What the Papers Say

There's the UK Tabloids. The Sun is in a class of its own, for example:

Angling Star had his Rod removed (October 5th):

A Woman who won one of angling’s top prizes has a secret past — as a man.
(Photo : Gina lost her tackle)
Gina le Faux, 51, was once George Faux, a professional folk singer who lost his rod in sex-change surgery.

Sex-change woman darts ban :

A Woman darts player has been thrown out of her ladies’ league — because she used to be a man.

Christine Makin, formerly Clive, had to quit her pub team after 17 out of 25 rival sides protested.

She revealed she was cruelly taunted during games, with opponents shouting: “You can’t play because you’re not womanly enough.”

Christine, 51, was married for 13 years as a man but became a woman through a series of sex-change operations.

Now, just like David Walliams’s Emily Howard character in Little Britain, she insists: “I’m a laydee.”

Shades of Steppin Fetchit. "Yes Massa, I's a Cumin!"

Here's "Emily Howard", on the right. Just so you know what they mean.

But Leek Ladies’ Darts League in Staffs disagreed.

Christine was turfed out for the 2006/7 season under Rule 35, which states: “Under no circumstances can any person of any gender play in the league unless that person was born a female.”

She claims the rule was brought in specially to keep her out.

Ya Think?

Sex-swap cop got me the chop :

A Cop has been suspended for refusing to call his cross-dressing male colleague MELANIE-SARAH.

PC Jason Anderson, 35, faces a disciplinary hearing because he insists on treating transsexual copper David Hanson as a man.

He is being hauled over the coals by his bosses at Cleveland Police despite the fact they themselves refused PC Hanson’s demand to let him dress as a WPC.

Married dad-of-two PC Hanson, 45, stunned colleagues when he first revealed he wanted to be a woman. Police chiefs let him grow his hair and change his name — but drew the line at a female uniform. When off-duty, PC Hanson wears women’s clothing and fake boobs — and is on hormones in preparation for a sex swap op next year.

Part of her qualification for treatment is that she take on the new gender role for at least a year, two in the UK. I;m surprised that her treatment by her employer has allowed her to continue, especially in the UK. She must be going to a private doctor, at her own expense.

Last night a police source at Hartlepool nick said: “PC Anderson will not co-operate and acknowledge PC Hanson as a woman in any way. He points out that, as Cleveland Police will not allow Hanson to dress as a woman cop, he should not be forced to address him as a WPC.

“Jason was suspended and has a disciplinary hearing this week and could be sacked.

“It would be a tragedy as he is a very good copper.”

As opposed to that jumped-up Pervert who should be shot, right? The one who, despite having passed through Goodness knows how many psychiatric barriers is now labelled as a "cross-dressing man". Actually a woman forced to cross-dress as a man during working hours.

OK, so let's get a little more up-market. Well, the Grauniad anyway. Some of the comments on one of their recent articles, this one about the witch-hunting of Dr Russel Reid.

The way society approaches cosmetic surgery (and I think gender reassignment belongs in this category) needs rethinking...
...
Spend the cash on cancer care or something.
...
There is no such thing as a sex change. No amount of hormones could turn the billions of XY chromosomes in my body into XX chromosomes. "Gender dysphoria" is a psychological problem. Like any other psychological problem, it is unlikely to be cured by mutilating the patients genitals and pumping them full of hormones.
...
The whole concept of "changing gender" is an absurdity.

Castrate a man and pump him full of estrogen and you have a woman?

Not hardly.
...
Lloydy2: Spend the cash on cancer care or something.

Dr Reid provided primarily private treatment. Because of bigots sharing your attitude, we all had little choice but to pay for it out of our own money.
...
I suppose that I will not fully understand transsexuality, but, having heard from you and others on this blog, I accept that it is real. It must be truly difficult and I admire not just your courage to try and set things right, but also your taking time to educate the rest of us on this blog.

Thank you, all TS bloggers.

And from The Australian :

ONLY a girl could write The Female Brain and walk away with life and reputation intact. This new book may be contentious, but in fact modern science is merely playing catch-up with what we know intuitively. Girls are different from boys.

Mind-blowing news, huh?

But here's the really brave bit: the unisex brain is a feminist fabrication. Louann Brizendine, an American neuro-psychiatrist, has written a book debunking stubborn notions that girls are different only because society makes them so. It's much more to do with the brain, she says. The female brain, to be more precise.

Here's a snap brain quiz. Which sex uses, on average, about 20,000 words a day, in contrast to the 7000 uttered by the other sex? Who has two-and-a-half times the amount of brain space devoted to sexual drive, meaning they think about sex, on average, every 52 seconds? When their feelings are hurt by someone they love, which sex reacts by assuming the relationship is over? Who has larger sections of the brain for action and aggression? If you answered, in order, women, men, women, men, you've been watching too many Woody Allen movies. Now, science is confirming that Woody was right all along.

While more than 99 per cent of male and female genetic coding is the same, it's the less than 1 per cent of difference that packs a punch in marking out women from men. Drawing upon advances in gene technology and brain-imaging techniques that have revolutionised neuro-scientific research, Brizendine presents a heady cocktail of structural, chemical, genetic, hormonal and functional differences between women and men.

These biological differences explain the most basic female behaviour. For instance, why do teenage girls endlessly talk? Science suggests that connecting through conversation triggers the pleasure centres in the brain.

Can I take the Fifth there? Anyone who's known me for long will be aware that I;'m a little loquacious at times. Just a bit mind you.

OK, but now I know why. So much obvious in hindsight.