This is from the AI Overview that popped up when I researched the topic of transgender prevalence:
In the U.S., approximately 0.95% of the adult population, or about 2.3 million people, identify as transgender. This is based on data collected between May and September 2024. The majority of the adult population (97.35%) identifies as cisgender, and another 1.70% do not identify as male, female, or transgender.
This is from the AI Overview that popped up when I researched the topic of gender dysphoria:
In the DSM-5 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th edition), gender dysphoria is defined as the distress experienced when a person's gender identity differs from the sex assigned at birth. The diagnosis involves a marked incongruence between one's experienced/expressed gender and their assigned gender, lasting at least six months, and causing clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.
My conclusion is that gender dysphoria is an accepted diagnosis in medicine and its incidence is incredibly small. It is not, like some think, merely a matter of a cisgender male deciding he’s gonna be a female for one day so he can use the ladies’ restroom.
I admit I do not understand gender dysphoria. There are a lot of diagnoses in the DSM-5 I do not understand, despite having worked for the Department of Mental Health for 26 years. Yes, I was a pencil pusher and bean counter but I knew a lot of diagnosticians with whom I had interesting conversations. One of which was when a psychiatrist of many years, like 40+, told me that “we don’t know if people go nuts because their brain chemistry is out of whack or them being nuts caused their brain chemistry to get out of whack. But we do know if we can successfully treat their brain chemistry, they will most likely become less out of whack.”
Regarding trans women in college sports (or any sports, for that matter):
If it’s a foot race or something where each individual is doing “her” own thing without interacting with other entrants, let them all compete. Give a trophy to the first-place trans woman and another to the first place (“real?”) woman. Given the prevalence of transgenderism, might only be one transgender female in the race, even.
If it’s a team sport, like volley ball where a transgender woman spiked a ball so hard it did significant and permanent harm to a non-transgender woman’s health (Google Payton McNabb for more), something more should be done. I don’t know what, but clearly something. If there were enough of them, I would say teams of just transgender females playing another team of just transgender females. But there isn’t.
I am somewhat puzzled when a male undergoes the process to become a transgender female. As a male, I can come in as sweaty as a farmer who spent all day in the hot sun tending crops and as dirty as mud wrestler, take a shower, do my other toilette activities, and be ready to go out to eat in about twenty minutes. Plus, I stay ready for other outings for the rest of the day/evening.
A female, even transgender, cannot do that. A female will spend at least an hour, and that short of a period is rare, getting ready. Plus, she won’t stay ready. If she comes home in between outings, she has to get ready AGAIN for the second outing. It might not take as long as the first getting ready, but it will definitely take at LEAST thirty minutes. When a man comes home in between outings, no big deal.
As to who pees where, if that’s not a tempest in a teapot I don’t know what is. The public restrooms I use have little cubicles with doors and stand-up urinals. If someone looks like a female, let it use the female restroom. If someone looks like a male, let it use the male restroom. There is even a device that will allow females to use a stand-up urinal. But with the cubicles with doors, why even use that? Is someone going to ask “Hey you in the cubicle! Are you sitting down just to pee?? If so, why??”
My church used to have a one-holer male restroom and a one-holer female restroom. When in use by one person, that person locked the door. I wondered why they were restricted by gender. Someone else must have, too, because one day I noticed they were marked as male/female.
On a work trip once with a male co-worker and two female co-workers, we stopped at a Stuckey’s for gas, water, and biological activity. I came out of the cubicle in the male restroom to find one of the two females smearing lipstick on while standing at the mirror. I said “hey, Ann” and she said “hey, Keg” with no thought. But then she did think, and asked me what I was doing in there, to which I responded, “I was actually wondering that about you.” She asked “Is this the men’s room?” I pointed at a fixture and asked “You ever see a stand up urinal in a ladies’ room?”
We had a laugh and no one suffered any long-term consequences. But to the Trumpublicans serving in the U.S. Senate and House, these seem to be among the top five issues facing the country. I can’t be the only one who finds this odd.
Glynn Kegley is a Rankin County southsider. He is the owner and sole employee of a think tank. Sometimes he sits and thinks, and sometimes he just sits.
