Should Transgenders Be Allowed to Join the BSA

As for the first question of what we are defining as transgenderism, I will refer the con to the first source I provided in round 1, which states, "people whose gender identity and/or gender role do not conform to what is typically associated with their sex assigned at birth." Now, most transgender people I know personally are probably what you would consider "hardcore identifiers" who are starting the process of hormone replacement therapy.The hypothetical posed by the con of people being able to identify as a 21-year-old is simply ridiculous. The "feeling" of being another gender than you were assigned at birth is not a mere opinion, it is directly related to how your brain is structured, as I pointed out in my third source in round one. Gender, unlike age, is not fixed. Age is determined by how many years you have been alive. Gender is determined by brain structure.The con then brings up information about scouting itself however this does not in anyway show that transgender boys should be banned from learning these same lessons as cisgender boys. Moreover, the con points to girl scouts and says " transgender girls who want to be a scout can go join that." The key problem with this is that we are not talking about transgender girls, but transgender boys. If the con says that it was meant to refer to females who identify as boys, then I would again like to highlight the transphobia of this remark if it was meant in this way. If it was an honest mistake, and the con meant to say transgender boys, then I would like to point out that the corollary would mean that transgender girls who want to be in girls scouts should be forced to be in boy scouts. There is an obvious problem with this logic, in that it forces people who, for all intents and purposes are the gender they identify as, to join the organization for the wrong gender. The con then compares being transgender to jealousy, however, this completely ignores what I have previously pointed out, that transgenderism is the result of having a brain structure which differs one's sex. This is not a mere opinion, like being envious of another person's possessions or status in society, it is a neurological phenomenon. These people are not simply envious, they have brain structures which are different from the brain structure of other people of their assigned gender. They are neurologically and psychologically a different gender from what they were assigned at birth. The con claims that these people commit suicide out of jealousy is simply disgusting and false. The reasons trans people commit suicide are overwhelmingly because of rejection by friends and family, bullying by their peers and social prejudice. The con states this is "like abortion", "The parent has to just live with the child." This statement is utter nonsense, as despite what one feels about abortion personally, that doesn't change the fact that in the status quo, it is legal for women to terminate pregnancies or give the baby up for adoption. They do not have to live with the child.The con's arguments for why Transgender boys should not be able to become scouts hinges on a complete disregard for scientific evidence about transgenderism and transphobic prejudice. He calls on transgender boys to find "strength they have as women and live with their womanly selves." This completely ignores that fact that these people are not women. They do not have a woman's brain, but a man's brain. By forcing them to live as something they are not the con is only further perpetuating social stigma and prejudice that is faced by the transgender community. http://www.huffingtonpost.com...