"um, how can you be trans if you didn't realize til you were X years old?" well you see, society tells us constantly and from a young age that 1. only OTHER people are trans, 2. they know for sure, so if you're wondering then you're not, and 3. you can't, and shouldn't, be trans unless & until you've exhausted every other option. so we think it can't be us, and then try everything else that we think could possibly make the feeling stop, and only in the dust of all that futile effort do we start asking the real questions. is that good enough for you?

I'd never heard of trans people until my late 20s because I was brought up in a heavily religious area where being the nicest, most 'wholesome' gay person could end your social life in a heartbeat. I'm hardly the only person living here. I guarantee you that right now there are thousands if not millions of trans people older than me who have no idea about a facet of their identity because any deviation from the norm has been heavily, even violently suppressed in the culture they grew up in their whole lives.

The internet making varying gender identities more visible and more safe to share about is a wonderful thing, but please remember that it is a fairly new thing, and not everyone grew up with the opportunity to know themselves.

Yeah, I only knew trans people existed once I was ... close to an adult? Before that, I only really understood the idea that someone was "pretending" or that they were a crossdresser. And when I say "trans people existed," I mean trans women. I didn't know trans men or transmascs existed until one was rather famously murdered, and even then, what I understood was "this is a way to get made fun of, raped, and killed."

I told someone I really trusted that I thought I was genderqueer when I was 21, and they laughed at me. Like, literally, laughed in my face.

So I was in my mid-30s before I understood myself.

So I was in my

mid-30s before I

understood myself.

Beep boop! I look for accidental haiku posts. Sometimes I mess up.

can we get a shoutout to trans girls who don't wear makeup

i don't need to just keep practicing I don't need to just learn to contour or whatever the fuck else I'm 100% happy being bare-faced and the only times i ever felt compelled to do makeup was for other people's benefit!

watch the mfs with zero reading comprehension get ahold of this and act like I'm personally attacking them for wearing makeup

adding on trans girls who don’t shave their face or armpits or legs, or have short hair, or do any of the things that are seen as “saying Fuck You to the patriarchy” when cis women do it but for Some Reason when trans women do it they’re “not trying hard enough to pass.” do whatever you want with your meat suit and related adornments forever.

Turns out the British public has more positive views of lgbt people than the British media would suggest. Cis lesbians are tied with cis bisexual for expressing the most supportive views on trans people

[...]

The tweet: https://twitter.com/Lionhearted_ben/status/1629919975203848192?t=HfF1j3BVqZMgZEIHgVnz3w&s=19

And in case Twitter is being a fool, here's the PDF itself: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PiO5JAc2_erXL9rEPU-Gj4DXQ3N0dTbe/view

Shout-out to a friend for showing me this!!

TELL THEM!

(Letter excerpts selected by me…full text at this link.)

There is so much more I could say about this, but there is not enough room. Remember to check with reality rather than believing conspiracy theories promoted, supported, and funded by white nationalist hate groups.

Missouri is proposing 20% of the nation’s anti-trans legislation this session. Gender-affirming care for young folks is on the edge of being criminalized (so much love to trans friends in states where that has already happened).

Please keep up with the anti-trans legislation in your state and combat it. There are lives at stake.

Transphobes do not touch this post.

Image ID: a 10-image cartoon comic featuring Joey, a boy with short hair.

Image 1: Joey, upset, gesticulates towards an open laptop. Text reads: The reality of St. Louis trans kids. Last week, a former (non-medical) employee of Washington University’s Pediatric Transgender Center was featured in a viral article about how the clinic was “rushing” kids into medical care and “mutilating” us. Every single thing she said was a lie, but the media loves it. Footnote reads: I wouldn’t give any more attention to this, but it is immediately endangering the lives of trans people. Missouri has launched a state investigation and is actively attempting to criminalize gender-affirming care based on conspiracy theories.

Image 2: Joey points to a map of the United States where Missouri is singled out, and a map of Missouri where St. Louis is indicated with a star. The text reads: The Transgender Center, located in St. Louis, Missouri, has been the target of hateful attacks from the far-right state legislature for years. It is part of Washington University Hospital, a branch of a prestigious private university.

Image 3: A younger Joey injects his T shot in his leg while someone takes a photo. Text reads: I can tell you that everything in the article is false because I received care at the Transgender Center beginning at 16 years old. My medical transition has brought me nothing but joy. What a gift it is to be trans!

Image 4: A younger Joey sits on a couch and stims with a tangle fidget toy. Text reads: No one is “rushed”. I sat on many waitlists, had to have 6 months of specialized gender therapy and a diagnosis of gender dysphoria before even being referred to the Center, and I was denied as “not ready enough” by an endocrinologist the first time I finally got an appointment. Footnote reads: If you’re curious about what it looks like to be a trans kid, I did another piece on that! Check out tinyurl.com/transkidscomictumblr.

Image 5: A colorful map of the United States shows how many states have a Negative Gender Identity Policy Tally and how many states have criminalized gender affirming care. Joey holds a credit card. Text reads: St. Louis’ Pediatric Transgender Center is the only one in the region, meaning the waitlists are extremely long. Plus, no one in the only industrialized country without free healthcare is getting medical care for fun. Many American trans folks have to fundraise for our care.

Image 6: Joey, distressed, sits on a couch while talking on the phone. The person on the other end says: “That’s me!” Text reads: This former employee spoke about specific cases, and patients have been able to identify themselves. She shared our private medical info and called us horrifying.

Image 7: This is split into two panels. In the first, Joey holds up a box of condoms and a packet of birth control pills. Texts reads: She especially hated trans men such as myself, saying that trans ideology was destroying “girls”. She lamented about hormones making us “sterile”, which is a complete lie. We trans mascs have to actively prevent pregnancy. In panel two stands a doctor. Text reads: Every time I had an appointment at the Center, doctors reminded me: Remember: testosterone is not a contraceptive! Footnote reads: The wonderful Erin Reed wrote a breakdown debunking all the lies in the article. See tinyurl.com/erinreedmissouri.

Image 8: Joey, masked, sits at a circular table with his brother, an unmasked boy with fluffy short hair. Joey’s brother is showing him his phone. Text reads: Major newspapers continue to platform these complete lies because they bring in engagement and money. The Washington Post tracked down my little brother’s personal cell phone number to try to get in contact with our mom – the president of an organization supporting trans kids in Missouri. Freaky, right?

Image 9: Joey, looking disgusted, leans against a door frame while talking on a cell phone. Text reads: But no one wants to talk with me, the adult who medically transitioned at this clinic as a minor and has not “desisted” in six years. The Washington Post reporter, who didn’t know anything about trans people, talked with me for 20 minutes and used a sentence of mine in an article about “both sides of the debate”. She didn’t mention that this former employee is being legally represented by a recognized anti-LGBT hate group, nor that all of her claims are unsupported by reality or science.

Image 10: Joey looks angry and gesticulates. Beside the drawing are two photos of Joey, one of him happy in front of a trans flag, and the other of him drawing up testosterone to take his first T shot. Text reads: There is no debate. There are trans people, and there are people who want us dead. There is truth and there are conspiracy theories. Where is my viral article in a major paper?

Published Feb 16, 2023. End ID.

Heyo! This is the least amount of circulation one of these comics has gotten recently, and I’m trying to combat all of the virulently anti-trans media from almost all major publications in the US right now.

If you see this, please consider reblogging! It helps a lot!

My heart aches for our community and what we've all been facing lately. Please hang in there, everybody.

“Our side concocted the ‘bathroom safety’ male predator argument as a way to avoid an uncomfortable battle over LGBT ideology, and still fire up people’s emotions.”

COLOUR ME FUCKING SURPRISED

I want people, in particular cis people, to read this and understand what it means.

It means that these groups, these organizations, are so Hellbent on getting trans people outlawed, hurt, and killed, that they will openly lie and admit to lying to stir up emotions. They have no qualms with actively lying and distorting reality. 

They have no qualms about misleading people. Actively lying to people. 

They don’t care how immoral their actions may be, how much their rhetoric flies in the face of reality, as long as it reaches their end goal of the destruction of “transgender ideology.” 

MassResistance and all their ilk want us dead, and should never be trusted, not even for the most trivial of matters. They should be rejected, reviled, despised, because nothing they do is in service of anything but hatred and evil. 

And in case anyone actually doubts this, and wants to cry “fake news,” here’s MR’s actual article. Should it get deleted, here’s an archived version. Some choice bits under the cut, if you want to see how vile these people really are. 

Keep reading

@asymbina @thefingerfuckingfemalefury

Also worth reminding everyone that the lie doesn’t magically become true when it’s spread by putative feminists in stead of conservatives.

Transmedicalism is a plague upon all trans people and it must be stopped.

No, really.

Transmedicalism damages the rights and transitions of all trans people, even those who feel protected by it, and its adherents within the trans community do active damage to every single trans person by continuing to push it.

What is transmedicalism?

Transmedicalism is a belief founded upon the pathologizing white cisgender view of transgender/transsexual* existence.

Transmedicalists believe one or more of the following statements:

Transmedicalists are also known as transmeds or "truscum," a neologism which means "true transsexual scum." There is an unfortunate amount of overlap between the transmed community and the radfem community, with many transmeds believing that they are not "truly" their proper gender and accepting a second-class status within their gender.

So, starting from the understanding that transmedicalism as it is currently defined requires the belief in at least one of the above statements, why is being a transmed harmful even to people who follow the binary paths laid out by transmedicalism's most ardent adherents?

Transmedicalism allows cisgender doctors to define our experience.

Okay, let me start by saying that I understand that under the current health care system in the United States, a diagnosis is required in order for insurance to pay for medication and/or treatments, rather than treating medical interventions as "optional" or "cosmetic." This is a separate issue, to my mind, to seeing the transmedicalist line carried by the community end. Yes, the medical system is set up currently to see us fail; that doesn't mean that we need to carry that water for them.

The current medical view of transgender life is predicated upon the idea that our existence is based in pain. Basically, goes the cis thinking, every trans person would be cisgender if only we could manage it, but we just can't, because it's too painful. It's not that we're happier when our gender identities are confirmed, it's not that we live fuller and more complete lives, and definitely no one would ever choose our lives, because being trans is a shitty, hard life compared to being cis. Transition is a sort of "lifestyle of last resort."

Trans people are not "failed cisgender people", and that is the mindset which transmedicalism adopts. We are not one of many ways in which humanity expresses itself and what we are isn't a normal and natural way of being, says transmedicalism, but an aberrant way of being whose existence can only be tolerated simply because there is no other choice for us.

Uprooting the transmedicalist mindset means uprooting the mindset that we define ourselves by pain and allowing our community to define itself instead by the whole of our experience, including our pain, yes, but also including our joy. Trans liberation means the opportunity for kids to be raised without fear or shame about their gender, and what then? If we are ever to achieve true trans liberation, we cannot define ourselves solely by our pain, because that would mean that if we remove the societal sources of our pain, trans people would cease to meaningfully exist in that definition.

Transmedicalism as a philosophy therefore creates a trap which means trans existence will always be defined by its pain. And that? Sucks.

Transmedicalism means imposing a harmful "single true path" on all trans people.

If you've been around the trans community for more than 5 seconds, you know that there are uncountable different trans experiences. Transmedicalism, however, reinforces and underlines the "born this way" and "always knew" narratives, excluding those of us who didn't "always know" and those of us with fluid, complicated, or non-binary experiences. This is incredibly screwed up, especially for those of us who grew up before the advent of the modern internet, grew up in extremely conservative households, or simply changed or developed as we grew. Transmedicalism views a trans person as a static thing, one who "always knew" and "always suffered" from gender dysphoria, and that mindset forces a lot of us to lie or tell half-truths in order to receive support or medical treatment.

(read the entire thread, please.)

Even for those of us with binary trans experiences, pushing an idea that one must follow a single path which includes a set number of medical interventions means that a trans person may feel that they must receive these medical interventions -- whether or not they want them -- to be "really trans" or accepted by the community. To be clear, this should not be taken as me saying that the trans community is the source of this mindset or this belief: transmedicalism comes from outside the trans community, imposed upon us by the transphobic medical establishment and transphobic cisgender society, who view themselves as the arbiters of who is 'really trans' or not. If fault is to be laid at the feet of anyone for trans individuals who feel that they must receive medical intervention to be viewed as 'really trans', it must be laid at the feet of medical establishments, individual doctors, school systems, governments and other cisgender authorities who push this medical-intervention-necessary-or-else-not-trans model.

The decision on the appropriateness of any given medical intervention should be a decision made between an individual person, their parents if underage, and their doctor(s), and as with all other questions of bodily autonomy, should not be interfered with by governments, UK Twitter users with 10 accounts and the suffragette flag in their handle, or the writers of derivative wizard-school books.

Like, really, these standards are set up in order to diminish us and to "discourage people" from coming out as trans -- the harder it is to be 'really trans,' goes the thinking, the fewer of us will exist. It is an outright trans-exterminatory model which we really need to stop buying into as a community.

Transmedicalism as a philosophy pushes medical intervention which may not be appropriate or safe for a given individual.

Whether it's someone with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome for whom top surgery is not advisable, someone in a conservative area who can't live 'out' full-time and can't start hormone therapy, or someone who just isn't ready yet for whatever reason, transmedicalism imposes a script on trans people, and that one-size-fits-all approach simply isn't appropriate for anyone.

Let me repeat: nothing I say is or should be misconstrued as an argument for laws restricting transition by age, for interference in transition by outside forces, or any other such bullshit.

Likewise, even if we're just talking about binary trans people, a given intervention may not be appropriate or desired by a particular person. Transmedicalism pushes all manner of surgeries and medications, pushes the idea that if you don't do this, you're not trans, and that's not only simply not true but diametrically opposed to the truth of trans liberation. Trans liberation means the ability to experiment with gender and presentation, to begin or desist transition without fear, shame, or reprisal from within or without the community, and to recognize and focus on our joy as the central piece of our experience.

When you add in non-binary, genderfluid, and culturally-gendered people to the equation, it becomes glaringly obvious that a one-size-fits-all approach simply doesn't work.

Transmedicalism pushes the idea that desistence is a sign of not being "truly trans," or that transition was a "mistake" rather than a step along the way toward self-understanding.

I've seen this more than once -- someone transitions to a binary gender and then realizes that they're actually non-binary, or begins transition and then finds that they're in an unsafe situation for transition. (The majority of desisters/detransitioners stop transition due to lack of support, and retransition when they have better support or are able to move to a friendlier/safer situation.) Not only then do they have to deal with the incredibly complicated business of retransitioning, they have to then deal with people calling them a 'faker' or 'not really trans' or whatever else. It's not too different from the experiences of people who come out as gay or lesbian only later to realize that they're bisexual or pansexual, to be honest, with the same sort of social backlash.

We've got enough on our plates when it comes to dealing with our lives as trans people without trying to push the idea that desistence means you "were never trans" or "aren't truly trans." We don't need to do that to ourselves, to each other, or to someone who truly did experiment with gender and realize they were transgender. Trans liberation means the ability to experiment with gender is available to everyone, including those who later determine themselves to be cisgender.

Transmedicalism can be really tempting to trans people who do not have a lot of social support or who do not have contact with other, especially older, trans people -- look, it's scientific! look, you can't deny me this because otherwise I will die! -- and for a lot of binary trans people, following that single path of stereotypical medical interventions will not only provide relief from gender dysphoria but serve to give gender euphoria a wonderful garden in which to blossom. However, as a view of the community, it's absolute poison.

What is right for you need not be right for me: we understand this when it comes to other choices that people make with their bodies as a core tenet of feminist philosophy. One person's decision to have an abortion does not mean another person's decision to carry an unintended pregnancy to term is the 'wrong decision' and vice versa. We understand that a woman is not defined by motherhood or by carrying a child; we understand that a child-free life does not reflect poorly on those who choose to carry a child or to become a mother in another fashion. We understand that cis women who are unable to or do not want to carry children are not "unwomen," and that a single life path determined by natal biology and circumstance, imposed on women by the machinery of the cishetalloperipatriarchy, makes no sense. We understand that we do not require the approval of professionals for our plans for our body, and that we alone have -- ro should by all rights have, fuck you, Texas -- the sovereign ability to determine what we want our bodies to do.

Why, then, do we accept a philosophy within our communities which mandates a single defined path for transgender people and a single definition of transgender identity contingent upon approval from an often-hostile medical establishment which views our existence as a "life of last resort"?

Kinda bullshit, honestly.

*Sometimes viewed as outdated, the term transsexual is still used by many older trans people and has been recently reclaimed by some younger trans people. I include it in the name of greatest inclusivity of our community; there's no need for me to be exclusive while talking about how philosophies damage us.

I’ve never subscribed to transmedicalism, it’s always seemed like bullshit to me. And yet. I’ve still managed to internalize some of it about myself. Making me tentatively identify as a non-binary woman, but shy away from the trans label because I’m “not really trans” because I’m not planning to fully transition to masc presentation at this time. And that sucks. I already deal with “not queer enough” feelings because I’m married to a cis man. Having another axis to be “not enough” on SUCKS.

Anyway. Yea, root out this philosophy entirely. It’s only purpose is to separate us and destroy us. Don’t buy into it.

A M A Z I N G

My heart. ❤ Love to this girl.

Also - this incredible story has been nominated for a Hugo (major award). PLEASE support her on Twitter if you're there.

https://twitter.com/Azure_Husky/status/1420177932518137862?t=l6nQ5U7x2q4M-dzm_6HEVA&s=19

I saw everyone on twitter tearing Emma Watson apart for saying she’s self - partnered instead of single and decided to watch her interview for British Vogue to know what the hell was she trying to say with that. I was very surprised to find a 30 minute video in which amongst other things she talks about the following:

Every media outlet decided to focus in an out of context quote from the three minutes she talked about her dating life when the actual interview had a lot of depth and way more important things were discussed. I’m sad and angry but not surprised.

YOUR INTERNALIZED TRANSPHOBIA IS NOT THE FAULT OR CONCERN OF TRANS PEOPLE WHO HAVE WORKED TOWARDS LOVING THEMSELVES