I’d like to respond to some of the things discussed in this thread, but I don’t want to directly reply to anyone. I just want to share my perspective, not argue.
Transgender is currently accepted as an umbrella term and includes a variety of identities. What these identities have in common is that they are not cisgender. Disagreements about which identities fall under the trans umbrella are really about the specificity of the label itself. Some people seem to want the umbrella to be split into two distinctly different labels, with one being specifically for trans people who seek medical transition.
It all comes down to the definition of transgender as an umbrella term. Definitions of terms change, and it’s not unreasonable to think that transgender may change meaning again in the near future. But right now, “not cisgender” is what defines transgender identities, and that includes non-binary people and trans people that don’t seek medical transition.
As someone medically transitioning by HRT and seeking SRS, my identity is not diminished in any way by acknowledging the validity of other identities. My recent meme explicitly explains my desire for SRS, and there was no push-back. That’s because I was explaining my own transition and not attempting to define other people.
Not all trans people seek medical transition, and that’s valid. Not all trans people seeking medical transition want both HRT and SRS, and that’s also valid. And what trans people want for themselves can change. It’s important that non-cisgender people be accepted as transgender so they can accept themselves. Big questions about possible medical transition can be decided later.
Our enemies are the transphobes attacking our freedoms. Let’s be kind to our fellow trans people.
❤️
Unfortunately that one has only one inactive mod, which makes it prone to transphobic raids. You could make an account on lemmy.ml (or hexbear itself, its one of the only instances with pronouns as a feature built in and has been very supportive of trans people and defeding transphobic instances) and access hexbear’s /c/traa which is somewhere around 10x more active and has 23 mods on it. Generally we’re able to remove transphobic content within 5-10 minutes of a report so that other people don’t have to see it.
We defederated from hexbear, please don’t post links to hexbear on our instance. If you’re a beehaw user and believe hexbear is worth reconsidering, feel free to start a conversation in support explaining why you think they should be refederated with.
Too bad Hexbear is still a parody of itself:
- Built-in pronouns feature
- “Current time: […] Moscow Standard Time”
- “A leftist social platform”
- No fascists
- Non-vegan food is NSFW “(CW: Food)”
- Only allows content legal in US and UK
They’ve updated the CoC with some sensible points, but still have a way to go.
doesnt matter, im specifically referring to a trans community on hexbear, you can make an account on lemmy.ml to access traa. if you look at removals the only thing we’ve removed is transphobia. hexbear has explicitly defed from dozens of instances because they are harbingers of transphobia and harass transgender people. there is a reason why almost half of the site is populated by trans users.
and how is ‘no fascists’ a bad rule?
Hexbear was defeded by many instances, both because of the tankie vibe, and because the nice people of Hexbear went on to be not-nice on other instances. Reading their CoC now, they seem to have added a rule about the latter. Still…
The first contradiction stems from the set of terms {“Moscow”, “no fascists”, “LGBT”}, it conjures images like:
- Putin’s rule, and procreation camps to increase the availability of cannon fodder.
- Videos of gay couples holding hands in the center of Moscow, getting insulted and spit on by random passerbys.
Other contradictions are:
- US and UK putting sanctions on Russia, and the other way around, making “legal in” (US ∩ UK ∩ Moscow) ≈ ∅.
- {“Leftist”, “no fascists”, “vegan”} vs. China/USSR/Putin, and in particular dog farms or the “if it moves, then we eat it” saying.
No rule alone is exactly wrong; the combination of them is a WTF.
Keep in mind that when accessing that community, you’re beholden to both your own and the remote instance’s rules. Sometimes, those are not compatible.
Gonna have to disagree here. The social aspect of it all is just as important of the medical aspect. While there are trans issues that are mostly medical in nature, there are equally trans issues that are more social in nature.
I’m not sure what contexts you’ve seen truscum being used in, but from what I know it’s a term used for people who insist on a medical diagnosis in order to be trans. The problem with this, imo, is twofold. There’s a long history of medical gatekeeping that enforced cisheteronormativity in order to get a diagnosis of gender dysphoria, leaving out all other forms of self-identity (among a whole host of philosophical issues). And the second is just the lack of understanding and research of the broader medical community. Treatment guidelines are all over the place, often misguided, and usually inadequate to achieve the goals of the patient.
Truscum rhetoric often reinforces cisheteronormativity which is mostly antithetical to what being trans is about in the first place. That’s not to say that the trans community doesn’t struggle with medical diagnoses or that that’s not important, but to use a diagnosis as the benchmark of what being trans is, is usually needlessly exclusionary.
I think the problem comes when it’s framed as “you can only be trans if you have a diagnosis” as opposed to “you’re trans whether you have a diagnosis or any kind of medical experience with it or not.” One can say “it took a doctor diagnosing me with dysphoria before I could accept I was trans, but I understand that this is just my experience, and I know others have their own experience” and that’s totally fine.
It should be ok to tell people, for example, that dysphoria is central to the trans condition
I don’t agree. It’s ok to say “dysphoria is central to my trans experience, though I understand this isn’t universal.” That doesn’t gatekeep anyone. In fact it’s the opposite. But it’s not ok to tell others that dysphoria or medical treatment is required to be trans.
Sure, in many locations, having a diagnosis is required before doctors will allow you to even begin HRT or consider having surgeries if you want them. But that’s just a symptom of a broken medical system that enforces cisheteronormativity, and prevents self-ID and informed consent. It’s not what actually defines what being trans is all about. It’s just a hoop people are forced to jump through.
There’s a difference between having honest and good-faith discussions about the role dysphoria, surgery and HRT play in the overall trans experience, and making broad definitive statements. That’s what actually erases others’ experiences.
