To have thought we were well past calling gender dysmorohia a "mental illness"

[mostlikelyanunpopularviewpoint]

Just that really.

My male friend (who is quite young, early twenties) has recently confided in me that he is transgender and wishes to transition into presenting as female. As my friend still refers to himself as 'he' as he is not openly transgender, I shall refer to my friend as 'he' in this post to keep things simple.

What worries me is that he is feeling suicidal, has no support apart from my friend group and is generally in a need of a lot of help right now. Hence I feel annoyed at what happened.

One of our mutual friends who my friend has also told turned around and said to me, "he needs help, it's just a mental illness and he can recover from it and live a normal life."

AIBU to be unhappy at this statement and to think that although obviously this is a very controversial subject, with many different opinions on how integrate trans rights without compromising the rights of biological woman, in this day and age it is not acceptable to refer to someone who identifies as transgender as "mentally ill?"

Also would like to add that this thread is not to debate the rights of transgender people vs woman. I believe there are several threads like for this discussion at the moment, hence my AIBU pertains literally to the fact that I find it unacceptable to call being transgender "a mental illness" which implies it is temporary and is something a person can recover from!

I honestly thought this was discriminatory and that most people do NOT see being transgender as a mental illness?

If transition was the solution, then there wouldn't be so many destransitioned people, many of whom are left with permanent, unwanted physical changes. Of whom many are lesbians, and of course almost all are ignored and/or vilified by the queer/trans community. (The Stonewall Trans Inclusion Officer claims to have met any, which seems to me merely to indicate that the Stonewall Trans inclusion Officer is really shit at their job, because there are loads, and easy to find.)

As a couple of previous posters have pointed out, the problem is not being born in the wrong body, the problem is the narrow definitions of the gender into which you were born. They are too limiting for both men and women. It makes me very uneasy how so many male to female trans people appropriate the very superficial markings of femininity and think that is what being a woman is about.

This. Surely the answer is to do away with the Gender boundaries? Then we could all act in a way that was normal for us.

No Jax, I disagree. I think the boundaries are fine. as they are. Its just we need to tell young people that if you don't quite fit the boundaries, don't tick all the boxes, its no big deal.

Why is an issue even being made of this? When we are young, teenagers etc, we question things, feel differently. May question our feelings. Many may think they are ....gay, bi, then realise they aren't. All normal. But somehow this over-zealous scrutiny, is making those questioning years NOT normal. When in fact they actually ARE.

I see this all as a big deal when there really isn't one.

Only very few people are quote REAL trans. And for those people, I genuinely feel quite sad.

the rest of these people are just band-wagon-jumpers. Or young people are being made to think about this, when they actually don't need to.

I honestly belive gender dismorphia to be a serious mental health issue just like anorexia bulimia and should be treated as such. I don't know what the answe is but I don't believe it's pumping people full of hornones and chopping off bits. Afterall, you wouldn't give an anorexic person liposuction?