Have studied a little about transgender people through the Internet, from the American Psychological Association and the GLAAD organization which works to reduce or eliminate discrimination against the LGBT community.... People are welcome to study further for themselves, if they wish to....
They say transgender people are not able to change their thinking easily and we shouldn't try to change them.... They're not comfortable with the sex they were assigned at birth and use various means to express a different gender/sex [although they don't really like to interchange these two terms...], including but not necessarily including surgery.... Myself, I'd like to make a distinction between hermaphrodites who were born with two sexes and might use surgery to eliminate one of them.... As far as I understand, hermaphrodites aren't considered to be transgender people...?
The APA says that some trans-people don't experience very much distress over their mentality but others do.... There's currently some conflict among professionals about how to identify those who suffer distress.... Otherwise, there aren't many laws which protect transgender people from discrimination; and they do face a lot.--Also, they're victims of violence on a too-frequent basis.... GLAAD says that even police aren't often familiar with how to get along with these people and may make them uncomfortable if they ask for help with a problem....
It's the discrimination and violence which are the biggest concerns, in my opinion. And if we could learn to be more tolerant, it would help.... But I suppose more education is needed for the public.... There was a comment in my research where it was said that even a stare can be indirect discrimination, but I think it might be hard for many of us not to stare...!? But they say you can always ask a person something if you want to know the answer.... [You can ask if you're more acquainted with a person but I don't suppose complete strangers would need to be asking personal questions....]
In the end, the transgender people aren't really hurting anyone by expressing a different sex or gender.... And they say gender is different from sexual orientation, which is separate.... As far as I understand, cross-dressing is a variation of a transgender identity.... Some people don't want to go as far as having surgery to change their gender.... [And the surgery is an expense, for sure....] They
say it's a very small percentage of the population which identifies as transgender.
As far as Christians go, I think we need to love everyone and to allow these people to work out their own salvation.... We don't need to judge but can get as informed as possible through resources available....
[They say transgender people don't necessarily suffer from their way of thinking but they suffer from the increased discrimination and violence, which leads them to have higher rates of anxiety, depression, and suicide than the non-transgender public....]
