There's a pattern here...

Breitbart Editor: Trans Activism a Plot Against Dumb People 

Two of the editors of Breitbart, Neil Munro and Alex Marlow, had a rather bizarre conversation on the Breitbart Daily radio show about transgenderism. They think that activism for trans equality is really about clever people making society too difficult to navigate for dumb people.

 Munro claimed the push for transgender rights is “a preposterous effort by a small bunch of clever, ambitious, selfish people to rewrite the basic rules of society” and that the effort is “deeply damaging to ordinary and low-IQ people who suddenly find themselves without any social rules, without any voice in how people should behave in such a jungle where then only the strongest and cleverest can prosper"

Munro continued, “That’s the goal in the end, to mess up society, to mess up tradition and practice roles for the advantage of the clever and few. It’s a really rotten, rotten thing.”

Source: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/dispatches/2017/08/29/breitbart-editor-trans-activism-plot-dumb-people/#dj88PimuzSOHvIi1.99

“Flat Earth Society” Is Not A Joke–It’s Real And It’s Growing 

Flat Earthers don’t have a very clear idea why NASA would want to convince the globe—or rather, world—of a lie. “It’s not about money,” said Bob Knodel. “They want complete mind control. They want to create two classes: the ultra rich and servants. At that point they would’ve taken over the world, and enslaved the population, and controlled everything.”

Source: http://secondnexus.com/technology-and-innovation/flat-earth-society/

Gloucester County School Board v. G.G - interACT: Advocates for Intersex Youth, et al.

Gloucester County School Board v. G.G - interACT: Advocates for Intersex Youth, et al. (Pdf)
Some highlights: This is, as far as I'm aware, the first court case involving Transgender where the binary nature of "physiological sex" has been challenged. Universally, Intersex people  have always been dismissed as inconsequential, rare one in a zillion cases of no importance. Or against sincerely held Religious belief, so their very existence denied, as it goes against what is still being taught in backwards and creationist biology classes.

    This case raises issues central to amici's mission as advocates for intersex youth. Petitioner maintains that the word “sex” in Title IX must refer only to an Individual’s so-called “physiological” sex, rather than the sex with which an individual identifies and lives every day. This is so, Petitioner argues, because “physiological” sex—purportedly unlike gender identity—is binary, objective, and self-evident. The intersex youth for whom amici advocate are a living refutation of this argument.

    Petitioner’s simplistic view of “physiological” sex is demonstrably inaccurate as a matter of human biology. Moreover, it demeans many thousands of intersex youth by erasing their bodies and lives and placing them outside the recognition of the law. Physicians who treat individuals with intersex traits recognize that the key determinant of how individuals navigate sex designations in their lives is their gender identity—their internal sense of belonging to a particular gender.

    Amici Have a strong interest in ensuring that The Court does not endorse Petitioner’s misguided View of “physiological” sex, and in seeing the Court interpret Title IX in a way that respects all children.

This brief argues that in cases of Intersex, Gender Identity is the only feasible way of determining anyone's sex. Rather than relying on handwaving and assertion, or religious texts, it shows that scientifically, there is no bright, distinct touchstone reliant on objective facts other than Gender Identity. It may not be perfect, but it's by far the best there is.

    Notably, the legal system has struggled for decades to answer the definitional question that Petitioner simply begs. By the time Title IX was enacted, courts well recognized that “(t)here are several criteria or standards which may be relevant in determining the sex of an individual.”
    M.T. v. J.T., 355 A.2d 204, 206–08 (N.J. App. Div. 1976) (listing chromosomes, external genitalia, gonads, secondary sex characteristics, and hormones, as well as gender identity).

     Commentators have noted the “variability of standards that courts employ” in making such determinations.

     Even courts in the same jurisdiction have disagreed about how to determine sex when physiological features do not align.

         Petitioner and its amici also assert that “physiological” sex has the virtue of being an “objective” classification. Pet. Br. at 32; McHugh Br. at 3–6, 12–13.

    Gender identity, they suggest, is “fuzzy and mercurial,” id. at 8, while “physiological” sex simply is. But the foregoing discussion should make clear that this assertion is similarly flawed. An intersex student’s "physiological” sex may depend entirely on which Physiological trait one chooses to privilege. Indeed, because of the diversity of medical perspectives, trained experts can and do disagree on the “correct” sex to assign to an intersex child.

    Interpreting “sex” to refer to a student’s gender identity would avoid (or at least mitigate) these problems. Unlike “physiological” sex, all parties appear to agree on what gender identity means: it is “[an] individual’s ‘innate sense of being male or female.’” Pet. Br. at 36; cf. Resp. Br. at 2 (similar). It is not subject to competing definitions depending on which expert or court is consulted. Moreover, unlike “physiological” sex, a student’s gender identity by definition cannot be subject to differences in medical opinion: each student is the ultimate arbiter of their own gender identity, as they (and they alone) experience it first-hand.

Moreover, at the time Congress passed Title IX, they either knew, or should have known, that Intersex people exist.

    Accordingly, when Congress enacted the provision at issue here, it knew—or, at minimum, should have Known—that not all students could be straightforwardly categorized as “male” or “female” based on Their anatomy alone. Congress could not have believed otherwise without ignoring millennia of Western history, science, and law.

Certainly by the time the Americans with Disabilities Act was passed, they knew.

So, how does this situation affect Intersex kids? One example. A kid with XX/XY mosaicism, one of the syndromes that can cause a partial, apparent natural sex change.

    (I) was in a boys’ restroom, and someone saw that I went in there, and then complained to my counselor, who then said “Well, you can’t use the boys’ restroom, so you have to use the girls’ restroom.” And I was like “ok, fine, whatever.” But ... there (were) athen complaints that I was using the girls’ restroom. And I was told, “Well, you can use the nurse’s restroom.”

    Now, ... the nurse was on the complete opposite side of the entire building .... So if I was in the middle of class, I would have to leave, and I would be gone for 10-15 minutes, so of course my teachers didn’t like that. So I was told “You can’t use the nurse’s restroom .... There is a single-stall restroom in the special education area, which is near where your classroom(s) are, so you can use that one.” And I was like “fine, ok.” And I used that one for a bit and was then told that I couldn’t use that one....

    At that (point)... I was told “Well, you don’t Have a full school schedule, so you can just hold It.” So yeah, for the last semester, at least, I just wasn’t allowed to use the restroom at the high school at all.

Unfortunately... It has been since February 2016 the Republican National Committee dogma  that, and I quote

A person’s sex is defined as the physical condition of being male or female, which is determined at conception, identified at birth by a person’s anatomy, recorded on their official birth certificate, and can be confirmed by DNA testing;

What do we do when not merely a major political party, but the one controlling the House, the Senate, the Presidency, a large majority of state governorships and legislatures, soon to be the Supreme Court and a majority of Federal judicial appointments, when this party has as an article of Faith something as counterfactual as "Pi = 3" or "The Earth is Flat"?

SrY and 46,XX men

It has often been claimed that "DNA" or "Genes" or "Chromosomes" - the three words often used interchangeably - define what sex someone "really" is. That they are the very definition of sex.

There have even been attempts to enshrine this principle in law.

Reality differs.

A case report of an XX male with complete masculinization but absence of the SrY gene
Ghalia Abou Alchamat, Marwan Alhlabi, Muhyiddin Issa , Middle East Fertility Society Journal January 2010, Vol.15(1):51–53,

34-year old man with complete masculinization and a history of several years of infertility was referred to us for genetic reviewing. His semen analysis showed azoospermia. Conventional chromosomal analysis indicates a 46,XX karyotype, molecular analyses excluded the presence of SRY (the sex-determining region of the Y chromosome) gene. This case is one of the rare cases reported in the literature in whom testicular differentiation and complete virilization were found in a 46,XX chromosomal constitution, with the absence of SRY gene. This finding suggests that other genes downstream from SRY play an important role in sex determination. Through reporting this rare case and reviewing previous literatures, the aim of this report is to highlight the value of genetically screening all males with azoospermia who present for evaluation of infertility, since the phenotype does not always correlate with the genotype.

Tests for sex that rely on the presence of a Y "male" chromosome don't work. Some men don't have them. Tests for sex that rely on the presence of the SrY "male" gene somewhere on one of the other chromosomes also don't work. Some men don't have those either.

So why do we call these "male" genes or "male" chromosomes? Why do we, including those of us who know better, sometimes say someone with 46,XY chromosomes is "genetically male"? Because of laziness, basically. Imprecision. All but 1 in 300 men are 46,XY. That's most of them. Not all, and there are plenty of women who are 46,XY too, and some of those even give birth to 46,XY daughters.

This paper comes to the conclusion that there are other genes that may cause masculinisation. We know that to be true, DAX9 for example. But we also know that hormonal environment in the womb, absent anything unusual in the genome, can also cause the phenotype, the thing being built, to be uncorrelated with the genotype, the plan.

Trying to define anyone's sex purely from the genome is a philosophical or ideological issue, requiring much handwaving and dismissal of the existence of exceptions, or even outright denial that exceptions can exist, for philosophical reasons.

At best, we can say that DNA/Chromosomes/Genes determine sex..   except for the many cases where they don't. A good guide, usually true, but not completely reliable, so cannot possibly be used to "define" what sex anyone is.

Transsexualism as an Intersex Condition

Transsexualism as an Intersex Condition, M.Diamond. Transsexuality in Theology and Neuroscience: Findings, Controversies and Perspectives), ed. by Gerhard Schreiber, Berlin and Boston: De Gruyter 2016.

While more conclusive experimental data in support of the thesis presented is desirable, two recent publications have appeared that amplify and review much of the material discussed above, a paper entitled “Evidence Supporting the Biologic Nature of Gender Identity” and Bevan’s book with the title “The Psychobiology of Transsexualism and Transgenderism” (Bevan, 2015; Saraswat, Weinand, & Safer, 2015). To this investigator there seems evidence enough to consider trans persons as individuals intersexed in their brains and scant evidence to think their gender transition is a simple and unwarranted social choice.

An Issue Whose Time Has Come: Sex/Gender Influences on Nervous System Function

An Issue Whose Time Has Come: Sex/Gender Influences on Nervous System Function
Journal of Neuroscience Research, vol 95 1-2, Jan/Feb 2017

"Be careful, it's the third rail.” I received this strong advice to steer clear of studying sex differences from a senior colleague around the year 2000 when my research into brain mechanisms of emotional memory began drawing me into the issue of sex differences—or better yet, sex influences—on brain function. And in a way, he was right. For the vast majority of his long and distinguished neuroscience career, exploring sex influences was indeed a terrific way for a brain scientist not studying reproductive functions to lose credibility at best, and at worst, become a pariah in the eyes of the neuroscience mainstream......

Yup.

In Summary

Too many times I've seen assertions in Op-Eds and comments that "there is no evidence for a biological origin for transsexuality". Sometimes it's "no evidence whatsover",  sometimes "no convincing evidence", "no peer-reviewed evidence". The impression is given that there's only one or two papers written by pay-for-comment idealogues in vanity press publications, if anything, and probably not even that.


The truth is rather different. Evidence Supporting the Biologic Nature of Gender Identity Saraswat et al, Endocrine Practice: February 2015, Vol. 21, No. 2, pp. 199-204.

Objective: To review current literature that supports a biologic basis of gender identity.

Methods: A traditional literature review.
Results: Evidence that there is a biologic basis for gender identity primarily involves (1) data on gender identity in patients with disorders of sex development (DSDs, also known as differences of sex development) along with (2) neuroanatomical differences associated with gender identity.

Conclusions: Although the mechanisms remain to be determined, there is strong support in the literature for a biologic basis of gender identity.

 "Strong support" - like there's "Strong support" for the theory that the Earth isn't flat. It's about as close to certainty as you'll find in any scientific publication.

Theory Predicts....

Something that I think will stretch everyone's boundaries.

"Brain Sex" theory says the following -
1. The human brain is not homogenous
2. Some bits are sexually dimorphic - though they may also conform to neither stereotype
3. Some of the sexual dimorphism is due to current hormone levels
4. Some of the sexual dimorphism is set before birth, and will develop within narrow bounds later
5. Sexual dimorphism is anything but binary
6. Certain parts of the brain determine gender identity (by organisation-activation)
7. Certain parts of the brain determine body map, in particular, appropriate genitalia
8. Certain parts of the brain determine sexual orientation - gynephillic, androphillic, both, neither.
9. Certain parts of the brain determine sense of smell,  dichotic hearing etc
10. Certain parts of the brain determine play patterns as children
11. Certain parts of the brain determine interests and talents as adults

Now for some crucial bits

13. If some sexually dimorphic parts of the body are masculinised, usually most other bits are too to some degree. This applies to the body as a whole, but also the different parts of the brain. But, and this cannot be emphasised too highly, there are degrees, correlation is statistical not absolute, it's usual for some parts to be closer to a male rather than female stereotype, and other parts the reverse. There's no such thing as a "male brain" or "female brain". "Male" and "Female" don't refer to Platonic Ideals, just patterns found more commonly in one sex or the other.

What this means - some predictions.

Lots of men where everything lines up - male gender identity, male genitalia, gynephilia, male play patterns when young, "typically masculine interests" as adults, typically male senses of smell and hearing, and so on, with female equivalents.

Non-op trans women.

Girls with CAH who show male-typical play patterns and later often gynephillia (but female gender identity)

Boys who show female-typical play patterns and later often androphilia (but male gender identity)

And men like this. Male gender identity, usually androphilia, and non-masculine genital body map. "Nullos".

Certified Christian Counselors and Post Modernism - Toads included

From The Association of Certified Biblical Counselors Membership Covenant

God’s goodness allows that secular psychology may provide accurate research and make observations that are helpful in understanding counseling issues. Because unbelievers suppress the truth of God in unrighteousness the efforts of secular psychology at interpreting these observations lead to misunderstanding.

Because their observations are distorted by a secular apprehension of life their efforts at counseling ministry will be in competition with biblical counseling. They cannot be integrated with the faith once for all delivered to the saints.

From The Christian Worldview of Psychology and Counseling, Journal of Biblical Medical Ethics, Vol 10, No 1

We affirm that the scientific method is useful in carrying out the creation mandate of Genesis 1:28 to subdue and have dominion over creation when the investigators have Biblical presuppositions and when the Bible does not directly give us the answers we seek; that the use of the scientific method is entirely controlled by the presuppositions of the investigators, and therefore, the results are a pronouncement of faith rather than of scientific fact; and that the faith nature of the results of scientific investigation is evidenced by the investigators' proselytizing intent, that is, their attempt to transform man into their idea of what man should be.

We deny that the scientific method can ever be applied in psychology without its being thoroughly determined by the presuppositions of the investigators.

From Table Talk (words of Martin Luther)

"Reason is the greatest enemy that faith has; it never comes to the aid of spiritual things, but -- more frequently than not -- struggles against the divine Word, treating with contempt all that emanates from God."

"Reason must be deluded, blinded, and destroyed. Faith must trample underfoot all reason, sense, and understanding, and whatever it sees must be put out of sight and ... know nothing but the word of God."

So if you come across a "Certified Christian Counselor", you know they've had 30 hours of training in denying the existence of objective reality, in ignoring "so called facts" and to whom any scientific knowledge is anathema. Snake-oil merchants.

Experience has proved the toad to be endowed with valuable qualities. If you run a stick through three toads, and, after having dried them in the sun, apply them to any pestilent tumor, they draw out all the poison, and the malady will disappear.

Ibid

They're big on "unclean spirits" and magic spells of course.

We affirm that creatures who have only a spiritual dimension exist, that some serve God faithfully (angels) and others are in active rebellion against God (demons), and that the latter may possess unregenerate persons and oppress or influence regenerate persons.

We deny that the Christian counselor may neglect the reality of demons, and that personal problems, organic or non-organic, are never the result of the influence of or possession by demons.

The Christian Worldview of Psychology and Counseling

So why the "politics" tag? From The Friendly Atheist:

In a few weeks, members of the Association of Certified Biblical Counselors will gather in Louisville, Kentucky for their first-ever conference. While the overall focus is on homosexuality, a pre-conference will deal with transgender issues specifically. But no trans people will actually be present — and the speakers will be required to state from the beginning that trans identities aren’t real.

It's a war council, to plan political action - and get the money coming in. Some who don't know the meaning of "Certified Christian Counselor" might give it credence as something scientifically valid.
If you come across such a person, it might be worthwhile giving them a link to this post. It has URLs in so they can check the nature of these people themselves, they don't have to take my word for it. Trust - but verify.

Caitlyn Jenner's Debut in Vanity Fair Spotlights Transgender Issues

Caitlyn Jenner's Debut in Vanity Fair Spotlights Transgender Issues



If you want to read just one article that explains all the major issues, medical, social, and legal - this is it.

McHugh's "Surgical Sex" Revisited

In which Dr Paul McHugh's 2004 article Surgical Sex is rebutted by.... Dr Paul McHugh's 2004 article Surgical Sex.

Why did Johns Hopkins stop performing sex reassignment surgery? The obvious reason is that their surgeon left, and wasn't replaced. They now refer patients to other surgeons after assessing suitability. The surgery is now no longer a "research" effort, but part of mainstream medical practice.
But there's more to it than that.

From McHugh's work, Psychiatric Misadventures :

I happen to know about this (sex-reassignment surgery) because Johns Hopkins was one of the places in the United States where this practice was given its start. It was part of my intention, when I arrived in Baltimore in 1975, to help end it.

Verdict first, trial afterwards.

The Meyer study McHugh commissioned in support of his pre-determined aim, and used as the primary evidential basis for the conclusions in Surgical Sex  was, well, it has figures on a scale of -8 to 5 with values of 19. For a scathing critique of just some of the more obvious nonsense that means it should never have passed even the most cursory peer review, due to the ridiculous figures in it, see
Sex Reassignment. Thirty Years of International Follow-up Studies After Sex Reassignment Surgery: A Comprehensive Review, 1961-1991 Friedemann Pfäfflin, Astrid Junge (Translated from German into American English by Roberta B. Jacobson and Alf B. Meier),
specifically
Chapter 3: Follow-up studies in chronological order : Meyer & Reter, 1979 Dept. of Psychiatry, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA

"The tables and figures shared by the authors do not seem serious because after the scoring table a maximum of only eight minus and five plus points can be achieved, but in the results table (p. 1014) a range from -18 to +19 points is given. How these figures came about remains totally in the dark....One asks the question how it came about that a renowned professional publication published such opaque figure material."

Junk Science from the "Dark Age of Psychiatry".

McHugh adduces in support of his secondary thesis, that genes determine sexual identity, an article by Reiner,
Discordant Sexual Identity in Some Genetic Males with Cloacal Exstrophy Assigned to Female Sex at Birth by Reiner and Gearhart, N Engl J Med. 2004 January 22; 350(4): 333–341.
McHugh writes:

"Reiner concluded from this work that the sexual identity followed the genetic constitution. "

Reiner did no such thing. He stated that sexual identity followed the hormonally-directed path in foetu.
 
1 in 300 men aren't 46,XY, they do not have a "male" genetic constitution (as McHugh puts it). Some women do. Genes are only important in that they *usually* (not always) cause a specific hormonal environment in the womb.
 
It's important to make the distinction because hormonal environment during pregnancy can change, resulting in mixed anatomy, part female, part male. It can also be completely out of synch with "genetic constitution", resulting in XY females and XX males.
This explains the situation, and why McHugh's claim that "genetic constitution" dictates "sex identity" is very obviously a misinterpretation of the evidence.
Sexual Hormones and the Brain: An Essential Alliance for Sexual Identity and Sexual Orientation Garcia-Falgueras A, Swaab DF Endocr Dev. 2010;17:22-35 

The fetal brain develops during the intrauterine period in the male direction through a direct action of testosterone on the developing nerve cells, or in the female direction through the absence of this hormone surge. In this way, our gender identity (the conviction of belonging to the male or female gender) and sexual orientation are programmed or organized into our brain structures when we are still in the womb. However, since sexual differentiation of the genitals takes place in the first two months of pregnancy and sexual differentiation of the brain starts in the second half of pregnancy, these two processes can be influenced independently, which may result in extreme cases in trans-sexuality. This also means that in the event of ambiguous sex at birth, the degree of masculinization of the genitals may not reflect the degree of masculinization of the brain. There is no indication that social environment after birth has an effect on gender identity or sexual orientation.

Note that McHugh got it partly right -

"Male hormones sexualize the brain and the mind."

Correct!

"Having looked at the Reiner and Meyer studies, we in the Johns Hopkins Psychiatry Department eventually concluded that human sexual identity is mostly built into our constitution by the genes we inherit ..."

WRONG - this contradicts the previous statement, that it's hormonal environment that's the issue

" ... and the embryogenesis we undergo."

Correct again.

Moving outside the field of psychiatry, let's look at physical anatomy. If embryogenesis and hormonal environment rather than "genetic constitution" is key, if "male hormones (in the womb) sexualise the brain and the mind" as McHugh says, then there has to be physical, objectively measurable evidence of this.
 
If genetic constitution is key - as McHugh also says, contradicting himself, it is impossible for "genetic males" to have female brain structures.
If hormonal environment is key, then we'd observe female brain structures in all those with a female sex identity, and only those with a female sex identity, regardless of genetic constitution.
The experiment to determine which is correct is simple.

 A sex difference in the human brain and its relation to transsexuality. by Zhou et al Nature (1995) 378:68–70.

   Our study is the first to show a female brain structure in genetically male transsexuals and supports the hypothesis that gender identity develops as a result of an interaction between the developing brain and sex hormones

Note the date. 1995. Twenty years ago. Nine years before McHugh's article.
In terms of what this means for patients.... here's McHugh again.

"Proper care, including good parenting, means helping the child through the medical and social difficulties presented by the genital anatomy.... This effort must continue to the point where the child can see the problem of a life role more clearly as a sexually differentiated individual emerges from within. Then as the young person gains a sense of responsibility for the result, he or she can be helped through any surgical constructions that are desired. Genuine informed consent derives only from the person who is going to live with the outcome and cannot rest upon the decisions of others who believe they “know best.”

ABSOLUTELY! This applies to both Transsexual and Intersex children. Those who believe they "know best" because of religious conviction or whatever should not be allowed to mandate un-necessary treatment, or prevent necessary treatment. Moreover, as sexual identity is based on biology, and biology is anything but a strict binary, the sexual differentiation may not be binary either. Some will be most comfortable conforming to a binary model, while others will find that model neither comfortable nor appropriate. Similarly, surgical options should be offered, but never required. The patient may be fine with having unusual genitalia - their body, their choice.

 Back to McHugh again...

" I have learned from the experience that the toughest challenge is trying to gain agreement to seek empirical evidence for opinions about sex and sexual behavior, even when the opinions seem on their face unreasonable. One might expect that those who claim that sexual identity has no biological or physical basis would bring forth more evidence to persuade others. But as I’ve learned, there is a deep prejudice in favor of the idea that nature is totally malleable. "

 Again, completely agree in all respects. The problem is that McHugh states that

1. Sexual Identity results from hormonal factors (true)
2. Sexual Identity instead results from "genetic constitution" (false)

and also

1. Sexual Identity always without exception results from biological factors (true)
2. Sexual Identity in Transsexuals is a "mental illness" with no physical basis (false)

Bottom line:

Male–to–female transsexuals have female neuron numbers in a limbic nucleus. Kruiver et al J Clin Endocrinol Metab (2000) 85:2034–2041

"The present findings of somatostatin neuronal sex differences in the BSTc and its sex reversal in the transsexual brain clearly support the paradigm that in transsexuals sexual differentiation of the brain and genitals may go into opposite directions"

Young Adult Psychological Outcome After Puberty Suppression and Gender Reassignment

Young Adult Psychological Outcome After Puberty Suppression and Gender Reassignment De Vries et al Pediatrics peds.2013-2958; published ahead of print September 8, 2014,

RESULTS: After gender reassignment, in young adulthood, the GD was alleviated and psychological functioning had steadily improved. Well-being was similar to or better than same-age young adults from the general population. Improvements in psychological functioning were positively correlated with postsurgical subjective well-being.

When Worlds Collide.

World-views anyway.

 Here are two therapeutic handbooks, both widely used in psychological counseling.

The first is
The Christian World View of Psychology and Counseling
www.reformation.net/COR_Docs/Christian_Worldview_Psychology.pdf
Mr. George C. Scipione, Th.M., M.A., Chairman
Dr. Lawrence Crabb, Ph.D., Co-Chairman
Dr. Ed Payne, M.D., Co-Chairman
With contributions by members of the Psychology and Counseling Committee of The Coalition on Revival
Dr. Jay Grimstead, D.Min., General Editor
Mr. E. Calvin Beisner, M.A., Assistant to the General Editor

6. Scientific Method
We affirm that the scientific method is useful in carrying out the creation mandate of Genesis 1:28 to subdue and have dominion over creation when the investigators have Biblical presuppositions and when the Bible does not directly give us the answers we seek; that the use of the scientific method is entirely controlled by the presuppositions of the investigators and therefore the results are a pronouncement of faith rather than of scientific fact; and that the faith nature of the results of scientific investigation is evidenced by the investigators’ proselytizing intent, that is, their attempt to transform man into their idea of what man should be.
We deny that the scientific method can ever be applied in psychology without its being thoroughly determined by the presuppositions of the investigators.
...
23 Angels and Demons
We affirm that creatures who have only a spiritual dimension exist, that some serve God faithfully(angels) and others are in active rebellion against God (demons), and that the latter may possess unregenerate persons and oppress or influence regenerate persons.
We deny that the Christian counselor may neglect the reality of demons, and that personal problems, organic or non-organic, are never the result of the influence of or possession by demons.

In this world view, scientific results are a pronouncement of faith, not facts. Evil Spirits and Demons exist, and can even "possess" people.

Here's another handbook, and a quite different world view. One where objective evidence exists, where facts matter. One devoid of ghosts and goblins.


Standards of Care for the Health of Transsexual, Transgender, and Gender Nonconforming People
The World Professional Association for Transgender Health
7th Version 2011
www.wpath.org/uploaded_files/140/files/IJT%20SOC,%20V7.pdf

Mental health professionals need to be certified or licensed to practice in a given country according to that country’s professional regulations (Fraser, 2009b; Pope & Vasquez, 2011). Professionals must adhere to the ethical codes of their professional licensing or certifying organizations in all of their work with transsexual, transgender, and gender nonconforming clients.

Treatment aimed at trying to change a person’s gender identity and lived gender expression to become more congruent with sex assigned at birth has been attempted in the past (Gelder & Marks, 1969; Greenson, 1964), yet without success, particularly in the long term (Cohen-Kettenis & Kuiper, 1984; Pauly, 1965). Such treatment is no longer considered ethical.

If mental health professionals are uncomfortable with or inexperienced in working with transsexual, transgender, and gender nonconforming individuals and their families, they should refer clients to a competent provider or, at minimum, consult with an expert peer. If no local practitioners are available, consultation may be done via telehealth methods, assuming local requirements for distance consultation are met.

The results of using the first rather than the second are often fatal. Literally.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=27912326

In the note, Alcorn details the difficulty she said she faced growing up.

"The life I would've lived isn't worth living in… because I'm transgender," read a portion of the post. "I could go into detail explaining why I feel that way, but this note is probably going to be lengthy enough as it is. To put it simply, I feel like a girl trapped in a boy's body, and I've felt that way ever since I was 4," the note states.
...

The note reportedly written by Alcorn detailed her experience coming out as gay and wrote that her peers and school were receptive, but that her parents were not. She said she was taken to Christian therapists, who did not help her overcome her depression.

"After 10 years of confusion I finally understood who I was. I immediately told my mom, and she reacted extremely negatively, telling me that it was a phase, that I would never truly be a girl, that God doesn't make mistakes, that I am wrong," the note states.

The only way I will rest in peace is if one day transgender people aren't treated the way I was," reads the post. "They're treated like humans, with valid feelings and human rights. Gender needs to be taught about in schools, the earlier the better. My death needs to mean something."

"Christian Counseling" kills Trans kids. Not an opinion, a fact, with a mountain of corpses as evidence for that. Now one more.

Superstition,  Snake-oil and Witchdoctors have no place in psychological therapy. They should be prevented from killing children.

From the religious site, http://catholicexchange.com

"Now I am going to say something that may seem harsh but remember I am talking to you about objective reality – where the rubber meets the road. It is better to die than to offend God."

When dealing with a case possibly involving suicidal ideation, I feel such a statement, however sincere and well-meant, is likely to be counterproductive, and that death is in fact not a more desirable outcome compared to mainstream medical treatment.

At least some "Christian Counselors" differ on that.
 

Satellite Separation

12 years ago... Australia had a Space Programme.

The video shows booster separation of the Japanese H2A at 12:15:40, the Japanese ADEOS-2 at 12:16:20, the Australian FedSat at 12:16:40, the Japanese MicroLabSat at 12:17:00 and WEOS at 12:17:20

That was 35 years since the previous Australian Space Programme, and the previous Australian Spacecraft, WRESAT in 1967. We were world leaders then, just as FedSat is still the most complex and capable MicroSat ever launched. And just as with FedSat, the powers that be decided that our future was in digging holes in the ground, not out in space.

Evolution IS a Blind Watchmaker

This is a good illustration of the principles involved in my PhD work.

Only I'm attempting to evolve more efficient settings for mutation rate and population size, so it's about not just genetic algorithms, but meta-genetic algorithms. Evolving more efficient evolution.

Sex differences in the structural connectome of the human brain

Sex differences in the structural connectome of the human brain Ingalhalikar et al PNAS ; published ahead of print December 2, 2013

Sex differences in human behavior show adaptive complementarity: Males have better motor and spatial abilities, whereas females have superior memory and social cognition skills. Studies also show sex differences in human brains but do not explain this complementarity. In this work, we modeled the structural connectome using diffusion tensor imaging in a sample of 949 youths (aged 8–22 y, 428 males and 521 females) and discovered unique sex differences in brain connectivity during the course of development. Connection-wise statistical analysis, as well as analysis of regional and global network measures, presented a comprehensive description of network characteristics. In all supratentorial regions, males had greater within-hemispheric connectivity, as well as enhanced modularity and transitivity, whereas between-hemispheric connectivity and cross-module participation predominated in females. However, this effect was reversed in the cerebellar connections. Analysis of these changes developmentally demonstrated differences in trajectory between males and females mainly in adolescence and in adulthood. Overall, the results suggest that male brains are structured to facilitate connectivity between perception and coordinated action, whereas female brains are designed to facilitate communication between analytical and intuitive processing modes. 

A Matter of Medical Education

Key points to note:

• Transgender medicine is rarely taught in medical curricula
• Prior to the unit, 38% of students self-reported anticipated discomfort with caring for transgender patients.
• Even in an endocrinology unit, prior to adding this subject, 5% of students reported that the treatment was not a part of conventional medicine.

1 in 20 new endocrinologists are completely clueless without unusual training, and they're supposed to be the specialists! Fortunately, it doesn't take much to fill them in.

A simple curriculum content change increased medical student comfort with transgender medicine. Safer JD1, Pearce EN. Endocr Pract. 2013 Jul-Aug;19(4):633-7

Abstract

OBJECTIVE:

A barrier to safe therapy for transgender patients is lack of access to care. Because transgender medicine is rarely taught in medical curricula, few physicians are comfortable with the treatment of transgender conditions. Our objective was to demonstrate that a simple content change in a medical school curriculum would increase students' willingness to care for transgender patients.

METHODS:

Curriculum content was added to the endocrinology unit of the Boston University second-year pathophysiology course regarding rigidity of gender identity, treatment regimens, and monitoring requirements. All medical students received an online, anonymous questionnaire 1 month prior to and 1 month after receiving the transgender teaching. The questionnaire asked about predicted comfort using hormones to treat transgender individuals. Shifts in the views of the second-year students were compared with views of students not exposed to the curriculum change.

RESULTS:

Prior to the unit, 38% of students self-reported anticipated discomfort with caring for transgender patients. In addition, 5% of students reported that the treatment was not a part of conventional medicine. Students in the second-year class were no different than other students. Subsequent to the teaching unit, the second-year students reported a 67% drop in discomfort with providing transgender care (P<.001), and no second-year students reported the opinion that treatment was not a part of conventional medicine.

CONCLUSION:

A simple change in the content of the second-year medical school curriculum significantly increased students' self-reported willingness to care for transgender patients.

Seen on the web

I wish I'd written it. By jnail7

However, it seems clear that you are attempting to follow a Socratic method in engaging in an argument for Biological essentialism. Here is an example of how to accomplish your goal in a form that is more functional to a comment thread than point by point posting.

1) Humans develop from a single cell egg to a complex multicellular organism.

2) The form of human includes various cellular expressions that create organs, tissues, etc. that provide specific functions for survivability and perpetuation of the species, which are universal across the species in general, though may differ in some way individually.

3) One outcome in development from the egg is sexual dimorphism, when the developing fetus's cells organize into a pattern that is labelled male or female, also known as sex differentiation. This differentiation continues at various stages throughout an individual's life.

4) Sex differentiation not only refers to the physical development of the observable body, but also requires that the brain physically in preparation to manage the biological needs (endocrine) for the developing sex and to process sensory input for the body.

5) Development from a single cell to a complex human is far from a perfect process, as evidenced by the variations that are completely benign to those that result in the death of the developing fetus.

6) Variations in the developmental process do result in incomplete or even mismatched sex characteristics that would have been assumed by karyotyping (which is rarely done).

7) Since evidence is easy to obtain showing variation in the sex based development of physical bodies, and evidence also shows variation in development in physical brains, it is not without reason to expect the potential of a variation where the brain develops according to the needs of one sex and the body develops the opposite.

8) Current research is mounting evidence for #7.

So if 7 is true, how would we expect this to manifest from observable behavior?

1) Given that we are culturally reinforced with expected gender norms that encourage some means of expressing one's sex through gender expression (think clothes, behaviors/mannerism, occupational choices, etc.) our cultural understanding of sex is limited by our vocabulary of gender and how we perceive it in others.

2) Instinctively, infants have a drive to mimic behavior that they observe, thus enabling them to learn. However, children demonstrate a preference for mimicking behavior that they identify with. This is where many children start learning gender roles as expressed in their culture.

3) Those whose brain sex matches their body sex have no trouble meeting societal expectations, nor conceive of any issue concerning their own anatomy.

4) Those whose brain sex does not match their body sex have no frame of reference to describe it. Early attempts to mimic the behaviors of the identified sex are likely met with punishment/shaming. For most, this shuts them down and they learn to hide their issue. With no means to discuss what they cannot describe, they reach for the next closest thing, which is the symbol of their desired sex as expressed by those in the opposite gender. Clothes, behavior, etc. become symbolic to the point of becoming the only language available to express/explore their inner identity.

5) worse are those whose brain did not develop completely male or female and they are stuck in some artificial limbo dictated by societal gender norms. Regardless, such people are still human beings, no less than any other. Many wish peace with the conflicts they experience internally. Many have also had to hide because they cannot articulate or communicate their pain in a way that our culture finds meaningful. Some succumb to the pain and take their life.

In the end, whether you believe that transgender is a real physical condition or something simply "in one's head", it does not matter. There is no excuse for denying an individual their humanity or to dismiss them as an "other". Furthermore, look at your view points now and ask yourself, if this is proved to be something physical and "real", what have you accomplished? On the flip side, if it is proved to me to be purely behavioral/cognitive (ie. not physically interlinked from a developmental standpoint), then at least my actions were done with in keeping with the current science and medicine available and my view points subject to reinterpretation based on new evidence.

The Social Construction of Sex

The Social Construction of Sex - Pacific Standard: The Science of Society - Alice Dreger

This, then, brings us to the issue of gender identity. Gender identity can be described as the internal feeling of being a boy, girl, man, woman, or something else. Is gender identity socially constructed—that is, are people taught to feel like one or the other?

When I started doing intersex work,I thought so. I thought we were taught to feel, act, and behave like girls and boys. But I don’t think that anymore. That is to say, sure we’re taught these things, but many of us probably get our core gender identities as much from our biological origins as we do from our gender educations. I’ve met too many people who, in spite of careful gender educations—sometimes even intensive gender educations—just clearly felt the gender assigned to them was the wrong one. I’ve also seen a lot of evidence from intersex that prenatal hormone levels correlate with gender-type behaviors, gender identities, and even sexual orientation. (Correlate, not cause! But correlations can be useful clues to causal factors.)

...

On this note, let me just say this: People who think gender identities, gender roles, and sexual orientations are all socially constructed are the most naive biological determinists I’ve ever seen. They think all human brains are completely without structure when it comes to these things; we all have empty slates in our skulls at birth. No, we don’t! Really!
In fact, I think we can’t know that much about any individual person’s biology without a huge amount of study on that person—and even then, it’s hard to know much. (I think the same is true about an individual person’s social history.) In this sense, I’m much less of a strict biological determinist than the social constructivists people incorrectly lump me with. I happen to think that, for any given child, we can’t predict with certainty what gender identity or sexual orientation she or he will grow up to have, even if the child is raised in a very sex-role-strict culture. Some will go against our best guesses and educational attempts—we know that again from cross-cultural studies, where transgender, lesbian, bi, and gay children and adults show up again and again.

Yup. That sums it up pretty well.

Scientists Discover Children’s Cells Living in Mothers’ Brains - Scientific American

Scientists Discover Children’s Cells Living in Mothers’ Brains - Scientific American

Women may have microchimeric cells both from their mother as well as from their own pregnancies, and there is even evidence for competition between cells from grandmother and infant within the mother.

It's more complicated than most people think. Our bodies are not static, they are performance art. We are not defined completely by our DNA.

You probably missed this. A game changer.

It's a long video. You can't afford to miss it. The world has changed when we weren't looking.

If that's too long to watch, and too full of marketing hype, here's how it works.