One cannot help but notice that lately, some members of one particular political party are all in conniptions about other people who don’t perfectly fit into the gender stereotypes that they’d prefer. They are even trying to pass laws against anything that they imagine could possibly be considered as promoting or aiding such “deviant” behavior, as if it is somehow an existential threat to the safety of their children.

There’s a LOT to unpack in their delusion; more than I have the time or space or energy for.

But I have tried to get my mind around the whole matter, and I’ve come up with a “working model” that allows me to go about my life unthreatened by other people who, though they may not fit into the usual gender boxes, just want to go about their lives without being threatened, too.

A while back, I recall coming across a bit of science reporting that noted that there was a small but detectable and significant difference between the average male brain and the average female brain. Something to do with the size of one of the parts. Whatever it is, I’m going to just go with the idea that there are “male” brains and “female” brains.

Look, I do NOT want to get into any arguments about brains and intelligence and averages and variance, or the validity of that research. That’s not the point here; it’s all in service of my working model. If you find flaws in the model when I’m done explaining it, THEN you can gripe about it, OK?

Given that, what happens if a male brain gets put into a female body, or a female brain gets put into a male body?

If, because of individual variation, the difference between the Brain and the Body isn’t that great, perhaps it just shows in their personalities – a more effeminate male, a more “tomboyish” female – and no one, not even them, is bothered. It’s well within “acceptable norms”.

If the difference is greater, perhaps the people “adjust” to it by being homosexual (lesbian, gay, bi, whatever). They still “identify” according to their outward appearance, but the different brain makes them attracted to bodies of the same appearance. Others might find that, for whatever reason, they can handle the difference by dressing and acting as a person that aligns with their Brain instead of their Body. If it works for them, fine.

But perhaps the difference is so great – the contractors building them really screwed up – that the only way they can stay sane is through a long and complex process to change their Body to be of the same type as their Brain.

Hey, if that’s what they need, why should I get in the way?

It’s not like people do that on a whim. Guys don’t wake up in the morning and suddenly say “Ya know, it might be fun to be a Woman today!” Due to the radical nature of the surgery and hormone treatments, it’s not something to be taken lightly. One starts off with a couple of months of analysis and therapy sessions to make sure that there’s no easier solution to whatever is going on with the person. Right?

In any case, it’s the Body that’s being changed – not the Brain. The person is still the same as they were before (hopefully with less stress, though). LOTS of people have assorted appearance-altering surgery, from hair implants to butt lifts, without anyone making a fuss. No reason this should be any different.

And as far as I’m concerned, there are only two groups of people who need to care that they’ve changed their bodies. First, their medical people, because they have a Need to Know basis when doing medical procedures and prescribing treatments. And second, anyone they’ll be having sexytimes with. Because at that level of intimacy, it’s almost certainly going to come up. Anyone else can stuff it.

Is this model accurate? Who cares? It works for me, and lets me see “trans” people as people FIRST. And isn’t that what they want?