[Image ID, Tags reading "but why though, why do we have to use terms in a way that outs us a a group or not? and what am i supposed to say instead when i feel this captures my experience as a perisex trans person the best? dont get me wrong i am fully behind advocating for intersex rights and more conversations about intersex struggles, but this feels like bioessentialism again. Like i would'nt bat an eye at an intersex person calling "assigning themselves to any gender identity" transitioning either. End ID]
Just so, SO much to unpack in this, but I will try my best to educate for those that don't understand.
"AGAB" means Assigned Gender at Birth, it is not a noun, it is a verb, used to describe the process of being assigned a gender at birth, not the fact that you have one, everyone has one, the process of having a doctor pick it for you. This term was coined by intersex people to describe our experiences of doctors picking and choosing which gender we were assigned as based on often times no evidence, sometimes a baby's genitals match up with what they were assigned as, often times they don't. "AGAB" was intended as a way to describe how intersex people were put into a binary of biological male or biological female despite that not being the case.
The usage of "AGAB" by perisex transgender people changes this definition entirely, overwriting the voices of intersex people and our experiences and using our own terms in ways that make no sense given the actual original definitions. To Perisex transgender people, "AGAB" is a noun, you are an "AFAB" or an "AMAB" person, it means you were born a biological female or a biological male and implies you no longer identify with this term. I understand fully that people may feel comfortable using these terms under these definitions, but it doesn't change the fact that these are the incorrect uses of terms made by a different, smaller, community and bastardized of their original intents and meanings.
You are finding comfort in calling the skies green and the grass blue, and to intersex people who named them you look silly.
As to what you are supposed to use, the terms Müllerian and Wolffian have been coined as alternative terms to biological female and biological male, designed to be detached from gender entirely.
If you are "Fully behind advocating for intersex rights and more conversations about intersex struggles", please do not cast aside the intersex people speaking up against intersexism in favor of your own comfort in these misused terms. Being an intersex advocate, and any form of advocate in general, comes with listening to the people you are advocating for, especially when it discomforts you and calls into question your biases.
I am confused as to how this is bioessentialism, "AGAB" were coined specifically *against* bioessentialism, against the idea that intersex people, and people in general, being put into boxes at birth. It is used to describe genders being inflicted upon us without our consent, and is a term describing a harrowing experience. It is not bioessentialism to give bioessentialist tools a name. Especially when that name is used with hate. Intersex people hate "AGAB", we hate being put into boxes and being expected to conform to the idea of biological male and biological female. Calling this post bioessentialist is silly, please learn the meaning of words before you use them.
As for the thing about intersex people describing themselves as transitioning when describing their gender, this, unlike your earlier comments, is blatant intersexism rather than the covert accidental ignorance kind. Intersex trans people can use whatever terms they like to refer to their experiences thank you very much. If an intersex person describing their experience of identifying as the gender they feel comfortable with as transitioning makes you uncomfortable, you are not only intersexist but transphobic too.
I will give you the benefit of the doubt, nobody knows things before they know them, nobody has already learned the things they are actively learning. I hope you can take this post to heart, both you and other readers who were questioning my post.
