It does seem that the casino behaved in a most wowserish fashion, with no sense of humour whatsoever.

I’m really glad to hear you are happy - as I say, your picture looks so happy these days.

Finding myself drafted into an objectively persecuted minority has been *most* educational, and I think in many ways, was the best thing that could have happened to me from that standpoint alone.

I’m also… happy. It’s my default state these days. I keep on thinking the euphoria must wear off eventually, but so far it’s shown no signs of doing.

I hope my amateur and amateurish legal analysis wasn’t too far off the mark. If a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, then I’m a positive menace, for I’ve had no legal training, I suppose that’s glaringly obvious!

All the best, Zoe

These days, she is looking so happy in her photo on her site. That is really good to see.

http://aebrain.blogspot.com/

It does make me cross when people say “oh people will be swapping gender all the time now” - I don’t think it’s something you would do unless you were absolutely desperate. Once you got me started on that, I was off and away on a rant…

I was not, lest it sound like it, criticizing your article at all. Far from it! I thought it was very accurate and insightful.

However, to be fair, I did want to point out that there are a minority of cases where people change thinking that they are doing the right thing, but it turns out that it was not what they wanted, so one should think very carefully (as if one would do otherwise!!! - but anyway)

It’s hard to know how to describe someone who is a girl on the outside and a boy on the inside. The internal does not match the external. We don’t really have personal pronouns to describe that situation. I called “her” a “girl” but it sounds to me as though mentally “he” is a “boy”, and so maybe it’s better to refer to him as a boy.

I also wanted to explore other situations where someone may be unhappy with their gender but there may be other issues as well (as with the friend with whom I grew up). That’s a situation where it’s less clear cut as to what the person’s identity is. The girl in question “came out” as a lesbian but sometimes I think it is rather that she wants to be masculine or asexual, and declaring oneself a lesbian is a way in which one can get away with behaving in that way.

In the end - who am I to judge what her issues are? I accept her for what she is (with all the attendant confusion) - and support whatever choices she makes. It’s a difficult path to follow for any human being.