Quote:

Perhaps, but your DNA is strictly male, is it not?


To be perfectly honest, I never looked at my DNA, so I couldn't tell you for sure. As far as I am concerned it's mostly female.

Quote:

And if you go to a hospital emergency room you tell them you're male but will a lot of prescriptions, right? (so they don't do the wrong treatment)


Actually, it gets stressful every time I have to fill out a form where it asks for female/male. It depends on the circumstances. Sometimes I make arrows or annotations on the forms. Thinking about it, I don't know what treatment would be different for male or female, unless it has something to do with the genitalia... If I ever end up in the emergency room unconscious I hope they figure out what to do without me having to tell them... which is free breast implant surgery.

Quote:

I'm not sure from what perspective it makes sense to objectively switch gender designations (with current medical technology), other than the person in question simply wishes it were so.


That's a very good way to look at it. To the individual it is ultimately irrelevant. All I care about is that I get called Miss or Mam. When I am buying my groceries or get pulled over by the police and I don't want to have to show a male id and have to start explaining my entire life to complete strangers who don't need to know me in such intimacy. It makes it easier for them and for me.

Quote:

In the future it might be possible to make real changes at all levels in the body, but lipstick and hormones are just a minor part of it as far as biology goes.


You are right about the lipstick. But hormones are a huge part of biology. Without testosterone EVERY fetus develops into a female, regardless of male or female dna. It actually happens sometimes. You have a fully developed female, but she won't start menstruating and is infertile. Urban legend has it that Jamie Lee Curtis is one of those cases... she has neither denied nor confirmed.

All the secondary sex characteristics are determined by hormones. As we get old, men lose testosterone and women have less estrogen. The result is that as old people we start looking (and acting) more and more alike.

Hormones are a huge biological component that determines behavior, emotions and sex life. Without testosterone you have no sex drive (even for women). Testosterone levels peaks in males when they are teenagers - remember masturbating 8 times a day, thinking about sex every 15 seconds? Then things started slowing down... sorry, I am making assumptions. Are you male or female?

If you are interested I will be happy to tell you about all the changes that hormones caused for me... if not, I won't bother you with it.

Quote:

I really don't care, as long as no new demands are placed on me as a result: I don't want Yet Another List of Words That Cannot Be Spoken, nor do I want to keep track of Yet Another List of Politically Correct References to Sensitive Groups. It's hard enough keeping track of whether "Negro", "Black" or "African American" is the term to use this week, much less educating myself on such things as "Nappy-Headed" (a term I had never heard until the Imus incident, and might easily have used had I seen it once and gotten the definition & context wrong).


I understand. Usually it's not about terms anyway, it's about the attitude behind the words.

Anyway, thank you for your support.