Bindel has got a point. I mean, the gender dysphoria thing is joke, because let's face it, gender dysphoria is the only so-called condition which is self-diagnosed. How can that be? How can the NHS or whoever accept gender dysphoria on that basis, eh? Self-diagnosis is no diagnosis.

This article is amazingly offensive, bigoted, and tired. Bindel’s argument absolutely cannot account for the experiences of trans men like myself, nor the experiences of that majority of trans people who transition without surgery, nor for the many transgender folk who identify as gay/lesbian/queer after their transition. Really, it’s ludicrous. Bindel seems to assume that trans women’s transitions are about *her* rather than themselves–that they would endure all of the pain and discrimination they must suffer just to be able to attend some women-only feminist event with Bindel. How tedious.

I'm a straight, married woman without gender dysphoria at all, but I find your point of view really offensive. I have no problem accepting people as the gender they feel they are, and it hurts no one to do the same. Try acceptance and support for people who deserve your compassion.

Julie, all I can say is that living as a woman has eliminated all the angst and confusion that I experienced living as a man. Gender reassignment surgery simply seemed like the natural conclusion to the process of gender reassignment, since for me, it was the rendering of the incongruous into something that fits the bill. All the new bits seem to work properly and I am perfectly happy with the outcome. It's not a route to be taken lightly, but it's certainly not deserving of the spleen you have vented about the subject for the past few years. I have read some of your work on honour killings and rape and have a real respect for your views on these points, which makes it all the more puzzling why you feel the need to pick on a group of people who are picked on enough alreay - we hardly need you making it even worse. The evidence of a few dissatisfied customers should not negate the views of the uncomplaining majority who probably feel deeply offended by what you have said. A feminist of your reputation surprises me by the cheap way you stoop to stereotyping trans people, given that there are millions of men and women, born as men and women, who are just as happy to stereotype in their gender role as we sometimes are. I suspect one of the reasons we often try too hard (since we can't win either way with people like you) is to escape the ire of you and your ilk. I know from what I've read elsewhere that you largely oppose the stereotypical gender divide, particularly in its oppression of women. But it is those men and women born men and women who collectively persist in the male/female gender divide (watch a few hip hop videos to turn your feminist foresisters in their graves!), not the tiny number of transsexual men and women. You really do need to get a grip on your perspective. And as for the comparison of natal and transsexual women, well I suppose we are a bit bigger on average, given the fact that we've gone through a male puberty, but have you ever sat down to watch the world go by and look at the real diversity of women out there? Strangely, they come in all shapes and sizes, some looking far more masculine than I do, that's for sure. And the reason you didn't win the Stonewall award was not because of the opposition of the transsexual mob, but because you have yourself besmirched your reputation by pursuing what most people see has become something of a petty and unworthy vendetta. You simply didn't deserve it. It would have been like giving Fred and Rose West an award for their patio-building skills, a matter of consummate bad taste.

When one has garnered such widespread animosity from a community I would think that may cause some introspection as to how their words hurt that community. I might take the opportunity to educate myself regarding what I was writing about. Instead Ms. Bindel chooses to remain ignorant and uses only those facts which support her argument, which are exception rather than rule. Gender dysphoria is something that roughly 99% of people do not experience, and as such it becomes a widely misunderstood phenomenon who's diagnosis and description falls into the hands of cisgendered (non-trans) people. This article purports to be an argument against sex change. Bindel has cited one disatisfied surgery recipient while ignoring the thousands of successes. The disatisfied individual sounds like a gay male who was confused about their gender identity and perhaps ashamed about their sexual orientation (which is entirely separate from their identity). They told doctors things which were consistent with GID, for which surgery may be clinically indicated to alleviate dysphoria. Bindel ignores the fact that this person was likely on a course of hormones for at least a year prior to surgery and also would have been required to live as female for one year. What likely happened is this individual had regrets upon obtaining surgery because they likely had difficulty functioning as female. Creation of a vagina does not guarantee social success in transition and this person may have been as stigmatized or more for being a woman who defied conventional femininity than they did as a gay man. The problem with this is that anatomy does not equal gender, and creating a vagina does not create a woman if the identity is not female to begin with. If gender were anatomy dependent, then women with masectomies and hysterectomies would cease to be female, as men who have had genital altering accidents would cease to be male. This is not so because identity is inheld, regardless of genitalia. Bindel reveals ignorance by pigeonholing trans-people into the cast of Grease, all the while misgendering them and referring to transwomen as men and transmen as women. This is stereoptypical to say the least, which is the laziest kind of thinking. While the examples she gives may occur, many transexuals assimilate very successfully and seamlessly into cisgendered society, often without detection. This is particularly the case with trans-men. Bindel cites an attack on women and children's rights by citing the potential of a transwoman working at a rape counseling center. Often the person cross-living for 2 years to obtain this right to work there would not do so in the absence of hormones. Even supposing the individual had no hormonal or surgical intervention they fact that they have a female identity and presented female for 2 years (and continue to for the job) negates this. A man, a rapist, a person seeking to hurt women is not going to go through 2 years of what for them would be masquerade to put themselves in a place to hurt women. This is a transwoman we are speaking about and one who is hoping to help others in their time of need. I'm sorry that Ms. Bindel's inflated sense of self and misguided notion of gender allow her to so easily turn an altruist into a rapist by virtue of their biological origin. Regarding transkids: Yes gender-nonconforming expression can fall under the umbrella of transgender, but not transsexuality per se. Again, actual research would be appreciated on Ms. Bindel's part rather than sensationalist hunting and pecking. The 9 year old child who comes to school as a girl after previously being a boy has not had surgery. They are not on hormone blockers. They are wearing more feminine attire, longer hair, and using a girl's name. It is a non-invasive approach to allow the child to express an inheld identity, to gauge social success in the gender role, and allows for a real life experience for years before blockers would be used and nearly a decade for surgery would be available. It is called making sure and not stigmatizing someone for their identity, which I would hope Ms. Bindel as a so-called feminist would understand all to well. Instead she writes from a place of entitlement and ignorance and unfortunately many of her readers view it with legitamacy. On the issue of hormone blockers...children need to reach a set developmental stage of puberty before the blockers are given and they do not harm the child, they postpone puberty. It gives an individual time to sort out their identity, so confirm social success in the target role, to make decisions closer to adulthood. And it prevents the occurence of some immensely difficult to overcome developments. For her fear-laden description of trachea shaves and laser hair removal, Ms. Bindel should be an advocate of hormone blockers. Pubescent exposeure to testosterone causes thickening of the tracheal cartilage and activation of facial hair follicles, necessitating later tracheal shave and hair removal via laser or electrolysis in post-pubescent trans women. Blocking hormones prevent this from happening in the first place and if an individual continues with transition at the age of majority they are not undoing the damage wrought by puberty. In dealing with the prisoner assigned to live in women's housing there is no mention of the prisoner's surgical status, which if post-op negates bindel's argument. There is implication that the prisoner is rapist by virtue of having been born male with nothing to corroborate this. There is no mention that transwomen housed in male populations are subject to ridicule, harrasment, intimidation, physical violence, and a level of rape 12 to 13 times higher than cisgendered prisoners. Additionally all of the transwomen in female spaces discussions ignore that a transwomen on antiandrogens (as most are) are likely to have the side effect of diminished libido and impotence, thereby negating the threat Ms. Bindel fears. There is a recurrent misunderstanding that transwomen are a type of man rather than a type of woman. In Ms. Bindel's case she not only assumes this but that transwomen are the worst that man has to offer, wolves in sheep's clothing engaged in subterfuge to get close and go on a raping frenzy. The author makes a lot of noise about almost everything but trans surgery in an article purporting to be about just that. The thing is Julie, not all people are born into bodies congruent with their identities. There are options through social presentation, hormonal therapy, and/or surgical intervention which can address this and have led to a great improvement of life for thousands of individuals. The administration of hormones generally happens after the approval of a mental health proffesional, and genital altering surgery always happens after the intervention of 2 such individuals. Those outside the phenomenon have limited understanding of it, but as time goes by a fuller picture of transsexuality becomes evident and education corrects a lot of misconceptions. This is made more difficult when the uninformed and ignorant are trumpeting misinformation to an already confused society. There's more to be said on this but I invite you, Julie Bindel to learn. I am a transwoman and though you spit in the face of my community, my hand is out to you. Please take the opportunity to listen, to learn. Trans voices are raised in anger at you because you presume to speak about something which you do not yet understand, and do so from a place of arrogance and entitlement. Please show a measure of humility and realize that this rage is not here for it's own sake, but because in being a champion of your brand of femininity, you have become yet another oppressor of men and women who you do not understand.

This woman seems so obviously closed-minded and misinformed that I nearly thought this was a joke. As it droned on and on and on, I realized this woman really believes what she's saying. I think it's sad people can't just accept others. I have a tough time believing she is in any way shape or form connected with the LGBT community because I've never heard this kind of discrimination from one of our own...

Honestly a transexual is a transexual. If we are truly going to accept transexualism then we should create a third (or fourth or fifth or as far as we want to take it) gender. This means a third toilet a third prison, a third group at the prom, etc, etc. Things are as they are and if a person is not a man or a woman anymore, let's create a new category for these new people. And yes, if there are 100 new kinds of inter-gendered people, we'll have to deal with it, or we keep trying to fit everyone into the 2 that we already have, which brings us to all the points debated in the article.

I'm an effeminate trans-man. my transition had nothing to do with conforming to the gender binary. I didn't grow up wishing to be a boy so I could play with guns or play football. I was allowed to do those things as a girl. I don't present as uber-masculine, with tattoos and muscles and a beard. but it would be ok if I did. I absolutely think that gender roles are socialized and that we need to fight to break down the binary gender system. I work for gender justice and fight against patriarchy and the systems which reinforce gender roles and the dichotomy which oppresses women. I also felt so strongly about my body being wrong that I put my safety at risk, and risked losing my family and friends, home and employment. I don't think these things are contradictory. If you aren't trans, you can't understand the driving need to medically transition. if you aren't trans, it's really, quite simply, not your place to comment on whether or not Gender Dysphoria is real. this type of thinking is divissive. every person who presents in a way that is gender non-conforming experiences gender-based oppression. it's high time that these types of arguments stop dividing our communities, so that we can work together to fight for gender justice. it's really shameful that you would call yourself a feminist while spreading this type of hate.

"In a world where equality between men and women was reality, transsexualism would not exist." WTF? What evidence does the author have to make this ridiculously sweeping assertion? She postulates that transsexuality is a PRODUCT of gender-inequality. Where's the evidence?

It is impossible to debate this complex issue with biological determinists who believe gender is biological. It's like saying social class is formed in the womb. There is also confusion by the conflation of terms transgender and transexual. Surely it is true that while people, in the past, may have wished their physical sex characteristics to be in line with the sex they identified as, this wasn't possible until the medical technology came along to realise it, around the 1950's. There has always been a history of people rebelling against dominant gender norms and binary gender societies, this proves the diversity of human expression and the existence of what we might call transgenderism - crossing the lines of gender but not sex. Such as the Berdache or Sworn Virgins. But this doesn't prove a historical existence of transexualsim. I also agree with Julie that transexual people are transexual people, they were born with physical sex characteristics of one sex or the other and usually socialised in the corresponding gender role. Transwoman writer and activist Kate Bornstein has said she doesn't agree with transexuals being told to lie about their history, she says: "Transexuality is the only condition in Western society for which the therapy is to lie. Every transexual is counseled not to reveal their transexuality, but to devise a past for themselves"..."I would be offended if some transexual comes up to me and says 'i'm not a transexual'. And they have. I get real offended. I say 'go live your life, I can't deal with lies'" (Bornstein, 1993:113). Even the famous Sandy Stone says "whether desiring to do so or not, transexuals do not grow up in the same ways as GGs or genetic naturals. Transexuals do not posess the same history as genetic naturals, and do not share a common opression prior to gender reassignment" (1991:295). Transman Jamison Green says he is a man, but "not a man in the same sense as my younger brother is a man, having been treated as such all his life" (1999:122). I don't agree with Julie that sex reassignment surgery ruins lives, generally I think trans people are happier after having it, certainly the trans men and women I know are much happier now their body looks and feels more in line with the sex they identify as. But I cannot accept that gender is biological and I can't understand posters on this article suggesting it is. Masculinity and femininity don't even look the same in other countries and other cultures, they change over time and space, they are driven by fashion etc. They cannot be natural or biological. Sex characteristics are biological facts, we label them female, male or intersex, these facts of our bodies don't have to come with the tyranny of gender norms, society creates that. I do wonder if human beings with their myriad of sexed bodies were free of this oppressive system then there would be less desire for sex reassignment surgery. It would also simply be difficult under current rules, as how would one live in role for 2yrs if women and men both had fairly similar roles and looked similar too? Requirements as they are currently would have to change. Who knows whether there would be less desire for SR surgery in such a society, we may never know, but perhaps we could try and create such a society free of oppressive gender norms; this has always been the project of Feminism. And this is not in exclusion of support for legal rights and recognition for transexual people, but we shouldn't just address our oppressive binary gender system, which many people find difficult to live in-whether trans or not, through the medical industry, as Judith Shapiro says "addressing gender issues through sex change surgery is a bit like turning to dermatologists to solve the race problem" (1991:262). Shapiro and Stone in 'Body Guards' by Epstein & Straub eds J Green in 'Reclaiming Genders' Moore & Whittle eds Bornstein in interview in Kroker & Kroker eds, 'The Last Sex'