I'm not particularly interested in debating the difference between sex and gender. I presume that you can read up on it on your own if you wish to.

I'm not an expert in the field, so this would not benefit anyone.

This is the opposite of a debate. A panel of experts in the field of mental health are the only ones who get to decide what is and what is not a mental illness.

They have determined that it is not, so it is not. It doesn't matter even the slightest bit what you (a person not on the panel) think or feel about it. I'm not on the panel either, so it doesn't matter even the slightest bit what I think or feel about it.

If you get selected to be on the expert panel to determine what is and what is not a mental disorder, I will be sure to read the conclusions.

I figured that it would be good to give you at least some positive feedback, since it seems that no one else is doing so. You did use the contraction correctly. Apologies for not making the positive feedback more clear.

Gender dysphoria is scheduled as a mental disorder in the DSM 5 (the current fifth edition of the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders).

It is, but not in the way that you seem to think - it doesn't pathologize being transgender. To my understanding, while the DSM doesn't contain any guidelines regarding the treatment of gender dysphoria, a vast majority of mental health professionals seem to believe that gender dysphoria itself can be alleviated by "transitioning" in most cases

those who transitioned still commit suicide at the same rate as those who haven't

has that number been put up against people without it?

people arguing just to argue itt. what someone does with their own body, or how they feel in it, or who they are attracted too, or if they feel they made a mistake, or if they didn't, or if they.......... doesn't affect me in any way. so, i ask you as someone who doesn't enter these kind of discussions very often. how does what someone thinks of their body, gender, looks, anything, affect your day to day life? what does it matter? besides trying to get some random account back (doesn't affect me, go for it, reinstate it), trying to make others think the same as you (spoiler: you won't), or just to try to feel knowledgeable about something the doesn't really matter (yay, you're smart). go out and watch how beautiful a sunset is. go to a pet store and play with puppies. smile at a stranger finding joy in life, and realize you could do the same. if you look for something to hate, you will find lots of things you hate. if you look for things to annoy you, you will find lots of things that annoy you. guess what? it works for things you enjoy too. people may say, 'oh, you just bury your head in the sand, and ignore the big issues.' i dont see it that way. i focus on things that make me smile, make me happy, make me feel like it matters. this kind of argument shouldn't do that for anyone. sorry you chose this path, but luckily, tomorrow is a choice too, and the day after, and the day after.....choose better, friends.
tl;dr shut the **** up. haha.

well it's impossible to a/b test for obvious reasons

problem with subjects like this is that funding for studies usually comes from polarized sources of either advocacy groups or conservative organizations so it's really difficult to trust anything out there - you can see in the trans visibility thread i posted about how a myth of 1.7% of all americans are intersex became spread and was never true, just an advocacy group (with good intentions) lumped in a whole lot of genetic issues that nobody in their right mind would ever link to intersex in order to make "intersex related issues" appear larger which could then be simplified to "1.7% of us are intersex" whereas without that false bucketing and looking at the real number, it's like 0.002% of people - but 1.7% has a much better "we're everywhere and hiding in plain sight and you need to be more sympathetic" so that's what they went with

obviously hard to say for certain for that reason, but from what i've seen over the years looking at a pretty wide range is that it's pretty terrible regardless of whether or not transition happens - some studies even argue it those who transitioned commit suicide at a greater rate

but alas sample size and source of funding is always at conflict with genuine science in these matters

i think vast majority of people agree with this

the real third rail of the issue is with children as there are groups which suggest transitions are easier mentally and physically if done at a young age and other who argue that no child is capable of making that decision

It is. What the OP described was not gender dysphoria.

And then we don't hear a peep from him for almost 3 weeks...what an *******.

Sorry about that, wasn't my intent to skip out, but I've had little time for the forums recently and this thread needed a fulsome response IMO.

As I said, I took this to the mod forum for discussion. I mostly wanted to get opinions on the general principle that once someone has their account permanently banned, it typically remains banned with few exceptions. I got mixed reactions both on that principle and the idea of unbanning Rich's main account. The end result being, I'm still feeling fine with the idea that a ban is a ban, but we make exceptions.

Now to address a couple of things Rich has said about me. One is the idea that I don't like him - not sure if he's posted it in this thread, but he's certainly PMed me as much. I've always considered that an odd idea, that I'd dislike someone because of things they post on a forum - I don't know them, how the **** would I decide I don't like them? If I had some personal dislike for Rich, I would've nuked all of his accounts from orbit by now after some of the PMs I've received from him. The second thing would be this:

I'd assume this was some weird hyperbole if not for PMs I've received from you on this topic. But I have no idea how you arrive at such weird ideas when I've never said anything of the sort. I've actually told you multiple times I didn't want to get into the issue with you in the venues you chose. But I'll make an exception here to clarify this for you. I can't imagine a world where it would make sense to be "chemically castrating" young children, but I also don't believe this is happening anywhere. Medical procedures for 16 or 17 year olds? When done with proper consultation with medical and mental health experts, I don't know that I have a problem with it. Kids in the middle getting things like puberty blockers? I'm definitely not knowledgeable enough to offer up an opinion on that, and I doubt that more than a handful of forum posters are either. On all of these things, I'm good with letting properly vetted experts figure this stuff out in conjunction with the kids and their parents. When needed, some government oversight could be in order, but not with crazy overreaching stuff that ties said experts' hands.

I post this not to get into a debate as this isn't the thread for the topic, but to clarify so you can stop with the "I think Bobo actually believes chemically castrating mixed up kids is the right thing to do" nonsense.

It hasn't.

There is precisely one infraction against you for a homophobic post. That doesn't mean you haven't made more such posts (as the infraction says "Continued Transphobia"), just that you have only one infraction labelled as such.

Going further with this - it says nothing about you being transphobic, or a bigot. Does someone making a bigoted post make them a bigot? I have no idea what's in their heart. Maybe they made a mistake. Maybe they're confused, or misguided. Or maybe they're a ****ing nasty bigot. Giving you a single infraction for a transphobic post really isn't saying anything about whether you're a transphobe or not. And the site has labelled you nothing - the site has recorded the infraction I gave you for a transphobic post, and only mods and admins can see that. To take that and suggest the "site is...labelling me as a bigot" is a stretch in many directions. But if that continues to be your belief, I guess we'll have to agree to disagree.

OK, but...

So I'm a little concerned about this. The idea isn't that you just behave for a bit and then go back to the same old routine. That said, it's not that you need to "fundamentally change", but rein things in. Quite a bit, at times.

So back to this...OK. And I'll do you one better. Rather than a year from now, let's talk next summer, after your somewhat great country's next birthday. As for expectations, I'd say they're pretty simple. Number one would be knocking it off with this kind of thing:

I don't think you need to refrain from any and all criticism of mods. But I also don't think this sort of thing is necessary over a simple move of some posts from one thread to another.

And the other thing would be to knock off the transphobia, as it is viewed on 2+2. I get that you probably don't agree that saying all transgender people is mentally ill is transphobic, but that's the way it's viewed here on 2+2. I'd think you'd be wise just to stay out of topics on the issue, with maybe the exception of those in the Politics forum, but even there you need to follow the forum rules.

I think those are very reasonable requests, especially since this is a better deal than what you've asked for here.

I'd ask that we let the transgender derail go now, this isn't the thread for it. I'd prefer to leave this thread open, but if the derail continues I'll probably just lock it up after giving time for Rick to respond.