I was listening to the psychiatry show on Sirius/XM Doctor Radio this morning. The guest was a woman psychiatrist specializing in LGBT clients and involved in activism in New York state. Most of the discussion, driven by callers and emailers, concerned the idea that those who are gay or lesbian are born that way and don't learn/choose whatever preferences they may happen to have.
Then she said something that really got my attention. She said that the discussion of "we can't help it because we're born that way" is really not helpful at all. It is like saying that people of color deserve a seat at the dinner table because they can't help having skin that is of different pigmentation. While this appears on the surface as "accepting", it's just saying "you can't help it, but there's still something wrong with you."
She went on to say, "so what if LGBT people did totally choose to live the life they're living and chemistry at birth or whatever other theories were all false? What is so damned wrong with that?" She didn't mention crossdressers but I personally include us in the "T" of LGBT.
I know that I've always been a crossdresser and will forever be. I know I had no choice in this and I love that I am a crossdresser. Maybe the current public discussions that 10% of the population is homosexual (or whatever), and it isn't a choice, is a step in the right direction of social evolution. I don't know. But I agree with the doctor I heard that it is just a tiny, tiny step and is not to be confused with acceptance. What anyone really wants and deserves is simply to be respected for who they are, regardless of anything else, including how or why they got to where they are. Just being is justification enough. That may be a description of a utopian society, but it's really the only acceptable way for me to be viewed as a crossdresser. I guess I'm a dreamer