It feels necessary for me to mention that The American PsychiatricĀ Association has openly stated that you do not need to suffer from dysphoria to be transgender and also acknowledges the existence ofĀ non binary genders.
Here is the link. Hereās a quote defining transgender:
āTransgender is a non-medical term that has been used increasingly since the 1990s as an umbrella term describing individuals whose gender identity (inner sense of gender) or gender expression (outward performance of gender) differs from the sex or gender to which they were assigned at birth. Some people who use this term do not consider themselves as matching a binary gender category. In addition, new terms such as genderqueer, bigendered, and agendered are increasingly in use.ā
Hereās the followup:
āNot all transgender people suffer from gender dysphoria and that distinction is important to keep in mind. Gender dysphoria and/or coming out as transgender can occur at any age.ā
Hereās more about gender dysphoria.
Also, in early 2017 in Denmark it is no longer possible toĀ ādiagnoseā someone with being transgender.Ā Of course this doesnāt include dysphoria, just the act of beingĀ trans.
Gender Dysphoria is in the DSM-V, but being transgender is not. More on the changing of the terminology for the purpose of removing stigma.
Oh, and the American Psychological Association had something interesting to say, too:Ā
āIs being transgender a mental disorder?
A psychological state is considered a mental disorder only if it causes significant distress or disability. Many transgender people do not experience their gender as distressing or disabling, which implies that identifying as transgender does not constitute a mental disorder.ā
Conclusion: if the American Psychological Association, the American Psychiatric association, the DSM-V, and Denmarkās laws all agree that being trans isnāt a mental disorder, Iād be happy to sit on that fence.
This took me literally 10 minutes of googling.
Iām gonna keep adding resources to support trans people! Trigger warning for suicide up ahead, just fyi.
Hereās a Harvard study about the neurological divergence between genders.
Key quotes:
āThose persons who identify as transgender (the āTā in many queer community acronyms) are those who identify with a gender that differs from their assigned sexā¦Ā Though the typical assigned sexes are āmaleā and āfemale,ā often designated at birth, being transgender does not limit gender identity to these two categories, as many who identify as transgender do not feel they are exclusively masculine or feminine.ā
The essay conclusion:
āScience tells us that gender is certainly not binary; it may not even be a linear spectrum. Like many other facets of identity, it can operate on a broad range of levels and operate outside of many definitions. And it also appears that gender may not be as static as we assume. At the forefront of this, transgender identity is complex ā itās unlikely weāll ever be able to attribute it to one neat, contained set of causes, and there is still much to be learned. But we know now that several of those causes are biological. These individuals are not suffering a mental illness, or capriciously āchoosingā a different identity. The transgender identity is multi-dimensional ā but it deserves no less recognition or respect than any other facet of humankind.ā
Summary: gender isnāt binary and being transgender isnāt a mental illness.
The World Health Organization no longer considers being transgender a mental illness.
āRemoving the mental health label from transgender identity would be a powerful signifier of acceptance, advocates and mental health professionals say.ā
oh, and to shut the REGs up:
āMany, but not all, advocates favor the idea of keeping transgender in the codebook in some form because the designations are widely used for billing and insurance coverage of medical services and for conducting research on diseases and treatments.ā
IE: proof that you can declassify being transgender as a mental illness but rather recategorize it to reduce the spread of stigma while also allowing trans people to have care
Some truscum/reg type tried to tell me thatĀ ātrans people are obviously mentally ill because of the high suicide rate!ā
YES, the high suicide rates stems from oppression, NOT because trans people are mentally fucked up inherently, because the suicide rate for INUIT TEENAGERS in CanadaĀ is THE WORST IN THE ENTIRE WORLD!Ā Itās one of the leading causes of death among Aboriginal peoples in Canada.
Article quotes:Ā
āBut the biggest driver behind the staggeringly higher death rate among Inuit children and teens is suicide. The report, from Statistics Canadaās health analysis division, found that the suicide rate among children and teens in the Inuit homelands was 30 times that of youth in the rest of Canada during the five-year period from 2004 to 2008.ā
and
āSuicide affects the youth in Indigenous communities more than any other demographic. Suicide occurs roughly 5 to 6 times more often among Indigenous youth than non-Indigenous youth in Canada.ā
Hereās an interesting article about trans suicide rate (and also how race plays into it) and gives us percentages.
My point is that trans people arenāt inherently fucked up and donāt suffer from mental illnesses because theyāre trans, they suffer from mental illnesses because they are an at-risk group like any other minority.
Truscum do not interact, these arenāt up for debate, these are articles. If you want me to add more to this list, hmu!
For all the truscum/transmeds coming to my blog, please read this!