Posted on 03/11/2012 6:48:44 PM PDT by bornred
This spring, Les and Scott GrantSmith will mark their 25th wedding anniversary. The couple raised two daughters along the way. But 15 years ago, they hit a crisis that nearly shattered their family. Les was keeping a secret, and that became a problem. But they solved it as a family, in a way that kept them together and happy.
In the weeks leading up to that day back in 1997, Les was certain of two things: She was a mother who loved her daughters and she was also transgender, the term for someone born in a body of the wrong sex.
Les grew depressed and withdrawn, terrified that revealing her need to live her life as a man would mean losing Scott and their daughters, Thea and Amanda.
(Excerpt) Read more at npr.org ...
Does that change the DNA?
Does that change the DNA?
It looks like a hairy old woman to me. Years ago, she would have been in a sideshow.
A British tycoon and father of two has been a man and a woman ... and a man again ... and knows which sex he’d rather be
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Charles is believed to be the only person in the UK to have undergone two sex change operations; the first to turn him into a woman and the second to turn him back into a man after he realised he’d made a horrible mistake.
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He has to take strong doses of testosterone daily - by applying a gel to his body, because he can’t produce the male hormone naturally, and although he says his new genitals look normal, intimate relations with a woman can be achieved only by means of a concealed pump.
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“The trouble is, I would much rather be the man I was before all this,” he says.
Charles blames his ghastly predicament on the UK’s then top expert on transsexualism, gender psychiatrist Dr Russell Reid - now retired - who in 2007 was reprimanded by the General Medical Council for rushing patients into sex-change treatments.
Dr Russell Reid was found guilty of serious misconduct by a GMC panel who rebuked him for his “lack of caution in initiating hormonal and surgical gender reassessment treatment in patients without more careful and thorough investigation and assessment”.
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“When she left me for another man, I was absolutely devastated and our split became acrimonious.
“I was prevented from seeing my children, which destroyed me. I’d been hugely successful building up a property portfolio, but at the time of our divorce the economy plunged and I lost a lot of money in the recession. I felt diminished as a man.”
Charles now believes he suffered a complete mental breakdown, during which he started to question everything, including his sexuality.
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It was through these transsexual clubs that Charles heard about Dr Russell Reid, and duly made an appointment in 1997.
“It was all so quick,” says Charles. “We spoke about my fantasies of being a woman and he diagnosed gender dysphoria and gave me female hormones.
“I was brought up to trust doctors and being in a severely depressed and confused state I accepted the diagnosis without question.”
Gender realignment guidelines, which are not legally binding, say patients should have been living in their gender role for at least three months before being prescribed hormones and should have at least 12 months of that treatment before surgery.
Charles had his sex-change operation just six months after his first appointment with Dr Reid, and the day after a failed court battle to gain access to his children, who were then aged 12 and 13.
Didn’t he have doubts about such a drastic course of action?
“You have to understand I was on my own,” says Charles. “I had lost my wife and my family. I had no one to talk to, no one to tell me I might be making a mistake.
“I believe that all my actions stemmed from the acute psychological distress of not being able to see my children.”
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“After what I’ve been through, I now think that sex-change operations shouldn’t be allowed. They should be banned.
“We live today in a consumerist society where we all believe we can have everything we want, but too much choice can be a dangerous thing.’”
He laments the level of counselling he’s received both times, but ultimately comes across as someone who is still as confused as ever about who he is and what he wants to be.
Think of the poor kids.
There is no hope - the country is nothing but a three ring liberal freak show.
Exactly.
I have a question.
Since she - and those like her or him - need male hormones to ‘transition’ -
why not try female hormones to become happy with you ARE?
Since it’s a mater of hormones -
I was thinking the same thing! They look like brothers!
aw geez, I just *had* to come he for the pic, didn’t I??
If I were married and my husband decided to become a woman I would be out of that door so fast his head would spin.
They can try to change sexes but they are the same miserable people no matter which sex they choose. It would probably be a lot easier to figure out what is making them miserable in the first place and I kind of doubt it has anything to do with what is between their legs.
And the husband’s a fag for wanting to stay with “him”.
These people are mentally ill. It’s like a schizophrenic who had paranoid delusions.
Her husband must be bi. Why else would he stay with her/it. This is to sick for colored tv.
It’s so sick and f**ked up. We live in a sick world.
Its so sick and f**ked up. We live in a sick world./
I tell you I wouldn’t blame the Lord if He took His fist and pounded us into dust.
Indudeitably!
She/it had an XY chromosomal pattern that just happened to somehow mysteriously created a human body with all fully functioning X parts, and no Y parts, so this is just fixing that little problem! /sarc
Let's celebrate diversity, and remember how blessed we are to live where we "solve" these problems by removing the person's offending parts, rather than their head...which is the really messed up part of them.
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