Seriously, how is putting on a diaper, going “potty in it”, getting a hard on from it, getting into a wheelchair a person doesn’t need, deceiving everyone around them by wheeling into public and pretending to really be disabled (even coming up with elaborate “I had an accident” stories) similar to being transgendered?

The difference is, I don’t wake up and lie to anyone. I don’t get “sexually aroused” from being transgendered. I am who I am, no qualms about it. Furthermore, I don’t believe having SRS is mutilation. Hacking off a body part is far more mutilating than any type of cosmetic surgery.

Why is it bigotry that I don’t “agree” that cutting off a limb or paralyzing yourself is the answer? I feel people with BIID have serious mental problems. They need help. I don’t believe cutting off limbs is the answer to their problems. I guess if that makes me a bigot then so be it.

Upon reading many cases of those with BIID, I’ve realized many of them have:

-been abused in some form (sexually, physically, mentally, emotionally)
-have an alcoholic or drug addicted parent
-have at least one overbearing parent
-have self-confidence issues
-don’t have a lot of friends or tend to be loners overall, though often not by choice

What I see when I see people with BIID is people crying out for attention. They begin to obsess about hacking off a body part because they want to be different. They want to stand out. They want to be noticed. Read ANY story about someone who claims to have BIID. The first time they go out in a wheelchair, pretending, they MUST interact with people. They must be noticed and have people stare at them in their chair. They simply have to or otherwise, the experience is more of a let down then they hoped.

Having BIID is nothing like being transgendered. My brain is similar if not identical to that of a male. I don’t transition for attention. I don’t want people to notice I’ve changed. I don’t want to stand out. I’m not doing it to justify anything. The only, very minor comparison is not even a comparison.

Psychologists say its comparative because those with gender dysphoria see ourselves as the opposite gender from our birth gender and the BIID community sees itself as wanting to be disabled.

Why this isn’t a comparison is because those who are transgendered don’t just see themselves as the opposite gender. I don’t see myself as male. I AM Male. There is no question in my mind. People with BIID can’t say that. They just want to be disabled so bad, they’ll tell lies, deceive and hide their true identity until they get the balls to chop their own leg off or make themselves paralyzed.

Likewise, I think it’s quite telling that while you’d like to demand social sensitivity for those like you who believe that your body is a betrayal of your inner self and, therefore, you should have an inalienable right to mutilate what God gave you, you seek to marginalize others whose personal experiences of self are really not that different from your own.

Do the word “pot,” “kettle” and “black” mean anything to you????

I’ve heard of rabid bigotry in the GLBT community, but you take the cake!

Others become disabled by way of accident (whether at birth or later in life). This means that these individuals had the makeup of someone who was born with all working limbs and something happened either during birth or later in life to force a disability upon these people.

With that in mind, is disability natural? Yes, and no. In the natural order,there is gene mutation to make someone disabled. Still this gene variation isn’t on par with the average human body makeup. Accidents are just bad luck. For all intents and purposes, these people were born with the average human body makeup and due to unlucky circumstances became disabled.

Looking at it from the perspective that people say they want to become disabled, they want to become what society would deem “abnormal” from scientific standards.

The person with the amputated leg who feels he has his leg probably feels that because at one point “he did” have his leg. There is no reason for people to feel like they shouldn’t have their limbs. This “disorder” is masking some other mental deficiency that hasn’t been treated in these individuals.

However, as I sat here thinking about it, I had a hard time phrasing that, and usually that means I’m not sure if I agree with it. I feel the passion of your post here, and my reaction is to agree, but on further reflection I find it hard to support the position. I’ve recently (within the last year) become involved with a MTF trans-girl, and while just our relationship is amazing, being involved with her and getting to know her perspective on the world and on gender specifically has been eye-opening to say the least. She had GRS about a year and a half ago now, and has been living as a female for… a few years I believe.

The major change has been that I’ve ceased to see gender as a black/white sort of thing. It has shades of gray, much like everything else in life. Males are not equally masculine, females are not equally feminine, and even the form/structure/size of our sex organs differs from person to person. Similarly, the size/shape/form/functionality of all other parts of our bodies differ, and to say that having smaller, non-existent, or non-functioning arms or legs is necessarily ‘unnatural’ seems very unfair. It is one end of the possible spectrum of size/functionality. While it is certainly more difficult, and I hope it’s clear that I’m not trying to downplay the hurdles faced by disabled people, my point is just that objectively those disabilities can be seen as being one end of a spectrum of size/functionality of parts of the body, yes?

So to say that someone might feel they were meant to be born with no limbs or non-functioning limbs… well… for a person born with no legs to feel like they’re meant to have them is much the same thing, yeah?

I guess I take the viewpoint that people being whoever they are is never INHERENTLY wrong, unless they’re hurting others. I read your post about devotees/fakers/wannabes, and I understand where you’re coming from - it’s definitely wrong for someone to get involved, and even get married to, someone with a disability just b/c of the disability rather than the PERSON… but the flaw there isn’t their attraction to the disability, it’s that they’d react to it in that way. But I am sure there could be devotees who are both attracted to the crutches/cane/wheelchair, AND the person, right? It can’t be the case that being a devotee is mutually exclusive with being able to fall in love.

So the flaw, to me, seems to be in how those people deal with their fetishes, not with the fetish itself. It’s like anything else - being open and honest is most important, and people only stand to be hurt if someone is lying to someone else for their own gain, whether it be sexual gratification or otherwise.

The transgender community is very diverse and only a fraction of those (10% I believe) actually progress to GRS. Many of us choose not to have surgery for a variety of reasons yet continue to live as women or men for our entire lives. Surgery is not required to join the club.

While GID is a psychiatric condition it is not considered disabling by the government and many clinicians. There is in fact a chance it will be removed from the DSM V as homosexuality was in 1973. There is also evidence that indicate TGs have altered brain structures and in uetro hormonal differences from cisgendered people.

I am both transgendered and disabled. My medical condition, End Stage Liver Disease, prevents me from doing many activities and causes me to structure my life in ways that accommodate my illness. My transsexualism does not. It is a very positive part of my life and has enhanced my overall wellness.