"There's only one gender: yours." - Kate Bornstein
For a while now I have been contemplating the thought that trans and non-binary are not the same thing. After all, one relies on, and even reinforces, a gender binary; the other completely denies it.
Indeed, since the relative rise of non-binary gender thinking and ideas the initial principles of being what was then called "transsexual" have completely changed. For example, "transsexual" was initially, and often now still is, seen as a medical condition ("dysphoria") which required hormones and surgery to "treat" it. But what is the "treatment" for being non-binary? And is this also medically understood? Are trans and non-binary like gay or straight?
And where do we then place Kate Bornstein's pronouncement at the head of this toot? Individuality isn't a medical condition: its simply a fact of life!
Thoughts in a spirit of mutual learning are welcome as replies to this toot.
@autoerot1ca a lot of trans people don’t perceive their transition as a treatment and don’t think of their journey in medical terms. There is also a lot of non gender conforming trans people who transitioned their body. People are diverse and more complicated than simple labels.
@EvlynMoreau I would totally agree but would point out that my initial comments were set in a historical context. In that context "trans" was medicalised because no one would ever have got either hormones or surgery if they simply stated it was their choice. In fact, if you look at the cases from the 50s to the 80s (and even beyond) medics explicitly went through procedures to establish the explicitly medical nature of the patient's "condition" before anything like surgery would be considered. To say it was a choice was to disqualify yourself since that was voluntaristic rather than a condition in need of care. Thats where my comments come from for context.
@autoerot1ca Nobody is assigned non-binary at birth, so all non-binary people had to change their gender from the assigned one, which is kind of the definition of trans, no?
Some trans folks transition away from one of the two binary poles to the other, while some transition away from this binary model.
@autoerot1ca I never got why non-binary / non-gender should somehow relate to "trans". For me "trans" was always something with a target/direction. (And always a binary one btw.) So "trans" as some define it "not aligning to the assigned gender at birth" doesn't fit in my view of the word. I never felt right fitting into the category assigned at birth and I never felt "trans"itoning anywhere, especially not to any other clear gender category. I am who I am and always was with no desire for transition anywhere. No matter what people are assigning to me.