I really thought better of the British . . .

[Sassy]

I've  said this before, but in a cafe local to me there's one set of toilets with two cubicles and two sinks that are mixed gender. The only person I've ever seen bothered was a young man who couldn't get his head round the fact I didn't mind him being there and who kept apologising.

It really is time we grew up a bit.

Which means wrong signals are being sent out that our little girls and boys can use the toilets whilst strange men look on.

Did that not come to mind. As an adult we can choose but our children should not be using toilets which allow women and men to look on as they pee.

When it comes to children we need same sex toilets. As a child I certainly would not want an audience of strange men and women looking on as I went to the loo.

It is okay to take our young children in the toilets with us but they need their privacy.

I am surprised that no one really thought about children using the toilets.

[BeRational]

Which means wrong signals are being sent out that our little girls and boys can use the toilets whilst strange men look on.

Did that not come to mind. As an adult we can choose but our children should not be using toilets which allow women and men to look on as they pee.

When it comes to children we need same sex toilets. As a child I certainly would not want an audience of strange men and women looking on as I went to the loo.

It is okay to take our young children in the toilets with us but they need their privacy.

I am surprised that no one really thought about children using the toilets.

I don't think people will be looking on.

You will have privacy in a cubicle.

[Bubbles]

Interesting article

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-36429860

It goes into how transgender people feel about having to live a double life.

Also that who they are,  doesn't just go away.

[Brownie]

BeRational: I don't think people will be looking on.

You will have privacy in a cubicle.

I think so too and most parents are protective of their children anyway, they look after them when they go to public loos.

---------------------------
Morning Rose.   That's a sad story, I really don't know what to say about it.  I feel very sorry for Jane but the fact that she has stuck with her job in the armed forces for all these years shows that there is more to her than her gender and life can't be all bad.

I saw some of a programme on TV last week, late at night when sleep seemed a long way off, about how some men actually seek out a transgender woman (a man who has had some surgery towards being a woman), for a partner.   I mean, as opposed to just looking for a girlfriend, or meeting and liking a woman who turns out to be transgender.  They deliberately look for a transgender partner because of some sexual benefits they wouldn't otherwise have.  I felt uncomfortable about that and thought that, were I a transgender woman (which I realise is not something I can properly imagine), I might feel a bit used.  I suppose it takes all sorts.

[Owlswing]

I saw some of a programme on TV last week, late at night when sleep seemed a long way off, about how some men actually seek out a transgender woman (a man who has had some surgery towards being a woman), for a partner.   I mean, as opposed to just looking for a girlfriend, or meeting and liking a woman who turns out to be transgender.  They deliberately look for a transgender partner because of some sexual benefits they wouldn't otherwise have.  I felt uncomfortable about that and thought that, were I a transgender woman (which I realise is not something I can properly imagine), I might feel a bit used.  I suppose it takes all sorts.

Equally there are MTF transgender women who have surgery except for the genital re-sculpture who seek out female companions.

It takes all kinds - I can't remember who the quote is attributable to - and the "transgender world" includes a range of degrees of MTF and FTM transition from 'plain' transvestite/crossdresser to full surgical gender re-assignment.

Another denial that one-size-fits-all in anything just about.

[Brownie]

Yes Owl, we don't all fit into the same box;  same applies to issues other than sexual identity.

I can't help thinking: all that surgery and having to take hormones for the rest of your life, maybe forty or fifty years (& sometimes the surgery doesn't work or goes wrong dramatically), plus the sort of men or women who want to have a relationship, who may well be far removed from the type you dreamed of.

[Owlswing]

Yes Owl, we don't all fit into the same box;  same applies to issues other than sexual identity.

I can't help thinking: all that surgery and having to take hormones for the rest of your life, maybe forty or fifty years (& sometimes the surgery doesn't work or goes wrong dramatically), plus the sort of men or women who want to have a relationship, who may well be far removed from the type you dreamed of.

Instances of surgery that "doesn't work or goes wrong dramatically" are, these days, few and far between, unlike in the early days of Christine Jorgensen in 1952 or so, when it was in the 'pioneering' stage. I lost two friends to surgical accidents while I was living in Australia, and the surgical profession was one of the strongest forces in the fight to "get it right".

Equally just because you are transgender it does not mean that you have to accept any advances, any more than if your bits are still those that you were born with.

[Brownie]

That's true, you can tell people to ''Piss off'' same as before you were transgender.  However I can imagine difficult situations, where somebody behaves as though they really like you as a person and then......
That happens with heterosexuals often enough, I am sure transgender people bring even more of those out of the woodwork because they are so vulnerable.

Gender reassignment is a long process including pre-op counselling etc, and it needs to be, to be absolutely certain that the person is sure they want it to happen and know what they are getting into.  The Charing Cross may well be good, ethical, etc, but I don't necessarily trust some of the doctors involved.