Exactly
Hi, trans male Mental Health Professional here.
What transmeds don’t seem to understand is that in the United States, Gender Dysphoria is the diagnosis in the DSM-V needed to medically transition, but having dysphoria and being transgender are not the same thing.
On page 451 of the DSM V, Transgender is defined as “the broad spectrum of individuals who transiently or persistently identify with a gender other than their natal gender”.
Meanwhile, “Gender dysphoria refers to the distress that may(MAY) acompany the incongruence between one’s experienced or expressed gender and one’s assigned gender. Although not all( NOT ALL) individuals will experience distress as a result of such incongruence many are…”(Again, many, but NOT ALL).
On the next page, there is a set of criteria needed for the diagnosis of Gender Dysphoria for both children, and for adolescents/adults. For adolescents and adults, only 2 of the 6 criteria must be met for a diagnosis.
As you can see, you can identify as another gender, and have a strong desire to be treated as another gender, but you DO NOT need to hate your body parts. It also does not specify that you have to identify as strictly male or female, so non binary people that are dysphoric can transition if they so choose, because they meet the criteria of being transgender as well as having gender dysphoria.
In any case, dysphoria is different for everyone. Some people may think something they experience is not dysphoria, when it actually is. Some trans people may strongly identify as male or female, but not particularly care what their body looks like. For some people, dysphoria changes and becomes more or less severe at certain points of transition. Everyone is different.
Tl;dr, transmeds are saying information that is medically and socially recognized to be false, and are targeting people out of their own ignorance. You do not need to be miserable to identify as a gender that is not the one you were assigned at birth, which is what being transgender is.
It’s not a matter of agreeing or disagreeing, transmeds are wrong.
