Well, because they’re hacks and incapable of making a consistent living doing anything else. But we’ll come back to that.
Transgender people typically represent 1% of the population – or far less. So why do TERFS provide misleading information about how gender transition works on the internet? If TERFs applied their efforts towards silencing transgender people towards productive efforts – like raising funds for women in need – it would stand to reason that they would produce far more public good, especially for women.
Talented content creators whose careers are thoroughly invested in public social development have already realized that transgender people have a rising political and public presence. The sad, horrifying truth is that successful transgender people have been culturally selected by modern society to be hardworking, talented, and clever in order to survive. So why is there an old guard intent on doing everything they can to impede the cultural rise of a minority?
Transgender people are a minority that holds high political capital to engage with but have little to offer in the way of resistance. They often do not have the resources to defend themselves from misinformation or platform themselves. Because so few transgender people exist, information and research on them is slow-going, and was set back by the burning of the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft by the Nazis during World War II.
Due to the spread of political propaganda and suppression similar to the Nazi burnings, finding information on the positive effects on gender transition can be difficult if not impossible for a parent that isn’t “fluent” in how to find reputable sources on the internet. TERFs have anticipated this by misrepresenting data, funding ethically dubious studies, and generally lying to the public about how scientific research works.
Untreated gender dysphoria can result in symptoms similar to untreated depression, anxiety, or PTSD, and can actually cause the development of those symptoms where they previously didn’t exist.
Tweet
Transgender children who are supported by their families and their communities after their transition rarely, if ever, report any of these symptoms. The goal of a TERF is to captialize off the fear of a parent or loved one of the possible negative effects of gender transition so that their propaganda can insure that a parent can never see their child truly happy.
Due to efforts by homophobic organizations since the dawn of the LGBT civil rights movement, transgender people were considered morally taboo and driven into the fringes of society. For individuals who do not have access to educational resources and who are already predisposed against trusting minorities, transgender people make perfect targets. The web traffic from a single social media post spreading disinformation can be enough to comfortably fund someone’s lifestyle through donations or promote their brand.
Don’t let TERFs profit off the discomfort and pain of your loved ones by spreading medical misinformation about children. This guide is meant as a simple explanation of the gender transition process for those unfamilar with how gender transition works. Feel free to share, comment, or contact us through our contact page if you have any questions.
How does someone transition?
Everyone’s transition is different, but that’s not reassuring to a worried parent. The best way to explain gender transition is to break it down into social and biological components.
If you’re interested in further reading from a medical authority, I recommend this post by a user known as Doc. Wolverine, which compiles many reputable sources for you to read.
Social transition
Social transition includes actions that you take in your relationships with other people, such as changing how you are addressed by others and how your information is recorded by the government. This type of transition doesn’t involve any sort of medical intervention.
Tweet
When talking about a pre-pubescent child, social transition is the only type of transition that they will undergo.
There are however some exceptions. Typically, those exceptions are if the child had pre-existing medical conditions that affect their quality of life such as their ability to pass waste, digest food, or chronic pain.
Some people prefer to change how other people address them by dressing in ways that commonly accepted cultural signals for their gender. Some transgender women will choose to wear dresses and some transgender men will choose to wear suits, much like cisgender people.
Transgender people wearing clothes associated with a gender that they identify as doesn't mean that those clothes inherently have a gender. Clothings serves a social signal to others as to how they wanted to be addressed, or as a way for an individual to express themselves.
Many transgender people choose to only undergo social transition for many reasons, but ultimately they do so because they find that they are comfortable at that stage of transition.
For an adult transgender person, that can mean binding their chest or tucking to reduce the appearance of unwanted secondary sex characteristics. While chest binding does come with some risk, advances in modern technology have make the risk of injury while chest binding equivalent to the risk of injury while wearing high heels or a corset. Don’t you love living in the future?
Medical transition
“Medical” transition, for lack of a better term, refers to various medical perscriptions and surgies that a transgender person can undergo to treat their discomfort.
Older children who are transitioning may be perscribed puberty blockers which only delay puberty, not completely put a stop to puberty. The risk of puberty blockers is comparable to the risk of putting your child on anti-depressants or mood stabilizers, except puberty blockers allow your doctor to treat the source of your child’s discomfort directly and are not a permanent regimen.
A sidenote to concerned parents – medical transition is usually limited to puberty blockers for children under the age of 18. If your doctor recommends sex reassignment surgery for your child before the age of majority, it will be due to a pre-existing condition, not your child’s transition. Please communicate with your doctor, as they’re there to help you and your child and will know your situation best. Surgery is not required for transition, but may be the best option for your child’s mental health as an adult.
“Top surgery” is a colloquial term for a double masectomy performed on trans masculine people who feel more comfortable without those secondary sex characteristics.
Part of why we have top surgery available to us today is because cisgender men have received top surgery for gynecomastia – the development of ‘female’-shaped breasts – for a very long time. In fact, the term ‘gynectomastia’ was coined by Galen the physician in the second century AD. Cisgender men will often have these breasts surgically removed for their own personal comfort, much like transgender men.
Genital surgery for transgender people is not required for transition, but many transgender people experience discomfort with the morphology and sensations they feel from their genitals, and therefore will opt for that surgery as adults.
This article may be expanded at a later date as more information becomes available.
Do you have any questions or comments about this article? Feel free to contact us! If you enjoyed the article, consider leaving the author a tip.
Phoenix Collective 