Is anyone "truly" transgender?
Is anyone "truly" transgender?
At this time, there's no way to know. There might never be a way to know.
Short answer: Unless there becomes a way to identify someone as transgender with empirical evidence (i.e., by doing a brain scan), there is no way to know who is “truly” transgender. Personally, I have doubts that that will ever be a reality, because I have doubts that ‘transgender’ is an innate property of any human being.1
Gender identity is a belief about yourself — a feeling, an essence, whatever you want to call it. It’s entirely subjective. It’s metaphysical. There is no way to prove it to someone else.
Many people reject the framework of gender identity, but allow me to entertain the notion for a moment. If every single person has a gender identity, the evidence of that gender for the vast majority of people is based in material reality (i.e., whether their body developed to creating large gametes or small gametes). Under gender identity ideology, these people are called “cisgender.”
Any cisgender person who claims that they “feel” like the sex that they are (without reference to their body) must be defining that feeling either through the use of gendered stereotypes (e.g., “I am a man because, when I was growing up, I liked trucks and hated dolls”) or based on a lack of distress about their sex or gender roles (e.g., “I am a man because my penis doesn’t bother me”). If they aren’t defining it through either of those means, they’re essentially defining it using absolutely no proof at all — just a feeling that they haven’t examined whatsoever.
A small (but growing) percentage of people say that they have a gender identity that is different than their sexed reality indicates (e.g., they might say they are a man even though their body naturally developed breasts, uterus, and a vagina). Under gender identity ideology, this is what is meant when someone says they are “transgender.” An old cliché to explain the phenomenon is that they have a “female brain in a male body” or vice versa. (There’s no evidence that this is a literal phenomenon, however.)
Rejecting the sex that they are, the evidence of a transgender person’s identity is based entirely within their mind. Those feelings, again, must be based on the use of gendered stereotypes as proof (e.g., “I am a woman because I like wearing dresses”) or based on distress about their sex or gender roles (e.g., “I am a woman because I desperately want to remove my penis”). And once again, if they aren’t defining it through either of those means, they’re using absolutely no proof at all — it’s solely a feeling without any examination. (And I include “gender euphoria” under unexplained feelings.)
Don’t believe me? Head to /r/egg_irl and read the memes of people reflecting on how they “know” that they’re trans. Every single post fits into those three categories.
Gendered stereotypes: “I like wearing skirts”; “I like wearing knee-high socks”; “I like wearing a suit”
Bodily distress: “I hate my voice”; “I hate my chest”; “I hate my shoulders”; “I hate that I’m tall”
Unexplained feelings: “I just want to be the opposite sex”; “I like these pronouns”; “I belong with girls, not boys”; “Being called ‘sir’ feels right”; “I relate to all of these memes”
None of these things are empirical evidence, but all of them are implicit claims of “proof that I am transgender.”
I can hear the backlash now: “Who cares?” “Let people enjoy themselves!” And for the most part, that is exactly the attitude I take towards others — just letting them live their lives the way they choose. But this belief system is currently being treated as a literal reality by many authority figures (who are pretty much just taking it on faith) and trying to explain how people come to identify as transgender in a logical manner is important for two reasons.
(1) There’s no way to predict who might detransition, so every single person who pursues medical transition needs to understand exactly what they are getting into and why. People should not be altering their bodies over a belief that they are “truly” transgender when there is no proof that such a thing exists. I don’t think minors have the capacity to understand this or to weigh the long-term risks of becoming a lifelong medical patient, so I personally do not support the transition of minors.
I do think adults should be allowed to pursue medical transition as a means of alleviating their gender dysphoria with the understanding that they will never actually be the opposite sex and that they are going to meet people who are not obligated to share their beliefs about gender. I also think that exploratory therapy and a psychological assessment should be mandatory before someone can consent. Those “unexplained feelings” I referenced earlier do have explanations, and “because I’m transgender” is not the answer. Understanding those feelings and knowing about any comorbid conditions you might have will help you make an informed decision. This is what I wish I had before I was prescribed hormones.
The transgender and transsexual people I know who seem the happiest in their lives tend to have a fulsome understanding of why they chose transition and do not expect other people to validate their identities. (Letting go of that attempt to control people can be very freeing!)
(2) Sex (not “gender identity”) matters in a number of circumstances, particularly in female-only spaces where being male can either endanger the women in that space (e.g., prisons or change rooms) or where being male grants that person an unfair advantage (e.g., female sports). It also matters in medical circumstances (e.g., many health conditions have sex-specific symptoms) and legal circumstances (e.g., sex-based protections). It also matters when it comes to dating and relationships; sexual orientation is not based on someone’s subjective reality.
The impetus to literally redefine the words “women” and “men” away from their sex-based definitions has implications for all of society. The only thing that makes someone transgender is a self-declaration based on personal belief. We should not be restructuring society around it.
So that’s the bulk of the answer, but just to make a few things perfectly clear:
Not validating someone’s belief does not mean that I hate them
Not wanting to restructure society to accommodate unproven beliefs does not mean I don’t want those people to exist
Not wanting to surrender female-only spaces to males does not mean I want trans people to be harmed
Not wanting children to access medical transition does not mean I want youth to suffer or hurt themselves
There are compromises for every single one of these.
We can draw boundaries around the people we are or aren’t comfortable interacting with
We can ensure that regular human rights protections for marriage, employment, housing, and general safety remain in place
We can think about third unisex spaces for people who are uncomfortable
We can push for better mental health support for youth in distress
The reason this issue has become so contentious over the past five years is that the modern trans movement has been completely unwilling to discuss what they want rationally. Any deviation from the approved narrative is decried as transphobic. There is little critical thinking going on. I myself spent the ten years I identified as transgender completely content with “I have no idea!” being the answer to “what is gender?” It’s just not sustainable.
I think gender identity should be a protected belief, and I don’t think anyone should be harmed for it. But as with other protected beliefs, the believer does not have the right to impose their belief on everyone else. There is no evidence that gender identity reflects anything but a subjective reality, so those who are expecting others to unquestioningly adopt their beliefs are in for a lifetime of disappointment.
The longer “no debate” goes on, the less likely the rest of the world will want to compromise.
I think it is possible that sex dysphoria could have biological mechanisms, so one might argue that dysphoria could be an innate property (as opposed to transgender, which is a social construct). But I also think these cases are extremely rare, and it is unlikely that the explosion of patients with late-onset dysphoria have it. (It’s also not necessarily a good reason to transition, either.)