It seems this week the big discussion is the act "don't ask, don't tell" that may be ending soon.
I tried to get myself out of this discussion...but too much happened in my life to let this go. I want to start with a short story that happened with me years ago, and I will try to make this as short as possible to get to my point.
I got a position as an art director with this international company and for facts that I will describe in another blog, I was promoted as an International Director of Operations with their subsidiary in Brazil (as this point you already notice my writing is not great...And I want to apologize for it). For a couple years I managed to open and run this company in Brazil and after many complaints from my girlfriend about the continuous travel, I requested to hire a general manager for the Brazilian branch. Skipping the whole story processes behind, I hired this very talented writer, a young man that I knew through his books that I read. He came to the US to meet the CEO, CFO and the entire upper management. Everybody liked him. The same day I invited him to come to my house, I told him my girlfriend was great in the kitchen. (She was great and talented but she didn't cook :)). We were driving to my home. He mentioned that he was very glad I liked his writings, but he felt better if he showed me another side of his life at my home.
We arrived at the house. He sat at the computer and opened a site with photos of this gorgeous girl. I wondered what were this about and my girlfriend too, when he just slipped the phrase: "Do you like my pictures?"
The longest 5 second break ever. I could understand and I said that I love the pictures and I asked him who was in the pictures. Marta my girlfriend with the most obnoxious look, laughed and told me in a loud voice, "That is him you moron!"
I did not know what to say. We did not know what to say. The man in front of me has nice legs and boobs! I looked at his breast (he was using a suit). I laughed thinking it was a joke, and he insisted to tell me that this wasn't a joke.
He told me that he had a syndrome call GID (Gender Identity Disorder). He came up with the entire lecture about Parkinson’s disease and his story of being attached to a man’s body for years desiring other men. I asked what his wife and daughter was saying about it, and he mentioned he told them few years ago and they were very supportive of the fact.
In short words he explained to me that GID was a neurological problem that in most of the cases it generates in the seven months of pregnancy. It seems during the seven month of pregnancy the fetus has the neurological formation in the brain. Between the time he was describing most of his childhood was bad experiences, I was there in my living room seeing this 35 year old man with tears in his eyes, and my jaw dropped.
Well he did great work in the three years at the company, and was one of the best professionals I met in my life.
I started with this story not because it was my first contact with a homosexual. For many years I had been a homophobic person. Really! I had one cousin (with female mannerisms) that I grew up with. I used to fight with him all the time, with lot retaliation from my parents and relatives. He was a very smart kid, bright! And he grew up to be a geology teacher at the best university in São Paulo - Brazil, and his boyfriend/partner was very proud of him. Thank God I had chance to apologize to him before he died of AIDS years ago.
Gender identity disorder is characterized by strong, persistent cross-gender identification; people believe they are victims of a biologic accident and are cruelly imprisoned in a body incompatible with their subjective gender identity. Those with the most extreme form of gender identity disorder are called transsexuals. These disorders are considered mental disorders because the body does not match the person's psychological (felt) gender.
In my life I am always thinking the best way to understand some other individual is put you in his situation. Try to do this exercise:
If you are a man (heterosexual of course): You see this wonderful, very attractive woman, and you want to have fun, but there is a problem. You like her, you are attracted to her and her girl friends...but you don't have a penis...YOU HAVE A VAGINA! How bad you will feel?
Do the same exercise, now if you are a woman, you met this nice, elegant, earth living man that love kids at the coffee shop. You want to kiss him, you want him to hug you will with all the kindness of the planet. You know he is straight and you want to have sex with him, but you don't have a vagina...YOU HAVE A PENIS!
This is happening with same sex marriage discussion. People with a mental disorder, GDI syndrome, or any other name you want to call it, civil rights are erased. Now the same people that want to be in the war field to defend you and your family are being discriminated again.
I am heterosexual man; married with two gorgeous kids (a boy and a girl). I have all the Christian values you could think of, but I believe if the world (and especially our government) wants to do something about the "Don't ask, don't tell" act, they should be more cautious and address the problem by the root. Where everything starts?! It should start in the formation of a family, the care AND SUPPORT of family and children. I deeply believe if this happens it will minimize the problem.
The society needs to support these individuals as equals...but I have a message to the community too...BEHAVE... I have some gay friends that never...NEVER...put me in an embarrassing situation.
The reason that I am a man doesn’t give the rights to be messing with every woman I want. If you want respect, you need give respect.
http://www.merck.com/mmpe/sec15/ch203/ch203b.html
http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=is+GDI+a+sindrome%3F&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_identity_disorder
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