[bryony]

perplexed rant snipped to save space.

Hello Zipporah,

I cannot speak for people who grow up as small children believing that they should be playing with girls and dressed like them, but I think it has something to do with imprinting. Your question has some parallels with why a chicken knows it's a chicken.

Gender dysphoria takes many forms. All I can tell you is that I _believe_ that an ordinary plain looking male would long to look like a male movie star, not a female supermodel; yet I yearn to have been born someone like Kate Upton or Lyndsy Fonseca. I ogle beautiful girls by imagining myself in their bodies and feeling really down because I know it cannot happen.

I know that there are a lot of vocal TS activists who make the kind of claims that you give as examples, and I find them somewhat irritating too.

I would suggest that if you want intelligent debate about this, though, you come on a little less strong than a bull in a china shop.

I do get rather tired about the word "offensive", and xxx-phobic. To my mind free speech is all about the right to be offensive. The Western world seems to be moving free speech out of the open and into the living room, and I'm guessing that will go once Big Brother has the mikes and cameras installed.

Have an intelligent debate by all means but please leave out all the feminist bullcrap.

Best regards,

Bryony