this post was submitted on 27 Mar 2024
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This is gatekeeping via transmedicalist talking points.
Dysphoria is not central to the trans experience. It's central to some trans experiences.
Even if your belief that dysphoria has biological/medical routes were true, that still doesn't mean that it's the only way to be trans.
Whatever else it is, gender is also a social construct, and our relationships with social constructs shape who we are in very real ways.
And hell to take your gatekeeping ever further, even if you're right, and some trans folk can "stop being trans" as a result of their social environment or whatever, they're still trans until they're not.
Yep, for good reason
It does though. In the same way that being attracted to the same sex is not a social construct, you can't simultaneously claim that being trans or being gay is intrinsic to a person but also that it's a result of socialization. The whole discussion becomes incoherent if you try to claim both are true.
This is what evangelicals and terfs claim. But it's not true. It's why you cannot convert a trans person, or a gay person from what they are. It's why the medical community has acknowledged that the best treatment is affirming care. If you believe being trans is a social issue you're putting trans people into a position to lose their access to medical care.
It's not gatekeeping, it's acknowledging the very basic concept of what it means to even be trans and using that to clarify if a feeling or belief or whatever else is or isn't a part of that concept. It doesn't delegitimize any of those feelings or beliefs, but it does separate out unrelated ideas that create confusion and misinformation about the trans experience.
But yeah, this is exactly what I'm talking about, people refuse to accept that they are making a contradiction that's harmful to trans people, and instead try to turn it back on the very people who are arguing for trans people's legitimacy and rights. Rather than try to follow their own logic to its conclusion they shut down the conversation and try to make sure no one can talk about it.
You took this quote completely out of context and inverted the intended meaning to suit your argument. The statement Ada made was
Yes, it is. You are saying that anyone without a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria isn't trans. You do not get to make that kind of statement.
You are the one erasing others' experiences
You are the one arguing against trans people’s legitimacy
No one here is saying being trans isn't real. But *you are when you say that it's only valid if you have dysphoria.
You also have to think this through: if you believe that you can only really be trans if you have a medical diagnosis, then you have created vast swathes of gatekeepers for being trans: doctors, insurance companies, politicians, governments at every level. In our bigoted, cisheteronormative society, if we say you can only be trans with a diagnosis, and that society doesn't want trans people to exist, then they can just stop diagnosing people. Doctors can refuse, and decide instead that you're depressed, bipolar, BPD, etc. instead, and that anyone who thinks they're trans is just "mentally ill." Governments can pass laws preventing state run insurances (Medicare, Medicaid, Tricare, etc.) from paying for anything related to dysphoria. They can also pass laws saying private insurances either don't have to cover it, or that they can't. I know for a fact this is already happening because I live in Florida. I'm watching this scenario happen right in front of me. You're taking away the ability for a person to know their own mind and their own body, and their right and ability to understand their own identity, and handing that judgement over to people with a vested interest in denying it.
And I can see why you'd think this would be a path to walk: if we say "a medical diagnosis means we're objectively, scientifically trans, then the bigots can't deny it", but that's not how things work. That's just pandering to the oppressors. You will never appease them.
No one is saying that you can just call anyone trans you want, like crossdressers, drag queens, or "attack helicopters" (I honestly can't believe you even threw that one around). Only the bigots do that.
No one is saying your experience isn't valid. It's exactly the opposite. If you feel dysphoria is central to your experience, that's fine! You're just as trans as the next trans person, just as valid. But that's your experience. You don't get to generalize your experience and then decide that's the yardstick by which everyone else must be measured.