Anonymous #1 1d

which isn’t to say that for many trans people being trans is an intrinsic experience that drives them to transition, just that that experience can be framed as the ‘only’ true trans experience and/or that experience can be elevated and weaponized against other trans people by those that oppress us. just like “you don’t have to medically transition to be trans” is true, it is still a sentiment that is/can be used to harm trans people who do need to medically transition.

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Anonymous OP 1d

and it’s weird as hell to play condescending identity-cop like this when I am pretty obviously speaking exclusively to my Own relationship to gender identity (not to speak of the fact that I’d already clearly stated that I didn’t feel cis identity was an option for me?)

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Anonymous #1 1d

no disrespect but idk—many times I’ve seen it said that “‘medical transition isn’t required in order for you to be a trans person’ is an argument that’s harmful to people for whom transition is necessary”, but that argument is also a Fact so I don’t see any problem with asserting it. nor have I actually seen it used *to* directly weaponize against people who personally need to transition, tbh

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Anonymous #1 1d

and I’m saying this as someone for whom testosterone is a necessary medication. that’s a Fact for me, *and* if someone said to me that I could be trans without it, that wouldn’t be harmful—I would just calmly tell them “yeah! I’m trans either way. HRT is a necessity for me though”, no beef to be had

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Anonymous OP 1d

in 2018 the DOJ argued that trump’s ban on servicemembers medically transitioning was not a ban on trans people serving because it is not medically necessary to transition, ie trans people who chose not to or didn’t want to transition could continue to serve and therefore it wasn’t a discriminatory policy. something can be a “Fact” and also be part of a logic used to oppress trans people.

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Anonymous #1 1d

okay, I do hear what you’re saying with this example. that’s likely the most useful reply anyone’s given me so far on this subject, so thank you for that, earnestly. but when we as trans people declare within our own peer groups that you can be trans without pursuing medical transition, it’s clear that we’re not saying as much for insidious military industrial complex reasons

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Anonymous #1 1d

and we generally don’t wield the kind of power that would actively sway systemic policy decisions like that just in the course of chatting amongst ourselves. I don’t think it makes sense to discourage the expression of the statement itself solely because people who are already militantly deadset on destroying us may misappropriate the claim and warp it for destructive purposes

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Anonymous OP 1d

i didn’t say any of that. i used it as an additional example of a experience/statement that while true for many trans people when applied universally can be harmful.

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Anonymous #1 1d

okay, my bad, I can def own it if I went and read something into your replies that you didn’t actually say 🫡 sorry bout that. I was reacting to an argument other people have posed to me in the past based on an inaccurate presumption of what you were getting at

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