A decent one at last? The future of HBS?

The other day I was wishing that a decent HBS supporter might turn up. And so far at a discussion over at Zoe's excellent blog there seems to be one who is indeed behaving like a decent person.

Now decent doesn't mean agreeing with me. Few of my own friends agree with me. I'm fine with people with different views. The problem has been that in most of my discussions with HBS supporters they manage to destroy any sympathy by acting like hate groups.

Double standards like demanding only their views be considered valid of others identities as well as their own, the worst logical fallacies, frequent hostility towards others and frequently accusing others of things they themselves do more often have been trademarks of these discussions.

Many including myself are left with the impression that these people aren't trying to argue for a valid medical definition of neurologicaly caused transsexualism but instead a way to justify bias against transgendered people that don't fit into their HBS definition.

But in my experience decent reasonable good hearted people can be found in almost any group and their is no need to hate transgender people to consider HBS valid so surely I knew there has to be some decent people in the HBS movement who don't hate transgender people.

But one of the obstacles for the social and political part of the HBS movement is that it will be a magnet for people who seek a platform for spouting hate and intolerance. It's not new, many groups have had to deal with that problem.

HBS as a medical definition will be scientificly controlled if it ever does succeed and the bigots amongst those groups may well end up in despair if broad neurological research expands the definition to include some of those that many HBS supporters online rail against frequently.

It also may be true that some or maybe even all of the transgender variations may have one or more medical causations too. Some might be related to the causation of HBS and some may not. The role of epigenetics in intersex conditions depending on the time in development of gene activation as recently discovered accidentally with mice could have massive implications for HBS, its definition and its treatment.

Beyond that there are many justifications for transgender beyond medical. There are cultural and human-rights arguments that alone are a sufficient justification for transgender.

So HBS could well harm itself by too fervently opposing transgender people to the point where they could be labelled a hate group by human rights organisations which would definatly harm, maybe even derail attempts to get the idea recognised by the international medical community.

The political tactic of distancing oneself from less acceptable people to become acceptable may be a large part of HBS's appeal for many. It was after all one of the primary social mechanisms of the schoolyard so a lot of people consider it acceptible not considering the cost of ostracism and bullying that the most different are subjected to so those not quite so different become acceptible.

I've seen that tactic a thousand times. Heck I was the victim of it over a thousand times being one of the most different people in school in every school I attended. It's unethical and it's immoral. It does sometimes work too. Though most as they grow up discover the 'cool kids' were really some of th worst people around while the 'uncool kids' aften were the most decent people though there are always exceptions.

But the tactic can backfire. Sometimes fashions change and the punk kids or goth kids become cool or at least acceptible. And so the exclusion tactic involves betting on the people your trying to distance yourself from never being cool or acceptible. With a black man as a US presidential candidate with a chance of winning there is a lesson to be learned. In one lifetime a lot can change. I point this out to some of the crossdressers who are uncomfortable being linked with gay people too. They are becoming more and more accepted in society. There's a lot of struggles still but compared with 20 years ago? A lot changed in 20 years!

So finding an HBS person able and willing to express their viewpoint without spite, without hatred towards crossdressers isn't just apleasant surprise for me. It signifies a real hope for them too.

If they can rein in the bigots amongst their movement, the rabid ideologues and dogmatists enough to stop them from harming the movement then perhaps they can make real headway in their attempts to ensure that they get the medical treatment they need and deserve.

They don't have to deny the human rights of non-HBS people to medical treatment like hormones and SRS or to protection from discrimination to do that, they don't have to denigrate, insult or act rudely to crossdressers like me to do that.

More conversations like this and who knows, many transgender activists might start supporting HBS as a definition. Certainly becoming considerd as a hate group opposing the human rights of others sure wont help their cause.

So, thanks Evey! Thanks from the bottom of my heart! Thanks for talking to me like i'm a valid human being. Thanks for talking to me in a respectful manner! We may not agree on a lot of things and thats ok, I am glad to talk to you. I hope you can redeem HBS from the terrible associations that some of it's extremists have marred it with.

Science and medicine will have the final say on HBS as a medical definition. As a movement both social and political you Evey and others like you may well be it's saving grace.