Calling Bradley Manning a She---Educate me DU.

[noamnety]

291. In this case, you are openly presenting yourself as a bigot

so I'm gonna equate that to wanting to be known as one.

Seriously, though - there's a huge problem on many levels with your attitude. One is deciding that only rich people get to be acknowledged by their proper gender, because they can afford to have surgery. Poor people without access to surgery don't get to be acknowledged as their proper gender. Surely you can see why that would be a disturbing class issue, in addition to everything else, right?

I really don't understand the insistence on surgery as the ultimate defining gender characteristic. Do you really believe that women who have mastectomies are less female? Do you think soldiers who are, for example, caught up in IED explosions and have penis amputations as a result of their injuries are now women? That doesn't make any sense to me. It's the sort of thing that would rightfully get a reporter or corworker immediately fired, if they started referring to - let's say john bobbitt, as "she" in news stories or employment documents.

If I were, lord help me, kidnapped, and had some sicko do genital mutilation on me to make me look like the opposite gender physically, would you insist on then calling me by the opposite gender? Can you see why that would be beyond offensive to me?