this post was submitted on 27 Mar 2024
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I don't agree. It's ok to say "dysphoria is central to my trans experience, though I understand this isn't universal." That doesn't gatekeep anyone. In fact it's the opposite. But it's not ok to tell others that dysphoria or medical treatment is required to be trans.
Sure, in many locations, having a diagnosis is required before doctors will allow you to even begin HRT or consider having surgeries if you want them. But that's just a symptom of a broken medical system that enforces cisheteronormativity, and prevents self-ID and informed consent. It's not what actually defines what being trans is all about. It's just a hoop people are forced to jump through.
There's a difference between having honest and good-faith discussions about the role dysphoria, surgery and HRT play in the overall trans experience, and making broad definitive statements. That's what actually erases others' experiences.
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
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.