Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz and this is Ascension Presents. So, I was, over Memorial Day weekend hanging out with my family, and one of my nephews, he, he pretended he was a dog. And you know how you have to deal with a little kid when like, "I'm a puppy!" Okay. you have the ball and you throw the ball and they come back with it and you're playing around at one point it was time for supper and so I'm like, "ok buddy, time to get up, wash your hands get ready for supper. He is like, "No, no, no" "I'm a puppy" I'm the fun uncle that's what priests are- the fun uncle so I'm like, I'm not gonna correct this kid I just kinda directed him to his parents and his parents are like "Listen, You are a little boy. You are not a dog. Wash your hands. Sit at the table." and I thought, "Alright. That's good that's good parenting right there." where, you know here is the kid, he maybe really thinks he is a dog but the reality is you're not a dog." I was thinking about this and thinking about that love that my nephew's parents have for him when it comes to this big thing on the news, of course, which is Bruce Jenner or anyone else who experiences the sense of being transgender the idea is that this I have a Bruce Jenner's case I have a man's body but, I'm not really a man I have always felt like a woman. You know, people say "Are you very judgmental?" Here's what I'm saying: That I have no judgment on this thing ... I just have an assessment. I'm not saying that Bruce Jenner is evil ... I just think that that perception of him saying, "I'm actually a woman." I just think that assessment or that perception is off. I think it is inaccurate. Here's what I mean. Let's just even ask the question those of you who are men who are watching this, those of you who are woman who are watching this, women, what does it feel like to be a woman? Guys, what does it feel like to be a man? Flip it around, say men, do you have any idea what it feels like to be a woman? And women, do you have any idea what it feels like to be a man? No. The reality is of course, we don't we have no idea what it feels like to be a member of the opposite sex. All we have— all we have—this is crazy all we have is gender stereotypes. Here's what I mean: There are stories about, you know here is the only young boy and his parents say, "well, you know, we are treating him like a girl he really is a girl, because he identifies as a girl. Why? Well, you know ever since he was little we didn't have to tell him. He liked dolls more than he likes trucks, he liked um uh dresses more than he liked jeans, he liked pink more than he liked blue. And you think of that wait a second that's how you know that your little boy is actually a girl because he just happens to like things that are traditionally associated with girls? it's just something that's arbitrary. Skirts that ... women wear skirts is arbitrary, that women play with dolls or over trucks is arbitrary. In fact, I think about this: one of my older sisters growing up, she was what you call back in the day, since I'm an old man, what they call back in the day they called her a tomboy Why? because she loved hunting... she loved fishing she loved she was incredible at sports the field she's in medicine right now she is a doctor her field that she is in right now is a field traditionally associated dominated by men her husband is a stay-at-home dad. Now she is hard charging, she does a lot she takes ... she is really smart, she takes a bull by the horns all these kinds of things things that are "masculine" traits now wait- is she a man? no why? because she is a woman she is the mom of her kids my brother-in-law he is patient he is kind he is gentle with his kids he is a stay-at-home dad traditionally, things associated with women how do we know he is not a woman? because he looks at his body. His body reveals that he is actually actually a man. Here's the crazy thing is if my perception doesn't match up to reality it's not reality that has to change it's my perception of reality that has to change we all know this when it comes to I'm sure some of you have this experience of people in your life who suffer from something like another kind of body dysmorphia something like anorexia. There is a young woman that I remember working with, years ago. It's painful. She was in the hospital because she was so thin. She was 98 pounds, but she still perceived herself as being fat, saying, "No, I still feel fat. I still feel fat." Like, wait a second ... but your perception and reality is off. So it's not reality that has to change it's your perception of reality that has to change. That's an act of love. In fact, there is this other version of body dysmorphia, this kind of misperception of one's body, it's called BIID. It stands for body integrity identity disorder; and what BIID is it's when someone looks at something like their hand and says this isn't my hand this is, it feels foreign to me, or these legs feel foreign to me. In fact, there was a documentary I watched a number of years ago about a woman who she perceived herself to be a paraplegic; she perceived herself that her legs didn't work, and so that's how she lived her life. She got around in a wheelchair, she transferred herself from her bed to a wheelchair with like a pulley system kind of a thing; but the reality is her legs do work. Her perception was off. And so what happens is this when someone is suffering from this kind of body dysmorphia, BIID, comes in and says, "Doctor, this is not my hand, not my real hand. Can you amputate it?" Doctors around the world are instructed ... no. That's actually their hands. Don't amputate a healthy limb. Their perception is wrong, not the reality. But when it comes to sex we all lose our brains and we all lose our minds and a man goes in or a woman goes in and says, "Doctor, these external genitalia are not mine. They're not actually a part of me. I perceive that they shouldn't be here." and apparently we are ok with doctors saying, "OK, well then we will have sex reassignment surgery" or gender reassignment surgery. And yet that seems to be kind of covering over the real problem ... just like amputating a healthy limb would be covering over the real problem. In fact that's the conclusion that a guy named Doctor Paul McCue came to. He was the chief psychiatrist of John's Hopkins Hospital ... so this isn't like a crack pot doctor. This is the chief psychiatrist ex-chief psychiatrist of John's Hopkins. He dealt with a lot of these cases of people identified as transgender. They saw themselves as a member of the opposite sex and with sex reassignment surgery he said, yeah, some of these patients experience satisfaction of that reassignment, but they were still disturbed; they were still hurting. And he came to this conclusion, he said we had to stop doing sex reassignment surgery, because he says, we found that um he found that producing satisfied but a still troubled patient seemed an inadequate reason for surgically amputating normal organs; because I could change these external factors but the reality is at the heart of everything I am still a man or I am still a woman. And when it comes down to it that's the message of love. This is not a message of judging, this is not a message of criticizing, this is not even a message of trying to blame anyone or make anyone into a monster. No, absolutely not! These are people who are hurting. Anyone, the people in my life who have been hurting from anorexia or any other kind of body dysmorphia, or even this kind of sense of identifying with members of the opposite gender all of that comes down to someone who is hurting. So what are we called to do as Catholics.... Well we don't have to judge because no one is calling us to judge and no one wants us to judge. We don't need to judge. What we're called to do is called to walk with people. That's one of the best things we do as Catholics is we walk with people. We listen to them, we hear what they are really saying and then we are able to just not have to yell at anyone and not have to criticize anyone, but just be able to say, "Let me walk with you." I don't have to give you what you want in order to love you, but I am called to walk with you in order to love you. That's why it is easy for me to say this on a video, to say that, yeah, we're you ever called to do this, but what really happens is this: When Catholics when those that belong to Jesus are willing to get in the messiness of someone's, you know, someone's brokenness, someone's wound, it doesn't matter what it is, listen to them, to love them and walk with them, that's what we are really called to do. And when it comes to Bruce Jenner or when it comes to anyone else, it comes to any of the people in your life and in my life, the best thing we can do is not simply share the truth with them, but it's also to walk with them. So who is God calling you to walk with, today? It doesn't have to be with regard to this kind of stuff. It can be with regard to anything. Who is the broken person in your life? Broken doesn't mean wrecked, doesn't mean ruined, doesn't mean bad. It just means wounded. Who is the wounded person in your life that God's calling you to listen to, to love, and to walk with today? From all of us here at Ascension Presents, my name is Father Mike. God bless.
ITT: people being approximately infinity percent more respectful than I though coming in.
Throw away from obvious reasons.
TL;DR: I 'identify' as transgender and despite a few minor points a sensible person would call pedantic, I agree with what this man has said about Gender Identity Disorder being something I need to discuss and work on through therapy rather than 'solve' with surgery.
(unlike homosexuality which I believe to be inherently different and requiring no therapy or second thoughts and 'normal', for what that word is worth)
Qualifications, if needed. I am a male of almost thirty who has had sex and relationships with both sexes. I have long considered my (mental) feminine traits to outweigh my male in both multitude and magnitude. That is to say they are more numerous and more important to who I am. However, they are not all I am, they do not define me, and they are not entirely what others would use to describe me. I have gone to see many therapists over the years, and like anyone in my situation have long debated living as the other half full time and even getting sexual reassignment surgery.
I agree: surgery is very serious, permanent, and not something that should be flippantly decided in your adolescence. I do not believe surgery would solve all my underline issues. I believe feminine and masculine to be organizational constructs created for convenience, which while is totally cool and probably for the best, has everyone confused about who they are.
Surgery is serious. I am not going to make this point, we all know even routine things have inherent dangers. Anything permanent should be given considerable thought, more than can be done under the sheen of youth. I personally took two years of having a tattoo idea written down and drawn up prior to getting it, I know because I dated it. Even if there was a magic surgery to give me the body I've always wanted with fully functional sexual organs, I'd wait at least a year. I'd get other things in my life in order, I'd consider all factors. I would prioritize my finances so I didn't end up broke and relying on others to take care of me. My friends can testify, I once took six hours to make a character in Soul Caliber III. If it was my body, I wouldn't just consult the best doctors, I'd ask everyone. I'd ask about both sides of the gender fence, what they liked, wanted, and most importantly what they hated. My father used to say, the divorced knew more about marriage. Ask the unsatisfied. Do you reasonably think any teenager or child knows exactly what they want? I know we tend to romanticize the idea that words of children are honest and heart spoken and thus inherently correct and full of goodness, but any parent will tell you kids are wise for every hundred times they fall off the couch while hanging upside down, or don't realize that eating all ice cream dinners will make them sick. Young people have the beauty of following their heart, but that is because considering consequences is what makes one an adult. Balancing risk and reward makes someone wise. Thus why surgery is the answer for people like me, because we want to be the way we want to be seen so badly. We see the rewards as well worth any penalty, but as I have seen it is always not so, and not thinking twice or considering things more deeply isn't courage, it is fool-hardy.
This brings me to the Father's next point: Will this change make you happy? I don't know. I am well aware my gender issues aren't my only issue. I am also aware if I could slay even one of the two other large sources of stress in my life, I would need more therapy and have to reset the clock on every thing else in my life in order to take the time to recalibrate my consciousness. Why? I've lived with four major difficulties in my life. I know when I conquered the first, it fundamentally changed my thinking, as well as how I looked at my remaining problems. If another problem were to be solved through time, effort and therapy, wouldn't it be prudent to first see how I feel about myself as I relate to the world in terms of sex and gender? Maybe conquering another difficulty might convince me that living as the opposite gender full time is right for me, or maybe it might convince me to have surgery or the like, or maybe I'd just let it go. I've let things just as burdening go before.
My last point, which, I see as being the most controversial; how do we know how the other half really feels? He is right, face it. We don't. Other men don't know how other men feel, same for women. The human experience is like a solar storm, we can predict patterns and they have similar details to one another that make them easy to discuss and identify, but the truth is that calculating exactly what one will act like or look like is impossible. Thus the problem with gender (Feminine Vs. Masculine). These are just categories. Not determinants. You can like men and still be a sports super fan. You can like show tunes and like women. And the opposite, you can be gay and not feel the need to identify as the other sex. However, I think it is high time we stop attaching gender to ridiculous things like footballs and barbies. Nah, even more so. Stop making dresses and suits or what the fuck ever reserved for some kind of genital configuration. Stop making, and this is the key here, just because they have ten points in the female column and and only two in the male, that they should be more seriously thinking about if their genitals are lying assholes. You might like gym culture and feeling hunky, you may like women or even feeling dominant, you may like Call of Duty, you may want people to sometimes see you as a man, but that doesn't necessarily mean you want to be one from now on, day and night. You need to think long and hard if all of that absolutely means for you, not for anyone else, that you know you want to be a man. Fill in your own examples for womanhood here.
Tl;dr: I'm trans, I speak only for myself, and I think this man has something to say people in my position should consider if you can manage to set aside your ego and let yourself be open to a different world view. Seriously, don't let the chance for real introspection die under the guise of, 'he is kinder than other straight white religious men, but he is still wrong about people like me'.
I don't have it in me to reread this right now, so sorry for any rambling. First time I've ever typed something like this, hope it helped.
Wow, someone who is arguing against Transgenderism using legitimate arguments, and more importantly isn't seething with hate, but instead compassion. He seems like someone who wouldn't blow up in your face if you actually bring up legitimate counter points to his arguments.
Edit: Just some extra stuff.
A belief I feel quite strongly about is "None of my business".
If two gay men want to get married, it is none of my business.
If you want to smoke yourself into an early grave, it is none of my business.
And if you want to manually change your body to resemble someone else's, it is none of my business.
If you want my personal advice, ask. But if you don't ask, I will happily consider your decisions none of my damn business.
Research is being done still, but there is mounting evidence that there are biological differences between a man that is a man, and a man that feels like he should be a woman. None of them are definitively proven, but there is evidence
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/02/150213112317.htm
More research needs to be done, but it may yet be proven to be like homosexuality where it is not a sickness but something that just is. It may not be a social curiosity where they identify with feminine "things", but that they are biologically not really the same gender they were born as.
FWIW, the doctor he cites (Dr. Paul McHugh) isn't exactly on the side of science or our current best understanding. His position is in opposition to Johns Hopkins' own position among many others. McHugh is staking out a minority position. Oh, and they stopped the surgery in 1979 because McHugh was in charge, not because of some larger consensus. We know a lot more since then.
Here is McHugh's opinion article from the WSJ, and a pretty thorough response with citations and links. In a way, McHugh seems to be a bit of a "Linus Pauling" (a Nobel winner that went off the rails and decided vitamin C cured all cancer).
Additionally, I appreciate the Father's effort, but he's doing a bit of a tap dance. He declares that there is no "essential" experience of male or female (with no scholarly backing whatsoever), then decides that all of gender is stereotypes and gender roles. I'll ignore that the Catholic church certainly thinks that there is something really goddamn essential about being male (see the "no-chicks-allowed" clergy)...
There is a huge difference between stereotypical male/female child behavior (something society imposes) and one's internal understanding of self. There is a huge difference between a kid pretending to be a dog for a day and an adult living with a lifetime of discordance (and the comparison is frankly rude). There is an ocean of distance between a person who requests amputation and a transgender person who goes through years of psychological evaluation, living their transition, and eventually getting gender confirmation surgery.
Overall, I give the priest a "B-" for earnest effort and a "D" for motivated reasoning (particularly for seeking out about the only doctor in the field that supports this position).
He looks like Jon Hamm.
What is the haircut he has called?
Man if I can talk like him I'd be really successful in life :|