I don’t want to be transgender anymore.
I want to live in a post-trans world and get beyond the idea that people of any gender have the right to exercise power over my life, the fundamental essence of who I am and how I express that.
I was going to write more, but what else do I need to say?
I am a woman. You are who you are. Let’s just learn to exist together with love and understanding.
Bring on the post-trans world and the end of cis hegemony.
Before this whole thing ends up killing me.
That’s a bit extreme, I can hear you thinking.
Perhaps it is. But is it not also extreme that in Western Australia we still have a law in existence that has been used by the government to try to force surgical mutilation on trans people before they can have their genders legally recognised? Is it not also extreme that the current State government is refusing to repeal this law because they are afraid it will lose them votes? Is it not yet more extreme that the State government would rather have the blood of trans and gender diverse people on its hands than risk losing a few votes?
Because that is the ultimate endgame when you deny someone their identity. People’s existences are damaged beyond repair. People end up having to hide who they are, afraid of what will happen if they reveal their true identities in some contexts. They hide from families, friends, workplaces, social groups, anyone they think or know will sanction them for being themselves. Denial of self can lead to all sorts of harm, including self-harm and, ultimately, loss of life. It happens.
This is part of the extreme reality that is being played out in Western Australia right now. We have a State government that promised to reform current gender laws and then quietly took that reform off the table when they realised it could lose them an election.
I, for one, am tired of waiting. The current legislation is the very embodiment of government evil. It perpetuates the exercise of power over the lives of trans and gender diverse people in a formal process that values the ‘evidence’ of doctors, psychologists, family, friends, employers, everyone but the trans person themselves. It requires a submission to a board that has the power to reject without ever meeting the person making the application.
How many cisgender people have to go through such ritual humiliation to be able to claim their gender legally? None.
How many cisgender people would be harmed if trans and gender diverse people were able to decide their own genders without interference from anyone? None.
How many trans and gender diverse people are being harmed by a government too weak to show leadership while it desperately tries to cling to power? Too many.
This is the world that trans and gender diverse people are currently forced to live in. This is one reason why I don’t want to be identified as trans anymore. Gender should be confirmed as a social construct and redefined with many points along its continuum rather than just the binary. People should be able to identify as who they are based on their own lived experience.
I am a woman, but don’t call me trans. I will no longer participate in the cisgender majority’s petty power trip.
Bring on the post-trans world and the end of cis hegemony.
