Transgenderism is a mental illness.

1. "My opponent then errors again by conflating a person's sex with their gender."The distinction between the terms "sex" and "gender" is misleading and does not contribute at all to this debate. Scientists are fully aware that nature and nurture are deeply interweaved and that there is no way to cleanly separate specific behaviors or mindsets that are "cultural" from those that are "biological." The notion that there is a "female gender" or "male gender" that exists strictly in the cultural realm, without the influence of biology is patently absurd. As I clearly stated in my argument in the last round, there are social differences between men and women, but most of these are grounded in biology. If I eat McDonald's, that is fairly arbitrary; McDonald's is just a popular brand within my culture. However, this does not mean that the need for food (and the nutrients, vitamins, etc. that are provided to me through McDonald's cuisine) are "cultural" in nature. Even the acts that we deem to be extremely "cultural" in nature often have deep biological roots. Female and male behaviors are connected with biological traits that have been acquired over the course of evolutionary history. This forms the basis of the work of evolutionary psychologists and biological anthropologists. Therefore, one who has the genetic/physical traits of a man but believes he is a woman (or vice versa) is sexually confused and incorrect about his identity. 2. "Schizophrenia is a recognized brain disease and transgenderism is not."Well, my opponent is begging the question. The whole point of this debate is to decide if transgenderism is a mental illness, i.e., a brain disease. "Schizophrenia can be proven with brain scans, transgenderism can not."Schizophrenia was considered a mental illness long before brain scans. Brain scans simply enabled us to have a deeper understanding of its causes. A condition's being a mental illness is not dependent on the possibility of creating brain scans. "Furthermore, schizophrenia can be acquired from external forces, such as heavy metal toxicity. transgenderism can not."Entirely irrelevant. 3. "Dysfunction and mental illness are not one in the same."Right. But mental illness is a type of dysfunction. "Gender has no intrinsic function, only socially constructed ones."Human sexuality (on which gender is based) has an explicit function that developed through evolution: to be conducive to human survival through effective reproductive strategies. There is a clear function to the sex assignment of a person. It is not arbitrary and "socially constructed." By looking into why certain sexual roles and behaviors developed, we can determine what their purposes are.4. "People who feel anxious in crowds are considered to suffer from social maladjustment. "Right. And people who suffer from extreme anxiety that disallows them to function properly are (rightfully) deemed mentally ill. "This is blatantly false. Men from nearly all cultures used to play female roles in plays and other such artistic expression."My opponent is misunderstanding what I mean by "normal." Certainly, unique ceremonial events and acts of artistic expression do not necessarily tell us what is normal in day-to-day life. If we watch a Shakespearean play, we see some characters engage in long monologues; this does not mean that we'd consider it normal if we passed by a random person on the street and they were delivering a dramatic, longwinded monologue. And men's wigs in 18th century England have nothing to do with men cross-dressing. Their wigs and makeup were not intended to mirror female fashion. Therefore, this is irrelevant. ---Ending the debate: (From https://en.wikipedia.org...)"Gender dysphoria or gender identity disorder (GID) is the formal diagnosis usedby psychologists and physicians todescribe people who experience significant dysphoria (discontent) with the sex and gender they were assigned at birth." Gender dysphoria does pertain to "gender" (as my opponent defined it), contrary to what my opponent stated in his closing. GID is classified as a medical disorder by the IDC-10 CM and DSM-5 (called gender dysphoria.) ---In conclusion, my arguments from the last round hold. Moreover, I would like to bring up that official psychological and psychiatric diagnostic documents (which those in the fields subscribe to) include transgenderism as a mental disorder, under the label of "Gender dysphoria."Thank you.