I've been reading about transgender rights a lot lately just wanted to post this here for those who care to read. I was surprised to see it on the front page you yahoodotcom

http://news.yahoo.com/m-f-outdated-ids-worry-transgender-people-162953086.html

The comments that follow the article are pretty harsh and unaccepting, as is easy for anonymous comments to be

Proud woman thank you. No hyphens or sub names; just a beautiful woman - total and now complete.

yes I read the comment at the bottom any one willing to speak up where voted down. It was very sad to see ignorance be applauded. People on this earth Some  time I just wanna.

Quote from: Miss Bungle on June 16, 2013, 06:06:02 PM
Yahoo comments are often times a breeding ground for idiots to blab their crap. I don't bother reading them most times, not because it makes me angry. I just don't feel like wasting my time with their drivel.

This is very true. Comments on transgender-related articles used to make me sad, until one day I stopped and thought about my life and the people I've met. Given the vitriol in those comments -- almost said with pride -- it just didn't make any sense compared to the people I've run into.

Why were there so many hateful people there? Why had I only run into a tiny handful of people in my life who said anything hateful to me, and far more who showed kindness? Anonymity didn't seem like enough of a reason to me, it had to be more; and then I got it: dimwitted, loud people flock to those comments.

The kind of people that most decent human beings avoid due to their drama and lack of reasoning skills. The kind of people who will never matter to me even if they weren't trying to actively hurt me. That's when I stopped caring -- when I realized that these people would never be involved with me or the vast majority of people I know even if I weren't transgendered.

Actually, we should all move to Australia. They recently allowed "x" to be put on passports for transgender individuals, so they don't have to choose.

http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2011/09/15/319859/why-australias-new-transgender-passport-policy-should-be-a-model-for-the-world/

It just goes to show that Yahoo and its users are clueless .When I'm looking online for answers to a problem, if it's on Yahoo Answers I'll skip it in preference of other sites. I've never found truly competent answers there ever. I was very happy when registering for my new female email address at Gmail, they offered gender identity selection as male, female and other. I was happy for that admission by Google of choice beyond the gender binary. Yahoo still only offers the Male/Female gender choices. Guess which email service I registered for (there are also other compelling reasons, but this at least is another one in favor of Google)

The whole binary gender thing is discrimination-- the kind of low-level stuff that most people don't think about. But it has a big effect! As a replacement, I suggest doing away with noting gender completely. It's undefinable. People aren't male or female; they're anywhere on a spectrum of gender.

Sigh, I read this article, was just wandering the forums, and saw it and decided what the heck why not.

Yeah the article is in a thread more than 30 days old and so what.

I am just wanting to say, that the article is not the thing I am remarking about, it is the comments in reply to it.

It validates and confirms most of the comments I make here on Susan's place that I regularly get flack over.

Yes, the world out there is as mean as I describe it. No, you are often not right, there is often NOT a lot of popular support for your viewpoint.

No hiding behind anonymity doesn't bring out the worst in people, it illustrates that the best in people is often a myth we tell ourselves to make us feel better.

I walk with a cane built around a hickory sledge handle for two reasons. One it was cheaper at 18 bucks and not 40 for a damned twig, and two, it's so I have handy an implement with which to cave in the skull of an attacker should it become needed. I don't carry a gun, never liked the things really but I like to be defended. The world is not a nice place. Life is not required to be fair. No one actually needs to give a hoot about me.

It would be NICE if common courtesy was common, it would be nice if the world's supposedly great religions were actually populated by people that lived the nice parts of the teachings as much as the nasty parts. It would be great if logic and common sense were the defining characteristics or our race, but they aren't.

Wizard's First Rule..... People are stupid. Probably the most profound reading I have read in 20 years too.
So much of the comments were just proof of the pudding of Wizard's First rule too.