Gender Analysis

One of the more irritating semantic dodges used by homophobes and transphobes is the claim that they do not fear queer and trans people, and so it would be inaccurate to describe their anti-gay and anti-trans positions with terms ending in -phobia. This is essentially the quote, misattributed to Morgan Freeman, that “It’s not a phobia. You are not scared. You are an asshole”, just seen from the other direction. Not only does this selectively disregard the common usage of words in favor of a narrow prescriptivism – it’s also a response to an argument nobody was making. Continue reading →

One of the most difficult stumbling blocks for trans people who are still coming to terms with their gender and struggling to envision their life as a trans person is the idea that transitioning is a fixed, one-size-fits-all process. The notion that being a trans woman or a trans man entails progressing through a rigid and specific set of steps, regardless of whether those steps are necessarily right for you, can make the prospect of transition seem intimidating, overwhelming, and even offputting. If a trans person doesn’t want vaginoplasty or top surgery, for instance, a model that yokes surgery to being trans will demarcate transness as being off-limits to them; if a trans person wants to begin medically transitioning but is not yet comfortable publicly presenting as their gender, and has been told that the latter is a prerequisite for the former, taking even the first steps toward embodying their gender can seem impossible. Continue reading →

In recent years, clinicians evaluating and treating trans and gender-questioning youth have observed that the number of those presenting for treatment has multiplied several times over. The UK NHS’ Gender Identity Development Service has reported an increase in referrals from 94 cases in 2009-2010 to 969 cases in 2015-2016, although many of those evaluated will not go on to transition or receive medical transition treatment. Gender specialists with the NHS have attributed this significant rise in referrals to “increased awareness and acceptance of gender issues – particularly via the media and social networks”. Continue reading →

During the years I’ve spent in circles of trans people online and on trans support boards, one of the most consistently reported experiences I’ve seen is a noticeable change, particularly among trans women, in the form that their sexual arousal takes after starting HRT. One common bit of folk wisdom passed around is the rather simplistic observation that reducing testosterone and raising estrogen lowers one’s sex drive, while raising testosterone and lowering estrogen does the opposite. While this generalization may be useful as a broadly applicable starting point, conceptualizing sexual desire and arousal as a scale from “more” to “less” simplifies what’s actually a very complex phenomenon, and fails to capture some of the most significant changes in sexuality that trans people on HRT often experience. Continue reading →

2015 saw one of the most bizarre and outrageous episodes in organized right-wing transphobia targeted at transgender students: the accusation, repeated across publications worldwide, that a 16-year-old trans girl in high school had been “harassing” other girls in the restrooms. This claim, made by the Pacific Justice Institute and uncritically repeated in Christian news sources, was quickly revealed to be false – at no point had anyone reported any instance of harassing or inappropriate behavior by this girl. Continue reading →