He already gave you the definition -- transsexualism simply isn't what its name implies. You
cannot change your sex. It's in your DNA. It's in your anatomy (penis vs vagina isn't a single percentile of the issue!). It's in so many things that are completely and irrevocably out of our control with current technology, and likely will remain as such into the far and foreseeable future.
Males and females are born as a particular sex -- male or female. They also have an attached gender, essentially by default. Now, if I decide that I am female, right now, my sex will not change to female. Personally, I would argue that my gender would not have changed yet, either, but I'm not sure where the actual objective crowd lies with that term. But my present understanding is that I'd be a man with gender identity disorder.
So I get an operation, called a "sex change". However, as unpopular as this opinion may be from a politically correct point of view, a sex change is not a change of your biological sex. It's simply a change of the sex that you portray. An actualization of your gender. You are female, for all (or, I guess, most) intents and purposes, but you have not changed your biological sex. However, I do think at this point you should (and can, if I have the law right in my head) be
legally considered as having changed your
sex.
But biologically, it can't be done. I studied forensic anthropology last year -- there are untold dozens of ways to determine your sex just from your
bones. Somehow I doubt we'll ever be able to change that.
I'm not sure what your point is with hermaphrodites and XXYs. The fact that complications exist doesn't mean that in the case of XX female and XY male, things aren't exactly as clear-cut as biologists and geneticists would suggest. It bears mention that the very wikipedia article you linked to specifically refers to them as "XXY males" in its entirety. In the abstract at the very beginning, it explicitly states that Klinefelter's Syndrome "is the most common sex chromosome disorder in males", and even cites this sentence onward to a presumably scientific textbook. The primary characteristics are small testicles and fertility difficulties. The most likely feminine trait I can find is a slight increase in breast tissue (believe it or not we dudes have breasts too). Did you read your source before you used it?
Here's the most telling quotation:
In mammals with more than one X chromosome, the genes on all but one X chromosome are not expressed; this is known as X inactivation. This happens in XXY males as well as normal XX females
In other words, the extra X chromosome represents, to them, potential health risks or deformities, and they are otherwise just a regular ol'
male. I don't know if you just thought that because females are XX and males are XY then XXY must be indefinable, but it isn't, and your own source showed that. So, thanks for doing that research for me. It was an interesting read.
As for hermaphroditism, the condition is exceedingly rare, and simply looking at the causes makes it clear that this is an abnormality that defies conventional logic, and therefore also does nothing to shun it. Have a looksee:
It can be caused by the division of one ovum, followed by fertilization of each haploid ovum and fusion of the two zygotes early in development.
Alternately, an ovum can be fertilized by two sperm followed by trisomic rescue in one or more daughter cells.
Two ova fertilized by two sperm will occasionally fuse to form a tetragametic chimera. If one male zygote and one female zygote fuse, a hermaphroditic individual may result.
Thus I conclude standing firmly on my earlier definitions of both sex and gender, and all the implications of my original post on this subject.
