In this weeks New Scientist:

(Of course, they don't mention that stopping surgeries would solve assigning the 'wrong gender') *sigh*

Transcribed
New Scientist. 19 October 2002, p 17

(Gender Identity)
It may be your brain not your genitals that decides what sex you
really are


Our brains could be hard-wired to be male or female long before we
begin to
grow tested or ovaries in the womb. This discovery might explain why some
people feel trapped in a body that's the wrong sex, and could also lead to
tests that reveal the 'brain sex' of babies born with ambiguous genitalia.

Till now, the orthodoxy among developmental biologists has been that
embryos
develop ovaries and become female unless a gene called SRY on the Y
Chromosome is switched on. If this gene is active, it makes testes develop
instead. This switch is seen as the key event in determining whether a
baby
is a girl or a boy. Only after the gonads form and flood the body
with the
appropriate hormones, the theory goes, is the sex of our minds and bodies
determined.

But in a study of mice, a team at the University of California, Los
Angeles,
has now found that males and females show differences in the expression of
no fewer than 50 genes well before SRY switches on. "It's the first
discovery of genes differentially expressed in the brain", says Eric
Vilain,
who led the UCLA team. "They may have an impact on the hard-wired
development of the brain in terms of sexual differentiation independent of
gonadal induction."

Vilain is presenting details of seven of the fifty genes to the annual
meeting of the American Society of Human Genetics in Baltimore this week.
Three of these genes are dominant in females and four are dominant in
males
the next step for Vilain and his team will be to show that the genes in
question really do influence brain sexuality - and not just in mice. This
is likely to be a much tougher proposition than merely showing there are
differences in expression.

But if the findings are confirmed, they could one day yield blood
tests that
allow doctors to establish the brain sex of babies born with genitalia
that
share the features of both sexes. At present doctors and parents have to
guess which gender to assign for surgical 'correction'.

Robin Lovell Badge of the National Institute for Medical research in
London,
who discovered the SRY gene, is already looking at mice with a Y
chromosome
lacking the SRY gene, to see if their brains and behaviour are in any way
male despite their lack of testes. "The growing feeling is that there
will
be direct effects on the brain, anatomy, and behaviour due to X or
Y-linked
genes," says Lovell Badge. "It's early days yet, but we're pretty sure
there
are effects on some aspects of aggression and reproductive behaviour
independent of gonadal sex."

(Andy Coghlan)

__________________
Until you've lost your reputation, you never realize what a burden it was or what freedom really is. --Margaret Mitchell

Thanks for posting this Betsy.

I believe that sexual body image is innate, and gender ID also, but I am very leery of "blood tests" to determine what ID, an ambiguous child is likely to have.

I think there are just too many other variables, to accurately guess what "sort of genital surgery" a chid "needs".

Besides, what the heck is wrong with an Intersex child, deciding to remain as they were born? The entire debate seems once again, to preclude such an option.

The more things change. <sigh>

hay they are scientist,they CANT be wrong? right!!! beach

__________________
mutation is THE key to evolution {{{{xxxy}}}}undefined

http://home.vicnet.net.au/~aissg/UCLA.htm

The point of his research seems to be the elimination of biological sexual diversity in humans.

Apparently so Jane. Isn't it sad?

Remember how they proudly announced a while back, that they are able to do genetic tests, so that fetuses with mosaic turners syndrome can be aborted?

I remember when you first told me of this a while back, and how heartbroken I was to hear of it.

I guess they can't have people like us being born. I mean, what would the world come to?

this brings a thaught from a few months ago while watchin the ABC news special , a friend said"'maybe we are the next step in evolution" a race of people that can use both sides of the brain !!! i think they know and we must be stopped !!!!!! sorry gang i just hate docs..........beach

__________________
mutation is THE key to evolution {{{{xxxy}}}}undefined

You may be right beach, but I think it is more likely that anything out of the ordinary frightens them, especially when it involves sex.

The cultural sex and gender paradigm is maintained by acts of obvious barbarism, because of a great emotional investment in it by those who make up our society. Those very same who yet decry acts of animal cruelty and civil rights violations, turn a blind eye to the systematic abuse of those like us, because fear over rides humanity, as it has always.

hay natasha clap,clap,clap.....my point ,thank you....beach

__________________
mutation is THE key to evolution {{{{xxxy}}}}undefined

I like the way you said it too though. In fact who knows? There could literally be an element of that in it. Heaven knows genetic "purity" has always a big thing with some. Perhaps it is precisely that, on a primal or unconscious level.

Really wouldn't surprise me. Kind of an X-men sort of thing. I really love that movie. It got to me on that level. I have watched it several times.