Katey et al.,
Interesting thread. As a biologist maybe I can add my two cents' worth here. If we are thinking about genes that promote transgenderism that are passed on to future generations, then most if not all of us would have parents or grandparents who showed signs of transgenderism -- I think Daphne made a similar point. Similarly, our kids or grandkids should show signs of TG -- do they? We certainly have had numerous posts about our kids's acceptance or not of our CD'ing to indicate the contrary. Anybody care to care to comment from their experience? As far as I know (which may be not much), there is not much evidence for this, but I'm willing to be enlightened. Gay kids do not generally have gay parents (or gay children), and transexuals generally do not have TG parents. So if our worry is that our "condition" will be passed on to our kids, I think our wives and girl friends need not worry, to address Katey's question.
This is NOT to say that TG / CD (or TS or gayness ) does not have a genetic basis. I think there have been studies showing that TS individuals have brains that have similarities to those of their opposite birth gender. True, most of the responses of what our bodies do are controlled by genes (even hormonal responses), including development in the womb (possibly explaining the TS brain question) and thereafter. There are what are called "epigenetic" effects, in which environmental influences control what genes do and in some cases these effects have been shown to be heritable. I myself believe that my TG'ism (and perhaps the effects on TS individuals) resulted from hormonal exposure in the womb, and as I and others have written elsewhere, this experience pre-conditioned me to identify with my female side (if that is what I am doing). Personally, accepting that has helped me to overcome guilt and angst about CD'ing.
So, yes, this is the old nature-nurture argument, which studies of epigenetics have show is not always a clear-cut issue. There should be some serious scientific studies of this, perhaps using identical twins -- studies of them have shed much light on the nature-nurture issue. Thus endeth the lecture.
Speaking of TG, Claire needs to sleep off her TG dinner...
