Talking about medical gatekeeping in trans healthcare really feels like,
"Hey we should stop sending trans people to a fucking exorcist before they're allowed to transition? Since we know, scientifically, that demons are Not Fucking Real?"
"Ok but what if someone regrets transition though?"
"DEMONS ARE NOT FUCKING REAL."
"You really don't care about the possibility of regret?"
"DEMONS. ARE NOT. FUCKING. REAL. THE EXORCIST. HAS NOTHING TO DO. WITH REGRETTING ANY TRANSITION PROCEDURE. ON ACCOUNT OF EXORCISM BEING FAKE AND MADE UP."
"The trans community needs to talk more about transition regret. You have to acknowledge this, or you'll never get anywhere."
Sorry trans people are sent to WHO NOW??
tumblr users having no media literacy:
It is slightly confusing what the analogy is, and yeah it does take some media literacy to figure out
The first thing that comes to mind in place of "exorcist" that isn't literally an exorcist, is that trans people are sent to therapists or psychologists before being allowed medical transition.
a direct analogy here would have OP implying that it's scientifically proven that therapists and psychology are made-up and don't work.
But I think the intention is more like "it's proven that the things they are asked to do in this case don't help and aren't necessary."
Ok so you do realize that gender clinics often employ people whose entire jobs are "figure out if the patient is faking being trans," right?
Like those aren't practicing psychology, and they don't have any meaningful expertise on transition care, which is performed by endocrinologists and surgeons further down the line. The gatekeeper is just some guy who asks how you masturbate and makes a vibes-based judgment on whether the answer means you're faking it.
That's what the analogy is for. The fake made up pseudoscience job.
