“A Response to the President-Elect’s Statement on ‘Gender Insanity’ and Transgender Care in General”
Dear DailyClout,
I cannot overemphasize the fear every transgender person feels right now. I am using the traditional definition of the word- which translates into someone like me who has had a persistent and deeply held life-long conviction that their gender differs from that assigned at birth. People like me have benefited immensely from complete, permanent medical and social transition in their lives. I do not think I am an extremist illogical narcissistic mentally ill activist that transgender people are so frequently portrayed as. To be sure, some of the activists being given the most publicity do not have the kind of life experience defined above. They often have a distinctly different definition for this word and can have all kinds of public goals that are frequently misguided at best in my view. Much of the world does not know or believe that people like me exist and therefore believes we do not need to be accounted for in public policy.
I do exist. I am fully integrated in society and post-transition am a much healthier and happier person than I have ever been (and there are many more like me). Within my personal knowledge base our medical and physical transformation has been much complete and more successful than many of you have been led to believe. Most people do not even know that people like me have lived among them for years. We have long-time friends for whom our background is unknown to them (it has never come up a single time). Certainly, until the last few years the topic of our existence (or of people of with some other condition that have seized the same word to define themselves) rarely came up in public discourse.
Ironically, it seems both conservative and liberal media are, intentionally or not, making sure that people never do learn that people like me exist: They almost always only allow a voice to aggressive activists promoting extreme or misguided agendas that feed into filling other’s minds with stereotypical views that don’t capture who people like me are. Far too often they end up stoking fears in people on all sides with unreasonable, irrational, and selfish demands.
There was great consternation and fear I felt hearing the President-Elect’s spoken statement full of implications that transgender identities are wholly illegitimate and fabricated (Reading through the entirety of his statement, it is clear to me that he feels that we are completely illegitimate at any age, not just before we turn 18). The statement that is apparently from last year but has in the news recently and is an agenda item of the President-Elect is found here:
Throughout this statement the President-Elect assumes that all care related to someone the treatment of someone who is transgender is illegitimate and harmful. On the contrary, this is not even a close call for this n of 1 – There is no question I have benefited tremendously, and my health is improved. The same is true for other people I know who are transgender as defined above or who are intersex or who are both. It ignores that many transgender people have biological conditions (endocrine dysfunction and various intersex conditions) that can be treated and helped in conjunction with an overall treatment plan that deals with our gender identity.
The President-Elect states he will instruct federal agencies to “cease all programs that promote the concept of sex and gender transition at any age”. Whatever promotion exactly means here, it is obvious that he believes that medical gender transition at any age should not be allowed or at least strongly discouraged by our government using whatever means they can employ to do so. For those of us who have had our lives so markedly improved by quality care in this regard, this is frightening language.
The President-Elect states he will direct investigations to see if providers and drug companies have “Deliberately covered up horrific long-term side-effects of “sex transitions” to get rich at the expense of vulnerable patients”. While I acknowledge that there certainly are examples of people being provided poor and harmful care in this field (as in so many other areas of medical care), that has not been my experience or that of many others that I know. I certainly have had no horrific long-term side-effects from my care, only tremendous benefits. My medical records prove this.
The President-Elect starts out a series of statements focused on children with a reference to “so-called “gender affirming care” and he goes on to make a summary judgment that all such care is illegitimate and ill-intentioned (Note though that elsewhere he is strongly implying the same for adults too). He does this by using incendiary language, e.g. – who wants to affirm “mutilation” surgery for anyone much less someone who is 17 or younger? I certainly share the fears of someone with ill intentions harming my child while they are under their care. However, I deeply resent and disagree in the strongest terms with his characterizing my surgery as “mutilation”.
I recognize and share the fears that parents have that teachings in this area can devolve into rigid ideology that includes a level of sex education that to us appears inappropriate, most certainly for younger children. I don’t believe the small percentage of children who are transgender (as previously defined) need to be educated about who they are. I don’t think that the 99+% of children who are not and will never be transgender need to be taught about this condition either, although we might have to have a further discussion about tolerance and bullying of children that are different from others. Nonetheless, it is also true that people like me do not only start having this very deeply held sense of self identity when we turn 18. I agree that parental rights must be a priority, and no medical decisions should be made for children without the parent’s agreement except in real life and death emergencies. I do not agree that the government should intervene and decide on what treatments are allowed or not allowed in cases where parents and medical professionals are all in agreement on the treatment for their child. This can include gender affirming care – it does not matter if you think you know what is better for someone else’s child: They may or may not later prove to be having made a mistake, but this is a decision between the parents and their medical professionals and their child.
I hope you can understand why people like me are afraid when we hear this language of delegitimization, and denigration aimed at the core of who we. This kind of language threatens to restrict our access to medical care, care that we KNOW has benefited us greatly. It reminds me of the numerous attempts to restrict beneficial medicines and care to those with other medical conditions. This seems to have become an increasing and potentially dangerous tendency in medicine in the last few years.
My experience is people do not often want to hear our voices (I have NEVER seen us allowed to have a seat at the table in discussions about these issues in conservative-oriented media) and balanced discussions are also rare in all other media. I know my personal pleas to any public media have been ignored completely or dismissed out of hand at other places, and I am so very thankful to be given a voice here at DailyClout. It is my fervent hope that this letter will serve to provide the reader with a balanced, sensitive response to the President-Elect’s statement and succeeds in explaining the dangers of the language that is used. I would like to make a plea to let us be heard and allowed to live our normal everyday lives and to have the freedom to make our own medical decisions as adults (and as children only when parents and medical professionals are in clear agreement). I know many people have had tremendous benefits from their care. Can we please address the extremes of certain ideologies and protect parents’ rights without delegitimizing the existence of all transgender and intersex people? Can we not be making an exception for basic human rights of adult transgender and intersex people that we believe in for other people? Please, let us find a better way for all Americans.
Anonymous
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