[Controversial]There's a calling out that needs to be: Identity, medical issues, community

[danaelaurm]

There is a tendency among many trans people to label their transness as “strictly a medical issue”, usually as an excuse to insist that they do not identify as trans or that they do not consider being trans as something that can be part of an identity, period, for the less offensive version

Comments

[admiralzeka]

Wow there is already alot of stuff here. To me it is entirely a physical (call that medical if you want) issue, not mental and not spiritual. It seems for some people it is part of who they are but for me it is just something that happened to me, a condition I have to live with.

As far as whether it is a choice or not, that depends on who you ask. I think for some people it actually is a choice but for others it most certainly is not.

[gymx]

I haven't yet read the essay you linked but I will. Just going off your post, though, I'm not sure what you're trying to say. That claiming transsexuality as a medical condition is abelist b/c it's not really a medical condition or not solely a medical condition?

[danaelaurm]

Not to make tg seem like /., but it might be a good reason to rtfe. But it's closer to option B.

[austereabsence]

how much do you think talk of "appropriating IS [culture/]medical explanation" might lend itself to...how shall i put this...disability essentialism? that by being intersex (or trans) people are 'essentially disabled', regardless if they were in, say, "the country of the IS" or whatever. as in, to have *anyone* say that their state of being is at least partially the product of biological defect seems to promote the idea that their body is defective - but they're not. except for rarer cases when intersexuality can harm someone's life (i've heard of babies being born that have to have an operation before they can excrete stool - pretty important), the point is that their bodies aren't defective...potentially only towards the cultural project of reproduction and the myth of the sexual/gender binary. really though, these are perfectly fine and capable individuals

Re: I'm late to the party

[danaelaurm]

I wonder, maybe the point was too obscure, what with the title and the exposure >.>
I don't give a damn how people live their life, unless their definition of living their lives involves contributing to giving community credit to explanations of trans that are, basically, ablist.

Re: I'm late to the party

[danaelaurm]

That's not what I'm saying either, I'm saying the way it is generally made into a purely medical issue by relatively privileged (and otherwise able bodied) trans people IS problematic - it's not the common cold, it's not possible to pretend it's only a medical issue.