I guess another - less extreme -version of “trans-ableism” - would be claiming to identify as disabled without actually being so and then getting one of those parking passes and using it to deprive a genuinely disabled person of their parking space...
Very much, yes. But it would go beyond that if we were to really run with this analogy.
Very sorry to any people with disabilities, particularly limb issues. This is an analogy so it’s always crude. Don’t mean to cause offence, but it might be hurtful and if so I apologise.
...
So, I’m “transableism”, here re-named “trans-disabled” to mean persons who have no physical disability and four normally functioning limbs, but “identify as amputees” on the inside.
Imagine doctors said:
Sure, people who have this dysphoria need to be treated with amputations because we all have a something called a “limb identity.” Theirs is mismatched.
There is no scientific basis for this. No test. No objective evidence. It’s physical intervention for a state of mind.
We could see then that the early doctors might ask for some hoops to be jumped through to show commitment, some ring-fencing. Perhaps a “real-life test” of a year - where the person doesn’t use the limb in question, or goes around in a wheelchair, uses accessible toilets, tells everyone that limb is missing, changes some official documents, etc.
They’ve not asked actual disabled people about this, mind you.
Nobody ever asks them anything in this analogy.
Then medics start doing some amputations. It’s all a bit quiet and niche. Goes on for many years. Then the trans-disabled having had their operations start taking over disability rights movements and saying they’re uniquely oppressed even by people born disabled because trans-disabled people had to “prove” that they “should” have been born without a limb, unlike the privileged cis-disabled people.
Then they start saying there needs to be some kind of legal documentation so that no distinction can be made between those who voluntarily caused their disability and those who had no choice.
Then there’s a question of why medics are even “gatekeeping” these “identities” with operations. Activists decide that actually no surgery is required, self-declaration must be enough. There’s numerous think-pieces about how words can mean anything, material bodies aren’t “real” anyways and that someone who is running marathons can validly identify as wheelchair-bound internally and use the disabled toilets.
An award for visibly disabled people in business goes to someone who cycles to work, bounding up the stairs half the days, but “needs” full assistance with activities of daily living for the others as they identify as limbless on those days. Because they’re disability-fluid.
Then there’s a campaignl for children to be able to identify as disabled. A Dutch team comes up with a way to “pause” limb development by using a drug for cancer patients, which will keep that limb small. We’re told not to worry because the actual amputation won’t happen until they’re 18. If children “come out” as trans-disabled at school, their parents might not get told, and if they argue that in fact the child has four healthy limbs, Social Services might get called.
The media runs a glorified story of a child whose mother took them abroad for a limb amputation, painting this as a brave story. A charity called Lizards (as they famously lose their tails) campaigns for greater trans-disabled medical treatments for under-18s and partners with a leading international coffee chain.
When disabled people get pissed off about this they get called trans-exclusionary and told to die in a fire. The trans-disability activists start harassing anyone who questions them, sending death threats and setting off smoke bombs.
And finally, when a politician quietly might clear their throat to mention that material reality still matters... a tiny bit... and maybe children shouldn’t make irreversible decisions.... then we get told this is rolling back equality and maybe a bit like being anti-abortion.