Posted June 05, 2021
low rated
morolf: It's just a very strange treatment imo for an affliction that must be mostly mental in origin.
I fully agree with this and I think it sucks people think it's automatically hateful to say so. I'm not Trans so I can't fully appreciate what it feels like but I try and understand how people feel by thinking of an experience where I might have had that emotion. A feeling of being out of place or that a mistake has been made and you're in the wrong group/classroom/whatever is uncomfortable. I can't fathom how it feels to be in a body and thinking "there's been a terrible mix up", especiallywhen that continues daily for your entire life. The fact remains though that nothing is physically wrong. There is no wound to treat. You would pass a routine physical. The issue is a mental one in that sense. I don't know that any level of surgery or medication can fix it. Anorexia often involves people who mentally perceive themselves with far more weight then they have. A doctor can treat their physical state but they can still struggle mentally.
I live in a rough area of a major city and there is one Transperson( not sure what this individual prefers to be called) who has been beaten to a pulp multiple times over the years. No flamboyance. No trying to "convert" people sexually. Just getting jumped for being Trans. I can't imagine that's a life anyone chooses. Working minimum wage jobs, feeling like something is wrong all the time, and waiting for the next beat down walking home from your shift. There may be trendy people faking (how many Hollywood actresses have decided they're bisexual right as their new film premiers) but there are very real cases and it doesn't seem like much fun.
Lastly a word on mental health. I'm not calling anyone crazy or saying they're wrong for feeling how they do mentally. Every time there's a horrible murder or suicide incident the media talks about the "stigma around mental health". They are the problem. They only bring up that term when someone gets shanked on the train by a guy wearing no pants and tie-dye cowboy hat, but saying it about a Transperson is bordering on hate speech these days. Why is that? If someone is having a rough time (and some Transpeople certainly are) and a medic can't help that sounds like mental health issue. I don't understand it but I don't have to. They're human like me. I don't have answers but I can at least try not to make their daily struggle any worse.
I haven't meant to offend or demean anyone with this post. I hope it will be read, considered and commented on. Either way we're all trapped on planet Earth together for the duration.