When it comes to Transgender Myths, I hear all kinds of bullshit on a daily basis.
Mainly in the media, which is then believed by the public at large and then regurgitated by certain sections of the public.
I have heard the mantra, “it was on the news, it must be true”, so many times, it is no longer surprising to me as to what people come out with and believe about transgender people.
The media is not in the business of giving you the truth as it serves them no purpose. They are in the business of selling newspapers and ultimately advertising.
Even the BBC, which I detest, does not provide real truths. I still don’t know why people think the BBC is an independent news broadcaster, just because of the way its funded.
Anyway here’s some of the biggest transgender myths and information along with my arguments, why they are not true.
- You can always tell
- You have devalued my womanhood with your actions and by calling us Cisgender
- You just want to go in women’s bathrooms because you’re all sexual predators!
- You should use your own gender bathroom
- You’re a child molester
- Trans people are mutilating children
- Well these kids get drugs, and that’s a form of Medical intervention.
- You’re teaching kids about Trans ideology in schools
- Transgender women shouldn’t be allowed to compete in women’s sports or pro sports
- You are a freak, an abomination. A crime against god
- You have a mental illness
- You are not and never will be a real woman because you can’t have babies
- Gender affirming care/surgery is bankrupting the NHS
- Summary of Transgender Myths
You can always tell
Look, this is only going to end badly! Because you really cant!
By pushing this agender you are actually making things LESS safe for cisgender women because misgendering works both ways.
This misguided ideology is dangerous because if you think that you can always tell that someone is transgender then what happens if as a Cisgender woman is approached and misidentified as trans, then what is going to happen?
What happens if the person doing the approaching is drunk or prone to violence and thinks their “protecting women”?
This is the most recent death of a cis gender woman by someone who thought she was transgender!
Cis woman killed by man who thought she was trans (thepinknews.com)
Two Cisgender People Were Killed in Separate Attacks Motivated by Transphobia | Them
You have devalued my womanhood with your actions and by calling us Cisgender
As stated before in one of my other blog posts, I personally do not like the term “Cisgender“, women are women. Trans or otherwise!
The term cisgender was actually coined by a woman to differentiate “Trans” and “Natural” women.
This is from Wikipedia but other websites are available with this information.
History and usage of the term
Marquis Bey states that “proto-cisgender discourse” arose in German in 1914, when Ernst Burchard introduced the cis/trans distinction to sexology by contrasting “cisvestitismus, or a type of inclination to wear gender-conforming clothing, […] with transvestitismus, or cross-dressing.” German sexologist Volkmar Sigusch stated in 1998 that he coined the term cissexual (zissexuell in German) in his two-part 1991 article “Die Transsexuellen und unser nosomorpher Blick” (“Transsexuals and our nosomorphic view”).
Unfortunately some people think this is now a slur and that they shouldn’t be called “Cis”. I agree.
BUT… this is used on both sides of the argument.
Transgender people mainly use it to differentiate biological people and transgender people.
Transphobes think its is a slur.
To clarify “Cis gender” is someone who identifies as the sex they were assigned at birth. “trans gender” is someone who has changed gender from their assigned birth gender.
You just want to go in women’s bathrooms because you’re all sexual predators!
I have stated this many times in previous blogs, I just want a wee and this is the same for most trans Men and trans Women.
Please remember that the way that the media portrays Transgender people is that all Transgender people are men who are transitioning to women.
You all seem to forget that transgender is both ways and that women transition to men as well!
Or perhaps the media and general population at large only cares about Trans Women?
The argument it seems, is very one sided.
The truth of the matter from my point of view, as a trans person, is that the anxiety I feel has increased massively over the past 12 months because the trans community are being shown more and more hate.
People say, “Well that’s because more women are becoming aware!”
No, its because they believe the BS being pushed by bigots and the media! And in my experience most women care not a jot.
Those that know me and other transwomen also know this is a Transgender myths and BS and all have said they have no problem with sharing the bathroom with me.
A small section of the general population at large are becoming brainwashed because their constantly told “Trans people are sexual predators and deviants”
The number of Transgender offenders who have committed sexual assaults is miniscule, and the number of trans people who have committed crimes in bathrooms is even smaller.
The statistics I’ve read, and i’ll put money on me having read more information than your average Daily Mail reader about Trans people, are very skewed and some of them are down right misinterpretation of facts to serve a purpose.
It is said that 40% of Transgender prisoners are in prison for sexual offenses, but this doesn’t meant that 40% of transgender people are sexual deviants.
The UK has approximately 262,000 trans people (2021 census information), but only 230 people in prison identify as transgender.
This is just 0.08778625954198473 percent of the trans population!
If 40% of transgender people were sexual predators surely this figure would be so much higher. By the way, of those 230 transgender people, 43 identified as women at birth.
What is the policy for trans people in prisons in the UK? (theferret.scot)
In reality women are more likely to be raped or murdered by a member of their own family than a transgender person.
How many transgender inmates are there? – BBC News
From a purely personal basis I would say that because of over three years of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) my sexual drive and libido is extremely low and I know from chats with some of my trans gender friends this is also the case.
Effects of Female hormones on the male body
The exact opposite is true for trans men who take testosterone during transition. In fact during the menopause, some women maybe prescribed testosterone to boost their sex drive.
Masculinizing hormone therapy – Mayo Clinic
If anything transgender people are more likely to be assaulted, raped or killed in bathrooms than the other way around!
You should use your own gender bathroom
Gah! this one does my head in.
Lets just say that if trans men were in the women’s bathroom you’d have more to shout about as trans men, look like and are MEN!
I have a number of trans male friends and if they were in the women’s bathroom you would be shocked.
Oh! I think I know what the issue is here. You don’t want anyone who doesn’t look like the perfect women in the women’s bathroom!
Well, newsflash! not everyone is a size 8, has a perfect butt and pert lips.
What are you going to do if a masculine women enters the bathroom? Scream and point at them as you think their a trans woman???
I know as a trans women I am very lucky that I have very feminine features, no big adam’s apple, no hard square chin, etc….. BUT I know biological women who do!
What do you say to them? Is it going to get to the stage where people point like in “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”?
Now what happens if people are forced to show their id’s to use the bathroom? As all of mine are now show sex as F.
What do you want us to do, drop our trousers? take a blood test? What?
Or will those who say this only be happy when we have shared space toilets?
You’re a child molester
What me personally? Definitely not!
Seriously! This and the next one are two of the worst Transgender Myths.
No, really. Seriously!
Your child is more likely to be molested by a member of its own family, a teacher, or member of the religious community.
Even its own parent are more likely to molest their own child than it get molested by a Transgender person.
Personally, I only just tolerate children, don’t want to be around them in anyway shape or form, but see the above statistics for crimes.
Trans people are mutilating children
Show me one instance where a transgender person has actually operated on/mutilated (as you put it), a child, and lets define this as aged up to 16.
At the moment pretty much worldwide, children can not be operated on for gender reassignment and the only country which allows this, well on anyone under the age of 16 is Slovakia which allows this at age 15.
The UK countries age limits are, England (17), Wales (18), and Scotland (16).
Figures obtained from a number of sources, but this is the clearest : Access to sex reassignment surgery | European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (europa.eu)
The good old US of A is aged 15 to 17 depending on individual states.
This policy is set by government, which transgender people do not control.
Next, as its actually Doctors who have to perform these surgeries, are transgender people responsible for them?
The religious communities are probably responsible for more mutilation of children throughout history than there has been transgender people from the dawn of time!
Female and male circumcisions are still practiced throughout the world in the name of religion.
Lets also not forget that gender affirming care is also provided to non transgender people. Cosmetic surgery, breast augmentation, breast reductions, nose jobs, tummy tucks and the like are all affirming surgeries and are so that the recipient can feel better or more comfortable in their own bodies.
Well these kids get drugs, and that’s a form of Medical intervention.
Even hormone therapy is very tightly controlled and it is rare for under 16’s to be given hormone replacement or puberty blocking drugs without major medical diagnosis.
So, who’s really disfiguring children?
Drugs also brings us on to gender affirming care. Something that gets thrown into the equation when people talk about Trans people and children.
Transgender affirming care is heavily regulated, even for adults, and for children its very heavily regulated. For anyone to get gender affirming drugs, such as puberty blockers, the number of psychiatric procedures that a child has to go through is many and this makes it extremely difficult and many are rejected.
This article explains how many children were referred to the Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS), in the UK, and it equates to somewhere between 30 and 50 per week but only a small percentage get any medical intervention and a smaller amount will then carry this through into adulthood.
This article from Channel 4 explains more: https://www.channel4.com/news/factcheck/factcheck-qa-how-many-children-are-going-to-gender-identity-clinics-in-the-uk
You’re teaching kids about Trans ideology in schools
Oh, you mean things like the “Gingerbread person” or the “Gender Unicorn”?
Well on this I happen to agree but I also think religion shouldn’t be taught to kids under the age of 12 either.
Transgender women shouldn’t be allowed to compete in women’s sports or pro sports
I am no expert in this one as I do not prescribe to or participate in any competitive sports.
However, I think these articles are an interesting read.
Four Myths About Trans Athletes, Debunked | ACLU
Banning trans athletes doesn’t protect anyone, it hurts women (thepinknews.com)
Wave Of Bills To Block Trans Athletes Has No Basis In Science, Researcher Says : NPR
Don’t Believe the Hype: Trans Women Should Compete in Sports (americanagora.org)
What Critics Get Wrong About Transgender Athletes in Women’s Sports (businessinsider.com)
Just remember that trans women are typically on testosterone blockers which is one of the main arguments surrounding this myth.
If you are on testosterone blockers then this stops the body producing testosterone. This drugs is typically seen as one which would give transgender women an advantage.
After 3 years on blockers I can tell you my level is 0.3 nmol/L which is less than most women who’s are normally, 0.5 to 2.4 nmol/L.
Then you say BUT… you’re physically stronger than a women. What a woman of the same size?
Probably not as I cant pick any where near the weight up I once used to be able to.
The picture that people mentally see when they think of transwomen in women’s sport is someone the size of Lawrence Dallaglio running through a field full of women the size of gymnasts! This rarely is the case.
This one is open to debate but I will say that trans sports people were not out there winning everything before sports bodies started banning them.
You are a freak, an abomination. A crime against god
Ah, the “my deity on a cloud”, argument.
“It says in the bible…”
or “God wouldn’t want you doing this because its a sin against god/mankind/anything”.
Really? I personally thing you can make the bible say anything if it fits your needs.
I do not believe in any god and if I did I would ask, why did you make me this way and give me these thoughts. Why did I want to end my life because I couldn’t understand why you made me this way?
Is this the very same god who made man in his own image and then sought to make virus’s which eat the eyes of young children turning them blind? Or the same god who creates massive natural disasters, killing thousands, tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of people at a time?
Or is that okay because they weren’t white middle class Christians’?
You have a mental illness
Define mental illness?
Am I mental for wanting to live my life as my true self? As I see fit?
Or is it because you perceive all the above that I shouldn’t be allowed to do this?
Am I mental for wanting to undergo years of hormone treatment, surgery and life changing, and threatening, therapy and surgery?
Am I mental for wanting to be ostracized by the media, transphobes and bigots?
or
am I mental for wanting to be a better person?
A more productive member of society because I am happier and healthier as a result of taking a decision to not be something I don’t feel right about.
To turn my back on a life which made me unhappy?
What’s utterly mental is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.
I spend 45 years trying to be something I wasn’t. I am not a man and I know many trans people feel the same way I do.
They/I are not happy with the way I look, my gender or my body. I seek to do something about is and one method is illegal (Suicide) and the other I am ostracized in society for doing!
That’s mental!
You are not and never will be a real woman because you can’t have babies
Yes, you are right. I cant have babies. I have no womb, I don’t ovulate.
This woman doesn’t even want to be penetrated so, even if I had a womb and did ovulate I wouldn’t want sexual intercourse with men!
I know I am not the only transwoman who feels this way.
Look, there is a condition called, Mayer-Rokitansky-Küster-Hauser (MRKH) Syndrome, which means that 1 in 5,000 women are born without a uterus, thus making it impossible for them to carry a child. I only know this as a friend of mine has it.
Does that make my friend any less of a woman? I your eyes yes it does! Shame on you!
I am sure that one day Womb and ovary transplants will be more mainstream but for the moment they are very rare. Uterine transplantation in transgender women
What about women who’ve had a hysterectomy, do they cease to become women?
No, that would be ridiculous, so it does not make Transwomen any less of a woman because they cant bear a child.
Gender affirming care/surgery is bankrupting the NHS
When someone said this to me I couldn’t actually stop myself from saying “are you fucking mental?”
Do you really think the NHS is spending all its money on surgeries and drugs for Transgender patients?
How much do you think these drugs and surgeries cost and how many do you think the NHS is doing every year?
Because if you can find the figures then please let me know I would be really interested to see just how much the NHS is spending on transgender affirming care.
Trans healthcare on the NHS is still stuck in the 1960’s and just to see a gender care specialist most transgender people wait upwards of 4 years. That’s just to see a specialist, not to get treatment, not to get drugs, just to see a specialist!
Most of my transgender friends have paid, themselves, privately for their hormones and many have paid private clinics to have their surgery done outside the NHS.
So, tell me again how much are the NHS spending on Gender Affirming care?
Also lets define gender affirming care here, as this is an umbrella term which help people from all walks of life. Cis men and women also qualify for gender affirming care.
Again we go back to surgeries which cis people are provided all the time.
Gender dysphoria – Treatment – NHS (www.nhs.uk)
The most recent figures I can find on the NHS website are from 2015 and the NHS spent the bankrupting sum of £25 million on transgender identity services and surgery. Which pails into insignificance when see the NHS spent £3.5 billion on treating alcohol misuse in the same period.
So, remind me who’s bankrupting the NHS, because it certainly isn’t transgender people who are quite frankly treated as second class citizens by the NHS.
NHS England » Reducing variation in gender identity services
NHS treats transgender people as second-class citizens, says watchdog | NHS | The Guardian
Summary of Transgender Myths
I am sure many people will have many opinions about the above questions. Maybe over time I will add to this and elaborate more.
Trans people are still human beings, I am not trying to ostracize myself but educate others.
Please leave your opinion or add your questions but at the end of the day we, as trans people, are not what the media and transphobes make us out to be.
I never set out to be a trans activist but the more I am pushed, the more I will push back.
Written by Mikki Tiamo.
Photo by Vadim Bogulov on Unsplash’
