Dysphoria

They have their own website. It's called Body Integrity Identity Disorder (BIID). Here's how they describe it.

When a person's idea of how they should look does not match their actual physical form, it can be caused by Body Integrity Identity Disorder. This condition affects a small percentage of the population and is commonly manifested by a desire to have an amputation of a specific body part. In most cases, the limb that the person would like to remove is actually in healthy working order and there are no physical problems with it.

That's the idea. Good working parts, but the owner thinks they shouldn't be there, so he/she would like them removed. It's a sickness, an illness, a mental problem. It needs to be fixed. There are various treatments, but none of them includes amputating the offending part.

It's called "dysphoria". The opposite of "euphoria", the word is basically defined as "a feeling of emotional and/or mental discomfort, restlessness, malaise, and depression." Of course, you may not have heard the term, but recently it has become more visible because it is often used with an adjective--"gender dysphoria". That is, "I'm not happy with my birth gender and feel like my body doesn't match my actual gender." Oh, wait. That's different from BIID in what way?

I'm trying to imagine how this would work in any other application. I am a human, but I feel like I should be an eagle. We'll call it "species dysphoria". And we'll see what medical science can do to make me more ... "eagley". (Is it possible to misspell a made-up word?) Maybe they can get me some wings to attach? Perhaps a beak? I can start right away living in trees and maybe wearing feathers. Of course, no doctor, psychological or medical, would take me up on this. Because everyone would understand that it's not right. Not immoral. Sick and wrong. A person who suffers from "species dysphoria" is not treated by changing species (just as impossible as actually changing genders). And don't even begin to consider "racial dysphoria". Because "I feel like" is not sufficient in the normal world to classify it as real. Unless, of course, it is gender dysphoria. Now that, unlike ever other version, is fine. Even brave.

Over at The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, Greg Gibson wrote about How should the Church Respond to the Transgender Question?. Helpful thoughts, to be sure, but the real answer ought to be, "Tell them they, like you and I, need Jesus." Because they are sick. And so are we. And cutting off body parts or undefining gender in order to make you feel better is not, in the long run, going to help. Like me, they need Jesus. Let's not get lost on the "dysphoria" canard. What's sick is the sin condition. We can all work on our faulty thinking and feelings after that.