Is being trans a choice?

[user888]

Spotted in Does anyone ever wonder how this will end? Thought it might be worth its own thread. Maybe not. We'll see.

A friend of mine said it this way ‘being trans is not a choice. What you do about it is a choice’

I think this sums it up perfectly. You could go through life knowing you are transgender (identifying as a gender which is not aligned to your biological sex) but you may spend your life trying to conform to the gender you were assigned at birth (due to your genitals). You would still be transgender but not actively seeking to live as the gender to which you identify for whatever reason. With the right support, awareness etc however you may try to live the life you feel like you should have been living all along.

But what is 'identifying with a gender'?

People would describe my cloths and behaviour and interests as being that of men, and I am VERY uncomfortable trying to be feminine, to the point of when I have realised that other people (well actually men) are relating to me as if I was feminine it does make me very uncomfortable and awkard.

But Im still a woman because I am female (and an adult)

What the jeff is live as a gender though? You could do what most of us do, say I'm female and gender expectations are a load of crap, I'm going to do being female exactly by being just myself, and not trying to conform with anything at all.

From personal experience as a trans person, I would say that being trans is no more of a choice than being gay, or what your natural hair colour is. You can't choose how you feel or who you are.

Also replying to @dyslek, identifying with/as a gender is just your own sense of what your gender is. If someone feels they are a man/male then they would identify that way. The way you choose to express your gender doesn't always need to correlate with that.

So for you Enby a gender is like a special members club that has no relation to physical reality, no relation to stereotypes, you just feel around to see if you feel a psychic affinity with people who currently identify as members, and if you do you sign up, and if you don't you invent a new club just for yourself?

I have some questions. Why is wearing particular clothes "gender" expression though if gender is nothing to do with clothes? Why do people want to change their bodies on the basis of gender if gender is nothing to do with bodies? And why is which club you're in of any interest to anyone apart from yourself if it says nothing at all about your body, tastes, personality etc? What if I generally feel identity with people based on other shared interests, say common interest in stamp collecting - would that make me stamp collecting- gender? Facetious example but serious question. What in particular about some identity feelings makes them a gender and others not?

From personal experience as a trans person, I would say that being trans is no more of a choice than being gay, or what your natural hair colour is. You can't choose how you feel or who you are.

What is the universal experience that you share, as trans people?

OP how do your thoughts about gender and transgender

Lead to your position that

Female people globally are vulnerable to males who rape

Only because they believe they are weak. But in fact they are just as strong as men (in general).

And additionally this belief is the fault of feminism

Even though the fact of males raping women goes back millennia, and happens all over the world..?

To say that the global and historical fact of male sexual violence esp rape

Is down to the billions of women that have ever lived incorrectly believing they were weak

And that this belief is the fault of... Feminists in a certain part of the world at a certain time..

Is grotesque misogyny.

Apologies - OP is on two threads.

It may be the other one where OP asserted that women aren't physically overall in terms of strength etc actually weaker than men.

And further that belief was patriarchal and a damaging misgynist idea promoted by feminists.

@NiceGerbil, none of that is me.

For those with gender dysphoria, it isn't a choice just like being depressed isn't a choice for someone with clinical depression. The transition is often the only method of treatment that's likely to work for someone with gender dysphoria.

Non-binary and other umbrella trans identities are absolutely a choice. They choose to identify as x because they feel x doesn't suit them. It's not dysphoria, it's an unwillingness to subscribe to gender norms and stereotypes and a conscious choice to distance themselves with pronouns and identity markers.

Maybe apologies OP!

There's another thread on a similar topic and I mixed them up.

Genuine apologies. Will read the thread properly.

Ah the poster who said that is on this thread.

And I think the link in the OP is the thread it was said.

Sorry for confusion

No worries NG. Offhand I'd say it was the panda that posted that stuff, but alas I do not wish to wade through all that again to confirm.

Yes it was panda.

Anybody can say they identify as something they are not.

@Frenchfancy

I think for genuine "trans" people it is no more a choice than having an eating disorder is a choice.

I think there are others who chose it as a lifestyle choice.

I think there are others, particularly children, who have it chosen for them because they don't match what parents think are correct girl or boy behaviour or characteristics.

I'd agree with this.

People are trans and people choose to be anti-trans. I am sure there are a small number of people, there are with all things, but I have yet to meet anyone with a personal reason for being anti-trans so its definitely a thought out choice.

@PrincessNutella

Anybody can say they identify as something they are not.

Yes this is true.

Yes indeed, my choice to support the rights and spaces of girls and women has been thoroughly thought out.

What is more likely?
A whole load of women, usually progression and liberal woke up one day and went, ' I fancy being a big biggy bigot'. Then their friends who had previously been in the #bekind camp thought, 'wow biggity big bigotry looks ace. I'll try that to.

Or that trans activists directly impact and threaten women's sex based rights?

And yes, around two years ago I was sharing two spirit articles and defending the most discriminated against ever. But as a sports for girls and women advocate I started to see the cracks.

Still waiting for someone to change my mind. I'm afraid hyperbole and name calling doesn't work on me.

Progressive too
Would love a grammar only edit button.

I think that the answer to the question must be that for some people it is a choice and for others it is dysphoria, a mental health condition requiring skilled and compassionate treatment on the NHS. Even with dysphoria surely then it is a choice to call yourself trans and perhaps also to sign up to gender identity/queer theory. There are other strategies for coping with dysphoria, psychological therapies which can support the acceptance of the body and the rejection of stereotypes.

@TheSlayer

What is more likely? A whole load of women, usually progression and liberal woke up one day and went, ' I fancy being a big biggy bigot'. Then their friends who had previously been in the #bekind camp thought, 'wow biggity big bigotry looks ace. I'll try that to.

Or that trans activists directly impact and threaten women's sex based rights?

And yes, around two years ago I was sharing two spirit articles and defending the most discriminated against ever. But as a sports for girls and women advocate I started to see the cracks.

Still waiting for someone to change my mind. I'm afraid hyperbole and name calling doesn't work on me.

Well something happened, and probably funded by the Christian right. The equality act has been in place for over ten years that allowed trans people to self ID. No issues, no incidents. Male perverts continued pretending to be women, not trans women, to access single sex spaces. Your post is the definition of hyperbole and name calling.