A Boy Named Sue
You’re not all that familiar with Largo, Florida? That’s about to change.
14-year city manager Steve Stanton, 48, has decided he needs to be a woman. After what must have been play-acting through marriage and fathering a son, Stanton’s manhood, he has concluded, just isn’t right. He wants to be a boy named Sue instead. You’ll be hearing about this for some time, whether you want to or not. If the city commissioners fire him (and it looks like they might) they will bring down on themselves a fire storm of howling wing nuts decrying intolerance outraged by their assertions of being catapulted back to the stone age, etc., etc., etc. If the commissioners sympathize with Mr. Stanton’s gender journey they risk the loss of credibility with their constituency, a highly conservative community that has already expressed its dissatisfaction in calling for his dismissal by a margin of 7-to-1. Either way, Deborah Norville has already booked her flight and Howard Stern has expressed interest in having him on the show after all the surgeries heal.
Setting aside all the undesirable publicity to Largo, Stanton’s consuming narcissism is what truly rattles my cage.
In a related article dated February 25, the St. Petersburg Times described Stanton and his wife sitting down with their 13-year-old son, Travis, for a family meeting about this. The paper recounts the exchange that got my attention. Stanton asked his son, “What’s the most important thing in Mommy’s and Daddy’s world?” Travis answered. “I am.”
Sorry, young man. Wrong answer. Whatever you’ve been led to believe, you’re not even close. Steve Stanton is the most important “thing” in Steve Stanton’s world.
At some point we’re all guilty of thinking the world revolves around us. We’ve all hurt those we love and embarrassed ourselves in one way or another. But how does a young son ever escape this stigma? How does a wife ever come to terms with the subtlety of such a back-handed rejection? What combination of social/emotional/psychological deficiencies could generate such profound confusion and self-absorption? What manner of delusion could prompt one to say to his Creator, “Hey, you’re wrong! You made a mistake. I know better than you and I’m going to permanently correct your error.”
There’s an option available. Steve Stanton, you can stop all this. Just don’t do it. Acknowledge the colossal error of a sex change. Don’t follow through with this insanity. Spare your wife and son. Focus your affection on them. We could all live with that. We could move beyond this and heal with you.
There are those who, in their self-proclaimed liberal sophistication, laud you for your courage. The truth is, they don’t know what courage is. In their rush to embrace everything, they actually stand for nothing. That requires no courage at all.
It takes enormous courage to do the right thing when practically everyone around you insists there is no “right thing.” Come on, Steve. For the sake of your wife and son and the community you say you love to serve, be a man!
Stuecher 
SHE is doing the right thing. Trust me, if it was as simple as “just don’t do it,” a lot of people who are transsexual wouldn’t. The simple, and sad fact is, if a person is truly transsexual, there is no other cure. There is not a single, valid case of a person who is actually transsexual ever being cured by any form of psycnotherapy. Why do you think sex reassignment surgery is the medically accepted treatment? Yes, there are some who claime they were transsexuals and were cured. And there are a few quacks who claim that sex reassignment surgery is not the right choice, but the fact is this is a medical condition, present at birth, and if this person really is transsexual, nothing else will work.
So, don’t be so self-righteous. You don’t have the foggiest idea what sort of pain she has been through. It is easy for you to cast aspersions. Unfortunately, it is also a very ignorant thing.
Jennifer Usher
Jennifer Usher - February 28, 2007 at 1:04 am
As an out transexual woman in the world I am constantly amazed at the small-mindedness and outright ignorance of people who have no concept of what gender dysphoria really is and how it affects our lives. It is not a choice … we would not put ourselves nor our loved ones through such pain and risk our livelihoods and our very lives for a hobby or ‘choice’. It is an imperative, one which we either embrace … or we die. Susan has shown incredible courage and fortitude in coming out … I hope the people of Largo embrace this proven, competent professional and dedicated public servant and make her welcome in their community. When I transitioned my gender I had the support of five different law enforcement agencies for whom I was working as a database consultant at the time. I am so grateful for their love and acceptance. Since then I have worked for American Express and for a financial corporation in the DC area … we are competent, capable, and good people … I guarantee you we are not going away …
Sara Law - February 28, 2007 at 2:40 am
From http://cs.anu.edu.au/~Zoe.Brain/is_ts_hr.html
quote
Intersex and Transsex Human Rights
First I better explain what Intersex and Transsex mean.
First, I’ll have to explain “Intersex”. Although 98.3% of people are born normally male or female, 1.7% aren’t, quite. Of those, about half have trivial, insignificant differences from the norm, but some of the rest have significant differences. Some people are genetically male, but have female bodies, or the reverse. Others have their genes screwed up, so instead of being 46xx (female) or 46xy(male), they are 47xxy, or even a mix of 46xy and 46xx cells.
Now, I’ll explain “What is a Transsexual”. Some people – the Intersexed – have normal bodies, normal neural (brain) development, but cross-gendered genitalia. But others have normal bodies, normal genitalia, but cross-gendered brains. Genital development happens in the middle of the first trimester, neural development at the end. Little boys “know” they are boys before age 6, little girls “know” they are girls before age 6 too, and this has nothing to do with their body shape or upbringing, it depends on the neural development that was programmed in long before they were born.
Sometimes – about 1 in 500 according to Professor Lynn Conway, things go wrong to a greater or lesser extent. It’s possible to end up with a wholly male body, but a female brain, and a female mind. The opposite happens too, but as we all start with a basically female template, it’s easier to have a glitch that stops the masculinization of a male than to introduce extra masculinization in a female. That’s why only 1 in 4 transsexuals are “Female to Male”, men literally trapped in female bodies.
Many transsexuals whose “glitch” was partial can live with it, in various degrees of discomfort. But in at least 1 in 7 cases, or about 1 in 3500 people, the “glitch” is not partial, it’s complete. These people, normal men or women who happen to have the wrong shaped body for their brains and minds, get a very severe degree of discomfort indeed. And it gets worse with age. Their brains just don’t work very well with the hormonal blood chemistry they have, and their instinctive behavior is all wrong. Oddly enough, this has little to do with their sexual preference : many such women actually become ostensibly “lesbian” as the result of all the male hormones in their system, and the outside world thinks they’re normal, straight males.
There’s no “cure” for this congenital condition, but there is an effective treatment that’s got a 97% improvement rate. That is to alter the sufferer’s body with Hormones, and largely change it so it conforms to the brain’s setup. But HRT (Hormone Replacement Therapy) can only do so much, some surgical “detail work” is usually required so that the sufferer can look normal, and resume their place in society, but as a member of the opposite sex. The one they’ve always truly been, inside, since long before their birth.
It’s just a minor, and quite common, congenital abnormality. Unfortunately, it has far-reaching societal effects. Today, the problem is often picked up early enough so that intervention occurs during or shortly after puberty. But our knowledge of this syndrome is relatively recent, and due to the maternal instinct, a lot of transsexual women (those with male bodies) who were born in the 40’s, 50’s, 60’s or even 70’s are married and with children. As the discomfort gets worse with age, many are forced to “transition” at average age 45 no matter what the effect on their loved ones or careers, or suffer permanent and crippling psychological damage. But 45 is an average, some can last till 60, others have to transition before 30.
/quote
A good place to learn about the biological realities is at Darwin Central, the discussion forum
http://forum.darwincentral.org/viewtopic.php?t=1532
which deals with the raw evidence, and the various psychiatric hypotheses (not backed by any evidence whatsover) that are in competition with the biological theory (backed up by less evidence than we’re comfortable with).
Regarding
What manner of delusion could prompt one to say to his Creator, “Hey, you’re wrong! You made a mistake. I know better than you and I’m going to permanently correct your error.”
You’re right: it’s no more a delusion than any other congenital anomaly, such as a malformed heart valve or cleft palate. Or do you believe that any surgery to correct congenital abnormalities implies the Almighty makes mistakes? Be consistent, at least.
I don’t blame you for your ignorance – most people, including many medical professionals and nearly all clergymen, don’t know this stuff. Although a biological origin was long hypothesised, there was no good, concrete evidence available until 1996. Dynamic MRI and various autopsy results since then have universally confirmed the original findings, the “woman trapped in a man’s body” is not just a cliche: you get female pattern brains in male bodies, and the reverse, and guess what, boys and girls are different, they think and emote differently.
Trying to be one when you’re the other feels un-natural and perverse, no matter what your genitalia. No matter what pressure society and your own personal moral beliefs put on you to conform, eventually, you crack.
Contrary to your post, Travis *is* the most important person in this whole situation. He will end up in one of three terribly unfair situations: as a boy whose Father killed himself: as a boy whose Father is a shambling Zombie in an institution, brain damaged beyond repair by too many years with the wrong neurochemistry and hormones – and who can do nothing but cry uncontrollably when not sedated; or the boy whose “Father” is a woman.
Tough choices : which one would you pick? For at least 1 in 10,000 guys are born in female bodies. It could have happened to you – you’d feel exactly as you do now, but you would have had to do the female act all your life, or be labelled Freak, Pervert, and probably cast out from your family and your Church as a sinner, irretrievably damned and to be shunned.
I try not to stand out, to “blend in”. It’s risky “outing” myself. But your previous posts indicate that you’re a decent enough person, someone who tries to be Christian, and who maybe might look at the medical evidence before casting the first stone. And feel free to talk to your Pastor about this, get him to look at the evidence too.
Not so very long ago, those born with a common congenital abnormality, a cleft palate, were looked on as the spawn of satan. When corrective surgery was first made possible, many were against it because “God does not make mistakes” and to intervene was blasphemous.
We still hear the “God does not make mistakes” argument today.
Zoe Brain - February 28, 2007 at 2:52 am
The reaction of the municipal leaders on this is absolutely amazing – I did not know that being male was a pre-requisite for the position of City Manager. Look at it this way, Ms. Stanton was actually born female, but was mistakenly assigned male because her sex assignment at birth is based on the shape of the infant’s external genitalia and not on the way the individual’s brain developed. The accepted method of treating and curing the dissonance between the brain development and the genital development is based on the administration of hormone therapy and surgical correction of the individual’s genitals.
The idea that a perfectly effective employee who happens to be treated for a medical condition that has nothing to do with job performance is getting fired for getting the appropriate treatment is medieval.
The idea, advanced by the blogger, that the individual who seeks treatment for this medical condition is somehow self-centered and does not care for her child, is absurd.
The reason we need better laws protecting human rights for people with this medical condition, is exactly because of the ignorance and prejudice exhibited by the citizens and civic leaders of Largo – their reaction here is pretty much similar to that of the citizens of the City of Sodom when presented with strangers or people who are different from themselves, (Read the Genesis story carefully and you will conclude that the men of Sodom were not gay, they were inhospitable – just like these people in Largo!)
If the people of Largo were Christian, they would know all about Isaiah 56:5, Mt 19:12 and Acts 8, so they wouldn’t have any problem at all with people who have Harry Benjamin Syndrome (one of the types of “eunuch” enumerated by Jesus in the Matthew quote). Their ignorance is abominable but will be no excuse on Judgment Day.
Joann
Joann Prinzivalli - February 28, 2007 at 6:32 pm