#The endless cycle of tumblr discourse backlash and escalation is slowly swinging into some people approaching 'maybe transmeds

[taraxippos]

I am going tobe absolutely fucking real I don't think describing the experience of a significant amount of trans people as legitimate is appropriate to frame as 'running cover for taking away medical care from those who need it'. Both statements made here are, in fact, a radical perspective on the right to bodily autonomy.

I definitely understand where it's coming from because there's a lot of attempts to use the fact that you CAN be trans without medically transitioning to sneakily tack on transphobic rhetoric ('yeah testosterone makes you ugly' 'a neopenis/neovagina doesn't even 'work' what's the point' '[transmasc cryptoterfs and co making thinly veiled attempts to describe HRT/top surgery as mutilation of your precious 'Female' Body and corruption of your mind via introducing the Evil 'Male' Chemicals]'). I would also very much agree that agitating for full access to and the lifesaving necessity of trans medical care is a central, critical issue, and takes priority over assurances that you don't Have to medically transition.

That shouldn't come at the expense of framing trans people who do not medically transition/do not undergo a 'full' transition as somehow regressive or damaging to the trans community by expecting THEIR OWN exercise of body autonomy to be respected. You do know that trans people who do not transition do not structurally benefit from this in any capacity right? It MIGHT provide a very basic safety net as maintaining plausible deniability in passing as a cis person of the wrong gender (often with associated emotional tolls) and that's it. Attacks against transitional medicine aren't on the basis of 'I'd be fine with the transgenders if they just didn't go on HRT/get surgery', it is the head of the spear being used to remove us (and most SPECIFICALLY and pointedly trans women) from existence. The end goal is to, at the very least, force trans people completely into the closet via a culture of transphobic violence and lack of access to medical care, and at best to fully eradicate us one way or another.