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Transgender and Cisgender people:
“Transgender is an umbrella term that refers to people whose gender identity does not necessarily correspond to the sex category to which
they were assigned at birth, whereas the term cisgender refers to people who feel that their gender identity aligns with the sex category to
which they were assigned at birth” (Serano, 2013)
So, what you know now, is the definition of sex, which is biological differences that categorize people into male and female. Between
these two categories, which doesn’t fit perfectly with the conditions, are intersex people. The other important definition was gender,
which refers to the characteristics of women, men, girls, and boys and how they are socially constructed. Of course, this is also a spectrum
and between it we have transgender people and nonbinary, agender are included in that. Which leads me to my next topic: Trans issues,
specifically, gender dysphoria. What is it and how can you heal it?
Definition of gender dysphoria:
“Gender dysphoria: Discomfort or distress related to an incongruence between an individual‘s gender identity and the gender assigned at
birth.”(American Psychological Association, 2018)
I wanted to find the definition that really illustrates the problem of gender dysphoria. Some definitions, instead of gender assigned at
birth, use sex assigned at birth, but that stigmatizes a lot of nonbinary people. Nonbinary people experience gender dysphoria in their
unique ways, for example they don’t want to change sex but may want to look more androgynous, which hormones could help (Galupo
et all, 2021). Also, we know now the difference between sex and gender.
My main concern is that if you read that gender is a social construct, you think you can cure gender dysphoria by simply changing your
mind or attitude. That is not true. For example, some have depression or some other mental health problems, inherited or given by
trauma, that is cured by medication. People feelings matter and if they want to change gender or sex, that should not be a problem. The
whole process of transitioning include meetings with psychotherapists that will exclude trauma as a factor of changing gender. Also, one
more important thing to note is that trans people have increased anxiety and depression than cis people (Newcomb et al, 2020).
The solution to gender dysphoria is called gender-affirming care. In short, it’s not only bottom surgery and medical things, like giving
hormones, but also can include any other psychological, sociological and behavioral factors that reassure the gender people have. It
could include changing pronouns for whoever they feel comfortable with. Random fact, erasing gender distinctions in language is a
steppingstone to gender equality (Liu et al, 2018). But yeah, the changes could be anything that makes you your gender identity.
You may ask: How do we know that this works? There is long term research about the effect of gender-affirming care(Ruppin
Pfäfflin,2015;Vries et al.,2014).
So, after all this information, I want to leave you with one question.
Why is gender-affirming care still so hard to get?
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