Category: Transmedicalism

Is the Conservative Party Homophobic?

Apr 18th, 2021

18th Apr 2021

This has to be the final nail in the coffin for all LGBT+ Conservatives

The lack of substantial modern evidence that the Conservatives are an anti-LGBTQ+ party in 2021 has been one of the many sticking points of members of our community who support the Tories. Obviously, the prime minister called Gay people “tank-top wearing bum boys”, but you will hear many trying to justify that behind the ever-growing wall of ignorance that is bad satire.

The fact of the matter is, any self-respecting Queer person has known that the Conservative Party is not for them, does not support them and will not support their needs for years now. Section 28 was the only beginning of Tory bigotry’s long line; however, I would argue that Parties who have more practice covering bigotry will always do a better job. This is why, about Gay and Trans rights, the Tories had always seemed too clean since they took credit for the excellent work of the Lib Dems in the coalition when “Same-Sex” marriage was legalised, especially in comparison to the leading opposition.

I have made it abundantly clear about the problems of the Labour Party under Keir Starmer on both this platform and on my Twitter. Still, frankly, the only reason I think he’s slipping up is that he forgets that “progressives” over time become “conservatives” if they don’t adapt and change. In other words, he’s a living, breathing example of why Conservatives tend to be either old or rich, and he’s verging on both. He slips because he’s not used to being the bigoted one, whereas the Conservatives’ whole thing is opposing positive change for the minority (unless it’s the minority of wealth holders). They are much better at hiding it.

This is why it has been so impossible to adequately substantiate the leading Party’s Queer-phobia in recent years because rather than changing, they’ve got better at hiding it from the average person. Finally, however, the mask has cracked. It came into the public eye that, on March 31st, the government’s LGBT Advisory Panel was disbanded due to a series of resignations from key members due to the “hostile environment for LGBT+ people among this [the current] administration.” Those words, spoken by Jayne Ozanne when she left the panel on March 10th, marked the first of many comments from that board as they left because the government seemed to be “digging its feet” in over the issue of conversion therapy – a torturous practise of attempting to turn Queer people “straight” through religion, despite it having no religious president whatsoever [if Jesus had said “thou shalt commit the torturous act of gay conversion therapy to free my children from sin” then I would’ve understood].

Jayne Ozanne works to ensure the full inclusion of LGBTQ+ Christians at every level of the Church of England. As an essential religious figure on that panel, it was a huge blow to the Tory shell to see her go first, but I think it sets an essential precedent. A precedent which almost immediately began to show, with two more appointees resigning in the following weeks, one of whom was James Morton.

Before we break down what he said, I would like to quickly add some food for thought addressed to anyone who’s got this far and has begun to feel offended by this Tory Slander. Whistleblowers are an essential part of any working society. Without them, we wouldn’t know about the atrocities in the USSR, Maoist China and Iraq. We wouldn’t be able to point out the wrongdoings of the USA in Vietnam as they committed war crime after war crime, killing innocent civilians with chemical weapons. We wouldn’t know about the trend of anti-Semitism in the Labour Party under Corbin or the weak leadership of May. The fact is, whatever side of the political spectrum you may be on, whistleblowers are essential in establishing who we do and do not support and when there is a trend of whistleblowers, they’re more likely than not going to be telling the truth. This isn’t Tory slander; this is what every regressive or repressive policy the Tories have stood with has led to, from not standing with their policy to reform the Gender Recognition Act to include Non-Binary people to electing a Prime Minister who has been openly homophobic with hard-right fascist influences. There were three open resignations from this board before it was quickly disbanded, and I am sure that there would have been more if they had been left to it.

In a letter of resignation to Priti Patel, James Morton said, “The lack of engagement that you, minister Badenoch and the Government Equalities Office civil servants have had with us as a panel, coupled with the rhetoric used in ministerial statements, leaves me with no confidence that the UK government wishes to protect the existing quality of life and human rights of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people,” concluding that, “The UK government does not seem, through words or actions, to have any desire to build a country in which trans people are among those free to live their lives.” The transphobia in this government is so rampant, and frankly, I think it’s the only part of the government that accurately represents the people. They would much rather hold on to the transphobic voters than create real change in this nation, but we already know that, considering they are, as I said, the party opposing positive change for minorities.

It’s got so bad that even MPs who have dedicated their lives in support of the community are openly transphobic. A member of the committee against Conversion Therapy, Dean Russel, said to me when I asked him why the Conservative Party was so against reforming the Gender Recognition Act that, “there is a much wider debate to be had” about who has the right to go into the correct bathroom, whilst stumbling and mumbling over his words finishing off by deadnaming Elliot Page in a sudden bout of “support”. Regardless of his motives, when asked about the GRA, his first thought was “spout transphobic lie to a bunch of children and then incorrectly name drop and deadname a public figure”. He’s declined to comment any further on this time and time and time again when I have asked him to on social media, but he’s not my MP, so I am not of his concern.

The Tories are festering a “lack of engagement” and the “rhetoric used in ministerial statements” paired with the whistleblowers who think that “The UK government does not seem, through words or actions, to have any desire to build a country in which trans people are among those free to live their lives” and are more interested with the maintenance of “the existing quality of life” for Queer people, despite rising hate crime numbers. It appears to me, dear reader, that the Conservative Party are “digging their feet in” on a lot more than just Conversion Therapy. In fact, it appears they wish to repress any acceleration of Queer rights and protections across the board, to the point of maintaining a policy that stops people like me from being legally recognised as who I am. All cis people can have their gender on their passport, live their life as their gender identity, go into the correct toilet and enjoy a significantly lower risk of violent crime than any queer person, especially trans women and non-binary people.

New Conservative legislation aims to remove many public gender-neutral toilets. That means every time I need to have a piss when I’m out with my friends, I am forced to out myself to everyone around me as AMAB. Lies in the Conservative manifesto would have meant that I could have put my gender identity on my passport, but now I am stuck with having an “M” on it. I had to live 18 years of my life lying to myself about who I was, only to find out that who I was wasn’t accepted on any legal level in my country. I could walk down the street and be attacked or worse for just living as who I am. Rather than protect me and the thousands of others like me, the Conservatives think they have done enough, think they’ve gone far enough, think that there’s no need to give Queer people any more protections, let alone the right to be themselves. These things that may seem insignificant to you are everything to me, and I envy every single cis person who gets to live their life without question or debate.

If the Tories were doing enough, I wouldn’t have to write this article or any of the others about similar issues on my blog; I probably wouldn’t even be as politically minded as I am because I would have the freedom of not having to worry every day that my identity could come into question. This is not a country of LGBTQ+ equality, nor is it a country of LGB equality. This is a country of White, Conservative G man equality, the only member of the LGBTQ+ community who can revel in his freedom whilst the rest of us suffer, despite the reality that the very rights that they enjoy were handed to them by transgender and gender-non-conforming women of colour, throwing bricks on the streets of New York. The privilege of the White Conservative Gay Man is not an accurate representation of the rest of the LGBTQ+ community, but it is clear that our government thinks that it is.

There’s your substantial evidence.

-Io
Transgender Predatory Behaviour – Fascist Myth?

Feb 13th, 2021

13th Feb 2021

A blog post on the myth that allowing transgender people into the bathroom that matches their gender identity will encourage or at least enable predatory behaviour.

This conversation in 2021 seems ridiculous to me; I won’t lie. It looked like we were heading on an upward curve regarding society’s views on transgender people in the UK. I watched the Netflix documentary, Disclosure, which involved selecting highly influential transgender people sitting in front of a camera and having a raw, open and honest conversation with society. They talked about personal troubles and conflicts and this societal dichotomy between accepting trans people for entertainment purposes but not for who they are. I would describe a brief history of gender non-conformity in the media. It was tough to watch. Tears were shed, fears were raised, but it made me angry more than anything. I am mad that I have been a longstanding joke in media since the first films were made. It feels like the whole of western society has made fun of me for over 100 years, and in reality, probably longer.

This is why trans people aren’t taken seriously in society. In America, conservatives are simple-minded. “Guns or no guns”, “evil or no evil”, “normal or socialism”, “deal or no deal”. Well, it comes across that way. The complex and intellectual approach that the Conservative party takes when it comes to stripping the rights of transgender individuals scares me, only topped by the sheer terror that comes with the fact that the media somewhat justifies their bigoted politics. It’s summed up very well in that documentary. The portrayed humour of the disclosure perpetuates the public’s perception of transgender people and thus the justification of individual speculation on the genitalia another person was born with as if it is somehow anyone else’s business. It’s not. The disclosure of one’s identity to someone else is terrifying as it is, but the message perpetuated by the media on many fronts is that it is okay for someone to then react violently, or at least negatively because of that, especially when it comes down to straight men becoming intimate with trans women. Some believe that transphobia is isolated to the states and that the UK is much more progressive. However, the BBC and Forbes reported that last year [2020], transphobic hate crime quadrupled in the UK.

But what’s this got to do with the perception of predatory behaviour? The media has played an instrumental role in the negative perception of trans people, painting them as this subspecies that aims to seduce straight men and assault straight women. This message has penetrated our governing bodies. The Conservative Party recently released a consultation to gain public opinion on new legislation that would remove gender-neutral spaces and prevent trans people from entering areas that match their gender identity. It’s with both nations that the right-wing have taken it upon themselves to reject that trans rights are human rights and that somehow their existence is a threat to women and young girls, to the point they have toyed with the idea of genital checks to make sure women with penis’s aren’t entering the toilets that match their gender identity. Unfortunately, a large number of the population agrees that the very existence of a penis means that women will be assaulted, especially if said penis is given access to a toilet. This author’s opinion is that this long-lasting joke about disclosure has led government officials to believe that these notions are not just appropriate but acceptable.

However, unfortunately for the Conservative Party, transphobia is transphobia even if it’s perpetuated through the mask of women’s protection. I think it is both insulting to trans people and women, portraying women as damsels in distress who are so weak and innocent that they need strong protections from penises and trans people as these predators who will defile all-female flesh in their path.

It is disgusting.

This myth, perpetuated by media and politics, is part of one big transphobic propaganda machine that aims to strip trans people of their rights and understand it fully; we must cast our minds back to the epitome of fascist propaganda.

False Feminism in Fascism

Do you recognise this picture? You should. This image depicts a young, innocent woman being coerced away from her siblings by a large man in a dark suit with a large nose, crooked grin. He looks wealthy and deceitful. A predator of innocent flesh. This is Nazi propaganda painting Jewish people as predators. You see, to establish the public enemy, the Nazis painted them as predators. These people would take women and do all sorts of unspeakable things to them, painting Jews as these morally deviant monsters whose animalistic impulses would force them to assault women. This image is a clear example of this rhetoric. A young woman is being taken away by a predatory Jewish man.

This technique is often used by Fascist leaders to unite a population against a particular minority group for their own political gain. This was obviously effective in Nazi Germany. They managed to instil so much anti-Semitism throughout the people that they would assault Jewish people in the streets, refuse to serve them in their shops and ultimately cart them off to work, concentration and death camps. Painting a group as predators will, and constantly will, stir up hatred for that group within the population.

This was also a propaganda technique used by the USA during the cold war, depicting Soviet baboons kidnapping helpless, white American women. They also used similar techniques in “informational” films about homosexual people, showing them child predators. The message stayed faithful, though. It has always been a widely used technique to paint groups you want to dehumanise as predatory and threatening young women. The irony is the women on these posters would often be depicted with their shirts off to attract the attention of men, so who really was the predatory force?

What I have referred to as False Feminism is a propaganda technique by which the governing body used the image of a damsel in distress, kidnapped by a force to whom they want to rile up public opposition. The “if we let x group do x thing then women will get hurt” has permeated every single fascist regime and right-wing government. Banish the Jews, or they’ll assault women; hate the gays, or they’ll assault children; don’t let transgender people into the right bathroom, or they’ll assault women. The governments take a group whose rights they don’t necessarily care about but know the public and hold them up to symbolise meek purity. If another group is allowed their freedom, their innocence will be destroyed.

It’s a fascist lie.

In fact, the group that is statistically most likely to assault someone is the same in power. The straight white man. According to rainn.org [1], 57% of sexual assaults are committed by white men. Not Jews, not homosexuals, not transgender people.

American Case Study

I am not accusing the Conservative majority of being a fascist regime; however, I draw dialectic parallels. We know similar fear tactics to “Letting trans people use the toilet matching their gender identity is dangerous” have been used in fascist regimes and homosexual smear campaigns, yet when all the evidence points away from the fact, our population still chooses to blindly take their word for it.

For a case study, I chose to observe America. Their Bathroom Bill allowing trans people into the correct bathroom was widely implemented. I thought to myself that if there was any correlation between it and a rise in sex offenders, it would show more easily there due to the large population. Lucky for me, due to the vast conservative population, there is a wealth of evidence to help debunk the myth in question. I say myth because it has turned out to be [2]. Vox published an article in 2016 combining the extensive evidence in favour of trans people and debunking the conservative rebuttals. It is true that “these are plainly myths with no evidence behind them. They’ve been used in attempts to perpetuate discrimination since the Jim Crow era”. I even said it myself, American conservatives are simple-minded, to the point where they can’t even come up with a claim based on factual evidence, let alone an original lie. PolitiFact found that Chris Sgro’s claim that “There have not been any public safety issues in those other communities” was “mostly true”, stating, “We haven’t found any instances of criminals convicted of using transgender protections as cover in the United States. Neither have any left-wing groups or right-wing groups” whilst also acknowledging one incident in Canada. [3].

According to Media Matters, 15 experts in 12 states “including law enforcement officials, government employees, and advocates for victims of sexual assault — have debunked the right-wing myth that sexual predators will exploit transgender non-discrimination laws to sneak into women’s restrooms, calling the myth baseless and ‘beyond specious’.” [4]. The more I got into this case study, I saw the word ‘myth’ thrown about more and more. I could find no factual evidence supporting the claim that it is dangerous to let transgender people use the toilet to match their gender identity.

This is yet again an example of false feminism. Using fear tactics to prevent transgender people from going into their bathroom of choice is unfactual propaganda and to continue to perpetuate this idea is not only transphobic but dangerous.

The UK

We currently have the biggest transphobic party in power here in the UK. Now, they are proposing one of the most significant attacks on transgender and Gender Non-Conforming (GNC) people in the UK. According to their consultation, “Women are also likely to feel less comfortable using mixed-sex facilities and require more space”, and so, therefore, we must put into place more gender-specific and less gender-neutral toilets. We know that there is no evidence that cisgender people face increased violence in gender-neutral toilet facilities. However, we prove that 48% of trans people don’t feel comfortable using public toilets due to verbal abuse, intimidation, and physical assault [5]. The policing of gender in bathrooms is a wasteful use of government funds, drawing unwarranted attention to a political and prejudicial ‘debate’ resulting from a broader climate of transphobia in the UK. [Email response template below]

The only motivation possible here for the Conservative party, considering there is no evidence to support their inference that there is an increased danger in gender-neutral spaces, is their own bigoted transphobic viewpoint. This is it. This is the result of being the but of a joke for over 100 years. The myth that transgender people are predatory has been perpetuated in the media for decades, now we see its result. Conservative MPs suggest protections for women where they’re not even needed.

I meant this when I said they take a complex and intellectual approach to revoke trans rights. They’re not doing it all at once. They’re not using the basic talking points. They’re being calm and calculated in their approach, and it’s scary.

Conclusion

I think that this author has made their intentions and viewpoint very clear. I believe all transgender people deserve the right to live out their life identifying freely with their gender identity. Still, unfortunately, the Conservatives have decided that it is moral and ethical to balance trans rights with a confirmed myth. There is no basis in reality for their viewpoint whatsoever. Governments who use this sort of propaganda to push their agenda usually do it because they know what they are doing is wrong. If they stood by what they were saying, they wouldn’t feel the need to hide their argument as they are; they would just do it.

The Conservative agenda is to revoke trans rights, if not entirely then, to the point of true preposterousness. They hold up women as a shield in the same way the Nazis did, in the same way, the Americans did against gay people in the 50s. This is not up for debate; their fear tactic is obvious. Unfortunately, the general population is silent. The Torys know that transphobia is increasing within the people, but rather than standing with the trans community, they are standing with the people, which is not only cowardly but directly against The Equality Act, which states that sex and age are characteristics and disabled and transgender people that are and should be protected. This should not be tolerable, but it is – even within the Labour Party for many. The idea that transgender people are predators is a fascist notion and is being portrayed as such by the majority party, one of the biggest reasons trans hate crime is on the rise. It is a myth and should be understood as such.

To find my socials go to iocutmore.com. On my website, you can also find LGBTQ+ support links and a list of brilliant (mostly LGBTQ+) creators to whom you should go and show some support. I hope you farewell until next time,

-Io

Bibliography

[1] – https://www.rainn.org/statistics/perpetrators-sexual-violence
[2] – https://www.vox.com/identities/2016/5/13/17938102/transgender-people-bathrooms-locker-rooms-schools
[3] – https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2016/apr/01/chris-sgro/equality-nc-director-no-public-safety-risks-cities/
[4] – https://www.mediamatters.org/sexual-harassment-sexual-assault/15-experts-debunk-right-wing-transgender-bathroom-myth
[5] – https://www.stonewall.org.uk/system/files/lgbt_in_britain_hate_crime.pdf

‘Technical review on increasing accessibility and provision of toilets for men and women’ email response template:

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What is Gender?

Jan 22nd, 2021
22nd Jan 2021

There is an abundance of arguments against the existence of transgender people. From “there are only two genders” to “trans is a mental disorder” all the way to “I don’t care how you dress, I don’t want men in my bathroom”. I believe that this kind of fear-mongering and hate that trans people receive is the reason that poor mental health among trans people is so high. Unfortunately, these views are also adopted by our government. It’s time for a change in attitudes towards trans people in the UK and I will attempt to debunk the Myth of Gender.

“You’re either a man or a woman”

There are 8,324,608 possible combinations of 23 chromosome pairs. When it comes to sex characteristics, it is usually considered that there are two possible combinations, XX and XY, and that somehow allows their bigotry towards transgender people – but it is not the case. There are some people who have differences in their sex chromosomes. For example, some people may have XXY, and some people may have one X or three Xs. These are genetic conditions, which means sometimes having these chromosome differences can result in medical complications.

Here’s a list of all known sex chromosome combinations: X, XY, XX, XXX, XXY, XYY, XXXX, XXXY, XXYY, XXXXY, XXXXX.

Now, this is important: having differences in sex chromosomes doesn’t mean that someone is transgender. Because being transgender has more to do with how someone feels. Do not reduce your perception of gender to some constructed binary that doesn’t even exist in genetic biology.

So why, knowing this, would a government prevent people from identifying as they please? Self Identification for transgender people is so highly debated amongst government officials but ultimately, there are two main arguments against Self Identification that I have seen in the UK, outside of the usual “transgender people don’t deserve rights” mentality.

“I don’t want that in my toilet”

The first – “it will validate and allow men to go into women’s spaces like toilets”. The flaw in this argument is obvious to me. I have seen no incidents surrounding this idea of TRANS people misusing this system in countries where this is legal, so this argument denies trans people rights on the basis that cis-gendered people will misuse it.

“You need gender dysphoria to be trans”

The next is transmedicalism. This is the idea that one must have gender dysphoria to be valid in a trans identity and that anyone who identifies outside of the binary of gender is invalid.

I have established that genetically there is no binary gender and so therefore for there to be a binary gender and sex must be separate, making gender not genetic but a social construct. I would like to remind you that Gender Dysphoria wasn’t required to be trans until 2013, whereas gender non-conforming people have been around for centuries. Gender Dysphoria was used to replace “Gender Identity Disorder”. It is precisely the same, it still classes it as a disorder and it is solely used to enforce the idea that transgender is a defect. There are tons of trans people who think that Gender Dysphoria is the only classifying factor for their identity. They are equal to the gay people who thought that homosexuality was an illness/defect. It’s gross and outdated. Shouldn’t we just allow people to be themselves rather than telling them they have a disorder?

Transmedicalism isn’t validating; it is a fleeting attempt to conform. The Tories implement this to keep Transgender people in a comfy little box and only allows men and women to exist. Transmedicalism as an idea is regression beyond what we had in the 20th Century. There was no dysphoria diagnosis in ’17 and ’31 when the first bottom surgeries took place, it was just used to relieve gender dysphoria. Sure the world wasn’t perfect, but they didn’t subscribe to some short-sighted exclusionary socially constructed bullshit that prevented people from being themselves.

Being trans only became “taboo” or “weird” in the 19th/20th century and here we are in the 21st century. Trans people exclude other trans people on the basis that “they’re not valid enough” and that they are “transtrenders”, because of some regressive politically charged and since debunked science which is now seen as valid because our government seems to support this ideology despite calling themselves as “inclusive” and “supportive” of the LGBTQ+ community.

Transmedicalism is a lie.

It’s used by government officials now to limit people’s freedom to express themselves. It’s outdated. So what can we do? We can push for reform, lobby local MPs (even the Tories), continue to force the issue before the government by signing petitions. Self ID won’t justify those going into the wrong bathroom with subversive intentions, it will purely allow people to be themselves.

My Response

So now moving forward we can see that the Conservative Party stands with a science-denying, Trans limiting ideology that prevents self-expression under the false pretences that “cisgender people will misuse it and go into the incorrect bathroom”. So what’s the effect of this?

According to Public Health England’s “Preventing suicide among trans young people” research, “In the UK at least one in two trans young people report self-harm. Trans young people also have high rates of substance misuse, another risk factor for suicide”. This research was conducted on people who identify as transgender in the UK – let alone those who aren’t legally classed as transgender under Britain’s bigoted and exclusionary viewpoint. Suicide rates are shown to go down in countries where self-identification is available to transgender people.

This shows that the Conservative Party prioritise a conspiracy theory about transgender people undertaking crime in women’s bathrooms over the mental well-being and safety of that group in our population. This is why Transmedicalism is such a dangerous idea, because it limits trans people to being mentally deficient rather than real human beings worthy of rights and that their life is less valuable than a myth about trans people in public bathrooms.

So what are the implications of this? Well not only have we established that there is binary in science, no binary in society [due to the socially constructed nature of gender] and that self-identification does not justify the misuse of private spaces such as toilets, what is stopping us from just allowing transgender people to be who they want to be in the UK? Why haven’t we put into place a system that doesn’t exclude people for “not being trans enough”, that doesn’t limit transgender to a mental disorder? There are two possibilities. 1, the Conservative Party, who have now been in power for over 10 years now, don’t want to move our country forward in the realms of self-expression or 2, they are transphobic as a party. I don’t like the implications of either.

To find my socials go to iocutmore.com. On my website, you can also find LGBTQ+ support links as well as a list of brilliant (mostly LGBTQ+) creators to who you should go and show some support. I hope you farewell until next time,

-Io

Bibliography
- Project supported by the Department of Genetics, Stanford School of Medicine: https://genetics.thetech.org/ask-a-geneticist/transgender-intersex-sex-chromosomes?fbclid=IwAR0QUSALXXac4T4nnjhABL3Vh0YxB3g0BQYcGEHk2pnZr9inTv9XybBKYxw
- List of different sex chromosome combinations: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex_chromosome_anomalies?fbclid=IwAR0pgZHGXR4EeIrOvsuqQ1kU-MCArAeDisVNQy7Q3qv8eiiq5C8lPZ6hzE0
- ContraPoints Video: https://youtu.be/EdvM_pRfuFM
- Gender Dysphoria: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_dysphoria
- Sexual Reassignment Surgery: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex_reassignment_surgery#:~:text=Sex%20reassignment%20surgery%20(SRS)%2C,those%20socially%20associated%20with%20their
- PHE Research: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/417707/Trans_suicide_Prevention_Toolkit_Final_26032015.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwiQ9qb0xa_uAhWSXRUIHSuTDUsQFjABegQIDxAC&usg=AOvVaw2BIJIRvNgvqrtY8JokPhzn&cshid=1611318724136
- Samantha Lux Video: https://youtu.be/1ojCEWNABrE
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Coming Out

Jan 19th, 2021

19th Jan 2021

As posted to Twitter

Right, this is gonna be an essay. An essay about non-binary. I have spent years looking into every possible label under the sun. I’ve read books on gender identity and its difference with sex; the history and relationship between religion and gender and surrounded myself with a variety of different identities and sexualities in my social life to 1. Help me better understand my queer peers and 2. Help me better understand myself. I have seen both sides of the spectrum. I used to be a transmedicalist and think there was a medical definition of identity and that one was either man or woman (hint: I was wrong). I have always coasted the idea of non-binary out of misunderstanding and fear. I’ve since abandoned this notion for a more progressive approach.

Gender is a social construct, created to divide people into categories in order to make them easier to control and understand. The binary of gender refers to the assumed “male” and “female” identities. Classically the term “gender non-conforming” has referred to all transgender people that don’t act in accordance with their assigned gender identity. As a society, we have since adapted to allow transgender people who are palatable to the gender binary to exist as their best selves with access to surgeries and name changes to poorly attempt to make their lives easier. However, we refer to people who don’t fit in with one or another binary gender as non-binary, which is both in itself a gender identity as well as an umbrella term. In other words, a non-binary person is a transgender person who identifies between or outside of male or female and doesn’t usually wish to/feel comfortable with being associated with either binary gender.

Non-binary has been around for generations and the only differentiating factor between then and now is that we have the language to explain and name the identity paired with a more accepting society. They will usually use the pronouns “they/them/theirs” but some choose to use any combination of pronouns. They may dress androgynously or more masculine or more feminine, but to be non-binary is to be authentically oneself outside of associated gender norms. Everything is valid.

The key thing is that non-binary people are free to identify and present however they wish.

The thing is when I first heard about non-binary I thought it was ridiculous, I thought it couldn’t possibly be a thing and all my personal politics went against it. I thought it wasn’t biologically possible. But I’ve had it explained to me and I found myself in the non-binary identity. You see non-binary is the most liberating and expressive way of living and allows me to be myself outside of the realms of “you are a man and like men’s things”. It’s not a response to gender roles or expectations, but in fact a deeper understanding of oneself to the point I know I am not a girl, but I’m not a boy either. I don’t feel comfortable in either metaphysical box.

My brother said to me a few weeks back, “you might be nearly 18, but that won’t make you man” and he couldn’t have been more right. I had to stop myself laughing when he said it because I was already planning for this coming out.

This has gone on for far too long now, so message me with questions and whatever, but yes. Hi, I’m Io and I am non-binary (agender) [they/them]

To find my socials go to iocutmore.com. On my website, you can also find LGBTQ+ support links as well as a list of brilliant (mostly LGBTQ+) creators to who you should go and show some support. I hope you farewell until next time,

-Io

Category: Transmedicalism

Is the Conservative Party Homophobic?

This has to be the final nail in the coffin for all LGBT+ Conservatives

Transgender Predatory Behaviour – Fascist Myth?

A blog post on the myth that allowing transgender people into the bathroom that matches their gender identity will encourage or at least enable predatory behaviour.

False Feminism in Fascism

American Case Study

The UK

Conclusion

Bibliography

What is Gender?

“You’re either a man or a woman”

“I don’t want that in my toilet”

“You need gender dysphoria to be trans”

My Response

Bibliography

Coming Out

As posted to Twitter