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The general consensus (from what I’ve seen) is that TMA means “transmisogyny affected” and TME means “transmisogyny exempt”. At first it sounds like a good binary, but quickly falls apart once you see its flaws.

In usage, TMA refers exclusively to transfeminine or “AMAB” people. It does not acknowledge the transmisogyny faced by those who would be exempt from it.

For example, a gender-nonforming cis woman would face transmisogyny for looking like a transgender woman. Would she still be TME, despite being a target?

An intersex man would be considered TME, but if he goes through an estrogenising puberty that makes him look feminine and become a target of transmisogyny, would he become TMA or stay TME?

Is a non-binary person TME or TMA? I know it depends on their assigned gender at birth, which makes the whole point of this flawed system completely moot.

And ignoring all those said flaws, what is the point of inventing entirely new binaries just to show who is “exempt” from bigotry, when everyone can face it one way or another?

What about the entire intersex community, who can’t neatly fit into every single binary you make? What about those who can’t be categorised as “TME”, nor “TMA”?

It is simply intersexist in almost every way. There is no point of showing who can be and can’t be affected by transmisogyny when you refuse to acknowledge the millions of people who don’t neatly fit in a binary.

And if your first thought is some form of “I don’t care” or “they’re TME by default” then you are the problem. This sort of binary is actively harming the community and only putting everybody in a divide.

Stop making useless binaries and actually focus on the real problems that plague the world!

Focus on the transgender men who are being silenced because of their assigned sex at birth! Focus on the intersex babies being forcibly mutilated before they can even crawl!

Focus on the transgender people facing execution, possibly being stoned or flogged for the mere act of being transgender!

Focus on SOMETHING ELSE! Do a change in the world! Advocate for your community! Protest transphobic laws, regulations and policies that are being passed around the world!

Stop focusing on yourself, and help the people everywhere who are being actively kicked out of their homes, killed, and mutilated against their will for being queer!

And most importantly, stop referring to yourself as “TME” or “TMA”. It helps no one and only signals to the wrong people. It actively divides the community and harms everybody.

All of this is happening around the world, even in some of the most progressive nations. This is not limited to the “backwards” and “savage” countries. This can happen in yours, too!

My own country has me banned from a normal life for being queer. I face a potential death penalty for being gay. I won’t even be able to go on Hajj if anyone finds out I’m transgender. I won’t even be able to practice my own culture!

I am forced to stay in a shell that isn’t mine. A shell with spikes—one I can not move in and one I can barely breathe in.

And I’m supposed to care about being “TME” and respecting every single order from radfems who live privileged lives where there is little to worry about—where most of their problems are little and far in-between.

I am supposed to respect the same people who hate my mere existence, who want me dead for the mistake of being a man, while the people around me actively talk about the “disease” that is queerness and how they want to protect me from it.

I am supposed to shut my mouth and let the people who mutter “theyfab”, “transandrobro”, and every single other slur under the sun at me speak for the entire community.

While my own people are ACTIVELY being shunned out of society for acting gay. For crossdressing. For having a face that looks even slightly feminine or too far from their assigned sex.

While my own people are being forced to “get fixed”. To undergo genital surgery for being intersex. While they are being actively murdered for having ambiguous genitalia.