The
Trans Narrative
&
Involuntary Therapy
A
Story
There once was a fish who had bad seasickness
Because the fish lived in the water, they were always sick
Having known nothing else, the fish just assumed this was normal
Though sometimes they would look to the land and wonder
One day the fish met another fish who had taken magic herbs to grow feet and live on land
The fish with feet had been seasick but now that they lived on land they were much better
Maybe I'm seasick too the fish wondered
Maybe living on land would help me the fish thought
The fish looked for stories of other fish who had grown feet
They had known they were seasick from a young age
I didn't always know I was seasick said the fish - I still don't know
The fish with feet also all wanted a red house on land
I want a blue house said the fish
I'm not like those other fish with feet said the fish
Maybe I'm not seasick at all said the fish
But the fish had to find out and go on land
The fish could always go back to the sea if they were wrong
The fish knew that whales gave the magic herbs to grow feet
But whales didn't know much about fish with feet
Whales thought fish always knew if they were seasick and liked red houses
So when the fish saw a whale they said they liked red houses and always knew too
The fish was scared that they wouldn't get the magic herbs if they had told the truth
The whale would make the fish spend months and months talking about red houses
But that wasn't enough - the fish would then need to see another whale and talk of red houses all over again
This went on for over a year and the fish felt that whales just didn't understand
Meanwhile the fish was starting to feel more sick
The fish knew that only whales were supposed to give magic herbs
But the fish also knew there were other ways, bad ways, to get the magic herbs
So that's just what the fish did
The fish got the magic herbs the bad way without going through the whales
The fish took the magic herbs and grew feet!
They went on land and felt the sickness go away
The fish finally knew that they had been seasick after all!
What's more, they saw that lots of fish with feet preferred living in blue houses too!
The fish did not want to go back to the sea and be seasick again
The fish got a blue house on the land and lived a good life
But they would always think of the other seasick fish who were made to talk about red houses to whales
The End
( Orcas are dolphins, not whales )
Story inspired / copied from
"The Seasick Squid"
http://buttersafe.com/2012/08/16/the-seasick-squid/
Trans
Narrative
Story we always hear about trans people
Knowing from a young age
Adherence to gender roles
Surgery as a given
These are valid narratives!
The problem is that those are the only ones that are circulated
When this informs policy or care giving it can further marginalize those that live outside that narrative
It's especially worrisome given the infantilization of trans people and the criteria they are made to meet to prove they're trans
A process which is especially damaging to gender variant people
"Real Life Experience"
Where trans people are made to live as the gender they identify as for a fixed period of time
Completely ignoring that they already are and have lived as that gender
Rather, these individuals are made to dress according to sexist gender roles and are forced out of the closet
Which is harmful on many levels and completely excludes those that live outside the gender binary
Trans and gender variant clients are denied agency and made to adhere to what the practitioner says their expression and interactions should look like
Applied like this the trans narrative is harmful
It's not the only way it's applied either
In four provinces and two territories, surgery is a requirement to update government documents with the correct gender marker
The narrative says real trans people get surgery
24%
Trans women who have had any surgery
30%
Trans men who have had any surgery
http://transpulseproject.ca/research/sex-gender-diversity-among-transgender-persons-ontario-canada-results-respondent-driven-sampling-survey/
A lot of people are denied access to document changes
When surgery is required to have the government update documents it becomes inevitable that those who would not desire surgery get it anyways
Effectively sterilizing them despite their own desires about their body
This is coercive sterilization according to World Health Organization
http://www.who.int/reproductivehealth/publications/
gender_rights/eliminating-forced-sterilization/en/
Even this whole idea of assessing trans and gender variant clients
Having any criteria beyond the person stating they're trans or gender variant will incentivize clients to use that accepted narrative whether it's representative of them or not
Recap
The trans narrative is the accepted "trans life story"
Knowing from young age
Gender roles
Surgery
It's applied in ways that are harmful to trans and gender variant people
InvoluntaryTherapy
You might end up with trans or gender variant clients
Some might be there voluntarily
Some might not
I'm going to call that involuntary therapy
Let's go back to one basic point
Therapeutic practices should only be provided with the full, free and informed consent of the individual
That's not the case when your signature is a requirement to update legal documents and access hormones
Your care might lead to these things but is not these things and that's a notable distiction
Imagine if you were made to see a therapist for 4 months in order to update your last name on your driver's license
You can see how someone going through that would draw a distinction between the therapy and the document change
More to the point you can see how the opinion of the therapist might not matter to the client so much as appeasing them
We're dealing with the same thing here with trans and gender variant clients
The services you provide might not be what's valued by the client
But rather accessing something else which may have a significant bearing on their quality of life
To which you are a potential blocker in achieving
You are now a gatekeeper
Things are different when you're a gatekeeper
Clients undergoing involuntary therapy might not be truthful
They might tell you what they know works
The trans narrative
Knowing from young age
Gender roles
Surgery
Let's go with an example
Let's say you're a man who has been out for years and wants to medically transition
You first spend months with a therapist to get a referral where you have to prove you're trans enough
In an absurd twist of fate, you or your peers might have trained the very therapist who is assessing you on what being trans looks like
And you're aware of how flawed their understanding could be
Many months pass and you now have a doctor
You now have to prove you're trans all over again and spend months doing that
Now you fill out forms and write a long document proving you're trans again, this time to CAMH
( Centre for Addiction and Mental Health )
Then you have to wait two to three years
Then you have to go before a panel to prove you're trans all over again
Only then would you have received all the care you deemed necessary to medically transition
At any one of these steps, are you really going to risk jeopardizing your care by telling them your story
Or will you play it safe and tell them what you know works?
With endless stories of trans people educating their own care providers
There's a real skepticism in terms of the value of the opinions provided
I've never heard someone say "gee I'm glad I had to prove I was trans enough to receive basic care!"
Keeping in mind that none of the care providers would have seen themselves as making their clients prove that they were trans
The other consequence of gatekeeping is that a portion of trans and gender variant people won't receive care
And they will seek alternatives
25%
Have acquired hormones from non-medical source
6.4%
Currently taking non-prescribed hormones
http://transpulseproject.ca/research/nonprescribed-hormone-use-and-self-performed-surgeries/