I just don't believe in a world where we declare absolutely everything to be just as good and normal as anything else. This is not a statement about the value of a person. This is not a condemnation of how people choose to live. If a male human decides he'd rather wear dresses and do other things that females usually do, that is his choice. But I'll call it how it is: a male who has certain tastes or desires. Not a female trapped in a males body. Simply put, your true gender is your gender. Not whatever desires your mind has constructed for itself over your lifetime.
How do you determine gender?
As was written elsewhere, they are not a different sex, they are a genetic error or error in fetal development. A broken male or female. A Darwinian dead end.
Some of them are fertile...
Okay, I'm going to approach this from a different angle. I'll agree with you - they're broken. Theoretically speaking, if we could fix the 'problem' in the womb, we would. However, we're STILL talking about a
human being. A 'cure' post-embryo stage is a no-go.
Still, which measure are you using to determine 'gender'? Genetic? Physical? Obviously not Mental. Personally, I tend to go '2 out of 3' or 'balance of the evidence', especially when it comes to matters of law. Surgury, while radical, is a far more developed science than messing with the brain at that level.
Let's consider this situation:
XY with 'Complete Androgen Insensitivity' or Swyer syndrome(similar effects, different cause)- Genetically male. Due to a specific known defect in a receptor; the fetus will develop as a female, the mind will be female* in outlook. Sure, they're infertile, but so isn't a lot of XY guys and XX girls. Sometimes not discovered until after they've married and are looking to see why they can't have children. Swyer shows up earlier when the 'girl' doesn't undergo puberty.
People with partial androgen insensitivity range the gamut from guys with smaller, less functional penises and gonads to people externally female, often even internally w/defects/oddness.
So, what's your solution here?
I've read reports that it's possible to tell gay people via brain scans - homosexuals scan like women in certain parts of the brain, lesbians like men.
In the end, I think that some of this stuff is genetic, some developmental - perhaps even pre-natal. As mentioned, due to politicizing proper studies aren't really possible. Personally, I'd take a couple thousand kids, conduct regular brain scans, go back and look for differences for those that turn out gay. Might give us a clue as to when it starts... I also have a theory for why married older men occasionally 'come out of the closet' so late in life - a sort of midlife crisis, a male 'menopause', perhaps, that causes hormonal shifts, essentially turning what was at least a straight-leaning individual more towards a 'gay' orientation. They then, at least sometimes, proceed to re-interpret their own memories to think that they were
always gay.
Then again, when I asked a GBLT type what would happen if, theoretically speaking, some brilliant but wierd scientist came out with a cocktail of hormones, takable in pill form over a course of time, that would change a gay person to a straight one. Well, when it's further tested, it's found that Verson A makes whoever takes it(male or female) like women, Verson B, men. They denounced me.
*Generally speaking, lacking other factors.
The fact that many do respond well, though, is a hint that the problem is in their heads and not their dangly bits.
Thing is, it's often easier to change their dangly bits over changing their heads.
