Dear Readers,
I apologize for my overly long absence. I've been incredibly
busy with the end of the semester and with a number of projects dealing with gender dysphoria, with which I have been spending far more time than I perhaps I
should, hence my neglect for this blog. A reader recently presented me with a
question and I decided it was far past time to write on this topic. The
question I was presented with was, “Because of your writings I've realized that
transition is far more varied than I initially thought, can you describe a
little more about the various different kinds of transition?”
So what is transition? This single question is far more
complicated than many people presume. So often stories, the media, our own
perceptions, and even Church policy make this issue feel very black and
white—like there are only two options: transition fully, completely, and
totally or do nothing. Often within communities this idea is
encouraged by the slippery slope fallacy; that idea that if a single step is
taken soon enough pressure will inevitably build that the individual will need
to transition completely, and in the process abandon their community
and ideals completely. This creates a dangerous and pervasive divide in which
transgender individuals either identify themselves as non-transitioning or
transitioning, but this binary is no more correct than assuming a completely
binary experience of gender here in this world.
In fact, the dangers of assuming the slippery slope fallacy
can be shown just by looking at simple numbers. Our best guess is that between
1 in 300 and 1 in 500 people in the United States identify in some way as
transgender, yet only between 1 in 30,000 and 1 in 50,000 apply to have genital
reconstruction surgery. While the price of the surgery and the difficulty in
finding treatment might actively prevent that number from being higher, it
seems reasonable to say that to assume that most transgender people want or
need surgery is a vast overstatement.
Going back to the initial question how can we even define
transition? Is transition the process of accepting the fact that your internal
gender does not match your external gender? Is transition defined by
presentation or wearing the clothing and having the social cues of your internal gender? Should transition be defined legally through name changes and
gender on legal document? Is transition determined medically through the
application of hormone treatments? What if an individual is on hormone treatments
but doesn’t choose to present as their internal gender in public? Has that
individual transitioned? Are surgeries necessary for transition? If so, which
surgeries are necessary?
All of these different actions can be defined as transition
in some way, and within the transgender community we tend to tack on a defining
word in front of transition to help clarify. Transgender individuals socially
transition, legally transition, medically transition, and surgically transition
and each of these types of transition have their own spectrum's. Socially one
could partially socially transition and present as their internal gender in a
part of their life (e.g. at work) while presenting as their biological sex at
home or they could define their process of partially transitioning just by being
called by the name of their internal gender which they prefer and having people
use the pronouns of their internal gender. These types of social transition are
drastically different but both would be referred to as a partial social
transition. Medically an individual could be on a small dose of hormone therapy
to help them cope with the feelings of dysphoria or an individual’s entire
medical plan could be based around effecting the greatest external changes
possible. Both of these actions could be
defined as medically transitioning but once again a vast spectrum of
possibility is introduced.
This means that for each individual the process of
transitioning will be defined differently. Transition or non-transition can’t
be slapped on people like a label at a store. In fact, I would argue that we
need to see transition in a completely different light. I would argue that every
individual with gender dysphoria goes through transition to some degree. Every individual
needs to transition from some degree of pain and sorrow to a place of
acceptance and happiness, and for every individual what needs to occur to reach
that point of acceptance and happiness is going to be different. It is this
transition which I think is the most important, because true happiness is only
achieved through acceptance. Everyone needs to learn how to accept themselves,
they need to accept the fact they have the agency and responsibility to make a
choice for themselves, they need to recognize what choices exist and make an
informed choice, and then they need to accept their choice without any shame,
without any regret, and without any self-consciousness. This level of
acceptance can only be found through a close cooperation with our Heavenly
Father and with the self-assurance that the path we have chosen is right for
ourselves.
I would love to stop trying to define ourselves through the
dichotomy of transitioning and non-transitioning and instead except that the
most important kind of transition occurs inside of ourselves as we learn to
except ourselves, love ourselves, and become comfortable with the choices that
we have made knowing that each choice is individually made in consultation with
our Heavenly Father.
Kyle Merkley
