Thomas’ arguments faulty

Cheryl Thomas’ column (“Confused? Me too,” April 8) about a pregnant transgendered man gets one thing correct – its author is decidedly confused. To clarify, gender refers to psychological identification, whereas sex refers to physical appearance, including reproductive anatomy. TG individuals, who make up roughly 1 in 30,000 Americans born male and 1 in every 100,000 of those born female, can opt to have surgery so that their sex aligns with their gender, but they have no more choice over their natal gender than anyone else. Arguing that changing your “God-given” sex precludes your human right to bear children is absurd. There are no secular ethical principles on which Thomas bases her opinion, nor do the Bible and other “sacred” texts explicitly bar the right of TG individuals to have biological children. Frankly, her argument has more to do with being weirded out (sorry, “confused”) by something different than with any consistent moral belief. I was also bothered by her claim that children of a TG parent will be “constantly harassed” by other children. As children of a TG parent (she transitioned after we were born), my brother and I have never been treated unkindly by our childhood peers. Kids are surprisingly tolerant; it takes an adult to be truly bigoted. Oops, I mean “old-fashioned.”