trans flag

Responses from readers today include a personal reflection on our states’ current legislation regarding gender recognition, plus: is it time to stop gawking at the Trump spectacle and actually do something about it?

 

On the fight for gender recognition

Lisa Mullin writes: We still have the absurdity in many states where currently married (under their birth assigned gender) transgender people cannot change their legal gender unless they get divorced… so much for marriage equality. The requirement for genital reassignment surgery (GRS) for transgender women, steadily being dropped all over the world, excludes those transgender people who cannot for health related or (commonly) financial reasons have it.

This is especially unfair as neither state hospitals or Medicare cover GRS. It is a totally private procedure. Mine cost me $26,000 and even with private health coverage (and not all funds cover it) you are up for $10,000+.

This is because it is seen as a “cosmetic” procedure at the same time as many state laws say that it is a legal requirement to change gender. This is contradictory, how can it be a “cosmetic” procedure if it legally required? If this is seen as just “cosmetic”’ why pick on GRS, when there are many gender confirming procedures that transgender people go through, such as electrolysis, breast reductions or implants, hormone replacement therapy (HRT), etc.

This requirement goes right back to the old idea that a transgender woman was expected (in fact it was a requirement by the old “gatekeepers”) to be male attracted and to be able to have heterosexual sex after they transitioned. At that time transgender men were simply not even recognised as existing (hence the confusion over them). Similarly surgery on intersex babies and infants has always been under the justification that it makes them more “suitable” for heterosexual sex.

And all this has created a weird dichotomy, where it can be possible for a transgender man to change legal gender after only having HRT and breast removal surgery, but a transgender woman cannot do the same after having HRT and implants… It’s not just transgender people being affected by this either. This all gets particularly challenging for those intersex people assigned an incorrect gender at birth, often with non-consensual surgery being performed on them as a baby or infant, then trying to change their gender later and finding it impossible to meet the state requirements (even if they could afford it).

And this highlights yet another absurdity, non-consensual gender confirming surgery is performed on many intersex babies and infants in State hospitals for free, yet the same intersex people who want to reverse it have to fund it themselves.

 

On the motives of Trump’s presidency

Markadarka writes: It’s so easy to be smug about Trump, his administration, and his supporters — both political and electoral. But the lies, obfuscations, and misdirection coming from his Twitter feed, the constant Fox News propaganda, his congressional allies, and the outright lies disseminated and televised by his surrogates are slowly turning the American public against the Mueller investigation.

Trump and Co have a very clear plan and, at the moment, Trump is winning.

Zut Alors writes: Compare the above to the worst thing Trump could dredge up against Obama i.e. accusations of a phoney birth certificate and that the newly-born infant, Obama, scandalously faked his own birth announcement in a Hawaiian newspaper. The world’s finest fiction writers couldn’t match this material.

 

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