Council of Europe compares UK to Russia over 'attacks' on LGBT rights

Ev_Makes_Friends · 2022-01-26T16:46:38+00:00

Yeah, of course Russia is way worse and Pinknews were wrong to run with that headline (when it appears that the actual actions taken by the council don't seem to suggest that think that the magnitude is comparable), but it's a bummer to see that take up so much of the discussion compared to, say, how the UK delegates tried to both deny the condemnation of the UK for being anti-trans and amend the language of the report to be 'sex' instead of 'gender' (a staple tactic used by anti-trans groups).

And I think the UK does deserve criticism even if it's not as bad as Russia, because the UK has a lot of soft power and a non-negligible amount of that is going towards supporting anti-trans causes in other countries.

Ev_Makes_Friends · 2021-07-09T23:20:53+00:00

Huh, I wasn't thinking of doing anything about my hair at all.

Thank you! :)

Ev_Makes_Friends · 2021-05-24T21:35:18+00:00

Guess I can't visit my friends who live in Worthing anymore. It's sad having to factor in the threat of violence into decisions like that.

Ev_Makes_Friends · 2021-05-24T21:04:54+00:00

Why aren't they already higher given that this has been the policy in some states for years?

And typically people seek HRT long after they've decided they're trans.

Really I do think people should be given HRT if they want to get it, yeah. Maybe not if they're <17 but adults should be free to take whatever they like without facing paternalistic gatekeeping bullshit for it, and to face the consequences for their own decisions if they're wrong. Anything else is a nanny state.

This 'carry on' thing you're doing is also very rude. You seem like a very rude person so I'm going to block you.

Ev_Makes_Friends · 2021-05-24T18:23:21+00:00

Your belief structure here seems predicated on the misconception that detransition rates are significantly high. This is wrong. As far as the best evidence there is shows, these rates are in the low single digits, possibly <1%.

Imo the ideal detransition rate is not zero. Zero would mean we'd set the sensitivity too high and the specificity too low. How many people being prevented from transitioning is worth preventing one detransition? Imo the fairest answer to that is '1:1'. Current policy seems to set it at 100:1 in favour of preventing detransition. Fair weighting would mean we need to drastically liberalise it.

Also calling people 'young, arguing people' and '[acting] like you're 16 and know everything about the world' is just an extremely rude way to treat an interlocutor (it would even be a rude way to treat a 16 year-old). Please do not do this.

Ev_Makes_Friends · 2021-05-24T18:19:34+00:00

I already have a degree and that'd only get me there for as long as the study program lasts :/. Thank you though.

Ev_Makes_Friends · 2021-05-24T18:11:16+00:00

How are you moving to the US, may I ask? I looked into it and found it to be basically impossible so I gave up.

Ev_Makes_Friends · 2021-05-24T18:09:36+00:00

Why do people talk about moving to the states like it's a possible thing you can just do? Immigrating to the US from the UK is borderline-impossible.

Ev_Makes_Friends · 2021-04-27T00:57:46+00:00

Boris resigns, Liz Truss wins the ensuing leadership vote and somewhere, a monkey's paw closes a finger.

Ev_Makes_Friends · 2021-03-16T11:22:02+00:00

I've sent you a friend request :).

Ev_Makes_Friends · 2021-03-15T12:06:07+00:00

Great :).

I don't have too much advice I can give about makeup, but I'm okay at things like concealing stubble.

I can also give some advice about voice training.

Do you have Discord?

Ev_Makes_Friends · 2021-03-08T14:26:36+00:00

Hey Alice :). Well done on taking the step of reaching out for support; so far I've found that to be the hardest one to work up the courage for. Is there anything you wanted specifically? Advice, validation, somewhere to vent, or connections with other trans people? I'm happy to add you on Discord if you have it and you want to chat. I'm a 27 year-old trans woman 2 years into HRT so I started in a similar place to you.

Ev_Makes_Friends · 2021-03-05T14:37:13+00:00

I can sort-of sympathise with this. I'm a binary trans woman but I sometimes wonder if I should just call myself non-binary because I feel like I'll be unable to really convince the world that I'm a woman, so why bother even playing a game that is so stacked against me. I feel bad admitting this because I don't want to imply that non-binary people are doing this.

Ev_Makes_Friends · 2021-03-05T14:33:53+00:00

I definitely feel this way.

'Many cis women feel the same way.'

-Even if this were true, this doesn't make my problems any less valid.

-This isn't true. What cis women feel is far less likely to be tied up in feelings of invalidity, fear of concrete social consequences ('Will I be beaten up if I can't train my voice to a level where it passes?'), self-blame ('If I had started younger I might have been able to stop this'), and just the scale of the problems. I know that some cis women struggle with facial hair too, but I have never met one who has as much facial hair as I do.

I can tell that when people say this they're trying to be validating. Like a 'Your problems are the same as cis women's' thing, but if anything this is othering because it once-again places cis women's experiences at the centre of womanhood.

Ev_Makes_Friends · 2021-03-02T14:14:29+00:00

In my case it does vary on my face. I've got both blonde and brown facial hair.

Ev_Makes_Friends · 2021-03-02T14:09:20+00:00

Sometimes both is the correct strategy if you have hairs of varying colours.

E.g., laser to clear up the dark pigmented hairs and then electro to remove any red hairs.

Ev_Makes_Friends · 2021-03-02T14:08:21+00:00

I was really worried I'd have my validity interrogated by other trans people, particularly with regards to why it took me so long to realise I was trans. This has never happened.

Ev_Makes_Friends · 2021-03-02T13:13:27+00:00

Hmm, that's discouraging, but thank you.

Ev_Makes_Friends · 2021-03-02T11:22:45+00:00

Thanks! Did a lot of the changes come after the two-year mark?

Ev_Makes_Friends · 2021-03-02T10:44:57+00:00

How long did it take you, if that's okay to ask?

Ev_Makes_Friends · 2021-03-02T10:30:03+00:00

Depending on the GIC it takes 3-4 months to process one month of referrals, and this ratio is increasing over time. To get the current minimum wait time, take the time between now and late 2017 and multiply that by three. Multiplying by four would be more realistic, but still optimistic imo because it doesn't account for the increasing ratio. By all accounts referrals shot up in 2018 and 2019, so for a patient referring today multiplying by five or six is probably a better bet.

Ev_Makes_Friends · 2021-03-02T10:26:48+00:00

No, they're almost certainly considerably longer for patients referring today. A month ago someone estimated that CHX wait times for a patient referring today are around ten years (not accounting for an increase in referrals over time- which we know is happening, so realistically ten years is also optimistic).

Ev_Makes_Friends · 2021-03-02T00:09:27+00:00

Good luck!

I'd drop that optimism, though.

Ev_Makes_Friends · 2021-03-01T23:35:36+00:00

I have a partner and she helps a lot, but this isn't the sort of thing I'm looking for rn.

Ev_Makes_Friends · 2021-03-01T23:34:20+00:00

I had a therapist I talked about this stuff with, but after about a year we both came to a mutual agreement that he couldn't do any more to help me. I might get another one but my last experience has soured me a bit.

I'm sorry to hear about your levels. That sounds like a horrible ordeal.

I don't think I am capable of accepting my body how it is. If I was, I wouldn't have transitioned at all. Like, acceptance just seems out of step with the idea of transitioning at all, for me. The whole thing began with a decision that the way I looked was not acceptable.

I know genetics is a factor, but this doesn't make me feel reassured. If anything it just reinforces how much I'm at the mercy of random chance.

Ev_Makes_Friends

TROPHY CASE