I guess I think one of the privileges of being a straight white male is not having to think about being a straight white male.
It’s a privilege I’d like to extend, and a little sad if it’s lost.
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Yes, the very least you can do is just leave people alone to live their lives. Getting fake upset about this stuff is not helping anybody.
The Christian leaders I listen to on the radio use it as a fundraising device so my guess they profit from this attack on their fellow Americans.
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Matters of stigma associated with “mental illness” aside, do psychologists/psychiatrists consider transgenderism as mental illness? What are the distinctions between transgenderism and gender dysphoria?
Transgenderism is not a term that mental health professionals use, and is instead a term used by people who think being trans isn’t a real thing.
Gender / sex are often divided into 3 parts: a) your assigned gender at birth, aka sex b) your internal gender identity, which is how you think of yourself, and c) your gender expression, which is how you are trying to get others to perceive you.
Being trans means that a) and b) are different.
Gender dysphoria is feeling discomfort or psychological distress from a) and b) being different. It is not something that everyone who is trans feels.*
Gender euphoria is joy from b) and c) matching. It is often said that all trans people experience either gender dysphoria or gender euphoria, or both. I don’t know if there are exceptions.
Gender dysphoria is included in DSM-5, but not in the European counterparts. Europeans are explicit that gender dysphoria is not a mental illness, and instead say that the distress from it can cause mental illness. The inclusion in DSM-5 in the US was something of a debate, with the pro-side arguing (among other things) that it would help with insurance claims, and the anti-side arguing that it made gender dysphoria sound like a mental illness, which people wanted to argue it wasn’t.
*There is a small but vocal subset of the trans community called transmedicalists who believe that you must experience gender dysphoria to be trans. They also believe you must transition surgically to be trans, even though most trans people do not do so. And they tend to think that people who are non-binary are not trans. These are not popular beliefs, and transmedicalists are often called truscum by others in the trans community.
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I think you are trying to split hairs that do not exist.
I am as aware of my sexuality,gender, etc as the next person. Im just entirely comfortable with all of it.
That’s where everyone needs to be. And the problem isn’t trans or other people being uncomfortable, that’s not mine to deal with. The problem is very much some people preventing others from being comfortable with themselves. That’s infringement is one of the biggest challenges to personal liberties in recent memory.
And riding in the coattails of that infringement, are all the child suicides that happen as a result. I hold personally responsible the people that are challenging trans rights right now, with those deaths.
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Thanks for the explanation. I had an internal working definition of gender dysphoria as the discomfort from a) and b) not matching, but didn’t realize that some people didn’t consider that a mental illness.
Are you? Though? The point of the survey above is that we (30+ year olds) mostly have no idea if we are trans or non-binary.
As an anecdote – I’m 50. I identify as male, I have external plumbing, and I wear male clothing. However, there are many things about myself that don’t really align with the norms of being “male”, to the extent that in my social group for a few years after college, I was considered (only partially jokingly) an “honorary lesbian”.
I don’t think I was aware of the label “nonbinary” until…maybe my early 30’s?
At my current stage in my life, I don’t really care about what labels are attached to my gender and sexuality. I’m comfortable with who I am, regardless. But it’s not inconceivable that if I had grown up today (and if my parents had been correspondingly more progressive), I probably would identify as nonbinary or agendered. Indifference and inertia are likely the only reasons I haven’t.
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So for you: would this new (to you at least) label of non binary help you be more truly you, which i think is both a private good (it’s good for you) but also an objective, public good (it’s good for everybody when we connect more fully as ourselves.)
Or is it another label to try to decide between and live up to that creates more stress, but doesn’t really help you be you?
Not everyone’s answer has to be the same to that question.
(Also the question is mostly rhetorical.)
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For me, at least, I have been criticized at times, both as a child and as an adult, for not being “masculine enough”. The dissonance between society’s expectations and my reality hasn’t always been fun. Having a way to explain the difference between expectations and reality, or even to redirect those expectations, would have reduced a little bit of stress in my life…although I suspect that benefit would have been significantly diluted by those who would use the label as a means to ramp up their criticism.
In an ideal world, my preference would be to not have labels for gender, sexuality, etc… I suspect that those axes are comprised of a continuous set of values, rather than discrete points…and really, people should be valued for who they are, rather than being compared to where on which range they fall and assumptions being made. But, it’s human nature to classify/bucketize, so…
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Sample size of 1 but I don’t conform to societal gender roles. However I do consider myself solidly cis as I’ve never had a desire to identify as anything but cis, and I don’t have gender dysphoria. I just like skirts and am indifferent to makeup, while also being comfortable working on a car or cutting down a tree. Similarly I’ve no interest in high heels or sports. However I’ve almost never been pressured to identify trans. Occasionally, gay, which is also not true.
It doesn’t bother me any so I just identify cis, and tend to present that way in professional or public settings.
I think that labels are vastly over-rated. I’ve seen people post questions on lesbian discussion forums along the lines of “I’m an aro enby trans femme demi-sexual, can I call myself a lesbian?” to which the answer should be a) Who cares? Date who you want, if you feel that calling yourself a lesbian makes that preference clearer then go for it, and b) I don’t understand how you can be aro (aromantic) and demi (only attracted to people that you are romantically attached to), so the population in a) is probably small, but whatever works for you.
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Currently the overwhelming majority (I’ve seen estimates as high as 80%) of trans adults in the US get their medications through informed consent meetings with nurse practitioners. The recent Florida bill banning medical transitions for minors also adds a requirement that the adult care be handled by physicians rather than NPs. (It’s somewhat unclear to me if this requirement only affects the initial appointment, or any appointment at which prescriptions are changed.) This has resulted in mass cancellations of appointments for trans adults in Florida.
I don’t know medically whether or not this change makes sense, but do feel that if it is a desirable medical change that it should be handled by the state’s regulatory bodies whose decisions are presumably driven by doctors, rather than politicians.
I suspect doctors are in favor of needing doctors.
It is a tautology, that for all (x), (x) is in favor of needing (x).
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And i have been criticized for not being feminine enough. I was even told by college roommates that they didn’t want to room with me next year because i wasn’t feminine enough.
My kids say they think I’m a trans man in denial. I don’t think that’s true, but i do think that if i were 20 I would identify as non-binary. But I’m 60, not 20, and I’ve identified as a non-gender-conforming women all my life, and don’t feel a compelling reason to pick up new labels. (And I’m personally uncomfortable with the singular “they”, for irrational reasons having to do with the grammar i grew up with, so I don’t ask anyone to use it for me.)
Have i felt discomfort from a and b not matching? Hell yes. I was lucky to be raised by supportive parents in a time when it was socially okay (at least in some circles) for women to be butch, and reject “female” stereotypes. So i haven’t had a lot of trouble with b and c not matching. And while I’ve never liked having large breasts, and have always favored baggy clothing that minimizes them, I’ve never had any significant body disphoria. I mean, everyone has some dissatisfaction with their bodies, especially as we age. I have way more discomfort from the effects of aging than from having a female body.
So that’s the feelings of one adding person who hasn’t come out. 
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Hmmmmm
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In general this theory is true, but there are some large exceptions. There are shortages of a lot of specialties right now.
Pretend you’re a doctor, and you’re booked solid with office visits for 50 hours every week. What you do is hire mid-level providers (physician assistants, nurse practitioners) to take on some of the less clinically complex work. You pay them $75/hr and bill them at $100/hr and make some margin. This very much happens in the specialties I’ve worked with (oncology and primary care, I can’t speak to other specialties).
So, while there’s a risk that doctors would try to do something like this, I’d much rather have these decisions in their hands vs politicians. Providers absolutely need regulation, but this is a bad application of it, imo.
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I agree it’s a bad application, and smells of a culture war.
I’m just noting that a doctor is probably the wrong person to ask.
Doctors (the AMA) believe they need to do everything, from diagnosing to prescribing.
NPs (the AANP) believe they should be able to do some things themselves.
Broadly speaking (IMO) every professional ever is self-important. A dentist thinks you need a dentist. A doctor thinks you need a doctor. A therapist thinks you need a therapist. A priest thinks you need a priest. A professor thinks you need a professor. Etc.
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