It’s not often that I say this. In fact, this is definitely the first time. But some credit should go to 'Becoming Us [1]' - the ABC Family series that follows the gender transformation of “Carly,” who used to be a man but now self-identifies as an incredibly self-centered woman - for actually presenting some normal human reaction. And, I dare say, rational criticism of transgendered people.
In last night's episode, "Rules of Engagement," Carly has to attend the wedding rehearsal dinner of "her" daughter; it is attended not only by the daughter's fiancée’s family, but it is also the first time Carly has seen his former wife’s family since he underwent his “transformation.”
Here is a great scene, where, maybe for the first time in this show, some mention occurs of the fact that being transgender is not just sometimes a fad, but an actual mental disorder:
-I thought Carly would be dressed a little flashier.
- She's toned it down, recently.
- She's really toned it down. Have you talked to her, him/her?
- Uh, I just said hi.
- Yeah.
- That's all.
- Me too. I still can't say she.
- I know. It's hard.
- I'm still on the he.
- I know.
- Half he. Half this way. She, he. [Laughter]
Carly: Sometimes I get a little nervous, I feel like people are talking behind my back, and sometimes they really are.
- And I don't care. Whatever makes you happy.
- No, no, no.
- I don't care, but, I feel like that is a new addiction.
- I know.
Carly: It's almost like I was like a freak. And it's not very nice... But I think it's the people who have problems loving another people, for who they are that create the issue. Cause really if there is no issue people need to be less concerned about what other people are doing. Mind their own business.
- When you go the distance so to speak. Will that satisfy...
- No, I think there will be something else.
- There will be something else. To be honest, I much would have preferred to be talking about Sutton and Kevin than the topic we continually land on which is Carly's surgery.
- I just think it's for selfish reasons.
This lady nails it. Everything about transgenderism is selfish. One can “self-identify” as a woman or a man without actually going through an enormously expensive, and enormously invasive medical procedure to be followed-up by years and years of estrogen or testosterone treatments. Changing who you are, and who your kids and wife count on you to be, is probably the biggest “me-first” move of all time.
Also laughable is Carly’s statement that it’s the people who “have problems loving other people for who they are” who create the issues. First, no one ever said they didn’t love him. Second, he’s the one who “created the issue” by divorcing the wife he promised to stand by forever, and taking away his children’s father, because he felt like becoming their mother. The issue was created by him. No one else.
But most important is the statement at the end, where Carly’s ex-wife says that “going the distance” with the surgery will not satisfy everything that’s wrong with Carly. That there will always be something else.
Which is exactly right. Because as Dr. Paul McHugh, the former psychiatrist-in-chief for Johns Hopkins University has said, [2] “transgenderism is a mental disorder.” The people who go through it are trying to cover-up for deeper, darker demons they are either unwilling or unable to cope with.
Some of the proof Dr. McHugh cites [2] is the fact that the suicide rate for people who go through re-assignment surgery is 20% higher than it is for non-transgendered people. He also cites a study where between 70 and 80 percent of children who expressed transgendered feelings spontaneously lost those feelings over time. [2] How is transgenderism not a fad, if almost all kids who consider it spontaneously lose those feelings?
Moreover, almost to a person, everyone who goes through reassignment surgery talks about how they’re no longer living a lie and they’re finally free to be their true selves. If that’s true, then why is their suicide rate astronomically higher than the national average?
Because it’s not true, they’re not “being themselves.” The sad fact of the matter is that at some level, most of them hate themselves. And though they may have done so unwittingly, last night a show that’s dedicated to glorifying transgendered people put that fact on full display.