I wanted to share this young man’s post on TikTok with you, because it says a LOT in a small space.
@truscum_tr_nny Trans activists love to fuck EVERYTHING up for transsexuals. Thanks a lot. #Trump2024 #transsexual #Igbtrepublican #republican #conservative #LGBT #transgender #kamala #CapCut ♬ original sound – Nicholas
So… long story short, Trump is going to stop public taxpayer money (ie Medicare/Medicaid) from paying for transition surgeries. The kid isn’t the least bit upset about that. No, he’s upset over the fact that when gender dysphoria was considered a mental disorder, it was treated as one. That means that necessary care, through a doctor who’d gone to the trouble of having you tested six ways to Sunday, was covered. Just like being diabetic was covered. Or being clinically depressed was covered. Now that “being trans” is a social movement and they’ve removed it as a mental disorder, it’s not covered.
Now… I’m going to say something that would make the Left clutch its pearls, but y’all might just agree. I believe that gender dysphoria should be reinstated as a mental disorder. So should a few other things, but that’s another post. And then we, and by we I mean We The People, should get off our fucking high horses and stop making mental disorders so shameful for people.
I have mental disorders. I have Generalized Anxiety Disorder. If you met me, you probably would never know. It’s an invisible disorder, and I’m lucky that it’s well controlled by medication. I don’t hide that I have it, and I often share with others who suffer from anxiety who feel alone or scared. Too many people want to demonize those who have mental disorders, and frankly, it irritates the fuck out of me. Here’s the thing… your body might not produce insulin, so you have to get it in a bottle. My brain over-produces certain chemicals, and I need meds to make it stop. It’s not a shameful thing. It’s just a thing.
There are several issues that come up when I talk about mental disorders. I flaunt my own because it’s mine and I’m not hurting anyone by showing it off. But I have male friends who have absolutely crippling anxiety and depression, and they are hidden away like they’re serial killers. They’re told that they’re “not real men” or that their malfunctioning brain chemistry is somehow their fault. If they just manned up enough, it would go away. Sorry, depression and anxiety don’t work that way.
As long as we’re talking about mental disorders the way that the Left talks about Trump, we are never going to make headway.
Yes, gender dysphoria is a mental disorder. The person’s brain is telling them, for whatever reason, that the body they’ve been born into is not the right one. The next step is to find out whether this is contagion (as is happening among teen girls right now), or a phase (short lived but valid problem that is dealt with differently than those with diagnosed GD), or actual GD. The first two categories require social help and mental therapy, but rarely medical intervention. GD, on the other hand, is a *rare* and very real problem. For some sufferers, it requires mental health treatment. For others, it requires surgery and hormones. Both are valid paths, depending on the person in question, and the depth of their GD. And all those moving parts for actual sufferers need to be evaluated by actual doctors and specialists before medical intervention happens.
When we stigmatize mental disorders, we bring about things like the current problems with men and depression, and in a different way, the trans issue going on right now. Taking away the stigma allows us to give care as needed, and would probably result in many less people making transitions… and those who did would do so because it was deemed medically necessary.
And if someone decides on a whim to remove a body part outside of that clinical field, then they can pay for it out of pocket. I’ve got no problems with people making voluntary changes to their bodies. I have several body mods, and I rather like them. But I paid in cash, and if there had been issues with them, I’d have dealt with those issues and paid for the fixing of it in cash. That’s how it should work.
Comments
6 responses to “Gender Dysphoria”
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5-TR) is literally the manual psychologists and psychiatrists use to determine if you are mentally ill, and how bad you have it. It lists Gender Dysphoria as a mental illness.
A bureaucrat, under political and social pressure decides to go against decades of medical research and arbitrarily declare gender dysphoria as something other than a mental illness, and this should matter? No, it should not.
And, what happens… “oh, it is not a mental disorder, it is a medical disorder…” and insurance companies are required to pay for care, and Federal tax dollars are required to pay for care, etc… Why? Because social media says they have to.
Personal opinion. All too many of the transgenders are playing dress up. Either they are gay and do not want to admit it, so a guy becomes a girl, or they are seeking the attention, or whatever. Has anyone met a transgender who took on a plain name? No, they are all Zoe, and Miranda, Caitlan, and Jazz. Where are the Janes, Sallys, and Berthas? Dress up.
If you are in fact transgender, you would be more than willing to go through a process of discovery. We are talking therapy for long enough to ensure you are not making a huge mistake, living as the opposite sex without doing anything other than changing clothes, and no excess attention. I would be more than willing to include mental health therapy under Federal Programs and insurance, but no physical alterations. See how many transgenders actually get the drugs/surgery if they have to pay for it.
I’m not sure if I wrote badly, or if you’re going off things you’ve heard elsewhere, but I wasn’t supporting the current “I can change gender 4 times a day” regime. If I misled you in some way, I apologize.
I’m not so sure that the trans folk of today are playing dress up. I think that they’re suffering from a mental illness, and instead of someone saying that out loud and then trying to figure out how to fix it (therapy, conversion, and whatever’s in between those), they’re just being told “Yep, you’re trans.” As to trans folk with “plain” names… I ask you, why would you choose a plain name for yourself, if you were the master of your own name? Allyson is not my birth name, it’s the name *I* chose, when I left my abusive household and became a person in my own right. The “M” on my books is the first initial of my deadname, and it’s dead for a reason. I could have chosen any name. But to answer your question, yes. I have trans friends named Charlie (didn’t change when she transitioned), one named Riley (we work Ren Faires and Riley is her real name, and she didn’t change it when she transitioned, but she also has a “fair name” she uses but it’s *for fair*), and I’ve known several Sam (short for Samuel originally and then Samantha after)s… a friend named Ren… one named Val… So yeah, lots of “plain” names.
You wrote your article just fine. How I responded was above and beyond what you wrote. Like you said, other things i have heard other places.
Now, as to the “dress up” I am going off of the very public figures in the trans community. I am getting blasted on other sites because Zoe sees misgendering as abhorrent, and Caitlan says…
I have no doubt there are people in the wrong body, but the sudden surge of them over the last few years is WAY beyond statistical probability. When something like 30% of high school age are questioning their gender, it is social media driven. And that leads to dressing up, etc… It goes way beyond “I feel safe now.”
And, you are absolutely correct. If I were to choose my own name, it would likely be a more interesting one than I have. Every Tom, Dick, and Harry has my first name. So, bad justification for my statement, did not think that one through. I am not really named CBMTTek or anything that would lead you to guess my real name from it. Yeah… I made an assumption that was incorrect.
But, back to the article.
Yes, it is a mental illness. Treat the mental part of it first before you start removing/adding parts, or changing hormones. If, after exploring all the reasons for your feelings, you determine you are in the wrong body, then take steps to change it. I support that. Fully.
But, I am against spending insurance company, or taxpayer money on surgery or hormone treatment until after the therapy has happened. Which, I think is your point. Use the same test they use for breast implants or facelifts, etc… If it is to restore after surgery, not a problem, the insurance company is OK with paying. But because you want to look different, nope. On your dime.
“I have no doubt there are people in the wrong body, but the sudden surge of them over the last few years is WAY beyond statistical probability. When something like 30% of high school age are questioning their gender, it is social media driven. And that leads to dressing up, etc… It goes way beyond “I feel safe now.””
Exactly. As with abortions, it should be safe, legal, and RARE. Even 1% would be a lot, but I could see that as somewhat reasonable. 30% is just wrong. That doesn’t make sense, on any level. We’re seeing contagion.
That said, I don’t care what kids wear, as long as the rules apply to everyone equally (and by that, I mean boys, girls, teachers, etc.). I despise that our local high school would send girls home because they had a strip of belly showing between shirt and pants when raising a hand, but boys were allowed to have their underwear hanging out and their pants around their knees. Rules need to be applied to everyone. so if a boy wants to wear a skirt, I care not one bit. It just has to meet the same requirements as the skirts worn by the girls.
And yes, therapy THEN if it’s deemed necessary, surgery or hormone or whatever. People (not just kids, but everyone) need the time to know whether their problem is from trauma, family issues, or physical problems that can be solved FIRST. Once they work through that, if someone’s best medical option is to transition, then fine. But if their best medical option is to be on anti-depressants, I want that too. And I want it to be stigma-free. There’s no shame in it, nor should there be.
All too many of the transgenders are playing dress up.
I agree. Many, if not most, “transgender” people aren’t actually transsexual or gender dysphoric; they’re caught up in a social movement that they’ve allowed to become their identity. I don’t mean to speak for Allyson — who is more than capable of speaking for herself — but I don’t believe this post is aimed at them. This is for the REAL people who are really suffering from gender dysphoria, who have been cut off from their mental and medical care by well-meaning but short-sighted trans-activists from the Left.
(Which is a common theme from the Left; the race-activists who push DEI, who used to push Affirmative Action, etc., succeeded in lowering the standards for non-white Americans in the name of “equality”, to get more blacks and other minorities hired into professional and skilled-labor jobs … but lowered standards means a general recognition that a “DEI hire” now — just like an “AA hire” then — is often on-boarded to meet an arbitrary quota and NOT because they were the best available candidate for the job. Any fully-qualified and competent non-white employees now have to work twice as hard to be recognized as competent and NOT a “DEI hire”.)
Has anyone met a transgender who took on a plain name? No, they are all Zoe, and Miranda, Caitlan, and Jazz. Where are the Janes, Sallys, and Berthas?
I see where you’re going, but let me ask: Where are the Janes, Sallys, and Berthas, as named by their parents at birth? You won’t find as many as you used to, because names naturally wax and wane in popularity. (My great-grandmother was named Bertha. She was a wonderful woman, but she is the only Bertha I’ve ever met from any generation; the name hasn’t been popular in a century … if it ever was “popular”.)
The baby-name fad for the past 10-20 years has favored gender-neutral and/or traditional surnames such as Taylor, Jackson, Hunter, Riley — along with a heap of alternate spellings. Biblical and Saints’ names (Matthew, Luke, John, Timothy, Thomas, Mary, Sarah, etc.) are also always popular. (And Nevaeh for girls, because spelling Heaven backward is a totally unique name nobody ever thought of before.)
Not coincidentally, they also track with the popularity of celebrities and celebrities’ children and likable fictional characters with the same name (I’ll see your Zoe, Caitlin, and Miranda, and raise you Peyton, Jaden, and Wesley) and inversely with annoying fictional characters; for example, Elmo is a Saint’s name and was reasonably common until a certain red puppet came along. (Anecdotally, ask me how many Peytons were in my daughter’s preschool class.)
If you are in fact transgender, you would be more than willing to go through a process of discovery. We are talking therapy for long enough to ensure you are not making a huge mistake, living as the opposite sex without doing anything other than changing clothes, and no excess attention.
This is the kind of thing doctors would suggest or order when gender dysphoria was listed in the DSM-V. It would be part of the process of diagnosing and evaluating the severity of a patient’s gender dysphoria. The “process of discovery”, to use your term.
What the kid in the video and Allyson are saying is, this therapy and discovery process used to be covered by insurance because it was a classified, listed mental disorder that requires appropriate evaluation and treatment. When trans-activists pushed to “remove the stigma” by removing gender dysphoria from the DSM-V as a mental disorder, it didn’t change that it is a mental disorder; it just removed it from being covered by insurance so now ALL gender dysphoric care must be paid out of pocket … and it gets very expensive very quickly. (And the stigma is still there, btw.)
I do agree that absent that discovery, evaluation, diagnosis, and prescribed care from a doctor (or preferably, a team of doctors), any body modifications a “transgender” person wants to make are elective, their own business, and at their own cost. But again, I don’t think that’s who this post is aimed at.
Thanks Archer, you said right. And I apologize for being so late replying. I was running around crazily finishing a cookbook, cooking for 12, cleaning house, getting xmas stuff out, and a zillion other things. LOL… Now I’m on the other side of most of it, and I have some time again.
Yes, I was very much saying that if someone wants insurance or the gov’t to pay for a medical transition, it very much should be their option of last resort. What you do on your own dime is your own thing, and none of my business. But if it’s on the taxpayer’s dime, yes, it should be necessary. But I want necessary things to contain no stigma.
I think a lot of the problem we’re seeing is what Chris often refers to as the “pendulum.” Those of us in the alphabet soup crowd fought so hard for our current gains that we’re thrilled to have them. But the new kids, they hear stories of fighting for our rights, and then get fed the bullcookies from the current administration, and they don’t understand what they’re fighting for (ie nothing at the moment). They’re being told they have to fight for their rights without realizing that they already have the rights they’re fighting for. I don’t know if it’s that they want the perceived glory of the fight, or what (because it really wasn’t glorious… it was messy, and painful, and emotionally draining, and horrid). But anyhow, since they perceive (are told) they are missing the “right to” be who they are, they are pushing so hard that it’s become almost painfully comical.
I mean… I recently had it explained to me that I’m “normal LGB” and can’t possibly understand The Struggle. I’m like… sweetheart, I had bricks thrown at me and people threatening to burn me “for my own good.” I think it’s you that don’t understand the struggle. But whatever. I’m GenX… I just want to be left alone and for the kids to get off my damn lawn.