Changing gender??

I was not being transphobic. I was telling the truth. Surgery does not change the DNA.

Good post Aeonwings. Surgery like brysing said is it can change looks, but not genetics.

A man can be made to look like a woman in almost every respect; but he would still be a man.

That is the sentence I have a problem with. That is what comes off as transphobic as you are adressing gender, not biological sex.

Perhaps I should have said "would still be male". I did not mean to offend anybody.

Agreed with Aeon. Kudos!

Yes, very in-depth post by Aeon. But, over the years society has changed, at least in some countries.I am English, and the young of today would hardly believe what England was like when I was young!
When I was a teenager, any male walking the streets wearing feminine make-up would be immediately arrested as a homosexual; homosexuality was against the law. But only for men! There was no law against Lesbians! Two women living together may well be "frowned upon" by society, but would not be prosecuted. Two men living together would be in trouble, unless they were blood relatives.
It would take a very long post to explain this ridiculous situation, but it has to do with the Prime Minister Disraeli and Queen Vicoria.
When the law against homosexuality was relaxed (only in private) there was a Case in England that became world-wide news.
A man had been surgically changed into being,in all physically respects, a woman. I cannot remember her surname,but she was called Ashley. The court Case went on for months as Ashley tried to be accepted by the authorities as a woman. It had many implications in law; inheritance;buying a house; insurance; welfare benefits; pension benefits. It was a very important Case.
The British Court decided that Ashley was a man, not a woman. She then went to the Appeal Court, and the original finding was reversed. She even had her birth certificate altered from male to female.
She was the first person, ever, in England to be accepted as a transgendered female. It opened the floodgates!
By the way, she was a very beautiful lady. Even photographed by Vogue. And, eventually, she married!

Typing error. That should be Queen Victoria, of course!

I have just googled the Case; I got the name wrong. Her name was April Ashley. She is still alive, and is now Mrs Jeffrey West.

Perhaps I should have said "would still be male". I did not mean to offend anybody.

Sex and gender is easy to confuse, hence my wall of text to promote the necessary pedantry. ;-P I wouldn't consider your post offensive, just ambiguous as the original post was on the subject.

Thank you for posting the story about April Ashley. If only there were some magic spell that would give freedom to genderqueer or gender-fluid people, because that doesn't do any actual harm to anybody else by itself; but, no, it is difficult, moreso than, "A spell can not make you fly on a broomstick or carpet!" that seekers can just get over it. Going against gender-binary essentialism, on the other hand, often involves street violence, and courtrooms, and surgical procedures and expensive medicines, and excruciatingly slow developments hoping the next generation would be slightly nicer in some ways perhaps than the previous generation... A spell to solve it all would be good, but we all just do our best to come to terms with reality.

yes, we all do our best to accept reality. Nobody more so than April Ashley! For all her work in getting equal rights for all sexualities, as I have only just discovered, she was Honoured by the Queen! Given The Order fo The British Empire. A great Honour for anyone, but in April's case an even greater Honour, She is still giving lectures and writing books about sexuality. What a woman!