Quote from: Cowboi on September 10, 2010, 10:31:00 AM
To respond to the original topic (as opposed to responding to the debate lol) here is my opinion, which is of course not any more valid than any other shared here.

I voted that it is a mental disorder. The reason I did so is because the definition I personally have of mental disorder is this one, "Any of various psychiatric conditions, usually characterized by impairment of an individual's normal cognitive, emotional, or behavioral functioning, and caused by physiological or psychosocial factors."

Since physiological can be defined as anything pertaining to the functioning of an organ, as governed by the interactions between its physical and chemical conditions and psychosocial factors can be defined as a term referring to the mind's ability to, consciously or unconsciously, adjust and relate the body to its social environment I feel that both of these things cover any of the root causes of gender identity that we speculate in society today. Rather or not your drive to transition from one gender to the other is based upon the social aspects of how you see gender and how you fit those social aspects or if it is based on pure physical/mental drive and belief that you ARE the opposite gender because of unknown medical or genetic reasons both arguments fall under this category/definition of mental disorder.

As a side note all of the definitions I listed are borrowed word for word from online dictionaries and can easily be googled to see exactly what it is I'm looking at when I chose which side of the debate to fall on.

I voted the same thing for the same reasons so I really don't have anything to add.  I would like to add that I feel a like you do because I also have Social Anxiety Disorder and just because I took various psychology classes and I don't attach a negative stigma to "disorder/illness/disease" because of what I was taught and how my teacher taught me.