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http://news.aol.com/health/article/teen-sex-change-kim-petra...
If you can access it there are two poles:
Should someone Petras' age be allowed to undergo a sex-change operation?
yes=37% no=63%
Do you know anyone who has had a sex-change operation?
yes=21% no=70% not sure=9%
Get on there and VOTE :)
Comments
I wonder how many of those "NO" votes
are single user - and how many are the same person from more than one computer/VM...
Good question... and...
... What does it really matter? At least in Petra's case. It's done and it was legal according to the laws that govern her country (Germany).
Since this poll is on the net, logic would assume you might get an international response. If by it being 'resricted' to AOL (who else looks at AOL stuff but AOL subsrcibers) equals the US... why ask 'loaded' questions on how a foreign country should govern themselves?
Given the US outlook on the TS question, compared to the rest of the world and that most respondents would probably by in the US... the motivation for that poll is highly suspect.
The only way those questions could be interpreted as anything approaching a level playing field, is if all countries had a common law re sex-changes.
I see it as just another way to stir the 'bigotry pot'.
PB
Companion Question
The right question to ask here is, "Do you believe medical decisions should be made by people unaffected by the decision and uninformed about the issues?"
But frankly, I'm amazed at how high a level of acceptance this does seem to have, though it's less than 50%, imagine asking that question even ten years ago.
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
Votes
I would have to agree with Erin. In light of the mentality in this country and else where, I think 37% is pretty damn good. At least some people are thinking. It's too bad so many people rely on opinions rather than good sound facts and science. :)Portia
Portia
She Has My Support Completely !
I voted "Yes" on both counts and she has definitely got a fan in me. I have added her as a friend on MySpace and I really think she is a fabulous singer. It is pretty telling when you see some of the "A" List celebrities on her friends list. Miley Cyrus ,Hilary Duff and Ashley Tisdale don't have a problem being her friend. It is sad that she won't be able to breakout into the U.S market because some self righteous A***holes want to make her gender identity a bigger issue than it should be. She is a very beautiful and talented young lady. The German medical system treated her for a medical problem and that is exactly how it should be handled. I will support her 100% by buying her music and vocally supporting her to anyone I know. She deserves to be right up there with all of the big names in her age group and even older.
I just want to know
about the 9% who votes I don't know on question two! :-)
Commentator
Visit my Caption Blog: Dawn's Girly Site
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I'm not surprised at the 9% who didn't know.
9 years ago I would not have understood the question before reading the article.
Afterward, I would have envied her, but still not really understood, based on what I knew then
As to not knowing if I had, I would have had to add to the 9% on the second question.
Now, I'm on following in her footsteps, but almost 50 years older.
It’s not given to anyone to have no regrets; only to decide, through the choices we make, which regrets we’ll have,
David Weber – In Fury Born
Holly
It's nice to be important, but it's more important to be nice.
Holly
Seems to Me...
"Not sure" ought to be a more popular answer. I've known a couple of MTFs personally, but that doesn't mean I know whether or not they actually had SRS. (I answered "yes" because one of the two legally married a man, which (in California circa 1990) presumably meant that her birth certificate had been reissued.)
Eric
AOL Polls
The polls on AOL always seemed to be slanted to the more conservative opinion. Given the answers given to hubndreds of other polls I'm of the opinion that the general population might be closer to 50% approval.
Hmmmmmmmm. I'm a card-carrying liberal and I have misgivings about someone so young making this decision. I suppose that goes with having raised four children through their teen years.
While I'm all for hormone programs to delay puberty I can't say I'm behind SRS for teenagers.
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
Hormones to delay puberty...
...*may* not be particularly safe, as these hormones affect the development of the brain in many ways, so this is one of many fields of medicine in which few of us, including doctors, know exactly what they're doing. If the decision is well-evaluated, early SRS is probably the safest option, if only to allow for normal brain development at the approximate "right" age.
Puddin'
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Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
Misgivings
You have a valid point about SRS at such a young age. But on the other hand, the photos do make a good argument for early transition being beneficial, appearance-wise. I suppose it's a judgment call. I've known many middle-aged children, and have occasionally encountered 15-16 year old adults.
Yuri!
Yuri!
Yes, good point, but...
Our culture has, over the past century or so, artificially extended childhood by reducing the responsibilities placed on, and expected of, people under 18. In the late nineteenth century, in much of the U.S., a fourteen-year-old was considered an adult for most purposes. Admiral Farragut ("Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead") was given command of his first naval vessel at age 14. Historically, Christians of many sects take confirmation at 14 because they are considered intellectually capable and responsible for their decisions at that age. Similarly, when a Jewish boy has his bar mitzvah at 13, he is considered a man.
Sadly, to a large degree we no longer expect our kids at that age to be able to take care of themselves and make wise decisions, which of course is often self-fulfilling.
But the way I see it, it's a rare child who wouldn't have given it a lot of careful thought, over many years, before seeking SRS; after all this is an irrevocable choice that drastically affects their entire future, and I suspect even the most self-centered, short-sighted child will recognize that. So regardless of whether or not you might feel they were responsible in other ways, I'd be hard pressed to justify telling them no, in most cases.
My own father...
for example, ran away to sea at fourteen or fifteen, joined the merchant marine, and then the Navy when WWII started. In California, a juvenile can be declared an emancipated minor at the age of 14. Other states and nations have different ages, often dependent on marital status, income, education, and/or economic self-sufficiency. The actress Drew Barrymore petitioned for emancipation at the age of fifteen, I think.
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Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
AOL Votes
Online polls are essentially meaningless, since there is little to prevent unscrupulous persons from killing the cookies that allow the site to keep track of the voters, and voting as many times as one likes.
AOL sets thirty cookies when you visit the site and vote, so the easiest procedure is just to clear the cookie cache, which some people do as a matter of personal privacy when they exit their browser.
Quite frankly, it's usually the right-wing idiots who do this, since the repetitive actions involved imply a tolerance for mind-numbing tasks and a certain lack of better things to do with one's time than weigh in on hate issues, so I wouldn't trust either vote.
Puddin'
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Vote early; vote often!
--- William Hale Thompson, Mayor of Chicago from 1915-1923 and form 1931-1935. The quote is also attributed to one of his successors, Richard J. Daley, mayor from 1955 to 1976, and to Al Capone, American gangster in New York and Chicago, famous for engineering a gangster-controlled city government in the town of Cicero (near Chicago).
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Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
should SHE have the right to decide so early in life???
ABSOLUTELY!!!
I knew who I was when I was only 6. I was allowed to spend a year F then a year M until fifth grade when my breasts began to develope and the proof was there for all to see. I was ME Female!!!
The time to decide and change is BEFORE the major shifts begin to take hold upon your body.
At 16 she was very lucky to have made the change just, apparently, in time.
I was murdered when I was not yet 13 and the Female parts were ripped out of me. As a male I'm sterile and since that operation as a Female I am also.
Am I angry? Yes! am I angry with idiots who don't want to understand how we feel and what we go through imprisioned in the wrong bodies? YES!
That is why so many of my books touch upon the TG subject lightly but consistantly. Public opinion is slowly changed. The printed word is a wonderful way to gain ground.
Sorry. I'll step down off my crate of eggs and try to control my temper. It isn't good for my heart.
God Bless You All... TEDDI DIANNE ALDOENNETTI
Vote Yes
Teddi: Go Teddi! Richard
Richard
The Sun
The Sun is a sensationalistic rag. And, judging from the placement and poll, so is AOL News.
Cute kid. You can see why she's found a career as a model, and I guess as a singer. God bless her -- may she have a long, happy and prosperous life. And may the sensationalistic rags someday develop something resembling a conscience and an approach to journalism that contributes to the public good.