Why purposefully say shitty things for other people? Let them say the shitty things and do your part to decrease the total number of shitty things being said in the world.
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You⌠donât use pronouns when talking about others? Thatâs gotta get awkward.
The AMA and APA disagree with your use of the term elective when it comes to the medical treatment of trans people, and itâs totally nuts that you want to talk about surgery (although, of course, thatâs all cis people ever want to talk about) when Chelseaâs lawyer has said she hasnât mentioned how she feels about that yet. I mean, itâs totally nuts that you want to talk about somebody elseâs junk and medical details in the first place, but even so this is not something that is relevant now or even in the near or intermediate future.
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I agree with your point, but I do have one gripe. Donât use the word âcisâ without saying what it means. It is not a word in common usage, and is primarily only used by people who are aware of transgender issues. Iâm not saying that you shouldnât use the wordâjust explain what it means, okay?
Edit: Also, saying âthatâs all cis people ever want to talk aboutâ comes off as an incredibly assholish thing to say. Attacking one stereotype by making another doesnât help and makes you look like a hypocrite.
I donât believe being transgender is a mental disorder. I believe that transgender people live in a society that doesnât respect their rights and discriminates against them, which causes mental disorders in some of them. But I donât believe that they brought it on themselves, like the names âgender identity disorderâ or âgender dysphoriaâ would suggest. It appears to me that the APA started out considering being transgender a mental disorder, and that they have just been adjusting their opinions from that. Being transgender was never the problem. It is the way other people react to you being transgender that is the problem (whether it is outright discrimination or refusal to pay for hormone or sex-reassignment treatments). There are societies all over the world where transgender people have never had issues. The only disorder associated with transgenderness is how our culture reacts to it.
This is a slight tangent, but is BoingBoing making a point of calling her Pfc or âPrivate First Classâ? Isnât it just Pvt. or Private?
I agree with most of what youâve said, but, I still donât understand how trans people who are seeking hormone replacement therapy, sex reassignment surgery, etc., can have any sort of healthcare system or health insurance pay for it if itâs not a disorder. I completely understand not wanting it stigmatized, considered âabnormalâ or some sort of delusion, all of that stuff. But I feel that if itâs relegated to nothing more than a way of being, thereâs absolutely no hope that anyone who doesnât have a ton of money will be able too afford any desired gender confirming treatment. Or is there some type of gray area where a condition is diagnosable, not any type of disorder, but desired treatments can be sought that are paid for through insurance or healthcare systems? I canât think of any off the top of my head.
I, for one, think sheâs cute.
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The DSM V attempts to address this issue. By changing the term to Gender Dysphoria, and applying it only to people who feel marked discomfort from the mind/body disconnect, it potentially allows trans people to have a condition on the books for insurance purposes while also allowing them to escape its stigma once theyâve transitioned and are comfortable with themselves (and would no longer be said to have dysphoria). Itâs not perfect. A lot of trans people now who have friendly doctors submit their treatment coded as an endocrine disorder, which would absolutely make sense to use if post-transition people still needed a code to continue to get their HRT meds.
Of course, this only works if the DSM is what the healthcare industry is using. Iâm trans and my doctorâs office and insurance company use the ICD, not the DSM, so Iâm stuck with Gender Identity Disorder for now (which my insurance doesnât cover in any way at all because theyâre assholes and I live in an asshole state).
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Ahh, okay, I think that does clear up the issue somewhat. Iâm most certainly a proponent for more access to care for trans people, but I never have been able to receive an explanation for how making it no longer a disorder was supposed to fix things. I think you explained it eloquently. Thanks! 
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You do realize that many trans* folks commit suicide, right?
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Really? I outgrew that shit in high school. Your mileage may vary.
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Yep. You hit the nail on the head- in a paid system where people canât afford out of pocket treatment and in a public system where public funds pay for treatment they need to be âsickâ in order for the health care to cover expenses. Itâs a mess, and a reason why a lot of trans activists stick to the medical disorder/birth defect model of what being trans is.
To answer your question, supposedly the public hospitals are required to give trans people gender- affirming treatment at no cost, but there has been limited stickage to that policy. It is especially hard in small towns and in a system so chaotic that for all itâs good intentions, you can get away with very little compliance of any regulations. I know a few people who have successfully gotten their hysterectomies and mastectomies at a public hospital in Buenos Aires, and commend the respectful treatment.
I think trans people who donât want any medical interventions are better served by laws that donât require pathologization and people who are going to want to use technology to update their bodies are still sometimes better served by policies which make it a disorder.
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Yeah- Ill be long relegated to the rocking chair on the front porch before weâre through with this one. Iâm glad to see a few considered bits of discussion going on here between all the "I still get to call her a he because dibs!â
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Still, itâs encouraging to see the massive progress in social acceptance of same-sex relationships in my lifetime.
I expect social support for transgender stuff will take considerably longer. Isnât it also much more rare?
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Maybe. Iâm guessing that we donât even know, because itâs so deadly to be trans.
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Yeah. When theyâre taking a representative sample, are folks like me being counted? I often suspect not. Itâs hard to get a sense for how many of us there are when itâs so stigmatized.
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Thereâs something to be said for inertia and momentum. Weâre more likely to win significant progress on transgender issues because weâve recently won progress on same-sex relationships.
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