Well written essay. Trans Visibility is a double edged sword. It isn't just politicians can't have all of the information when making policies, which should be a great reason not to even have politicians, but politicians are enslaved to their own ideologies. Transgender didn't even need to be a thing for a Donald Trump and his MAGA cult to try to erase Transsexuals. This erasure began with Trans Visibility.
A cogent and beautifully succinct description of how "transgender" eliminated transsexuals and transsexualism. Thank you Dominique, Betsy, Laura, and Brian for telling it like it is. -- Margaret Deirdre O'Hartigan
If only clarity ever mattered. It doesn’t. People look away, institutions look away, because erasure is easier to manage than truth. The precision was always there, the history was always there, but the world prefers the blur—because then it never has to face what it destroyed.
"a deep, neurobiological incongruence between body and self that could only be resolved through structured medical intervention"
The fact is, there are no markers of neurological disorder in transsexuals and no evidence of transition's efficacy. These are mere assertions that can't be backed up.
I have seen this claim made by AGP's/transvestites who don't believe HSTS's have the condition, and HSTS's who don't believe AGP's/transvestites have the condition. I've seen it made by males who don't believe females have the condition, and all sorts of other combos. There's evidence it's historically a gay thing, and other evidence that AGP's have *stronger* dysphoria (Anne Lawrence's studies).
Until accurate diagnostic criteria arise, you're all screaming into the void. None of you can read the others' minds.
Distress, even of this kind, can be acquired. You'll be hard pressed to show that one person claiming a specific experience of distress is "appropriating" anything from another person claiming an identical type of distress.
While I agree that the word "transgender" encompasses those who don't even claim to have the experience, it also encompasses tons who aren't like you but nevertheless do claim the distress and do pursue the treatment, as well as tons who disclaim the experience over and over again for months/years and then claim it. There is no test to determine their sincerity or motivations or level of suffering.
My once-transvestite sexually motivated ex-husband no doubt fit your description of an outsider/appropriater until one day he didn't, and got all the surgeries.
I also agree that people should be allowed to use the word "transsexual." One of my best friends is a transsexual.
But this idea that you're a unique snowflake should be reconsidered. It's highly likely cultural factors are increasing the prevalence of your disorder and/or similar disorders for which the sufferer strongly believes transition is the answer.
I'm not saying any of you are right about that. Only that, whether you like it or not, the outsiders have joined you.
I met Margaret Deirdre O'Hartigan in 1993 through bisexual activism. She was my mentor in understanding transsexuality and being an ally. At that time, lesbian and gay community organizations were still unapologetically excluding both bisexuals and transsexuals unless we passed as lesbians/gay. Since that time, I have never seen full inclusion and acceptance in the "community" -- yet somehow there emerged the current trend of reifying gender stereotypes to the point of pressuring everyone to publicly their gender feelings and the nature of their sexuality. Who are the people that led this trend and why??
Well written essay. Trans Visibility is a double edged sword. It isn't just politicians can't have all of the information when making policies, which should be a great reason not to even have politicians, but politicians are enslaved to their own ideologies. Transgender didn't even need to be a thing for a Donald Trump and his MAGA cult to try to erase Transsexuals. This erasure began with Trans Visibility.
A cogent and beautifully succinct description of how "transgender" eliminated transsexuals and transsexualism. Thank you Dominique, Betsy, Laura, and Brian for telling it like it is. -- Margaret Deirdre O'Hartigan
If only clarity ever mattered. It doesn’t. People look away, institutions look away, because erasure is easier to manage than truth. The precision was always there, the history was always there, but the world prefers the blur—because then it never has to face what it destroyed.
"a deep, neurobiological incongruence between body and self that could only be resolved through structured medical intervention"
The fact is, there are no markers of neurological disorder in transsexuals and no evidence of transition's efficacy. These are mere assertions that can't be backed up.
I have seen this claim made by AGP's/transvestites who don't believe HSTS's have the condition, and HSTS's who don't believe AGP's/transvestites have the condition. I've seen it made by males who don't believe females have the condition, and all sorts of other combos. There's evidence it's historically a gay thing, and other evidence that AGP's have *stronger* dysphoria (Anne Lawrence's studies).
Until accurate diagnostic criteria arise, you're all screaming into the void. None of you can read the others' minds.
Distress, even of this kind, can be acquired. You'll be hard pressed to show that one person claiming a specific experience of distress is "appropriating" anything from another person claiming an identical type of distress.
While I agree that the word "transgender" encompasses those who don't even claim to have the experience, it also encompasses tons who aren't like you but nevertheless do claim the distress and do pursue the treatment, as well as tons who disclaim the experience over and over again for months/years and then claim it. There is no test to determine their sincerity or motivations or level of suffering.
My once-transvestite sexually motivated ex-husband no doubt fit your description of an outsider/appropriater until one day he didn't, and got all the surgeries.
I also agree that people should be allowed to use the word "transsexual." One of my best friends is a transsexual.
But this idea that you're a unique snowflake should be reconsidered. It's highly likely cultural factors are increasing the prevalence of your disorder and/or similar disorders for which the sufferer strongly believes transition is the answer.
I'm not saying any of you are right about that. Only that, whether you like it or not, the outsiders have joined you.
I met Margaret Deirdre O'Hartigan in 1993 through bisexual activism. She was my mentor in understanding transsexuality and being an ally. At that time, lesbian and gay community organizations were still unapologetically excluding both bisexuals and transsexuals unless we passed as lesbians/gay. Since that time, I have never seen full inclusion and acceptance in the "community" -- yet somehow there emerged the current trend of reifying gender stereotypes to the point of pressuring everyone to publicly their gender feelings and the nature of their sexuality. Who are the people that led this trend and why??
**publicly LABEL