News and Events => Opinions & Editorials => Topic started by: LostInTime on March 26, 2007, 04:47:32 AM Return to Full Version
Title: Scare tactics create confusion
Post by: LostInTime on March 26, 2007, 04:47:32 AM
Post by: LostInTime on March 26, 2007, 04:47:32 AM
link (http://www.rutlandherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070323/OPINION02/703230302/-1/HSSPORTS)
Stephen Cable's op-ed against the bill to protect gender identity (S.51, H.228) is rife with logical contradictions. Yes, gender identity disorder and gender dysphoria are classified in the diagnostic manuals. A diagnosis is required to begin treatment. Cable suggests that the "largest danger" of the bill would be sending a message that such illness is healthy, "rather than encouraging treatment and recovery," but he appears not to understand that treatment in this case means hormonal or surgical sex-reassignment, not "curing" the patient to conform to the sex assigned at birth. It would be precisely these people undergoing treatment who would be covered by the bill. What the bill does is prevent discrimination based on prejudice — prejudice Cable strives to perpetuate.
Cable throws in the old canard that somehow transgender folk are getting "special rights" because we would now favor one specific disorder to the exclusion of others. In fact, the bill levels the playing field to grant equal rights, not special rights: Currently only trans people can be legally discriminated against, while people with other disabilities are already covered by nondiscrimination law.
Stephen Cable's op-ed against the bill to protect gender identity (S.51, H.228) is rife with logical contradictions. Yes, gender identity disorder and gender dysphoria are classified in the diagnostic manuals. A diagnosis is required to begin treatment. Cable suggests that the "largest danger" of the bill would be sending a message that such illness is healthy, "rather than encouraging treatment and recovery," but he appears not to understand that treatment in this case means hormonal or surgical sex-reassignment, not "curing" the patient to conform to the sex assigned at birth. It would be precisely these people undergoing treatment who would be covered by the bill. What the bill does is prevent discrimination based on prejudice — prejudice Cable strives to perpetuate.
Cable throws in the old canard that somehow transgender folk are getting "special rights" because we would now favor one specific disorder to the exclusion of others. In fact, the bill levels the playing field to grant equal rights, not special rights: Currently only trans people can be legally discriminated against, while people with other disabilities are already covered by nondiscrimination law.