Happy Pride Month everyone!
During Pride Month, you're probably going to see this document posted quite a bit. Either the whole thing or small snapshots of it. Usually in posts about how exclusion is ahistorical, and about how modern exclusionists would freak out if they saw how queer people labeled themselves in the 90s.
Now, all of these are beautiful depictions of gender incongruence, beautiful ways of describing genders that cisnormativity erases. But people seem to ignore that a couple of these entries... well... they seem to also at times describe age incongruence.
Take entry 53.
This person describes themself as sometimes being an 8-year-old "depending what day of the week it is". Maybe they mean it in a kink context? In the context of CG/L dynamics? Since it is listed after other terms associated with that kink space. But you can't argue that this is a completely normal way to view one's age.
Oh. And here's entry 19.
This entry... if it was meant in a kink context... there's no such indication. It's just... said. As part of this person's identity. "40-going-on-11". You could argue they don't mean it in a transage way. Purely metaphorically. But that might be a tough argument.
"Okay, but this is just one document!"
Do you need more?
How about this?
This is an excerpt from The Eternal Child, a paper on "infantiles". I tried to read the entire thing, but the mixture of highly medicalized language and explicit discussion (yes, I know it was called the Institute of Sexology, what was I expecting, but I'm very apothisexual) meant I had to stop. From what I did read through, it looks like while, yes, some cases might be better described as ageplayers in the modern day, others are extremely relatable depictions of age dysphoria.
So yes. The same place that the first SRS was done also had transage patients.
"None of these examples count because they don't actually use the term transage."
I'll give you that.
But do you know who did? Who was the first person to actually call themself transage? Back in good old 2008?
Randy Wicker.
Yes, that Randy Wicker. The gay rights activist Randy Wicker. The "involved in so many aspects of the LGBTQ rights movement that I'm having a hard time picking and choosing what I should mention here" Randy Wicker.
I hope you see the point I'm making. That transid people have always been intertwined with LGBTQ history.
Yes, this post is very transage-centric. That's what I am, that's what I know the history of best. If any other transid individuals want to reblog this with their own history, feel free. I welcome my siblings in arms.
The point is this.
We can debate whether non-gender transids are inherently queer, and whether a pericishetallo transid person should be welcome to celebrate Pride. Honestly, I'm not sure where I stand on this myself.
We can comment on legitimate issues within the transid community. Which, as I'm well aware, isn't picture-perfect. There should be good-faith discussion about that.
We can call out bad actors who use our terms and try to twist them to defend immoral activity. Who treat our community like it's a shield for them.
But this Pride, I don't want to see anyone claiming that a transid individual isn't welcome to celebrate Pride purely for being transid. You hear me?
