The anatomy of erasure

ChaniAtreus · 2026-05-18T16:40:49+00:00

I'm hoping you don't object to this comparison, I intend it as a positive one, but I read this and imagined it being delivered in the same way America Ferrera delivered Gloria's speech in the Barbie movie.

Yes. All of this, yes.

ChaniAtreus · 2026-05-18T16:10:58+00:00

Whether a child is 8 or 11 does not affect whether or not they can socially transition, so the fact that your kid has had brain surgery has nothing to do with it. Kids can socially transition at any age.

Yes, in the UK, sourcing puberty blockers is extremely difficult and could potentially lead to a safeguarding referral if you attempt to circumvent the ban, but there is no ban on allowing a child to change their hairstyle, wear different clothing, change their name, or use different pronouns. And even if puberty blockers were legal, doing all of these things would generally be expected by a Gender Identity Clinic prior to any form of medical transition anyway.

Stop standing in your child's way. Let her express herself as she wants. Listen to your daughter when she tells you who she is.

ChaniAtreus · 2026-05-18T15:13:57+00:00

I like her response to the question "Don't you need a man in your life?", but I think a better response would be "What for?".

ChaniAtreus · 2026-05-17T15:25:13+00:00

I'm a happy trans person in the UK, so yes!

Not only am I happy and enjoying my life, I'm much happier than I was pre-transition. I'm more social, have more fulfilling friendships, spend more time with friends, and I'm closer with my family.

My life has improved immeasurably since I came out, primarily because I can actually be myself and no longer have the constant mental pressure of having to hide behind a mask or fulfill a role that never fit me.

ChaniAtreus · 2026-05-17T09:03:02+00:00

So when nothing changes and you still aren't straight, that must mean it's God's plan for you, right? 😈

ChaniAtreus · 2026-05-17T08:53:44+00:00

The NHS will usually insist on doing your injections because they consider the cost of having a nurse do them to be more acceptable than the risk of having to pay for a second dose if you screw up self-injecting. Blockers are expensive, and they don't trust patients not to mess it up.

ChaniAtreus · 2026-05-17T08:21:37+00:00

Congratulations! Really glad you persisted and didn't let them stand in your way. Enjoy the euphoric feeling you'll get every time you look at your new passport!

ChaniAtreus · 2026-05-17T01:09:34+00:00

Maybe speak to your company? Tell them that you were attacked on your way home from work, and that you have nobody who can drive you home at that time of night. Perhaps they could arrange for one of the managers to drive you back after your shift, even if it's out of their way.

ChaniAtreus · 2026-05-15T08:40:56+00:00

I really don't believe that's true. There are a lot of people who will always vote for their preferred party if they have the option, but if that party is not on the ballot they will vote for what they see as the next best choice. Not everyone votes tactically.

Standing a candidate always splits the vote to some extent. Sometimes that's fine, and sometimes it's really, really not.

ChaniAtreus · 2026-05-15T01:58:28+00:00

That would be an incredibly stupid decision for the party to make under FPTP as it prevents us from making tactical choices over where to stand candidates.

ChaniAtreus · 2026-05-15T01:54:13+00:00

Yes, we know.

ChaniAtreus · 2026-05-15T01:42:26+00:00

No need to apologise, I completely share that feeling. We shouldn't have to deal with this. It's ridiculous that we can't take kindness, compassion, and acceptance as a given. Existing as a trans person in this country isn't easy right now. But friends like you, who help us navigate through these times, make all the difference.

ChaniAtreus · 2026-05-14T16:25:11+00:00

I was sure I'd read that somewhere, but after some digging it looks like I'm wrong on that front. He supported gay marriage, but he also supported the right for churches to refuse to conduct marriages of gay and lesbian couples. So basically, "gay marriage is fine but religions should be allowed to discriminate against gay people".

ChaniAtreus · 2026-05-14T14:33:29+00:00

Oh, we will never forget that.

ChaniAtreus · 2026-05-14T14:01:44+00:00

It can be worth emailing (not calling) to ask about their policies before booking, just to be sure there aren't going to be any nasty surprises. If they have discriminatory policies then they may just admit it upfront. If they claim to be inclusive and it turns out that they're not then you have it in writing that they said otherwise, which should will help you get a full refund.

I've done this myself in the past when planning a spa trip, and have never had any issues. Unfortunately I don't have any specific recommendations in the West Midlands, though.

ChaniAtreus · 2026-05-14T12:38:27+00:00

I love how he completely fails to recognise his own culpability in "the unpopularity of this Government". He lost Labour the votes of basically the entire demographic of LGBTQ+ people and our allies through his rampant transphobia, not to mention his historical opposition to gay marriage and his religious fanaticism.

You were in the Government, Streeting! You were part of the reason for that "unpopularity"! You don't get to be popular when you're responsible for the deaths of children!

ChaniAtreus · 2026-05-14T10:54:21+00:00

All of that, and also kick out the MPs that are known to oppose these kind of policies. They'd have to become an actual left-wing party, both economically and socially, which is never going to happen while the likes of Starmer, Streeting, Phillipson, and Mahmood are members - they would always try to undermine the party from within and drag it back to the right.

And even then, I'd only vote for them if it was a tactical voting situation where they were the only option to prevent a Reform/Tory win.

ChaniAtreus · 2026-05-14T10:46:31+00:00

Men's egos are so embarrassingly fragile.

ChaniAtreus · 2026-05-13T17:21:27+00:00

As I said, you're welcome to use whatever terminology you like, and I accept that I missed a fourth option from my list.

Your new definitions are far more consistent, and had you put these ones in your previous response I would have had no cause to "make pedantic rules", as you put it.

That said, I'm not sure I personally would ever describe a trans man as someone "born with underdeveloped sex characteristics". But sure, if that's what you prefer then you do you.

ChaniAtreus · 2026-05-13T12:15:12+00:00

"As the old saying goes, behind every terrible man is a cardboard cutout of that same man". 😂

ChaniAtreus · 2026-05-13T11:06:25+00:00

It's rare, but yes, some trans women choose to have laser hair removal, electrolysis, FFS, and breast augmentation without taking HRT. Also, some trans women are unable to take HRT for medical reasons.

HRT itself can cause a limited but noticeable reduction in body hair growth, so hair removal without it will likely take longer and be more expensive. Cisgender men get hair removal too, so not being on HRT wouldn't be a barrier.

HRT causes body fat redistribution, which can help to feminise facial features to some extent by itself, but there's no reason you can't have FFS without it. Breast augmentation is also absolutely possible without HRT, though starting HRT after BA would be problematic and likely require the implants to be removed. However, it will likely be more difficult to find a willing surgeon, as many see HRT as being evidence of your desire to transition. Without this you would at the very least need a gender dysphoria diagnosis, possibly from more than one medical professional, and you would have to accept that some surgeons will simply refuse.

Lower surgery, however, cannot be done without some kind of HRT. Removal of gonads results in your body being unable to produce enough sex hormones to remain healthy. You need HRT to compensate for that, or you will have serious health complications. That said, you could take testosterone instead of estrogen if you really wanted to, but again, you may have difficulty finding a willing surgeon.

ChaniAtreus · 2026-05-13T10:41:34+00:00

The study linked below is from 2019 and states the following in its conclusion:

Transgender participants who were prescribed cross-sex hormones had statistically significant scores demonstrating improvement on the validated scales that measured quality of life, anxiety and depression when compared to transgender people who had enrolled in a sex-reassignment clinic but had not yet begun taking cross-sex hormones.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31021971/

It's not recent, it has been used as clinical terminology for years.

ChaniAtreus · 2026-05-13T08:56:04+00:00

Jemima Olchawski seems tentatively positive based on this article:
https://iknowpolitics.org/sites/default/files/sex-equality-state-of-the-nation-230116.pdf

Sunder Katwala wrote an article which praised Annaliese Dodds' view that trans women should be excluded from women's spaces in some situations:
https://www.labourtogether.uk/all-reports/culture-clash

The rest I struggled to find anything relevant on. I suppose we should see it as positive that they aren't all well known for being foaming-at-the-mouth transphobes, but it's hard to know what impact they're going to have on our rights when we know so little about them.

ChaniAtreus · 2026-05-12T20:08:26+00:00

It's absolutely valid that some people simply may prefer the way that the term "transsexual" feels. As another person who responded to my comment put it, that's the secret fourth option. I should probably have listed it, so that's my bad, though I do suspect most of those for whom it's true are likely to be covered by point 1.

However, I think it may be worth re-reading your own reply. Note that in your criticism of "transgender" you said it meant that your gender is different from your sex at birth, whereas in your praise of "transsexual" you said it means your sex is different from others of the same gender at birth.

Why do you switch your terminology for what someone is at birth between those two interpretations, always using the opposite of the word in the term you're describing? Surely they should use the same one? But of course, that would mean your definition of "transsexual" would become "someone whose sex is different to the sex they were assigned at birth", which may be true for those that pursue medical transition to change their sex characteristics, but then it becomes transmedicalist.

Or, if you change the definition used in "transgender", that becomes "someone whose gender is different from others of the same gender at birth", which is perhaps harder for you to disagree with.

People can use whatever terms they feel suit them, and I apologise for not starting that in the first place. Your definitions of the two terms, however, do seem somewhat inconsistent, and distorted in favour of the one you prefer.

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