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Original poster

Should gender dysphoria/transgenderism be considered a disability?

33 replies

LittleMissViper · 25/03/2022 13:55

It's something that I've been wondering for a while. I'm not an expert in the field, nor have I had a lot of interactions with a wide number of affected individuals. I would be genuinely interested to hear other peoples experiences and thoughts.

Obviously the severity varies, but the affected individuals I know have described the severity of their gender dysphoria and the distress it causes them. They often speak about how they cannot live without going through a transition.

The transition often, but not always, leads to the individual beginning regulated medication that would need to be taken for the rest of their life. It also sometimes involves major surgical procedures being performed.

Considering this, should being under medical care for a chronic, lifelong condition be classified as having a disability?

Would affected people be able to claim financial support for the disability?

Would affected athletes then participate in disabled sport, after assessment using the standard classification systems?

OP posts:
Toomanyradishes · 25/03/2022 15:22

People with physical disabilities shouldnt lose places in sports teams due to what is, if considered a disability, essentially a mental health disabilty. In the same way as Simone Biles isnt in the paralympics because she has mental heath issues, Im not comparing her issues with trans people, I just think its distastful to suggest that if an able bodies person thinks they are the wrong gender they can take a disabled persons place on a sports team

BeyondPurpleTulips · 25/03/2022 15:17

Umm. No.

CatSpeakForDummies · 25/03/2022 15:15

If you read about the social model of disability versus the medical model, you will see that gender dysphoria doesn't meet the criteria, at all, for medical model.

People with chronic conditions don't just check a box marked "disabled," disability is context dependent. A person with colitis can use a disabled toilet, but not a blue badge parking spot, for example.

We don't consider women disabled if they add massive silicon boobs to themselves, so why would we men? Women with medical hysterectomies are not disabled, so only if they had it done for non-medical reasons? It makes no sense

Jellycatspyjamas · 25/03/2022 14:54

I wouldn't assume womanhood to be the disability. If nothing else, gender dysphoria can affect both sexes.

Are you talking about diagnoses gender dysphoria or people who self identify and transition on that basis?

TheUsualShitshow · 25/03/2022 14:46

How does that render you unable to go to work though? If people with MS and cancer and lupus and depression and anxiety and blindness and deafness andn a hundred other disabilities and diseases can do it, and people who are 9 months into the creation of another whole human being can do it, what makes this so very disabling that the person can never be expected to work ever again?

Original poster
LittleMissViper · 25/03/2022 14:22

@TheUsualShitshow

Hmm. So if a man gets breast implants and takes female hormones he's considered disabled for life? So the state of womanhood becomes a disability?

I don't think so.

Maybe if fewer people spent their lives tweeting about their distress, and doing what the rest of us have to - get fucking dressed and get to work even on our worst days - things wouldn't be in such a state.

I wouldn't assume womanhood to be the disability. If nothing else, gender dysphoria can affect both sexes. I would assume the disability to be the inability of the body and mind to reconcile with one another.
OP posts:
CheekyMaw · 25/03/2022 14:02

Ha! Don't feed the grift...

TheUsualShitshow · 25/03/2022 13:57

Hmm. So if a man gets breast implants and takes female hormones he's considered disabled for life? So the state of womanhood becomes a disability?

I don't think so.

Maybe if fewer people spent their lives tweeting about their distress, and doing what the rest of us have to - get fucking dressed and get to work even on our worst days - things wouldn't be in such a state.