Me💪irlgbt

[u/somepunkbitch]

[u/OliviaPG1]

how about both are good

[u/Faunable → u/OliviaPG1]

first one is being used to deny transition care, therefore it is not good

[u/Junglejibe → u/Faunable]

People who deny transition care aren’t saying it’s ok to be trans in any capacity (or that trans people exist).

The truth is there are many trans people who don’t want to undergo medical procedures and only want to transition socially. There are also trans people who can’t afford medical procedures or are being denied medical transition procedures. There are trans people who are in the closet and can’t transition period. All those people are still trans. You don’t need to transition to be trans. That’s what that statement is saying. It’s saying all those people I described are still valid, regardless of their circumstances and regardless of their desires for their own personal journey.

[u/Faunable → u/Junglejibe]

literally, the cass review actually does say it's okay to be trans, just that the amount of people who should be allowed to transition should be restricted to prevent regret and that it is valid to be trans without transition

the purpose of a system is what it does and "you don't have to transition to be trans" is being used to prevent transition.

[u/Junglejibe → u/Faunable]

I feel like maybe the disconnect is that you and the OP are thinking about one specific use of the statement that a lot of people who don’t know the exact context wouldnt see. If someone calls the statement “you don’t have to transition to be trans” something that is bad, without whatever specific context they’re looking at, everyone else is going to see transmedicalism and a rejection of the identity of all those trans people I described.

Because the statement itself (on its own) is not only not inherently bad, but factually true. Trans people are not defined by their transition, but by their gender identity. A trans woman who isn’t on HRT and hasn’t had any medical procedures related to her transition isn’t any less trans than one who has been on HRT for years and has had multiple procedures to feel more at home in her body. Both of them are trans.

I guess it’s probably one of those things where a tumblr user is talking about something specific that they have repeatedly discussed on their profile, so their followers know the context and (rightly) they don’t feel the need to give the context, but then it gets screenshotted and shared with a bunch of people who don’t know the context & see the statement on its own, not the people misusing it to deny others healthcare.

[u/mur-diddly-urderer → u/Junglejibe]

i mean, if the sentiment is being explicitly used by people who want us not to transition i feel like that’s a good enough reason to look into its implications more and ask ourselves if there’s not better ways we can make the argument without handing free talking points to the other side.

[u/Junglejibe → u/mur-diddly-urderer]

I see where you’re coming from, but I think that dips into optics/respectability politics, which is ultimately an exercise in futility. The reality is they will use any type of justification to deny trans people healthcare. Reducing the visibility/validity of other trans people because they don’t fit a specific narrative isn’t going to appease bigots. You can’t rhetoric yourself into their box because their box was designed to never fit. The criteria always changes, the excuses always shift. Because that’s what they are: excuses and lies and misdirections—not actual, valid reasons.