One politician says 'transgender is not a mental disorder' while another says 'being cisgender is a privilege'

[QuietContraryMary]

It is quite confusing

www.independent.com.mt/articles/2019-02-01/local-news/Being-transgender-is-not-a-mental-disorder-MEP-Roberta-Metsola-6736202978

"Standing up for LGBTI+ rights, Member of the European Parliament for Malta and Gozo, PN MEP Roberta Metsola underlined that gender identity should not be classified a mental disorder. "

"The issue is expected to be debated in the European Parliament in the coming weeks."

Meanwhile

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6659503/Not-transgender-makes-privileged-says-Alexandria-Ocasio-Cortez.html

"Almost every single person this country can acknowledge some privilege of some type, you know? I’m a cisgender woman, You know, I will never know the trauma of feeling like I’m not born in the right body, and that that is a privilege that I have no matter how poor my family was when I was born"

I am not really clear how having to modify your body to match some mental 'identity' can be anything other than a mental disorder. It is not like homo/hetero/bisexuality, which doesn't require treatment of any kind.

Have got impression from this board that the whole puberty blocking/hormone thing for children is less controversial in the US than here.

In the US, girls as young as 13 are having double mastectomies because they think they're boys.

Problem arises here from viewing power as a fixed property of individuals, rather than seeing power as fluid and dynamic. Though women are subjugated by patriarchy, we are able to exercise power, specifically because we are women. It’s necessarily complex.

In the US, girls as young as 13 are having double mastectomies because they think they're boys.
Thanks OldCrone - so this is not just puberty blocking. What happens if the 13 year old decides to detransition? Or even if they later decide to have a child and can’t ‘chest feed’ I keep on worrying this isn’t always about gender dysphoria but about societal pressures on girls.

AOC exaggerates her background to an imo cringeworthy degree.

She has a very privileged background compared to most US citizens.

Maybe that's why she's deflecting.

I've seen that level of grovelling in others...it's what's expected of allies.

Yes, AOC does poverty virtue signalling. Her father was a New York architect, and they moved to a nicer suburb for (her) schooling reasons. She's middle class, not wealthy, but she didn't grow up in the projects.

QuietContraryMary AntheaGreenfern
Oh - I’d taken what she said at face value. Had better be a bit more cautious in future . Don’t think I’d have given a UK politician such an easy ride but was excited by the fact she was a young woman doing well in US politics.

So 95.5% of the world’s population is privileged? She’s not very bright, is she?

Nettie, the problem seems to be that US politics is either Trump or people desperately signaling as hard as possible that they are not Trump.

It's not very nuanced.

QuietContraryMary
Yes - and I divide all US politicians into Trumpsters and non Trumpsters, thus losing all critical thinking capacity when it comes it comes to the non Trumpsters. Not any more though!