Transmeds Are Transphobes.
Believing that Gender Dysphoria is a requirement for being Transgender has been proven wrong, Gender Euphoria has always been the main deciding factor. insisting otherwise frames being Transgender as a Mental Illness.
Saying otherwise is Transphobic.
proposal: dysphoric and non-dysphoric trans people are both trans, but one is dysphoric and one is not, and they have some similar experiences and some different experiences. gender dysphoria is in the dsm-5 as a psychiatric condition, gender non-conformism is explicitly mentioned to not be a condition. only transphobia is transphobic. thoughts?
I agree with the first few lines. I'm not educated enough on the dsm-5 to make a statement on that but I'll try to look into it.
Otherwise this is pretty fair, yeah. Trans people who do and don't have Dysphoria are trans. And yeah, only transphobia is transphobic. But nothing you really said here (to my knowledge) is transphobic.
My main point here was honestly reaffirmed, minus maybe me talking about framing being trans as a mental illness (?) so I'm not sure if this is on my side or not lol
warning for major yap:
i mean, the "main deciding factor" for if someone is trans or not is their self-reported sense of identifying as something other than their agab, meanwhile the criteria for being diagnosed with gender dysphoria is a lot more narrow than that and does require having a persistent sense of dysphoria.
i think the issue here is actually with the terminology. while dysphoric trans people feel a sense of struggle and pain and attach this to the experience of being trans (the idea of having a real psychiatric disorder and working tirelessly to relieve this pain), the trans label as a whole has (for better or worse) come to encompass non-dysphoric and gnc people as well. dysphoric people are naturally not happy because it feels like their genuine problem and the label and community that has come with them having said problem has been co-opted by people who share none of those experiences and are simply having fun with the same thing that causes them pain.
if you happen to knowing anything about the issue between level 2/3 and level 1 people with autism over autism being treated as a disorder vs pretty much as a quirk and how that drew attention away from autism being a serious developmental disorder, it's kind of like that imo. some dysphoric trans people feel like the move away from dysphoria being necessary for someone to identify as trans has drawn attention away from their more urgent need for gender-affirming surgeries, to have their dysphoria be taken seriously, etc.
so, when transmeds say non dysphoric people arent trans, or genderfluid people arent trans, etc, their definition of what being trans means is just inherently different from the wider perception of that label. i really think the dysphoric community should look to find a different label, since the alternative of having the wider trans community all fuck off is far more disruptive and unlikely, but people having these discussions are just too hurt and angry at the perception that the other side is denying their identity and lived experiences.
your initial post for example comes off as both inflammatory and underinformed, since gender dysphoria simply is a "mental illness" already, just in a different sense from how conservative media is usually talking about it. stating that transmeds are transphobic just wont compute to transmeds, because in their eyes they arent denying that trans people are trans, they're denying that people who dont experience dysphoria, and thus aren't trans, aren't trans. once again, a problem of definitions. ive seen people use the term transsexual to specify gender dysphoria and i kind of like it, but it does come off odd since that's an older term, so i just generalize with "trans".
i hope this clarifies things a bit re: your reblog exchange with that other person on this post, when it comes to gender dysphoria itself being the condition. you can also always just search up "gender dysphoria dsm-5" to read the diagnostic criteria.
for what its worth, i do think that the trans label has come to encompass non-dysphoric people and that these people are trans as well. transmeds need to understand that things have changed already (again, for better or for worse) and staying bitter about it forever isnt going to make anyone happier. im not sure about the percentage split, but a good portion of dysphoric trans people have probably come to share your view on the issue.
