The “trans people are mentally ill” is always a funny one when anti-trans people try to use it.
Let’s take that statement as true. The illness could best be described as the gender of the mind not matching the gender of the body. So you only have two basic options to treat this “illness”: change the mind or change the body, so that the two match. Changing the mind is notoriously difficult and prone to unexpected consequences for all sorts mental illnesses, while changing the body is fairly well established practice at this point.
So long story short, if trans people are mentally ill, then gender affirming care should be covered by insurance (or government health care plans, depending on where you are). That usually short circuits the “they’re mentally ill” crowd.
Being trans isn’t a mental illness, but gender dysphoria arising from the incongruity between gender and sex is. Stated so explicitly. It would make transphobes very mad if they could read.
Changing the mind is notoriously difficult and prone to unexpected consequences for all sorts mental illnesses, while changing the body is fairly well established practice at this point.
You need to keep in mind that transphobes often support the use of conversion therapy to torture LGBTQ folks into being traumatized by their own identity so that they simply repress themselves into being “normal.” This is the “changing the mind” you mentioned and they are completely on board with all of the consequences so long as it gives them hope they can stop people from being different.
I view it the same way people misuse “psychosomatic”. (Not to detract from the whole transphobia of it all. We know what they really mean when they say this, of course.)
People use psychosomatic to mean “its all in your head, therefore nothing is wrong.” instead of “You identified a cause of the very real symptoms you’re experiencing.”
Honestly, it sometimes feels like the public has not grown all that much from the “throw the loonies into the asylum” era of psychology.
The “trans people are mentally ill” is always a funny one when anti-trans people try to use it.
Let’s take that statement as true. The illness could best be described as the gender of the mind not matching the gender of the body. So you only have two basic options to treat this “illness”: change the mind or change the body, so that the two match. Changing the mind is notoriously difficult and prone to unexpected consequences for all sorts mental illnesses, while changing the body is fairly well established practice at this point.
So long story short, if trans people are mentally ill, then gender affirming care should be covered by insurance (or government health care plans, depending on where you are). That usually short circuits the “they’re mentally ill” crowd.
This is literally DSM 5
Being trans isn’t a mental illness, but gender dysphoria arising from the incongruity between gender and sex is. Stated so explicitly. It would make transphobes very mad if they could read.
You need to keep in mind that transphobes often support the use of conversion therapy to torture LGBTQ folks into being traumatized by their own identity so that they simply repress themselves into being “normal.” This is the “changing the mind” you mentioned and they are completely on board with all of the consequences so long as it gives them hope they can stop people from being different.
I view it the same way people misuse “psychosomatic”. (Not to detract from the whole transphobia of it all. We know what they really mean when they say this, of course.)
People use psychosomatic to mean “its all in your head, therefore nothing is wrong.” instead of “You identified a cause of the very real symptoms you’re experiencing.”
Honestly, it sometimes feels like the public has not grown all that much from the “throw the loonies into the asylum” era of psychology.