King George III

The Endocrine Society, an international organization of medical experts and biological researchers, has released a new set of guidelines for caring for transgender patients. Along with the guidelines, the organization has issued a position statement calling on federal and private insurers to cover the costs of all medical interventions a physician might prescribe for a transgender patient, including hormone replacement therapies and surgeries.

The updated guidelines and position statement reflect the latest research on gender identity and the shift away from understanding gender dysphoria as a mental illness. “Considerable scientific evidence has emerged demonstrating a durable biological element underlying gender identity,” the statement reads. “Individuals may make choices due to other factors in their lives, but there do not seem to be external forces that genuinely cause individuals to change gender identity.”

I’m sorry to inform many in tumblr’s “trans” community, but being trans is not a choice. It’s not something you are because you don’t fit the ‘50s stereotyped gender roles. Being trans is biological. This kind of research has been around for decades. It was nascent when I transitioned back in ‘77. Between then and ‘84, I participated in several studies towards the discovery that being trans was something biological and something that someone’s either born with or happens so early in childhood development that it’s indistinguishable from born with. 

Trans is a medical condition. As such it should be covered by ALL insurance companies as well as state insurers. Saying it’s a choice is simply scientifically wrong. And saying it’s a choice allows the insurance industry to paint life-saving transition treatments as ‘cosmetic’ and ‘not medically necessary’. In short, the tumblr trans-trender community is actively hurting actual trans people. 

Being a transmedicalist is not transphobic or anti-trans nor does it make you ‘scum’ (as in the epithet ‘truscum’.) Transmedicalism is backed by science and has been backed by science for over 40 years. If you’re super offended by those facts, then perhaps you need to examine why you think you’re trans. Because believe me, all the trans people I’ve met in real life in the past 40 years, anyone off of tumblr or away from ‘queer studies’ brainwashed ivory tower crap, WANTED and NEEDED medical transition. I have met 100s of trans people in my life. Many had reasons they couldn’t transition. ALL of them WANTED to transition. Those who didn’t learned within the year of diagnostic treatment, that they weren’t trans. 

Trans people tend to take great comfort in knowing that this wasn’t something they chose or a psychological ‘problem’. Knowing that it was part of their biology. Because trans people don’t want to be trans. We wish we were born cis of the right gender that matches our brains. Trans women wish they were born cis women and will do everything they can to approach that approximation. Trans men wish they were born men and will do everything they can to approach that approximation.

and one method (though not entirely foolproof) to figuring that out is asking “would I be upset if another girl was treated like this?”

like, I’d be just as mad if some dude said “you can’t do math because you’re a girl” to a female classmate as I would if he said it to me

however, I never got uncomfortable at waiters calling my female friends “m'am”, I was only uncomfortable when they called *me* that