It’s good to see some people aren’t being shouted down:
“This is a place for us to document the cult-like tactics of the trans community, the abusers being shielded by the trans community to further their politics, and the recruitment tactics of young people into transgender beliefs. If you’re not here to discuss these issues, comment on a different blog.”
“Children aren’t coloring books. You don’t get to fill them with your favorite colors.” - Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner
Failing to immediately fund your kid’s transition isn’t refusing to love your kid. I honest to fuck don’t know why anyone would take a suicide note as gospel- they are by definition written in a state of extreme emotional distress. The parents said they never heard the name Leelah and their kid seriously brought it up one time.
Of course no responsibility is leveled at online communities that make suicide seem like the only logical alternative to immediate transition. It was also pretty clear that Alcorn feared being an ugly woman a lot more than waiting to transition. Fuck that misogynist nonsense.
this isn’t about whether or not transitioning should be funded by parents, this about the fact that Leelah’s parents forcibly admitted her to conversion therapy, which is barbaric and basically child abuse. sympathy for the lost life of an LGBT child does not mean there’s a personal attack on you.
Alcorn’s exact claim was that they were taken to christian therapists. They included an ambiguous statement about self acceptance said by one of the therapists (AGAIN, in their SUICIDE note, without any other context). Conversion therapy is not telling someone to accept themselves. It usually involves aversion therapy, which aims to pair negative stimuli with images that the patient finds to be ideal. There can be the opposite, where patients are encouraged to think of something specific before achieving orgasm during masturbation. There is also gender training where people are told not to accept themselves and to actively change to better fir their “role”. From all outward appearances Alcorn was counseled that transitioning would not solve all their problems, and since it was not currently an option (due to finances, according to the parents) embracing an attitude of self-acceptance would likely be beneficial. The statement they relayed has nothing to do with actual conversion “therapy”.
I’ve seen christian therapists, and they have explicitly told me it is unethical and a violation of their license to attempt to change the sexual preferences. The APA has multiple statements to this effect, and (being an american organization) it is safe to assume a large christian presence in the APA.
Abusive, hateful parents do not take their kid to counseling when they are sad, btw. They don’t give a fuck. People harassing the alcorns don’t know what abuse is. They think misgendering is violence.
“Of course no responsibility is leveled at online communities that make suicide seem like the only logical alternative to immediate transition.”
Anonymous asked:
Or in other words, how do you help deprogram them? Refer them to gender critical blogs and resources? Tackling it head on will probably result in accusations of “transphobia.” Anyone?
If you’ve spent any amount of time on the Internet at all in the last couple weeks, you’ve heard about the suicide of trans teenager Leelah Alcorn. In the week since he took his own life, the onlin…
“Liberals condemn one as a human rights abuse while lauding the other as a major step forward for society…amazing cognitive dissonance,..”
If you have to clarify what your pronouns are, maybe you should come to your senses? Just a thought.
An Anon suggested I visit a Tumblr blog run by a happy FTM. I’ve seen plenty of them, and this one was like all the others: Filled with post-op top surgery pix, advice on packing, confessionals about all the changes wrought by “T,” and asks from 15-year-olds about how to access treatment when their parents weren’t jumping on the bandwagon. What there isn’t is a single voice arguing that maybe you could explore your more “male” traits without medicalizing the whole thing.
Here’s the thing: Just because all these young transitioners are flying high on their newfound chemical-surgical changes doesn’t mean questions don’t need to be raised. In fact, that’s just the point: The mad rush to extreme medical solutions for the problem of dissociation from one’s own body is exactly the reason why blogs like this are important.
And voices like mine are few and far between. I’ve heard from a few parents who want to speak out, but they have mostly been cowed into submission and shouted down with accusations of “Transphobia!” or “You are responsible for the suicide of transgender kids!”
This is why people saying “oh but look at this study where people report satisfaction with their transition surgery [some undisclosed time afterwards]!” Of course a surgery aiding you in disassociation will do that. Of course the hype and the deafening chants around you “this is necessary, this will make you all better, this is your only hope, other than suicide” will make you say, to everyone and yourself, EVEN BEFORE the surgery is obtained, that you are happy with the decision, and that it’s the best decision.
But something that aids your disease is never the best. If you feel happy, if your pain is eased, i’m happy for you. But i’m allowed to be worried. I’m allowed to push alternative treatments that i’ve seen work. I’m allowed to denounce the coercion of kids to make these huge choices while they’re still kids. I cannot believe the flak i get for doing this. I can’t believe the holey compassion found in transgender communities.
Self-fulfilling prophecy–that’s what it is.
Keep speaking out. There is power in numbers.
… If radical surgery such as removal of body parts has become such an accepted way of dealing with body dysphoria, why haven’t we seen similar “solutions” for other types of body dysphoric illnesses such as eating disorders?
An anorexic person FEELS fat. So based on the current gender politics an anorexic person would benefit from having liposuction. Just like a male trans woman FEELS like a woman so they supposedly benefit from having genital removal/reconstructive surgery.
An Anon suggested I visit a Tumblr blog run by a happy FTM. I’ve seen plenty of them, and this one was like all the others: Filled with post-op top surgery pix, advice on packing, confessionals about all the changes wrought by “T,” and asks from 15-year-olds about how to access treatment when their parents weren’t jumping on the bandwagon. What there isn’t is a single voice arguing that maybe you could explore your more “male” traits without medicalizing the whole thing.
Here’s the thing: Just because all these young transitioners are flying high on their newfound chemical-surgical changes doesn’t mean questions don’t need to be raised. In fact, that’s just the point: The mad rush to extreme medical solutions for the problem of dissociation from one’s own body is exactly the reason why blogs like this are important.
And voices like mine are few and far between. I’ve heard from a few parents who want to speak out, but they have mostly been cowed into submission and shouted down with accusations of “Transphobia!” or “You are responsible for the suicide of transgender kids!”
I’ve been thinking about this lately, I kind of tend to say yes but I’d be willing to compromise if trans women stopped trying to demand entry to…This is a fascinating thread which touches on several posts I and others have made on the subject of the medicalization of GID/gender dysphoria. Read all the comments if you have time; there is some interesting nuance. The big question that arises for me after reading all the comments is:
Given how extreme surgery and hormones are as a treatment—a lifelong, highly invasive treatment—why aren’t they seen as the very last resort?
…
* Actually, the other problem is that hormone therapies aren’t equal. Testosterone is irreversible, period. If your body’s ever been on testosterone, whether natural or artificial, there’s no going back. When MTF kids call testosterone a poison they’re being literal (shortens your lifespan, increases risk of heart disease, etc… to say nothing of reshaping the body). Estrogen really doesn’t do much and can be taken for psychological benefits. Yet everyone treats the two as being Exactly The Same Thing
THIS^
If I had to give ONE reason why I’m writing this blog, it is that testosterone treatment, in only a few weeks, creates permanent changes–if nothing else, to the vocal cords. If a teen girl takes T and decides later that she has changed her mind, she will still have committed herself to a deepened voice and likely ambiguous gender presentation for the rest of her life. It’s huge and irreversible, like dbrvnk said. And the detransitioned women I’ve read about also say the changed voice is a major issue in their lives.
Neuroscientist Prof Gina Rippon claims male and female brains only differ because of the relentless ‘drip, drip, drip’ of gender stereotyping.
See, this is why I’m a gender critical mom: “Children learn these ‘rules’ of how to be a boy or girl at a very young age, via marketing, media and those around them. It can be upsetting to the child if their interests do not conform and can prevent them from being the people they really are.“
Left unsaid: …and make them think they need to “transition” to be that person!
