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In reply to the discussion: "I'm sorry that I hurt the United States" Bradley Manning apologizes in court [View all]freshwest
(53,661 posts)Last edited Thu Aug 15, 2013, 03:29 AM - Edit history (1)
Gender identity disorder as as the article also cited, gender disaphoria, is nothing about being gay.
I have a transgendered family member and all he went through did not have anything to do with being gay but what his brain told him he should be. And yes, he was tormented, went through hell getting from F>M but he was not mentally ill. Now he's past all of it and is happier than he's ever been.
Nor did anything in the article say anything about his not being able to handle being gay.
The paradox in his mind and his childhood made him unstable. Gay people are no more unstable than straights.
But the paradox of living in a body that does not match what you identify yourself as is destabilizing.
It's just not the same, and to say it will affect gay service members doesn't add up in my mind. The people who would do that would look for anything to use as propaganda.
Gay or straight, or even gender identity disorder - which is not being gay - does not lead to instability by itself, no, not at all. And example to guess how it would if a person woke out of a coma and their body did not match their memory. That would be destabilizing on a very profound level.
The attorney had to find mitigating circumstances to get his client off. It could have been anything, TBI, PTSD or whatever. It's the laundry list that says, 'My client may not have been able to think clearly, take it into consideration.' As far as the defense and his permission, Bradley has said he wants to be called Brianna per an earlier article posted on this story. This young man is pretty clear about himself. (Or shall I say, herself.) And he's been handed an extremely heavy burden to bear in life.
Still, it has nothing to do with being gay and being gay has nothing to do with being mentally ill. I'm not labeling your comment either. I think you misread this and that's okay, I'm just saying that you are wrong on what the article said here.