Are you saying that trans activists are working hard to support young people with extreme gender dysphoria? I know only the loudest voices are the ones that get through, but I see zero evidence of this. Actually, I see zero evidence of trans activists doing anything but shutting down rational discourse and threatening women. Am I missing their tireless work on policy change to improve access to better healthcare for trans and detransitioned people? Or those impressive efforts to bolster research into the most effective and least harmful methods for resolving their crippling dysphoria? And how does this square with the latest bit of garbage they’re feeding to vulnerable children, that you don’t even NEED to have gender dysphoria in order to be trans? (You still absolutely need the hormones and surgery, though.) I don’t mind dissenting opinions, but I’d like to hear what you mean by this.
I do think a lot of trans women, including trans activists, are doing good work yes. I'd say the same about gender critical feminists: I think both sides are partially right. (This doesn't make me popular on twitter, lol.)
But when I said that you can't understand trans activism without understanding the lived experience of people with extreme gender dysphoria, that doesn't mean that everything they do is perfectly calibrated to support such people and only such people. I mean that trans activism arises out of this experience.
In my view—and obviously I could be wrong, but this is how I see things—trans activists, like gender critical feminists, are guilty of over-generalizing from their own experiences and from a limited understanding of the other side. To take the trans activist side: if you feel like gender dysphoria was crippling your life, and then transition was opposed by people (say, conservatives for religious reasons), but you accessed it, and then felt much better—if it actually *treated* you—you would be concerned that other people not go through that. Even, perhaps, to the point of overdoing it on how the issues should be presented to children (they would have benefited when THEY were children, so they overgeneralize.) And if GC feminists call them perverts, autogynephiles, etc, then they assume that GC feminists aren't. motivated at all by concern for trans people's well being. And push back.
Of course, a parallel story can be told on the other side, but I am trying to answer your question. Yes, I suspect you are missing a lot of tireless work to get better health care for trans people. (There does seem to be a lot of bias in the trans community against the detransitioners, for misguided but understandable-with-empathy reasons.). They would say that transition *is* the best treatment—and I would say they are right, *for people with intense dysphoria*. There are also people (you can hear it in detransition voices) who are caught up in the social effects and get the treatments when they are harmful. Both are true.
BUT, to understand trans activism you need to understand (I would say understand empathetically) their experience—their misery, the discrimination they face both before and after transition, etc. Then you'll understand more about what drives them, even to what you would consider a misguided or harmful place. And, perhaps, be able to reach a point where the two sides can talk, each with empathy for the pain of the other.
[Sorry, for the long answer... but it's a subject that I find hard to talk about briefly.]
Mom of ROGD teen here; I think you have an excellent point and I largely agree. The loudest , most militant activists seem to be ultra narcissistic AGP( in denial) Trans women. They are certainly a small minority of trans people , but make the most noise.
What they fail to understand is that vulnerable teens who would have been 'Goth' 30 yrs ago are being drawn into TG by the ideology and 'social justice'. They think this is ground bracingly progressive and cannot see the cult-like aspects. I don't blame the kids-they are doing what kids do in rebelling and identity formation.
I do blame the doctors and therapists and especially the activists who are shutting down debate. Most people in the US have NO IDEA how the tide is shifting in the UK, Sweden etc.
I tried to have an honest convo with my kid yesterday and I absolutely regret it. All they could here was my not using 'the correct language.' Said I sounded like Fox News....
Dissenting from what I suspect will be the main view among your readers, I'd propose:
You can't understand trans activism unless you understand the lived experience of people with extreme gender dysphoria.
Are you saying that trans activists are working hard to support young people with extreme gender dysphoria? I know only the loudest voices are the ones that get through, but I see zero evidence of this. Actually, I see zero evidence of trans activists doing anything but shutting down rational discourse and threatening women. Am I missing their tireless work on policy change to improve access to better healthcare for trans and detransitioned people? Or those impressive efforts to bolster research into the most effective and least harmful methods for resolving their crippling dysphoria? And how does this square with the latest bit of garbage they’re feeding to vulnerable children, that you don’t even NEED to have gender dysphoria in order to be trans? (You still absolutely need the hormones and surgery, though.) I don’t mind dissenting opinions, but I’d like to hear what you mean by this.
I do think a lot of trans women, including trans activists, are doing good work yes. I'd say the same about gender critical feminists: I think both sides are partially right. (This doesn't make me popular on twitter, lol.)
But when I said that you can't understand trans activism without understanding the lived experience of people with extreme gender dysphoria, that doesn't mean that everything they do is perfectly calibrated to support such people and only such people. I mean that trans activism arises out of this experience.
In my view—and obviously I could be wrong, but this is how I see things—trans activists, like gender critical feminists, are guilty of over-generalizing from their own experiences and from a limited understanding of the other side. To take the trans activist side: if you feel like gender dysphoria was crippling your life, and then transition was opposed by people (say, conservatives for religious reasons), but you accessed it, and then felt much better—if it actually *treated* you—you would be concerned that other people not go through that. Even, perhaps, to the point of overdoing it on how the issues should be presented to children (they would have benefited when THEY were children, so they overgeneralize.) And if GC feminists call them perverts, autogynephiles, etc, then they assume that GC feminists aren't. motivated at all by concern for trans people's well being. And push back.
Of course, a parallel story can be told on the other side, but I am trying to answer your question. Yes, I suspect you are missing a lot of tireless work to get better health care for trans people. (There does seem to be a lot of bias in the trans community against the detransitioners, for misguided but understandable-with-empathy reasons.). They would say that transition *is* the best treatment—and I would say they are right, *for people with intense dysphoria*. There are also people (you can hear it in detransition voices) who are caught up in the social effects and get the treatments when they are harmful. Both are true.
BUT, to understand trans activism you need to understand (I would say understand empathetically) their experience—their misery, the discrimination they face both before and after transition, etc. Then you'll understand more about what drives them, even to what you would consider a misguided or harmful place. And, perhaps, be able to reach a point where the two sides can talk, each with empathy for the pain of the other.
[Sorry, for the long answer... but it's a subject that I find hard to talk about briefly.]
Mom of ROGD teen here; I think you have an excellent point and I largely agree. The loudest , most militant activists seem to be ultra narcissistic AGP( in denial) Trans women. They are certainly a small minority of trans people , but make the most noise.
What they fail to understand is that vulnerable teens who would have been 'Goth' 30 yrs ago are being drawn into TG by the ideology and 'social justice'. They think this is ground bracingly progressive and cannot see the cult-like aspects. I don't blame the kids-they are doing what kids do in rebelling and identity formation.
I do blame the doctors and therapists and especially the activists who are shutting down debate. Most people in the US have NO IDEA how the tide is shifting in the UK, Sweden etc.
I tried to have an honest convo with my kid yesterday and I absolutely regret it. All they could here was my not using 'the correct language.' Said I sounded like Fox News....