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Now We Have Transgender Visibility Day
I find myself strangely welcoming of this “International Transgender Day of Visibility,” a day dedicated to meditation on the maiming and sterilization of mental patients. This is not an abstract issue for me; there was a lesbian couple in my social circle many years ago who arranged a sperm donor, had a child, and then the child’s mother underwent “the process”. She knew that at the end of that process she would not be a man, merely able to more credibly present as a man. To be man-like. Which she felt was a more perfect reflection of her being and would provide their child with a father and a mother. Something closer to normalcy than lesbian parents could offer. This whole chain of events was a plan that they shared at the outset and executed patiently over some years. She weened her child and began the transition.
I have long since lost contact with them. When I think of them I pray for them. The statistics are hard. More than 40% of transgender people have attempted suicide, versus 4.6% of the general US population. Their life-expectancy is reduced by decades following a surgical transition and their medical issues are multiplied.