Spinning false narratives
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July 3, 2024

Maybe I really need to cut down on the almost-now-subconscious
habit of checking Instagram too often. There was a time when
Instagram was about beautiful pictures without words. Now the news
media, commentators, pundits, and activists have moved in and
turned it into a Twitter with pictures (even though there is
Threads that serves this very purpose).

This morning my Instagram feed had several posts pushing a
spurious, alarmist narrative that the Biden administration had
"caved" to "far-right fascists" because it recently issued a
statement expressing an opposition to sex-reassignment surgery for
minors -- something even WPATH has never advocated.

I think this was in response to a leaked story last week that a
high-ranking CDC official allegedly pressured WPATH to drop the
minimum age requirement for SRS. That story quickly was picked up
by the right-wing media.

If you look at social media, you might even think this was a sign
that Joe Biden suddenly joined Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott in the
MAGA war on the trans community. Some are even claiming that this
portends a nationwide ban on trans people's existence.

And this is happening conveniently at the time when the mainstream
news and pundits are sowing seeds of doubt on the future of the Joe
Biden presidency (due to the last debate performance and the
growing progressive discontent on his handling of Gaza). I'm
probably not the only one who smells something, maybe either the
GOP operatives or Russia is behind this psyop to weaken the
Democratic Party to help Donald Trump? The Gaza and trans issues
both mobilize young, progressive voters. Getting them jaded now
will certainly boost Donald Trump's prospects for the White House.

Sometimes the Left is just as bad as the Right when it comes to
lack of critical thinking and media literacy.

I believe it should not even be a controversy about this.

For one, I do feel that the WPATH Standards of Care (SOC) badly
needs reform. In its past move toward depathologization and
inclusion, SOC has been too watered down and the safeguards
intended to protect patients have all but disappeared. While for
adults, WPATH opened up multiple paths to supporting diversified
gender expressions and identities, it inexplicably shifted its
promotion of medicalization toward youth, without sufficient
evidence based on longitudinal research.

We live in a generation in which gender nonconformity is accepted
like never before in modern Western history. Despite recent
political backlash, the United States is far more accepting of
trans people than most of the world. Indeed, many such people from
Latin America, Africa, Eurasia, Eastern Europe, and Asia seek
refuge in the U.S. and have done so even during the Trump
presidency (2017-2021).

In a number of states, nonbinary legal identity is now possible.
Society at large also accepts a broad range of gender expansiveness
today, not just limited to the classical idea of transsexuals. All
this is the achievement of the tireless works of LGBTQ+ activists
spanning half a century. We stand on the shoulders of giants in
this regard.

Yet, medical care must be evidence-based, and patient safety and
quality of life ought to be a priority. Gender-affirming care is no
different. SRS is no minor cosmetic procedure. It has an inherent
risk of complications and comes with a very long recovery time. The
impact of the procedure will be felt even decades later.

In the past, many trans people sought SRS just so that they could
have a semblance of a normal life without being bothered by others.
Those were the days when SRS was a requirement for changing any
official document (and still is in many countries). They had to go
through a strictly regimented, multi-year pathway culminating in
SRS just to be accepted as somewhat normal human beings by society.

Today, things are vastly different. "Nonbinary" was not an option
merely a decade ago, but now I find so many people around me who
are some form of nonbinary, and they can obtain an ID that has an
"X" gender marker with relative ease if they so desire. They can
also switch from M to F or F to M with a simple do-it-yourself form
filed with a court (note: in the State of Oregon).

Without trivializing the realities of severe, debilitating sex
dysmorphia among some trans -- and yes, nonbinary also -- people,
other trans and nonbinary people simply do not need much more than
an affirmation and social transition. If queer dating apps are any
indication, a lot of these people do not suffer from sex dysmorphia
even if they are dysphoric about gender. So why pressure them when
they are still figuring out what they want in life?

If there's anything, either reclassifying all trans people as
nonbinary (with an ultimate vision of reclassifying cisgender
people as nonbinary as well, abolishing the very concept of gender
itself) or at the very least, requiring that one can only
transition from M or F to nonbinary as an intermediate step before
transitioning to the opposite gender, would benefit all
gender-expansive individuals. What wouldn't, is to falsely market
SRS as a panacea and "only" path forward -- a rather outdated and
regressive idea for trans adults now but for some reason, that's
what's happening with youth.

None of what I just wrote is far-right, fascist, transphobic, or
TERF. In fact, it's quite the opposite. I dream of a world where
sex, as a biological accident and one physical characteristic among
hundreds of others, no longer is ascribed special meanings by
society. After all, we do not segregate people by eye color or make
a huge social construct out of it (interestingly, a few decades ago
there was a social experiment in which a classroom full of
elementary school kids were told by their teacher that kids with
blue eyes are smarter than those with brown eyes -- and soon later
their academic performance was affected by this!). Sure we all will
still have unique medical needs and we will continue to be
attracted to a specific kind of people, but gender -- the
cornerstone of patriarchal domination -- would lose its oppressive
powers.

Also: I do not oppose other forms of gender-affirming care for
minors, including some forms of puberty-delaying and HRT
medications for teens (although they call for better research) and
extensive mental health services for kids of all ages. But SRS
should be, as it was intended in the older versions of the WPATH
(HBIGDA) SOC, the "last resort" escalation only after all other
modalities of gender-affirming care failed to alleviate one's
gender dysphoria. It should not be something that is promoted
willy-nilly like candies.


=>
https://19thnews.org/2024/07/white-house-statement-gender-affirming-surgery-minors/
(Background) WH statement on gender-affirming surgery for minors