Before I really dive in, as promised in my previous post, I have some foundational ideas to mention.

What I mean by saying that trans people are real is that there are people (for whatever reason, and there are several reasons – all valid – that could combine to contribute) who feel consistently alienated from the physicality and/or social expectations hitherto typically associated with their birth genitalia and/or who feel consistently more comfortable with the physicality and/or social expectations hitherto associated with different genitalia,[1] and who are not able to resolve this purely through the lens of sexual orientation.[2] In support of the idea that trans people are real are thousands of years of observations from different cultures. For example the Jewish legal tradition (the Talmud), notwithstanding the use of the biblical book of Genesis by biblical literalists to support a binary gender system, actually recognises between six and eight different genders.[3] Meanwhile the indigenous American peoples had at least four and maybe five genders and the case of at least a third gender is well illustrated by the hijras of India. Gender variation is clearly ancient and its expression in its current Western form is surely a phenomenon that is as old as the binary conceptualisation it rebels against.[4] It is most certainly not a new phenomenon, though clearly modern medical science has provided new routes for treatment. While the availability of those treatment routes will have had an impact on the way that trans people have pursued solutions to their difficulties they are not the root cause of our transness.

With this in mind I would also ask readers to appreciate, that in this essential transness, that trans people are not deluded – we are not mad.[5] We are very aware that our feelings and/or our behaviours do not conform to social expectation (or wouldn’t if we expressed ourselves as we ideally would like) and we have a very distinct awareness of what we have actually been dealt biologically. We might choose to work around our situation, or directly to change it in some way, which are potentially rational responses to it, though how we do so may seem drastic to someone who does not have our circumstances. But rest assured we know our situation only too well.

It might be possible to conclude that on average trans people perceive and think about the world differently in general. Certainly there is growing support for the observation that many trans people are neurodivergent, though by no means all (and of course not all neurodivergent people are trans). But, even if this observation could be applied to trans people universally, it would simply substantiate an area where we differ from the majority, and either way surely such difference itself should not be pathologized but celebrated.[6]

Continuing to focus on our essential transness I hope most people, aside from some religious zealots, will also recognise that trans people are not evil – we are not bad because of our transness (though we of course have our fair share of character defects, just like everyone else). Those who find evil in the transness of trans people are mostly bringing that perception with themselves due to their own baggage and dogma. We have not ‘become trans’ in order to be disruptive and cause problems with the current structure of society. However, our essential transness does cause us (and others) to question that society so of course trans people do have the potential to be disruptive as our very existence causes people who are attached to certainty to feel uncomfortable. But the problem for that lies firmly with those inflexible people who cannot, or refuse to, admit this issue as a valid consideration for how we organise society.

One thing that is axiomatic for me as a Unitarian is the inherent worth and dignity of each human person. Trans people, simply by being, possess this no more and no less than anyone else. We are not intrinsically pathetic or ‘sad’ individuals. We could get into a long philosophical tangent as to where this worth and dignity comes from. We may even see it as aspirational because it is clear society does still treat some people far better than others based upon certain characteristics. Whilst trans people have inherent worth and dignity it is entirely possible, in fact let’s be clear that it happens, due to the behaviour of individuals and/or human social systems, for us to be ridiculed and marginalised just for our essential transness (if we dare to name it or to take the teensiest steps towards expressing it).

---

[1] Please note that I view the alienation described to be relative i.e. while the definition most naturally lends itself to interpretation as gender dysphoria it equally applies to trans people who prefer to talk in terms of the gender euphoria they experience when transitioning (or cross-living, or taking steps towards these things) by virtue of the fact that their apparent starting or default position is not now the one they wish to be in.

[2] Clearly transgender and sexuality issues have overlaps and connections, and it is unsurprising that common cause is found, but being trans and being LGB are not the same thing (i.e. I reject the idea that someone claiming to be trans is simply finding a different way of saying that they are LGB (though they may be both) and equally, of course, I would make no claim that someone who is LGB should necessarily be claimed as trans).

[3] We might also dispute the binary perspective of biblical literalists noting that Genesis 1:27 including “male and female he created them” could actually indicate a range in the same way that “near and far” does not exclude an intermediate distance and “old and young” does not exclude the middle aged. Though, as I am not a biblical literalist, I am untroubled if detailed analysis of the text “proves” me wrong here.

[4] And even in the West it can be argued that we have not always been quite so binary in how we handle sex/gender as our current system is.

[5] Our mental health is, however, far from perfect: family and social rejection are rife and it is difficult to engage on trans matters online without getting a sense of the hatred that has been kindled against us and which sometimes spills out into day-to-day life. Trans suicide rates are considerably higher than those of non-trans people.

[6] It would be nice to be celebrated – the only ‘pity’ we consistently seek for our situation is not for the condition itself but for how we are still treated by too much of society.