This screenshot was shared by Franchesca Ramsey on her Facebook account.
This is related: Over on TikTok, there’s a transgender woman who commented that nonbinary people don’t have the same experiences as transgender people, and she’s been attacked for being a transmedicalist.
Basically, transmedicalism* is the belief that you can’t be “truly” transgender unless you’ve undergone (or wish to undergo) some sort of medical transitioning (either HRT or GCS). And while I didn’t track down this woman’s original comment, there’s absolutely nothing inherently transmedicalist about suggesting that people who have not transitioned to the “opposite” gender have different experiences than those who have, just as there’s nothing inherently racist to say that Black people have different experiences than people of color who aren’t Black.
Both of those claims are true, and while it’s reductionist to equate “people who haven’t medically transitioned” and “nonbinary people” (many nonbinary people do, in fact, medically transition, and many binary trans people don’t do so much as HRT, let alone surgery), I’ll definitely agree with the gist. It would be relatively easy for me to just go back as presenting, legally and publicly, as a man. I wouldn’t like it; it would bring me a great deal of discomfort. But I’m not about to suggest that it would be as difficult for me as it would be for, say, Elliot Page. I simply haven’t had life experiences and emotions that would be ameliorated by changing my body (which is NOT the same as saying I’m comfortable in my body, because I’m very much not).
All culturally marginalized people have this in common: We’re marginalized. It would be reckless and disingenuous to suggest otherwise. At the same time, we all live in different margins, and there are times when it is necessary to a communication for us to clarify precisely what margin we’re referring to. I’m physically disabled, but my lack of a left eye impacts my life differently than someone who requires a wheelchair to go places, or someone who is profoundly deaf, or…. I’m neurodivergent, but my Autism requires different management than someone with dyslexia. There are times when it’s useful to include all neurodivergent people together, there are times when it’s useful to include all disabled people together, and *there are times when it isn’t.*
It’s not divisive for people to specify which precise niche they’re discussing. It’s divisive for people to insist that they be included in every conversation, whether or not it specifically applies to them.
* Transmedicalism can also be defined as the belief that you’re not transgender unless you have gender dysphoria, quite possibly as a medical diagnosis, but effectively, my definition above is how I more often see the term being used.
Follow-up: Here is the video that Kay Blaque made. I should have watched it before making my first post, but it turns out she’s saying exactly what I thought she was saying based on the video response I’d seen. The one error I made was believing she was conflating “nonbinary” and “people who haven’t medically transitioned”, when she is clearly not doing so. She’s speaking of “people who have medically transitioned to some degree” vs “people who have not”, and stating that they have different experiences (which they absolutely do). The confusion stems from her responding to a high-profile non-binary creator who has not in fact transitioned at all.
So I’m linking the original video and her response to herself. The latter, about regret, is not “I said some things I shouldn’t have” but rather “I made the mistake of thinking that white leftists would listen to me.”
King started his Birmingham Jail letter by critiquing the white moderate: “I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Council-er or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate.”
But it goes farther: The white liberal is also problematic. We are so used to centering ourselves, a problem that traces back to Susan B. Anthony and well beyond, that we insist our problems and experiences are uniquely and definitely worse than anyone else’s.
I am white. I have white privilege. I am male-perceived. I have male privilege. I am trans and neurodivergent and disabled, but that doesn’t change my access to white and male privilege.
I do not judge anyone for voting for someone other than DJT or Harris last year, because they had to weigh their own risks. I do not want to be judged for voting for Harris, because I weighed my own risks, as well as the risks to my community. That’s another dirty secret about leftists: Many of us shame others for voting for their own self-interests while we vote for ours. I absolutely, 100% voted for my own self-interest.
Anyway. Watch the videos. Listen to Kat’s comments on both race and being transgender. That is all.
https://www.tiktok.com/@katblaque/video/7472192661269761326 https://www.tiktok.com/@katblaque/video/7470295133716565291