Your explanation of why it's ridiculous to argue whether transmascs or transfems are more "privileged" is already great, that framework is bad and wrong even if you only take into account American trans people and ignore trans people in other countries, but I'd also like to add that this "which members of this marginalized group are more privileged" debate has been fascinating to watch as a trans person from Russia, a country which has banned gender transition in either direction, prohibiting both changes to gender markers and gender-affirming healthcare (the law also nullified marriages between people who had the same birth sex, so trans women and cis men or trans men and cis women, and prevents people suffering from gender dysphoria from adopting children), a country which criminalizes so-called "LGBT propaganda", which pretty much bans advocacy and public expressions of queerness, and a country where the Supreme Court declared the "international LGBT movement" a "terrorist and extremist organization".
Is the "privilege" in the room with us right now? Love being "privileged" over my transfem sisters by [checks notes] being unable to transition, and my transfem sisters love being "privileged" over me by [checks notes] also being unable to transition. I'm sure debating which of us is more "privileged" is going to undo those laws and materially improve the state of our human rights (/sarcasm). And this country, as much as it sucks (this being one reason among many), isn't the worst for trans people, many trans people of color in third world countries have it even worse - once again, is the "privilege" in the room with us right now? Is it useful to argue about who has it worse? Again, if you're arguing about whether murder or torture is worse, you're inevitably arguing that one is better and downplaying the severity of it. This is not a zero-sum game, you do not need to downplay the suffering of others for your suffering to matter.
This as well!!!
My personal inputs generally come from a very USA-centric place because well. I live in the USA, I just haven't experienced being queer in other countries. Voices like yours are severely absent from this discussion and I think queers living outside the imperial core should be centered far more in discussion and activism. Thank you for sending this.
