What are your thoughts on the trans movement? Is there merit and extremes?

[jmg]

As a queer person myself I don't think it's fair for straight cisgendered people to compare their experiences to queer individual's experiences. We have faced a lot of things that straight cisgendered people will never experience in their lives. We expierence constant discrimination, are targeted for hate crimes, and members of our community are constantly killed in acts of violence simply for existing, etc. I also don't understand the choice to refer to trans people existing as "the trans movement" trans people have existed in recorded human history for thousands of years as have queer people. LGBTQ+ people still don't have equal rights in the US. We've spent our entire lives fighting for things that others have never had to fight for in their lifetimes. We deserve to be treated the same as everyone. It's not wrong to want to be accepted by the people who are important to you and also to be accepted by society. Being LGBTQ+ can and often is an incredibly isolating expierence. To quote what you said "And whether someone else calls me or validates my gender is not important." is comparing apples to oranges. While that's not important to you, it's incredibly important to LGBTQ+ individuals. If the people in your life referred to you as female with female pronouns when you don't identify with that would you simply accept it? It takes zero effort to call someone by their preferred name/pronouns. LGBTQ+ people aren't asking for special treatment or for rights other individuals aren't also afforded. We simply want to exist in the world without having to fight every second to survive the hatred and violence our community faces every second of every day. We also constantly have legislation being passed that directly targets our community. 550 bills introduced in 43 states this year alone, with 80+ bills passing. I will simply end my thoughts with some pertinent and important statistics:


41% of LGBTQ young people seriously considered attempting suicide in the past year

56% of LGBTQ young people who wanted mental health care in the past year were not able to get it.

Transgender and nonbinary young people who reported that all of the people they live with respect their pronouns reported lower rates of attempting suicide.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) released its annual crime report for 2022 showing that anti-LGBTQ+ hate crimes were up sharply from the prior year, with a 13.8% increase in reports based on sexual orientation and a shocking 32.9% jump in reported hate crimes based on gender identity

In 2023, for the first time in their 40+ year history, the Human Rights Campaign declared a National State of Emergency for LGBTQ+ Americans, in response to the over 550 anti-LGBTQ+ bills introduced into state houses across the country, more than 80 of which were passed into law. This is a record high for anti-LGBTQ+ legislation introduced and enacted in a single state legislative session since the Human Rights Campaign began tracking—beating out 2022, which, with 25 anti-LGBTQ+ bills enacted, previously held the record for most anti-LGBTQ+ bills enacted in a single year.

[♥ Novaray ♥]

I fully support the trans movement for adults, but I am a bit worried about those under 18 or so.

My cousin is currently in the process of detransitioning. She received a top surgery and permanently altered her body in a number of ways, and now she regrets it. People always act like these are just 'edge' cases and it never happens... but it happened to her and she's suffering a lot because of this. Why did it happen? Well, where I live in my opinion kids get placed on the transition track way, way, WAY too quickly. My cousin has autism and she was struggling with a lot of things, including gender dysphoria yes, but she also suffered from depression and a number of issues that were contributing to the feelings she was having.

In some ways I worry that many things being taught to these teens are just reinforcing gender stereotypes. My cousin was pressured to transition because she was a gender nonconforming girl with autism who did not present as a typical 'girl'. The message she got from peers, teachers and doctors was that this meant that something was wrong with her.

I am very supportive of the movement and I'm happy it's become more accepted. I have other trans friends who are happy and healthy. But I'm worried that we have turned this into a movement that doesn't take into account the nuance of puberty and how difficult it is to grow up. My cousin may never be able to have kids and may suffer with health issues for her entire life simply because she was never given actual help for her mental health and was instead given really extreme medical interventions.

I worry that cases like these will set the acceptance of trans people back years down the road when more people come forward with similar experiences.

[♥ lint ♥]

I fully support the trans movement for adults, but I am a bit worried about those under 18 or so.

My cousin is currently in the process of detransitioning. She received a top surgery and permanently altered her body in a number of ways, and now she regrets it. People always act like these are just 'edge' cases and it never happens... but it happened to her and she's suffering a lot because of this. Why did it happen? Well, where I live in my opinion kids get placed on the transition track way, way, WAY too quickly. My cousin has autism and she was struggling with a lot of things, including gender dysphoria yes, but she also suffered from depression and a number of issues that were contributing to the feelings she was having.

In some ways I worry that many things being taught to these teens are just reinforcing gender stereotypes. My cousin was pressured to transition because she was a gender nonconforming girl with autism who did not present as a typical 'girl'. The message she got from peers, teachers and doctors was that this meant that something was wrong with her.

I am very supportive of the movement and I'm happy it's become more accepted. I have other trans friends who are happy and healthy. But I'm worried that we have turned this into a movement that doesn't take into account the nuance of puberty and how difficult it is to grow up. My cousin may never be able to have kids and may suffer with health issues for her entire life simply because she was never given actual help for her mental health and was instead given really extreme medical interventions.

I worry that cases like these will set the acceptance of trans people back years down the road when more people come forward with similar experiences.

Great points! I think about this a lot when people bring this discussion up. I think a lot about court cases/law regarding trying minors and all that. You see a lot of arguments about minors who commit violent crimes and people bring psychologists who explain that the brain is not fully developed. I don't lean necessarily one way or the other because I think every case is different and there is a lot context missing, but my question is, if the argument is that brains do not fully develop for the youth enough to hold them accountable for committing crimes, then, they're developed enough to make gender transitions? I have no issue with people transitioning if it's a decision that was well researched and will make them happy, but MAN that is a H U G E change to go through and I can't imagine the mental and physical toll that would take if you would decide to detransition. I support people's independence to make their own decisions, but I think it should be made independently from the influence of others because I think people get easily influenced by things like social media and that may lead them down a path they may regret later.

[♥ Novaray ♥]

Great points! I think about this a lot when people bring this discussion up. I think a lot about court cases/law regarding trying minors and all that. You see a lot of arguments about minors who commit violent crimes and people bring psychologists who explain that the brain is not fully developed. I don't lean necessarily one way or the other because I think every case is different and there is a lot context missing, but my question is, if the argument is that brains do not fully develop for the youth enough to hold them accountable for committing crimes, then, they're developed enough to make gender transitions? I have no issue with people transitioning if it's a decision that was well researched and will make them happy, but MAN that is a H U G E change to go through and I can't imagine the mental and physical toll that would take if you would decide to detransition. I support people's independence to make their own decisions, but I think it should be made independently from the influence of others because I think people get easily influenced by things like social media and that may lead them down a path they may regret later.

For sure. And yeah, I know that instagram and tiktok were big factors in her decision making.

There are already places in europe that are limiting access to transition for teenagers (for good or for ill). So yeah it'll be interesting to see what happens in the next few years in regards to this. I'm not sure if I think it should be outright banned for everyone under 18, there are hormone treatments that can be used not just for transition but for other reasons. Some children start puberty way too early and so they need access to puberty blockers and I would hate to prevent people from access to these treatments.

But yeah as it stands right now, at least where I live, there needs to be a better system in place to try and prevent these things from being given to teens who need more time to think about their decision. Unfortunately there is no room for nuance right now because parents are essentially told well, if you don't affirm your child and give them treatment, they may harm or kill themselves. So they place families in really hard situations where they feel like they have no choice.

I think social transition is fine and it's good for kids to explore these things. It's healthy to experience different aspects of gender and see what works for you. But when you bring hormones and surgery into the mix things can get scary. Puberty blockers especially when used with males can literally stunt the growth of certain parts - which can make it a lot harder to have lower surgery later in life because there simply isn't enough material to work with. So if the goal for full transition is bottom surgery eventually, why are we stunting people's bodies from growing? There are a lot of things going on right now that make very little sense to me both scientifically and from a common sense stand point. Instead decisions are being made from a highly emotional and volatile place without taking into account the long term health and well-being of the teen.

[Guil]

i've been avoiding this topic because this "debate" bothers me/stresses me out but i don't wanna be silent.

While I am not trans, I have MANY trans people in my life both irl and online friends as well as family members and I will always support trans rights. people deserve to live how they want to and to be happy. how people live their life should not take up as much real estate in people (read: transphobes) heads. al the anti-trans stuff happening in the US has made my heart hurt, and as people will surely realize, all this anti-trans stuff is also just a gateway for conservatives to take away rights from LGBT folks and women. Its sad how far backwards we have stepped in the last 5 years

as i said ive been avoiding this thread, but from what i have seen this thread has been pretty tame thankfully so thanks to those who are willing to listen to trans voices. i am not really interested in expounding on my support for trans people if anyone comes here to try and respond to me, but i didnt wanna say nothing here as well, because trans members of ck deserve to feel safe on this forum and know they are supported!

KEEP BEING YOU!
GUILMON LOVES YOU