TODAY I AM A MAN

Solipism is the philosophical idea that only one’s own mind exists.  It is the theory that knowledge outside of one’s own mind is unjustified.  It can serve as a skeptical hypothesis.  Transgenders wanting to alter their birth certificates to the gender they are now living, but without genital reformation (reassignment) surgery, is not a hypothetical situation, but I still am skeptical (unconvinced, not disbelieving) about the topic.

Definition of transgender might be necessary for some readers in helping to better understand the argument I will propose later. The term transgender is a general term defined by the Merriam-Webster’s dictionary as, “of, relating to, or being a person (as a transsexual or transvestite) who identifies with or expresses a gender identity that differs from the one which corresponds to the person's sex at birth.”  The World English dictionary simply says, “of or relating to a person who wants to belong to the opposite sex.” 

The transgender topic was in the news in April and I wrote about the new guidelines that Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart has instituted for the treatment of transgenders in jails.  I was skeptical then about housing inmates by the gender they identify with, rather than the gender their genitalia reflects.

The latest transgender news is that a class action lawsuit was filed last week by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU,) against Damon Arnold, head of the Illinois Department of Public Health because that office denied a request by a transgender who wants to change her (she was a he) gender on her birth certificate.  The person, Lauren Grey, has had breast augmentation and facial feminization surgeries, but not genital reformation surgery.  Reformation surgery is required by the state to change one’s sex on their birth certificates, but not for changes on driver’s licenses.

In the Chicago Tribune , Grey said, "I live as a female, I feel female and everybody treats me that way, but this document (her birth certificate) doesn’t reflect that. I know that's not me, but I can't do anything about it."

I am sympathetic to the feelings of people who feel they were born with the reproductive organs of one sex, but want to be the opposite sex, but since the only solid way of defining a man or a woman is by their genitalia, I don’t agree with altering the sex category on one’s birth certificate.  The birth certificate reflects one’s sex at the moment birth, not what sex one wants to live their life as 20 years later.

Maybe another type of certificate could be issued to handle the problem, but I don’t feel an original birth certificate should ever be altered.

This argument reminds me of a story 30 years ago when there was discussion if the United States would switch to the metric system.  I was explaining to a male friend that if the conversion occurred he would not be six feet tall, but would be 1.82 meters and his weight would change from 166 pounds to 12 stone.  He asked me what his age would become.  I laughed and said his age would not change.  He looked at me with disbelief and said, “You don’t know what you are talking abut.  If they change my height and weight, they would have to change my age also.”  He did not ask if “they” could change his sex!

In Judaism, when a boy reaches the age of 13, at his bar mitzvah ceremony he announces that, “today I am a man.”   That happens because under Jewish Law children are not obligated to observe the Ten Commandments.  The bar mitzvah ceremony formally makes it public that he is now of the age to observe the commandments and to take part in leading religious services and other adult responsibilities.

But is he really a “man"? In our society he would still be considered a child until he is 18 years of age.  His declaring so does not make it legal.

Declaring one is a man or a woman does not change one’s original gender.  It is a philosophical idea that exists outside my comprehension, so it is not justified.  According to René Descartes, “Cogito ergo sum.”  I think therefore I am does not make the new gender legal.