with lung cancer and become a drag on the medical
system (it was legal; they did it; deal with it). Same with drinking, or an
over-time over-dose of KFC. I wouldn’t mind seeing the legalization of any drug
that didn’t make people violent, and that enabled people to go on working and
being productive, but maybe that’s just me. I would extend this logic rather
further, but I don’t want to offend anyone’s delicate sensibilities. It’s your
body; it’s your life: go in peace. But . . .
I can’t help having the feeling, though, that actually
changing your physicality through extensive surgery may not be a good idea,
neither do I feel like it’s obviously a good idea for society to encourage it. It does me no harm if other people take that route, but I can't help wondering if it might do some of them some harm in the meantime. There’s something different about it, don’t you think? At least where minors are
concerned. Are we really to allow minors
to make a choice like this, the surgery part?
I’m glad that I am not on the committee that has to
make these decisions. That would be an impossible position for me. It would be
much easier if it were just my child coming to me with the decision. Then I
could just smile and be supportive.
This type of thing tends to ride a wave through the
public imagination before the wave breaks on the shore of so-what. We’ve seen
it all before. Long ago there was a fellow who underwent the whole medical
process to transition to womanhood. That was Christine Jorgensen in the early
1950s. People thought that it was strange, and then they got over it.
And now we periodically hear about tranies competing in
women’s tennis or something. Then it all settles down and people forget about
it, because really, in the scheme of things, it’s no big deal. To us it’s no
big deal, anyway. To them, the sufferers, it’s a very big deal. I say
“sufferers,” please forgive me if that seems insensitive. But really, isn’t it
safe to say that no one would choose to go through something like that if it
seemed like less than an absolute imperative? Like a situation that one had to
escape from on an emergency basis? Like you were escaping a condition that
caused you profound suffering?
So I’m all for this kid finding peace with this world
of deep shit that we must all come to terms with. His struggle may be different
from ours, but no one gets out of these blues alive. Really though, does he
really need to take all of that extra upper-body strength to a women’s
wrestling tournament? That’s a good question, isn't it?
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