My dad’s best friend from high school transitioned…I can’t remember when I first met him (used to be “her”), but it had to be sometime in the late 90s/early 2000s, and I was just a teenager. He had fully transitioned by that point. I remember thinking that made sense. It was before the culture war types discovered trans people and decided they were the literal devils. To me it sounded simple–as a kid Tracy always felt like she was a boy. So when she could afford it, she got surgery to fix her body to match what her brain was, since that’s easier and less risky than changing your brain to match your body. It sounded to me like getting a prosthetic if you’re born without a limb or something. Or getting an amputation if you’re born with an extra limb. Like, you were born with something wrong with your body and you fixed it, not a big deal.
It wasn’t until much much later that I realized how rare Tracy was for that time period…not just because the kind of biological mistake he fixed is statistically rare (which I understood as a kid), but because the vast, vast majority of people born that way hide it (which I did not understand). I also didn’t really have a concept of “gender” as a different thing than “sex” at that point…I don’t think the vocabulary for that really existed except maybe in a few academic circles. So to me, she was a she until she transitioned, then she became he. She had a problem, now he doesn’t.
It also confused the fuck out of me when people started saying hateful shit about trans people. Like, no, I know a trans person, he’s cool as hell, we went kayaking together.
So when she could afford it, she got surgery to fix her body to match what her brain was, since that’s easier and less risky than changing your brain to match your body.
Just a small point. If we had any medical/scientifically validated method to “change her brain to match her body”, Conservatives would be railing non-stop to only allow that instead of allowing/promoting what we currently know as gender transition. It would still be wrong because it would literally be brainwashing.
The counterpoint would be that this happens to millions of people undergoing psychiatric care every day for other reasons. “Better living through chemistry” allows us to treat various conditions, even relatively harmless ones, through alterations in brain chemistry. Brainwashing, as it were. And that’s relatively accepted practice today.
I think a lot of people would jump at the opportunity if there was a magic pill that would just suddenly make you feel comfortable in the skin you’re in. Gender dysphoria is not a pleasant condition to experience, and the only solution we have available right now is to transition into what feels more comfortable. But it’ll likely be a long while (likely not within our lifetimes) that discrimination against trans people will come to an end, so the alternative to dysphoria is social stigmatization that causes other negative medical states anyways.
There’s a reason trans people have such a high rate of suicide. If the medical community were to decide that a pill that cures gender dysphoria was a more reliable intervention than living with all of the baggage that comes with being trans, I don’t doubt that many/most would prefer that approach.
My dad’s best friend from high school transitioned…I can’t remember when I first met him (used to be “her”), but it had to be sometime in the late 90s/early 2000s, and I was just a teenager. He had fully transitioned by that point. I remember thinking that made sense. It was before the culture war types discovered trans people and decided they were the literal devils. To me it sounded simple–as a kid Tracy always felt like she was a boy. So when she could afford it, she got surgery to fix her body to match what her brain was, since that’s easier and less risky than changing your brain to match your body. It sounded to me like getting a prosthetic if you’re born without a limb or something. Or getting an amputation if you’re born with an extra limb. Like, you were born with something wrong with your body and you fixed it, not a big deal.
It wasn’t until much much later that I realized how rare Tracy was for that time period…not just because the kind of biological mistake he fixed is statistically rare (which I understood as a kid), but because the vast, vast majority of people born that way hide it (which I did not understand). I also didn’t really have a concept of “gender” as a different thing than “sex” at that point…I don’t think the vocabulary for that really existed except maybe in a few academic circles. So to me, she was a she until she transitioned, then she became he. She had a problem, now he doesn’t.
It also confused the fuck out of me when people started saying hateful shit about trans people. Like, no, I know a trans person, he’s cool as hell, we went kayaking together.
Just a small point. If we had any medical/scientifically validated method to “change her brain to match her body”, Conservatives would be railing non-stop to only allow that instead of allowing/promoting what we currently know as gender transition. It would still be wrong because it would literally be brainwashing.
The counterpoint would be that this happens to millions of people undergoing psychiatric care every day for other reasons. “Better living through chemistry” allows us to treat various conditions, even relatively harmless ones, through alterations in brain chemistry. Brainwashing, as it were. And that’s relatively accepted practice today.
I think a lot of people would jump at the opportunity if there was a magic pill that would just suddenly make you feel comfortable in the skin you’re in. Gender dysphoria is not a pleasant condition to experience, and the only solution we have available right now is to transition into what feels more comfortable. But it’ll likely be a long while (likely not within our lifetimes) that discrimination against trans people will come to an end, so the alternative to dysphoria is social stigmatization that causes other negative medical states anyways.
There’s a reason trans people have such a high rate of suicide. If the medical community were to decide that a pill that cures gender dysphoria was a more reliable intervention than living with all of the baggage that comes with being trans, I don’t doubt that many/most would prefer that approach.