SNEAKO - August 03, 2022Why There’s Only 2 Genders.
Episode Stats
Words per minute
182.75375
Harmful content
Misogyny
20
sentences flagged
Toxicity
42
sentences flagged
Hate speech
21
sentences flagged
Summary
In this episode of Change My Mind, we have a conversation with someone who claims to be intersex and wants to know if there are only two genders. We talk about intersex people, gender identity, and intersex babies.
Transcript
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I talk about trans people, intersex people that used to be referred to as hermaphrodites,
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which is a phrase that we don't prefer anymore.
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We find it to be very triggering and offensive.
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Because of the word that has been used historically.
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There are only two genders, change my mind.
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Unedited conversations with people on the street.
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Usually we do this on campus, but during summer break, that's kind of hard to do.
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So, before we start, because this is a long one,
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I wanted to show you how this conversation ends up with our second person,
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who claimed to be intersex, and got a little hostile.
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And the reason for this is because of the length of these conversations,
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if you ever feel like we're talking around in circles or getting off in the details,
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you'll see that they come back later on, and they matter.
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That's key when having a conversation and finding common ground.
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The biological makeup of a brain is not societal.
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Right, so what I'm saying, the brain that you call the male brain,
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or the female brain, with what you're saying...
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I'm saying is closer to that brain that you were referring to as a male brain.
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So, I want to make sure I'm correct that you believe there is a male brain, generally,
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I'm not going to say yes to you when I'm explaining my answer, when I'm giving you my answer.
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My answer is, what you are referring to as a male brain is more...
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I didn't bring up male brain and female brain.
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So, that context matters because we are going to rewind all the way to the beginning,
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where you can see that intersex girl works for this person who approached me.
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Transgender male to female, Danielle Skidmore, actually running for Austin City Council in District 9.
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I was going to the list office and saw your table, and I've heard about your show, so I thought...
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So, Stephen, and if you're familiar at all with the show, this is just where we engage in civil discussion,
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dialogue, and issues that are usually pretty controversial.
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They result in talking points with a lot of people, and you don't like to see full-length conversations.
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I think that human biology is really complicated.
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I think that gender identity is real and intrinsic, and I think that...
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Literally, I was walking down the street, and I was like, oh my gosh, this is a sign, right,
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So, what do you believe is wrong, I guess, about my state?
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I think I've come to realize, I'm trans, right?
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Why we are the way we are, like what makes our core humanity, right, is beautifully complicated.
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So, like, my son, my son's got a genetic disorder, right?
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He's missing an enzyme that lets him metabolize two amino acids, right?
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Now, like, why I'm trans, to be honest with you, I don't know, right?
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Fighting what I knew to be true from the earliest age of my childhood to work my way through the
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social stigma of my reality, which was that I know I'm different and I don't understand
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I don't know why I would, you know, go and hide it.
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In the bathroom, where my sister's clothes, right?
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Like, yeah, it all got wrapped into the expectations of society.
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So, I want to make sure I'm just kind of unwrapping this carefully.
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You're a heterosexual, I presume, heterosexual cisgender man.
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So, Chad, you're saying this is just a dude with some plastic titties and a kid?
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I think I'm part of the LGBTQAI community that preferences, sexuality preferences, as far
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And biologically, I was born a male because I have a penis and a hormonal profile and chromosomes
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So, that's how I know that it's true to state that I'm a male.
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...as a male, because you're a male, because, like, you're XY.
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I didn't simplify it to XY to a multitude of factors.
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Everything from bone density to my hormonal profile to, yes, my penis.
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All of these things, pretty clearly, would file me in the cabinet under male, biologically.
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Like, in the spectrum of biological variation, you're in that big collection of people that
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Like, two-thirds of one percent is the best number now, right?
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That are transgender, based on, you know, what we know.
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Which, in Texas, is like 130,000 adults, right?
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Who, for reasons that are still unknown, are...
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Don't have all of those biological components that you described, don't align as cleanly as
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Um, again, this goes back to, you said, your truth that you are a female.
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I hope that I've answered it as clearly as I can.
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So I would return that same question to you, because I think we need to start with the
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There needs to be the same amount of validity to our arguments, as far as us rationalizing
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Like, in what biological context is it, like...
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How do you know that you're not simply a man who believes he's a woman?
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If you're heterosexual, why are you attracted to women?
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There's a lot of biological mechanisms in there, namely to procreate since the beginning
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And I think that's very important because a sexual preference is different from biology,
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And this is what I find also pretty interesting to me is right now they're teaching that,
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you know, obviously you're born gay, but gender is a choice.
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But I would assume on your birth certificate it said male.
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So at some point you made the decision to live the way that you live right now, correct?
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It was almost a decade ago to unpack all of the guilt and shame I felt for being different,
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And at some point I made the decision to unpeel guilt and shame, right?
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About my truth and to start trying to reconcile it with the rest of my...
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Chats, is it my truth or is it just you...
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But can your truth just be that you're confused?
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A life and to reconcile it with a society that is still pretty hostile.
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So one in the chat, not me, said this kid's got unspoken riz, bro.
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So and then even after I did that, I spent another...
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Is this thing, is she saying anything really or is it just saying, I'm empathy and my truth
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and I really started to unpack and unpeel and that's just the way it is.
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And because of my past, like, are you really saying anything or are you just like...
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Another six years desperately trying to not accept that.
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I accepted the truth and I'm like, how do I reconcile with that?
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I'm a parent who especially needs child, right?
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like how can i how can i be who i knew i am and still function in society so it took me years
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and eventually i realized that i don't have a choice like you know we look at the news this
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morning chat you really need to find god you need to find god i'm trying to listen to her truth
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right and uh with tony born day and you know taking his life right right so 40 percent of
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transgender people attempt suicide right i feel like a lot of people who are just lost end up like
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taking these gender hormones so that they think they decide that the problem in their life is i'm
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trans and i've never found myself like maybe you just need to go there's a lot of other things you
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need to work on the misconception is that uh transgender people are depressed because of
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like society's pressure but no these people are just a lot of them are just confused and they find
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out seven years after taking conversion therapy and conversion medication that they're even more
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depressed before but they get seven years of delusion of like yeah i was nick now i'm nicole
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and they get seven years of that and then like oh shit i missed my dick can i pause you right there
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really quickly just first off i hope that i haven't been hostile i know you talked about
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i've been hostile at all no this is a great okay good um because i know we disagree but i i certainly
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don't want to be disrespectful to you personally even if i disagree with you so yeah i don't know
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that i don't find that we disagree actually okay okay well i i'm glad that uh i'm glad that one
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because the last thing i want is for you to feel as though you've been sat down and it's uh it's been a
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you know a sandbagging um and and you've brought up you know anthony what a white word i just don't want
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you to feel like i just want you to sit down and just get sandbagged or anything like that i wasn't
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trying to put that on you i don't want to you know cements you or anything like that but i was
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just trying to just speak to you just shut up bourdain you brought up the suicide right i think
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that's very uh important you know it's about 41 it doesn't get better after uh hormone replacement
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therapy or even actually doing the the full sex reassignment surgery so here we are right i will
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disagree with you okay i uh i think the data shows that when people are able to live their lives
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as themselves and i yo this chat someone said the kid is throwing upsets you are you're so bro bro
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accepted in their community in their social networks that's their friends and their family
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professionally in their city when they're not stigmatized when they don't lose their job when
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they don't lose their housing when they aren't ostracized or demonized right like our state
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legislature spent the vast last spring and then called a special session yeah yeah she's civil and
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she's speaking like a politician but you know you could probably get confused with the empathy
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and like believe in this shit now but still like at the end of the day yo look at you essentially
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to demonize my existence based on somebody's you know i i don't honestly sincerely held religious
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belief i'm not sure why but to basically challenge my very validity as a human being right then yeah
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people can be frustrated and scared and terrified and hopeless and then kill themselves but in my
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community when people are able to live their lives and are accepted and able to you know aren't
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discriminated right then their suicide rate yo he she looks like a skyrim npc god damn man
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yo you are really wrong for that bro rates fall dramatically the single best thing you can do
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for somebody who's lbgtq of any sort but especially trans is recognize their truth and accept their
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humanity well i would disagree with you there um and first off i think you made a couple yeah let
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me explain why you made a couple the kid is not gdk bro you fucked up for that presumptions maybe
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they're not uh uh trying to demonize your very existence maybe they just disagree with you and maybe
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doesn't come from a christian perspective maybe it comes from a scientific one maybe it comes from a
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perspective of a medical perspective for example at uh at john's office i think we're okay having a
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conversation you and i right now right yeah we're good we're good thank you though um the white knight
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came in to save the the skyrim broad bro like come on in the suicide rate statistically anecdotally i'm
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glad to hear that that that your your group of friends do better because one thing i definitely
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don't want people attempting suicide on a 41 it's not just my friends i mean the data from the national
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center for trans equality the equality texas hrc it's not it's not like my anecdotal sort of
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group of friends the scientific i'm saving you with my instagram live are you safe are you feeling
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safe skyrim guy data shows that when people are not discriminated against and transgender individuals
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who are able to live their life whether they you know just transition socially or hormone replacement
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therapy or surgery whatever when people are able to live this is what karen's do they just start
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recording stuff aggressively and pass it like it's just aggressively record you to try to fight back
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their lives their mental health is better well statistically it's it's an accurate statistically
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the suicide rate doesn't really improve after i you know i'm going to keep pushing back on that
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so maybe that's something we can follow okay let's assume it's comparable let's assume it's
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slightly lower let's let's go with that i've seen the studies that you're talking about and it might be
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slightly lower it's not dramatically lower but i think this is predicated on the idea and i don't
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think it's an ill-founded idea that because of discrimination because of societal pressure because
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of feeling like an outsider uh people have more mental health issues people are more prone to
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depression people are more likely to attempt suicide if they feel ostracized and isolated right
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yeah if they're treated as less than human i would don't you just hate these karens bro like just
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like yeah i'm standing here this is my right i'm gonna call the manager i would agree
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um but the fact is minorities generally commit suicide or attempt at far fewer numbers for
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example white males are two times more likely than black men the transgender attempted suicide rate
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is higher than american slaves or jews in concentration camps are we to believe that um
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they have they've been treated more poorly in modern america than american slaves or jews and
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you're asking me to compare trans uh transgender individuals to uh no the statistical reality that
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nowhere else do you find that suicide rate outside of some serious psychiatric disorders including
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those who have been enslaved which might suggest again that this is a this is a not a truth as you
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said um people may perceive it as a reality but it may not be um it may not be ideal to treat it just
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telling people that that's the truth that's the reality when it's in conflict with biology and
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their hormones and their brain and their biological makeup because it can have catastrophic results
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and how many genders are there because now we're talking about non-binary right i know your genders are
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there i don't i think gender is a continuum
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this who gets to fucking make laws genders a continuum what does that even mean i think part
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of our so like this is my take on it right and this is my own personal opinion and how i've come
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how do you identify just so i make sure bro there's three people watching your instagram live karen stop
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just standing like that you decide if as a woman i'm a transgender woman so you say transgender woman i
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i like you know i'm comfortable owning the fact that i'm trans i don't know that any of us has a
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responsibility to own anything about our own individuality like i don't think you anybody needs
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to walk down the street and say hi i am chat stop it chat stop a heterosexual man or i am a homosexual
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woman right like i but for me i'm comfortable being visible right i'm lucky that i get to live in
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austin and i get to be visible and not suffer too many consequences now the reality is i am a very
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small sliver of the trans population right i weren't white this is why he she's a politician it's just
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magic tricks going on she's speaking really empathetically and you start to believe it right
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professional right my murder rate if i were an african-american transgender woman i'd be 30 times
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more likely to be murdered than i am so african-american men are much more likely to be murdered than white
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men too so a big part of that is right not necessarily race is real right and that's that's
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race is a component of every all of our interactions in society i think it's important
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my truth right so like back to my truth i'm actually tired of hearing that can't there just
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be an objective truth when did it change where people could just have my truth our gender identity
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who we are in our brain from birth before before we're talking about any kind of hormonal replacement
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okay yeah is uh varies across all of us i i'm that i like i'm at peace with i honestly think the
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science will prove that fact there there was a study that was presented this summer in uh i forget
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the researchers i think were belgian or dutch and it was presented in spain barcelona like a month ago
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that doing imagery studying right so functional mris on brains of transgender children
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before hrc okay so this is there have been some studies that have done in the most famous study
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was the remedi study was the uh was done with folks who might have been in transition or post
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transition yeah rip yo set yeah and this okay sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry i can't i can't do
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it all right shouts move on this this is enough it's just going to be 50 minutes of the same