Sex changes

Several years ago, I volunteered with The Mustard Seed, an organization that helps poor people in inner-city Edmonton in various ways, including serving meals and giving away donated clothing.

One day when I was there during a meal, one of the staff asked me to go to the clothing storage area and find a skirt for a man who had just come in. Yes, you read that right. This man was dressed as a woman, but not very convincingly. It was pretty clear he was a man. I went to the clothing storage and found a skirt and whatever else this person had asked for.

Later, I was watching the entrance with a new volunteer. This volunteer looked over at the cross-dresser and said, "People like that don't even deserve to live."

I was surprised to hear him say something so hateful, yet I wasn't willing to speak up.

I don't think I ever saw that volunteer again. Maybe he made a similar remark to someone on staff and they told him he shouldn't come back. Or maybe he decided on his own that he couldn't handle being in the same room as a transvestite or transgendered person.

I don't know if the man in the skirt was a transvestite (someone who likes dressing like the opposite sex) or transgendered (someone who thinks they should be the opposite sex). But either way, he clearly faced hatred. Now the Alberta government is planning to stop funding sex change surgeries for transgendered Albertans. Based on what I've learned about transgendered people, they feel like they were born the wrong gender, even from a young age. As far as I know, most of them were born with the body parts of a single gender, not both. This seems to be a much deeper feeling than simply not liking the way they look. Feeling this way can lead to severe depression and even suicide.

I don't know how much of the depression comes from the transgendered feeling itself and how much comes from the social stigma. I suspect some of both. So whether you support or oppose government funding for sex change operations, please oppose hatred toward transgendered people. Treat them like normal people. (And if you ever want tips on how not to treat minorities like they're normal, watch any episode of "The Office" where Michael deals with black people or gay people.) I'm sorry for not standing up for that guy at The Mustard Seed, and the next time I encounter hatred like that, I intend to say something.

Meanwhile, an article about this issue also mentioned that they're cutting back funding for youth suicide prevention. So now some teens could die because the government wants to save a few bucks? Does our government really care about our mental health?