Previous posts on this blog have revealed what goes on out in the open on reddit’s community “asktransgender”: Young teens being talked into going on hormones, and getting tips on how to obtain these medications illegally:
So I’m having my appointment at a transgender clinic tomorrow, and I realized I’m sick of waiting. I just want to get on HRT asap. But I’m worried that they might make me wait longer is I say something that is not very “trans”. So should I be completely honest with them about how I feel, or give them a few of the answers they want? I mean it’s a good clinic, they understand transgender people pretty darn well, but I’m getting impatient. I just want to start HRT asap.
One person advises honesty. The rest?
“shade the truth a bit”“Get a story ready in your head”“lie if you think it will help”
“Lie to the[m] to get HRT. Give them the good old narrative”So there we have it. The kid has just turned 14, and adults are giving advice on how to act in order to get on hormones as soon as possible.
Parents whose children think they are trans: Get them off reddit. It’s toxic for them.
So I’m 19 right now and identify as female. Ever since I was younger I’ve always leaned towards the masculine side. I’ve always worn boys clothes, for as long as I can remember. When I was maybe 10/11, I would wear boxers and I felt very comfortable in them. When I reached 7th or 8th grade, I tried to start wearing female clothes. I never felt comfortable in girls underwear or shirts (I do usually wear girls jeans). When I was in 5th grade (elementary school) or maybe a little younger, I tried pushing for my parents to start calling me Joey after one of my favorite tv characters.
Fast forward a few years and I’ve recently come out as gay. I always wear boys clothes. I got a haircut and feel ten times more comfortable with it. She/her pronouns sort of make me uncomfortable, but I get embarrassed when people say he/him infront of my friends. I really lean towards the name Nick. I’ve always been big into video games and I’ll always make a male character, etc.
Recently I’ve been introduced to the Trans community and I’ve been watching a lot of videos on transitions so now I’m sort of confused with everything.
Some replies:
“Your experience sounds fairly typical of trans people”
And:
“You’re textbook trans”
Preferring comfortable clothes and short hair means you should change your sex.
I was assigned female at birth. However, I have never been comfortable living as a woman. Even as a young child, like in kindergarten, I hated wearing dresses and would throw tantrums if forced to. Eventually my parents stopped. My first boyfriend called me “secret Asian man” in fact because I have so many masculine traits– I am good at science and math, I like driving, I like fixing things, I like video games and am extremely good at them (better than most men), I play a very masculine instrument, etc, etc.
If you didn’t see me or know my name but were just told about me and my interests, you would think I was a man. I also HATE how being a woman is so limiting. I have been subjected to sexist discrimination, harassment, assault, the lot of it. I am fucking sick to death of it and I KNOW if I had been assigned male at birth, I would never have experienced it. I just lost a very good job because my boss wanted to sleep with me and I rebuffed him, which caused him to retaliate against me and when I complained, I was fired. I HATE living in this female body and I want a male one. I am just scared of coming out, honestly. Scared of what my family and friends will say. I feel like I would have to move to another city to truly be able to start over.
Hating dresses, being good at science, and playing a “very masculine instrument” – as if no women can do these things.
Top rated reply:
“trans with doubts doesn’t equal cis”
The poster further explains that part of what makes her dislike “being a woman” is the harassment she received for having unshaven legs:
When disliking harassment and preferring certain styles of hair and clothing is making people “question their gender” to the extent that they ask other people for advice about it, that says a lot about the narrow gender roles people are feeling confined by. Furthermore, it seems to be a wide consensus in the online trans communities that the act of questioning your gender itself means that you are trans. This sentiment is very pervasive.
Transcript from 00.30: “so first off, if you guys questioned it, um, you probably are transgender”
Enter a caption
According to the poster in the screenshot above, if you’re questioning that very likely means you are trans.
The first thing I want to talk about is the question of “How do I know I’m transgender?” being very, very big in and of itself and breaking it down in bits and pieces.
Let’s talk about how, if someone is even asking themselves that question it probably means, at the very least, they are feeling uncomfortable with their current gender role. So more than likely, the answer to that question (“Am I transgender?”) is “yes.”
If people are even asking the question, it means that more than likely they are transgender, according to this gender therapist.
So we have people growing up steeped in narrow gender roles, questioning their gender, and being told that the very act of questioning means they are transgender. Combine that with medical transition many places being trivially easy to obtain, and you have a situation where people are doing irreversible changes to their bodies on very flimsy grounds.
“questioning to fulltime in 9 months”“from questioning in may to hrt in september”“why wait?”“got my prescription within a month and a half”“questioning in June, Spiro and E in january”
Sexist gender roles + confused young people + the notion that questioning means you are trans + easy access to hormones = a rush of people modifying their bodies in rather extreme ways in order to fit in.
Transgender Reality 