[Rathji]

I think that's the problem.

The concept gender is a collection of ideas that have been grouped, since they are tied so closely to biological sex, along the masculine-feminine scale. That's not saying that it is arbitrary and learned like SeoulFire seems to think, but the groupings are there because it works within the common social context.

I think the simplified way of saying it is:

People's minds define what their gender is and their body defines what their sex is. Sometimes those don't line up.

You want to call these people crazy for having a perfectly valid thought processes but that doesn't line up with their physical bodies. You can give them treatment to (try to) change who they are as people, but historically that hasn't worked. I think some people in this thread are claiming that it hasn't been tried, or maybe because the results were not there for the medical community to justify continuing that work they think that maybe they just didn't try hard enough maybe?

Sending these people into therapy to 'fix who they are' is like sending gay people into hetero-therapy because they are gay. It isn't a mental problem and they are not crazy, and saying they are demeans who they are as people. You can think that's a good idea if you want, and I guess that's your right, but that's pretty messed up IMHO.