Long Story Short: Trans
http://urbanmolecule.wordpress.com/2008/10/14/long-story-short-trans/Josh Livingston
10/14/2008
Stub your toe and you'll think, "Ouch!" But did you hurt your self or your body? We're so used to thinking of our physical beings as who we are, it can be hard to separate them. So what happens when our selves disagree with our bodies and the sex we identify as disagrees with our anatomy?
A person's gender has long been defined by their equipment below the belt. But for some, physical apparatus is not destiny. Those in the transgender community identify as the opposite of their physical sex. Many work hard to convert their bodies into agreement through surgery and hormone therapy. Scientific evidence suggests that genes and hormones hard-wire sexual identity into the brain before sex organs develop, "explaining why we feel male or female, regardless of our actual anatomy," according to Dr. Eric Vilian (2003 UCLA study).
