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from the does-the-pensioner-want-to-repay-his-benefits-and-go-back-to-work,-too? dept.
In the quixotic battle against old age, some people use skin care and spin class.
That’s not enough for Emile Ratelband, a 69-year-old who feels like he’s in his 40s. The Dutch pensioner is asking a court in his hometown of Arnhem, southeast of Amsterdam, to change his birth certificate so that it says he took his first breath on March 11, 1969, rather than on March 11, 1949. The judges heard his case Monday and promised they would render a verdict in the next several weeks.
Ratelband sees his request as no different from a petition to change his name or the gender he was assigned at birth — and isn’t bothered that this comparison might offend transgender people, whose medical needs have been recognized by the American Medical Association. It comes down to free will, he maintains.
I want to be recognized as an alien trapped in an Earthling's body.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday November 09 2018, @04:44PM (8 children)
Only if I get full custody rights. I don't want that son of a bitch poisoning your mind with his...well, everything about him.
Okay, not-very-funny joke over. This is another of those "I identify as an attack helicopter" memes, which were both missing the point and about as amusing as a rubber crutch to begin with. I don't "get" the whole trans thing, but I've got trans friends and every single one has improved after transition. That alone would be enough to convince me to support trans rights. It is a false equivalence to equate that with, for example, someone disputing the chronological age he's at, which as I said upstream has nothing to do with humans at all except insofar as we've invented a way of measuring it.
And wow, there sure are a lot of flaky, triggered snowflakes on this thread. Oddly, it's the ones who talk the toughest, and they seem scared of Caitlyn Jenner. She doesn't scare me, at least not unless she's driving and I'm within about 100 feet of her.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Friday November 09 2018, @10:16PM
I think this whole 'change muh bird-day' thing is an attention getter:
as an aside, I think of myself as, at least mentally, around 35 years old. My body, on the other hand, likes to remind me i'm over 50. If i could legally change my body to a 25 year old one, i'd do it in a heart-beat, lol.
My brain says "Let's really go at the grass cutting, the garden, the job": my body says, "Yeah... fuck you, Grandpa."1
1 I am not a grandpa. Yet.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 09 2018, @10:28PM
That's a mischaracterization of this case though. He is challenging the societal consequences of said age more than the age itself (forced retirement, zero standing on the job market, insurance premiums). Yes, I'm sure he's looked at a few pages in the transgender playbook and playing them too. But that doesn't make him wrong, and I actually think it's quite ageist to dismiss his troubles with a "tough, suck it up" attitude as some seem to do.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 09 2018, @11:40PM (3 children)
Lol!!! like we're supposed to think you're not trans.
Seriously I didn't even know you were trying to claim otherwise.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Azuma Hazuki on Saturday November 10 2018, @05:46AM (2 children)
Oh for heaven's sake...why do you think I'm trans, because I defend trans rights? By that "logic" I'm also black because I defend civil rights, and also a male baby because I'm against circumcision, and ALSO a cat because I donated time and money to the local animal shelter.
Or is it that you think I'm not demure and passive enough to be a woman? Leaving aside any speculation that gay women might have masculinized brains, if you think *I'm* bad, you should see my sister. My ramrod-straight sister, who would implode on herself and pop back out as Freddy Mercury if she liked dick any more than she actually does. I at least do the research before going off on a rant; she's far less well-read and seems to take it as a point of pride not to consider the opposition's side...
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 10 2018, @10:18AM (1 child)
So, this sister of yours... is she seeing anyone?
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Saturday November 10 2018, @05:57PM
Last I heard yes, though he's a bit of a manbaby. I've been politely advising her to drop him for a while now, but it's her decision in the end.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by requerdanos on Saturday November 10 2018, @12:40AM (1 child)
I don't think it's that; it's far more subtle and approachable conversationally. There does not appear to be an element of mocking anyone. Though there is certainly some overlap in the positions.
People who discover themselves to be transsexual often have a ton of problems** and suffering only to have that just added to by treatment from others who are not capable of understanding the positions of anyone who is not just like themselves. People with problems should get nothing but support.
No, this age-trolling is not equivalent to the rights of people who need help or at least understanding and compassion.
Even though people with problems should get nothing but support, life isn't all one thing or another, and often, people with problems find that they, for whatever reasons, make more problems for themselves. Some people who are trans, for example, and by no means most nor all, might overcorrect for bias against them and claim that not only is gender not a solid, unchanging measurement, but everything's whatever anyone says it is.
The former is absolutely correct*; the latter is just nonsense, wrong as wrong ever could be. There is, as I said of something else above, some overlap, this time between people who are trans, and people who say that pretty much any part of reality is whatever you say it is.
This case actually can help communication by serving to remind all parties that some things are fixed, and some things are not. This counters both the "everything is fixed and so is your gender" intolerant-and-wrong people, and counters the "everything is fluid and reality is whatever I say it is" people, who are wrong, and who are also offensive, albeit in an intellectual way rather than an archie-bunker way.
It can encourage people to put down "all" and "everything" and "always" and "never" and accept reality, and work from that. That sure seems to need doing.
-----
* Sure, your DNA with its XX, XY, YY isn't going to change in most of your cells, but that's only one thing that goes into gender, and not always the most important one at that. Other things that go into gender, such as what gender-related equipment one has, is relatively stable but can change. And one's self-identity is what it is regardless of one's DNA and equipment. So though parts are unchanging, gender itself isn't, and it's perfectly normal for people who experience a mismatch on these three factors to want to resolve it. Since it seems that most people match on all three (all three indicate the same gender), most people are in a position to have trouble understanding that issue without compassion. Sadly, someone saying "reality is whatever I say it is", even if they strongly-but-wrongly feel that's the case, makes it worse (turns n problems into n+1).
** For some people, their appearance and the appearance of their baby genitalia at birth may have been ambiguous, and they may have had parents and doctors make some decisions for them (modifying the genitalia to more closely match a particular gender, for example, and then enshrining that artificial choice socially and legally). If the decision matches up with the intrinsic self-image, then great--dodged a bullet there. But if it doesn't--then what insane and unnecessary problems compound on top of any initial ones.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 10 2018, @05:25AM
> people with problems should get nothing but support
until their problems extend beyond themselves. Psychopath dumping mercury into the stream can be physically stopped from destroying lives and nature, even he resists.
The line is hard to find. What about someone advocating violence, but not enacting it? What about dogwhistling? What if you don't know it' s dogwhistling? (One of my siblings' favorite players in the 90's and 00's was #88, he only recently got told he's gotta stop wearing his favorite ratty jersey!)