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Comment by undoware | Hacker News Reader

I'm heartened by the response to this, both on Hacker News and elsewhere.

Being a trans woman in IT is a bit weird -- because I can do incredible things with my mind, I'm off the hook my sisters are on, that makes them have to hook.

Several roommates ago, I literally came home and found that my (also trans) roommate, who in addition to being trans was also dealing with immigration and had recently lost her job and had begun turning tricks at home. Had I not come home early from the university, I wouldn't have known.

And I've always hated the Canadian legal system for making me kick her out. Because just being her roommate, under the previous legislation, would have classified as 'living off the avails' and would have made me legally indistinguishable from her pimp. Just for being her roommate.

That's the sort of pauperizing, soul-crushing bullshit that you never, ever forget.

Also, I'm a big fan of Katrina Pacey, the lawyer mentioned in the article. I've worked with her a few times on activist stuff (I got into sex worker advocacy after my up-close-and-personal. They can't do it themselves, they go to prison when they try. Well, before today. Go Katrina Pacey! Go Canadian legal system!)

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There is a middle ground. It's not "either I work using my brain, or I whore myself out." Many women are waitresses, shopping mall sweepers, store attendants, cashiers, you name it.

And all of those jobs require your brain too, its just that the byproducts of that use are not considered valuable. Lots of innovation in waitressing if you ask them how they do it rather than what it results in.

Fun experiment for you. Go out and get a facial tattoo. Now try to get work. That's still easier than finding honest work when you're transsexual. Don't believe me? I can think of an even more decisive experiment...

Given the immense distress that most trans people seem to experience, I wonder if we (and they) wouldn't be better off if the culture were less supportive of those lifestyles.

I had some inclinations that way as a teenager, and I am SO glad I wasn't living in San Francisco or some other place that would encourage me to "be me".

How could we be less tolerant than we are now, exactly? (Without human rights violations?)

From what I understand, the suicide attempt rate is about fifty percent in that population before transition, so I'd say we're doing a pretty good job of intolerance already.

>the culture were less supportive of those lifestyles.

Perhaps you mean if culture were more supportive of those lifestyles, in adulthood? The best time to experiment is as a teenager - we should encourage that, explore now so your adult decisions are made without hesitation. Not allowing experimentation is how we end up with so much teen suicide, where teens are experiencing confusion and oppression.

I don't even know how to read this. You are happy that society forced you to "cure" yourself?

If a little social pressure was all it took to get you to ignore your "inclinations" I doubt you're on the same spectrum of inclination that the OP finds herself. You also probably shouldn't think that other people with the same inclinations would be as easily influenced by the mere lack of support for the "lifestyle".. which again implies choice rather than certainty.

You're setting up an infalsifiable framework where your worldview must be right (anyone who chooses not to live as trans is not really trans).

But ignoring that, there was definitely something going on with me. In elementary school for history dress up day, I wanted to be Betsy Ross. In college, I always hated dealing with chest-thumping groups of males, and I preferred female friends. Halloween was my favorite holiday for obvious reasons. Trans inclination was something long enough and strong enough that an "open-minded" parent or community could have pushed me that way.

But over time the importance of those inclinations seemed to fade. I'm a reasonably happy, reasonably successful mostly-straight male. And my success in the workplace and success in family relationships is more important to me than playing with my gender identity. Given what I have heard from trans people, I am pretty sure that I am better off than I would be in a less traditional lifestyle.

Oh no I definitely believe that gender identification and sexuality are sliders rather than on/off switches. But I think that it was you who proposed a rigid framework where because society's unwillingness to accept your teenage inclinations somehow worked out for you, it might be better for other trans-gender people as well.

It sounds like the best approach would be more acceptance of people's choices and inclinations without forcing them into categories or drawing arbitrary lines between "X" and "Y". That way questioning individuals don't feel pressure to conform to any orientation, and can choose a lifestyle that works for them, whether or not it conforms with any existing labels. Sometimes a questioning individual might choose a traditional straight lifestyle, and that should be just as acceptable as them choosing any other lifestyle.

No one except you can tell if you're actually a transsexual or not. But, from what you've said here it doesn't really sound like you are.

If you're happy as a male, you don't suffer from gender dysphoria and you don't have a strong urge to cross dress and don't think in your head "Im a girl" then you're probably not trans unless you've done a superhuman effort in repressing it.

Being a transsexual is not a "lifestyle". It's a neurological medical condition that is treatable with hormones and surgery.

http://tgmeds.org.uk/diffa.html

Maybe people think it's a "lifestyle" because they only notice the transsexual people that dress and act in such a way as to socially signal that they have an atypical gender identity. The majority of transsexual people try to hide their changing bodies as they get hormonal therapy till they can successfully blend in ("pass") as a cis gendered woman/man.

This is a very reductionist view of human sexuality. Even if you disagree with the GP it can't be right to describe our feelings about gender and sexuality as "neurological medical conditions" that are "treatable". Psychological reductionism of this type has not been good for humanity in general, and I don't see any reason to pick it up for this issue.

We're discussing gender, not sexuality(in the standard sense of sexual orientation). The term "transsexual" is somewhat misleading, yet I think it's the best term available for what I'm talking about.

You might not think it's right to describe my feelings about my gender as a treatable medical condition, but I'm one of the ones actually undergoing this treatment right now, and benefiting greatly from it. I think it's very descriptive and appropriate to refer to transsexualism as a treatable medical condition.

We're born, we suffer and sometimes die, we sometimes get medical interventions using drugs and surgery and this usually results in substantial, sustained improvements in our happiness and functioning. That's pretty much the definition of a medical condition.

Reductionism sure is useful when properly applied, as any engineer knows.

Transsexuality is a treatable medical condition. Someone's gender identity as woman, man, genderqueer, etc is, of course, not completely reducible to neurology or biology and has very significant social, historical, and subjective aspects.

Specifically, for myself: I'm a transsexual - i.e. I have a fairly rare neurological developmental condition that I'm undergoing treatment for.

But, much more importantly, I'm a woman - and that's something much harder to define, something indescribably precious and wonderful, yet taken for granted and commonly denigrated.

There are a number of people who identify as genderqueer, as having gender identification that shifts over time, as crossdressers, as drag kings and queens, as on some point on a spectrum, as a third sex, or in a number of other ways that are not as simple as "I was assigned the gender [male/female] at birth, but I am really [female/male], so I have transitioned/am transitioning/will be transitioning." Supposing that either people are cisgender (were assigned their correct gender at birth) or transgender (assigned the opposite sex at birth) IS reductionist. Transsexuals, however, are people of which that case is true, and the fact that this is not true of others doesn't change that.

There are many people for whom "lifestyle decision" isn't even a relevant concept here. These are people who instropsect and find themsleves indisputably one way, yet they look in the mirror and find that they are trapped in the wrong type of body.

Ethically, I don't think there is any choice except to be supportive of these people's "lifestyles", which I again put in quotes because the word makes it sound like a whimsical decision, when in fact to the person making the decision it is very much necessary.

Since the distress is solely caused by the the culture being "less supportive of those lifestyles," I think that will do the opposite of help.

Also, we'd become less supportive of minority religions according to that rationale - and ignore racial discrimination as an impossible problem.

That's not the case for a lot of transgender people. I'm a MtF transsexual woman and, yea, a lot of problems are created by the intersection of being trans and our culture - but the underlying problem is having the wrong hormones in my body and the wrong sexual organs.

A lot of trans people would suffer, and require medical treatment, even in a perfectly accepting society.

>Since the distress is solely caused by the the culture being "less supportive of those lifestyles,"

But it isn't. Mental illness, depression and suicide are disproportionately high among transsexsuals, both pre and post op. Even in societies where they are fully accepted. It is not unreasonable to think that the differences that have been found in their brains predispose them to certain mental illnesses. You can't just blame it on society.

In what society are transsexual people fully accepted?

No society fully accept transsexuals, however, Some places in some countries are known to be more tolerant than others.

That's my point. Trans people get murdered for being trans even in the most 'accepting' areas. People like Sssnake don't help matters, either.

If it doesn't kill you from the inside to not "be you", if it isn't one of the greatest emotional factors in your life, if it isn't so strong that after convincing yourself you could hide it for many years, it got worse instead of better...

Have you considered that your inclinations may have nothing to do with the people who have those "lifestyles"?

"Since many black people are experiencing poverty and criminalization, I wonder if we (and they) wouldn't be better of if we were less supportive of those lifestyles".

Doesn't make much sense, does it now?

Single parent households are the single biggest cause of child poverty...there are cultural and lifestyle factors at play.

I'm going to give you an alternate perspective. I'm in my 40s. I "had some inclinations that way" too. I listened to everyone who told me that people like that are disgusting freaks, and I tried to keep it suppressed for a long time now, denying it to myself and trying to act "normal," like society expects me to be.

Now it's way later and I'm kind of at the end of my rope with long-term clinical depression. I'm pretty sure that within the next few years it's going to come down to a choice between killing myself and transitioning. Only now, my transition options are way worse and I picked up some dependents along the way who are going to be incredibly hurt either way.

Maybe I can keep it going like this somehow until I reach the natural end of my miserable life, and for the sake of the people depending on me, I will keep trying. But every year it gets harder and harder to make myself get out of bed and face life hiding inside the shell of a person I'm pretending to be.

So, in my considered opinion, no, I don't think anyone would be better off if there were more people like me.

There is no reason to believe that SRS will "cure" your depression. Suicide rates stay just as high post-op. Many people undergo the procedure only to find it did not help them at all.

Oh, I'm well aware of that, though it's a good addition to the discussion. The thing about transitioning is that it's a long process, there are many points where you can turn back if it's not working, and not everyone takes the same steps anyway.

For some people, "The Surgery", (sometimes called Sexual Reassignment Surgery, but many people prefer the term Gender Confirmation Surgery, or just "bottom surgery", as opposed to breast implants which are "top surgery"), is the main thing, but for an awful lot of people, it isn't -- even though most non-trans folk seem to think of it that way. For a lot of trans people, living day to day life as their real gender is the important thing, and they're not so hung up on what's between their legs. For some people, hormones help them feel like they're "supposed to", and that's the main thing. For others, they hate their chest, and top surgery is most important. While others may think that Facial Feminization Surgery (FFS) is the most crucial -- not least because for many trans women, FFS is the difference between passing and not passing, which makes an enormous practical difference in day-to-day life and often even in terms of personal safety.

For me, I've read a lot about this, including many personal accounts, and heard a number of first hand stories from a group I've started attending. I honestly don't know how things will work out for me if/when I start transitioning. I've heard enough horror stories to go into the process with the appropriate level of fear and caution.

But at some point when your life becomes one big well of depression that doesn't respond to medication and you start to lose your ability to function in day-to-day life, there's really nothing left to do but start trying to explore the remaining options. So, I'm not transitioning, but I'm looking into it and trying to figure out what the hell I'm going to do.

Please cite where you found that suicide rates are just as high post op.

Ssnake's assertion is false and provides a good example of the sort of cocksure, wilful ignorance and bigotry trans people have to face every day.

Replying to yourself to take a snipe at someone else, with no data of your own, is pretty weak. Especially when you are wrong. In just 30 seconds of searching, I found a 2011 long term study conducted in Sweden that concluded the "overall mortality for sex-reassigned persons was higher... particularly death from suicide".

I have no stake in this discussion, and if anything, am generally opposed to the topic/lifestyle/whatever. But I have empathy for anyone going through such depression that they ultimately take their own lives. When the primary end goal for many is SRS/GCS, and when the data suggests that leads to higher suicide rates, I find it deplorable that anyone would try to suppress that information.

Some might even say that is good example of cocksure, willful ignorance.

The full quote is:

"The overall mortality for sex-reassigned persons was higher during follow-up (aHR 2.8; 95% CI 1.8–4.3) than for controls of the same birth sex, particularly death from suicide."

So trans people are at an increased risk of suicide compared to cis people of the gender the trans person transitioned into.

The original claim was that trans people are at increased risk of suicide post-op relative to pre-op transsexuals!

You're "generally opposed" to a medical intervention that has dramatically improved the lives of many thousands of people over the last 50+ years? You're "generally opposed" to something that I know for a fact has dramatically improved my own life?

Go fuck yourself. I'm not wrong, you misrepresented the study and you're a bigot.

I'm not sure what you mean by being "opposed" -- if you don't think there should be people who are unbearably unhappy with the gender they got stuck with at birth, we agree. If you think people shouldn't play around at being the other gender, that's not what we're talking about, because I can assure you that those of us with this problem are deadly serious about it, and a lot of us would be quite happy if we could find a way to go through life in a functional way without having to make the kind of enormous, life-altering changes involved in transitioning.

I have heard lots of studies on trans folk kicked around, but some of these things have inherent methodological problems. In particular, I think we're all aware that the gold standard for medical efficacy studies is double blind studies, and it's pretty obvious that a double blind study on SRS is impossible, right? Worse yet, in this study they're not even comparing SRS patients with other trans folk who didn't have an operation, they're comparing them with the general population of people of their original assigned birth sex.[1] We already know that trans people have an enormously high suicide rate already, so this comparison tells us absolutely nothing about a before/after comparison, never mind what we really want to know: what happens to the same population if they do/don't get surgery.

[1] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/21364939/ -- You didn't cite a study, but hopefully this was the right one?

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3043071/

Stop acting like a child just because reality doesn't fit your preconcieved notions of how things should be.

Isn't there a middle ground between letting your sexuality define your entire persona (which is what I think the GP is referring to) and being told that you are a disgusting freak and forced to keep your true feelings under wraps? Isn't it plausible that your depression is caused by the trauma of supressing your sexuality, rather than not having the surgery performed?

Is there no scenario where the younger you could have explored your sexuality in a supportive environment and not have experienced these trauma - without necessarily going all the way and having surgery done. So, in your words, no pretending, but keeping the shell.

I make no claims to understand what it means to be transsexual, I am just trying to understand the dynamics involved.

gender identity =/= sexuality.

There are lesbian trans women, and straight trans women, and gay cis men and all kinds of permutations.

When I was younger, there was a lot of information out there to the effect that the only "real" transsexual women knew they were "the wrong gender" from the time they were 4, they hated their boy parts with a fiery passion, and they thought sex was icky until they'd fully transitioned, at which point they just wanted a husband, like any suitably stereotypical woman would. Anyone without this history was really a guy who liked to dress up in women's clothes for sex.

I didn't fit all those rules, so I wondered if I was supposed to be a cross dresser. The thing was, the clothes didn't really do much for me from a sex standpoint. As I explored my sexuality, I gradually figured out that I was bisexual and that I was submissive, but sorting out sex things like that didn't really change anything about feeling like I was supposed to be female or feeling depressed because it seemed like I was living the wrong life.

Having said that, there is still a lot of ground between keeping everything completely under wraps and having surgery. But for most of my life, I didn't feel comfortable exploring it. I've spent most of my life completely despising my body, so looking at intermediate alternatives meant I had to dwell on that, which was extremely painful. It was easier to spend all my spare time coding or whatever -- and trying really hard not to think about what was wrong -- especially since I wasn't really sure I had any palatable alternatives anyway.

At this point, I'm not at all passable, so it's hard for me to take an intermediate step like trying to go out and experience the world as a woman part time to see how it goes. Nevertheless, as I mentioned in another response, there are lots of steps I can take if I decide to that don't require committing to any irreversible surgery. I just have to figure out what makes sense for me.

I'm reminded of the case of Dani Bunten, born Dan, who was a video game pioneer and probably would be posting here on HN today if she hadn't died of cancer. Will Wright dedicated the Sims to Dani, Salon notes in her obituary: http://www.salon.com/2003/03/18/bunten/

Dani wrote after undergoing sex reassignment surgery: "Don't do it! That's my advice. This is the most awful, most expensive, most painful, most disruptive thing you could ever do. Don't do it unless there is no other alternative. You may think your life is tough but unless it's a choice between suicide and a sex-change it will only get worse. And the costs keep coming. You lose control over most aspects of your life, become a second class citizen and all so you can wear women's clothes and feel cuter than you do now. Don't do it is all I've got to say... That's advice I wish someone had given me."

Her full essay is on a memorial site, though Google says it's malware-infected, so take precautions: http://www.anticlockwise.com/dani/personal/changes/dont.htm

I wonder if the outcome (and her recommendations) would have been different if she were going through this today.

A final Dani quote: "No one ever said on their deathbed, 'Gee, I wish I had spent more time alone with my computer.'"

FYI, this kind of advice is available in abundance to trans people. One common version I have heard is that you shouldn't transition unless you feel like the only alternative is to kill yourself. Also FYI, many trans people meet this criterion.

Having said that, at some point you have to size up the risks each way. Everyone gets to make their own decision about their own life. And ironically, your last quote, to me, counsels exactly the opposite choice from your first. Hating my gender presentation makes me just want to hide away from life with my computer.

tw226 don't generalize from your own experience to others, and I'll do the same, thanks.

I spent my first twenty-four years avoiding myself, and although the seven that have since passed have been riddled with hellfire, I can't explain to you how enormously worth it it was.

And guess what, I used to think and say the same things about myself that I now hear you say. But I'm not going to go there. I wish you peace and happiness and as much self-awareness as you can bear.

I believe that both of our experiences can offer valuable data points for others, and I believe that we should both feel free to share. I am somewhat concerned that my point of view is forbidden by polite society, as I believe the silence of people like me could lead many to misery.

I wonder, are you capable of recognizing the irony inherent in your being concerned that people here are not fully, ah, supportive of your particular point of view?

I'm very much an old-fashioned liberal idealist. I believe we get closer to truth when all viewpoints are allowed to be aired. The closing of the mind which I see in the world disturbs me.

We don't exactly have a shortage of people who think trans people are just going through a phase and will grow out of it in the world today. Your view point is hardly forbidden.

Of course it would be bad if people cheered their kids into transitioning when they aren't actually trans - but I doubt this really happens, even in the most liberal and open minded San Francisco neighborhoods. Medical professionals constantly try and second guess trans people to make sure they are serious - and this is even more intense when the patient is underage.

Secondly, taking cross-gender hormones is itself an excellent diagnostic test to see if someone is a transsexual. If the patient feels better, then it's a strong sign they will benefit from transition. If they feel worse then it's indicative that they are not trans. The effects of both estrogen and testosterone are fairly minor for the first few months and readily reversible. Doctors are starting to become more willing to give patients a "trial" on hormones without absurd levels of gatekeeping like in decades past.

It's not like some poor, confused boy is going to put on his sister's panties one day and bam the parents call up their doctor and instantly transform the boy into a trans girl. Transition is a long series of many small decisions (medical, legal, social, sartorial and personal) combined with tons of introspection. It's not an overnight process that someone could realistically be pushed into by naive, overly tolerant parents, or anyone else for that matter.

You feel like people should feel free to share, but you also think that society should be less accepting of trans people? How are those points of view remotely compatible?

FWIW I had nurse that I suspected was trans working for doctor that was gay, it didn't matter to me enough to even ask about it, I think things are getting better, chin-up.

Ummmm... Then don't get a facial tattoo? Yeesh. Sure, you have the right to do it, but it's silly to think it won't affect the way that people perceive you, fair or not. I would hire you to wait tables either. You're going to freak some people out a bit and I'm in the business of making money by retaining customers.

You're completely missing the point. Unless your position is that if people want a safe, decent job they shouldn't chose to be transexual. But if that's your position, I have a much bigger problem with that.

What? Since when are face tattoos and being a transsexual the same thing? I was simply commenting I the face tattoo point. Face tattoos are a choice, I don't believe being a transsexual is.

Perhaps I did miss the point due to the false analogy.

There are trans people (e.g. me) that consider transitioning is a choice. no more different than choosing toyoya vs Porsche

Ok fine, then you made a choice. If it's a choice then you have to be an adult and deal with the consequences.

The point is not that face tattooed people shouldn't have a hard time getting a job. The point is that transsexual people have a /harder/ time, and that this is clear evidence that transsexuals can't just go and get a job as a waitress, shopping mall sweeper, store attendant, cashier, "you name it" as sergiotapia proposes.

Then the point was made poorly. Again, I was responding to the bit about face tattoos.

It's not a false analogy; you're just focusing on a difference which isn't relevant to the analogy. Yes, there is arguably a difference in how people should treat people with face tattoos, vs trans people. But the analogy isn't about how employers should act. It's about how they do act.

The purpose of the face tattoo thought experiment is to help you understand what a trans person has to deal with in practice.

I believe the point is that due to ridiculous amounts of prejudice, customer-facing jobs are difficult for a trans person to find.

We can't ignore the (sad and backwards) social stigma that trans-women face, where a waitressing job, or any public-facing job, is difficult to apply and be accepted for.

Pardon my ignorance, but when you say trans are you saying "looks like a man and dresses like a woman" or "genetically a man, but looks and acts like a woman (with or without sex reassignment surgery)"?

If it's the former, I can understand the reactions of people, it just looks weird; of course people are going to have apprehensions of hiring someone who does dresses like the opposite sex for a public facing job.

Uh, I mean that I'm MTF. Full transition, including FFS, SRS, HRT, and a bunch of other TLAs. So is/was my roommate. That was ironically part of her problem too: most johns who want a trans woman are actually after a so-called 'shemale' (a no-op transsexual; i.e. someone who gets everything done but keeps the original plumbing.)

Thanks for asking the question respectfully, I really do like explaining things to curious (although I caution you I'm almost alone in this; please don't make a habit of unsolicited questions to trans people! But for better or worse, I love to talk about myself, so let's use it to spread some understanding and peace for the holidays!)

I think lots of trans women who can't afford or otherwise don't get SRS would pretty strongly object to being referred to as "shemales".

Yes, see, this is why writing benefits from having an editor. Facepalm.

First draft:

most johns are after a so-called 'shemale'

Second draft (removing redundant quotes, following writing advice of Bill Zinsser)

most johns are after a so-called shemale

Third draft (shorten that sentence! Tighten it up!)

most johns are after a shemale

....Fourth draft (after walking away and coming back to my writing, suddenly hearing it): most sex-industry customers are after an MtF no-op transsexual -- a 'shemale', in the derogatory parlance of the industry.

Also note that 'shemale' is a derogatory term; I use it because it is, for better or for worse, the jargon of the sex industry, and that is what is relevant here. The polite term is 'no-op transsexual'.

You should still be able to edit your post, fyi. There should be a link on the same line as your name that says 'edit'. Editing gets disabled after a some amount of time, but IIRC it should be more then 1 hour.

So which words should you use to differentiate between female-to-male no-op and male-to-female no-op (she-male and he-female respectively)?

I'm partially asking because I'm curious as to what is the term preferred by the transsexuals, and partially because I feel that words are descriptive and hence void of emotional connotation, which should instead be inferred from the context in which the words are used.

The preferred language amoung trans people is: "The state of someone's genitals is none of your business unless the two of you are having sex".

You might want to spell it out because I have no idea what those acronyms mean.

MTF: Male to Female

FFS: Facial feminization surgery

SRS: Sex reassignment surgery

HRT: Hormone replacement therapy

TLA: Three letter acronym

No, a trans person is a person with a body that is one gender, but who identifies as the other gender (assuming binary genders, which is an issue the broader trans community would probably dispute with some vehemence).

Some trans people only think it, some take supplementary sex hormones (typically testosterone for FTM; and one or more of the female hormones, and possibly also anti-androgens for MTF), and some have surgery to give them parts that match their identities.

You're thinking of cross-dressers, which community has some overlap with the trans world, but is, in general, a different thing. Cross-dressing is generally also a kink, while being trans is an issue of identity.

> I can understand the reactions of people, it just looks weird;

It makes less open-minded people uncomfortable, to be around others who are not like them. This is what I mean by 'unfortunate': that not everyone is comfortable in the face of different.

> It makes less open-minded people uncomfortable, to be around others who are not like them.

Perhaps more relevantly, it makes less open-minded people uncomfortable to be around others who don't fit their mental model of the world.

There are probably sub-conscious patterns of antipathy to transexuality that other non-traditional sexualities don't engender, because widespread sexual counterfeiting would be disruptive to society. We have certain expectations of others that we meet, and TG violates those expectations in a domain (sex and reproduction) that triggers our most ancient and visceral feelings.

If you bit into a steak and found that it tasted like chocolate, you'd be confused and disturbed. Now multiply that feeling by a large factor.

> TG violates those expectations in a domain (sex and reproduction) that triggers our most ancient and visceral feelings

The only reason to be possessive about someone else's sexuality is insecurity, I think. Which can be very visceral, too, and loves to camouflage itself.

Human beings are not made of reason.

No, but they discovered it, and they can get better at it.

Yes and why happens when a christian marries a Jew! There is long standing history of tribes that people want.

I think there is a lot of truth to this, even though you seem off base in some of your other statements in this thread.

I (obviously) support equal rights and access to life saving hormones and surgery for transsexual people - since I am one myself. Yet, from my elementary knowledge of evolutionary biology, it's long been my suspicion that there is some sort of deeply rooted antipathy towards trans people that is not completely socially constructed. After all, having sex with a trans (pre or post op) person in modern times, or an intersex person (modern or historical times) would seem to work against propagation of someone's genes.

Still, the bigger causal factors in transphobic sentiments are, I believe, socially constructed and rooted in patriarchal misogyny. There are way more (cis) men with violent, transphobic attitudes against trans women than there are (cis) women with violent, transphobic attitudes against trans men.

Trans basically means transsexual / transgender. Y'know how our parents used to think gay meant happy and then it didn't? Words change. This is the new word.

Immigrant in Canada here. While it sucks what it happened to your roommate I have to say that the immigration process is one of the clearest legislations between the options I had. It is slow but it gives you options.

Kudos for your job. I worked with a trans woman (a fellow developer too) before and she was one of the sweetest people at the office. She even found a great guy as a boyfriend. Considering all, I think Canada is a friendly environment for transexuals, you have to see how they are treated in Latinamerica.

Thanks for getting involved in the HN community. It can be a little cishet male sometimes. Don't let the bastards grind you down.

That is quite tragic that the law had to force you to make difficult decision, especially considering the fact that trans folks are very much marginalized in society because of the ignorance that still floats around unfortunately about gender.

>Because just being her roommate, under the previous legislation, would have classified as 'living off the avails'

No it wouldn't. You have to actually be doing something for her. Children, spouses, roommates, etc are all safe. You were still at risk though, because your apartment would qualify as a bowdy house according to the law.

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