I'd like to continue the race/gender comparison. I agree with Valterain1. Changing your sex changes your functionality. I'd like to be straightforward... If you want to be a girl (have girl parts etc.) It's different than wanting to be a different race. Changing your race will only change your social standing, which is selfish. Changing your sex is more of a personal issue. Ele, when you said, "Would you call people who are born male, and hate being male sexually bias?" I immediately rethought my reasoning. That was a great point. I would say that yes, they are sexually bias. I would, however, that that sexual bias isn't to such a bad degree as the racial bias is.

People who are transracial don't do it just to get better social standing - and guess what, unless you are in a very specific country and you are part of a specific oppressed minority then you won't change social standing, and I'm quite skeptical as to whether you could do so just by saying "no no, I'm not that race".

It may be possible to raise that argument in this case, since the woman in question did change her race so she could get a job, but in general I think that is incorrect.

Women and men are treated differently - more so than people of different races. If a man becomes a woman to improve social standing, it's the same as a white becoming black. I don't think you can make a distinction.

But besides that, is there any point to people swapping and choosing race/gender/sexuality based on the requirements of the task at hand? Should men become women before going on a boat - just in case it sinks they can get on the lifeboat a bit faster? Should a white turn black when they are walking through a black neighbourhood to avoid hate crime? I think that's a preposterous situation.

Just saw in my news feed a related story with the headline "Becoming disabled by choice, not chance: ‘Transabled’ people feel like impostors in their fully working bodies".


What are our thoughts on transabled people? Do we hate them, as many people hated the transracials? Or are we accepting and tolerant of this form of body diversity?

No, they're stupid. If nothing's physically wrong with you, then saying otherwise is what we used to call, once upon a time, "lying". They're liars, we've just grown more accepting of people's lies.

Also, in a way, they're lying to themselves.
But they believe it.

Believing this lie is the condition, I do think this is a mental illness and if it isn't, it's just a special snowflake syndrome.

I don't hate transracial people, but they are sick people in need of professional help. It's rude to abuse them or call them stupid. Some of them may be attention seekers, but many are genuinely ill.

If someone breaks their arm and says "this is who I am, I identify as trans-broke-arm" there's clearly something wrong with them. It's not a question of being accepting or tolerant, it's a question of allowing mentally ill people confuse their delusions with reality.

Involuntary treatment for trans* should be treated the same as any other mental illness, eg schizophrenia.

I believe that it is wrong that she lied to portray herself as a different race for her own benefit.

Realistically, it doesnt matter how many surgeries, therapies, hormones or other scientific procedures you put yourself through. Whatever you are born as in terms of gender and race are going to be your gender and race.

You can identify as whatever you want to, but genetically and biologically you are still whatever you were born as.

Gum, what do you think of her being forced to resign for being the wrong race?

Theoretically gender and race shouldn't matter for a job, so lying about your race (or in her case, being 'transracial') shouldn't matter either.

While racial discrimination (and all discrimination) is wrong. I can see how this could be compared to lying about your qualifications to make yourself seem more appealing as a prospective employee. Any real job that I have had would fire you for lying about your qualifications.

So basically I think she shouldnt have been forced to resign, but at the same time I can see why they forced her to resign.

I'm not sure we should class stupidity as the same thing as mental or neurological disorders.

I'm pretty sure that trans-able can be as much neurological as mental. I am reading a book at the moment about Dr. Oliver Sack's experience with a leg injury. Following surgery on the limb it became completely disassociated from his body image. He lost proprioception along with all other sensations in it. He grew to hate the leg as an impostor and frequently wished that it was amputated. The book is called "a leg to stand on".

Amputees often maintain hallucinatory proprioception in their missing limbs, in fact it is practically necessary for proper recovery to normal life. One example I remember reading about is a man who had his index finger cut off in some accident while it was extended, since then he has struggled to eat because he fears that he will poke his eye out with the extended digit when raising his fork to his mouth.

Basically body dysmorphia can be pretty fucking convincing, you are not a moron for succumbing to its delusion.