Steve QJ
2 min readJul 5, 2022

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Thanks for asking.

1. There is no such thing as a perfect trans person. I didn't ask for one.

2. In my personal opinion, an acceptable age to transition is adulthood. Just as the acceptable age for all types of irreversible, life-altering decisions is adulthood. There should be room for exceptions, as there are in all things, but in general I think adulthood is an obvious point.

3. You should be able to transition to whatever extent feels right for you. But you should also recognise that the extent to which you transition will have implications for the way society perceives you and that this fact isn't hateful. You are entitled, as an adult, to make your own decisions. But you're not entitled to decide how everybody else must feel about them.

So, for example if a male who has taken no hormones, had no surgery, and has no history as living as a woman, asks to be seen as a woman, I don't mind referring to that person as "she" at all. But I think many/most women would be well within their rights to object to that person being housed in a female prison. And before you accuse me of exaggerating, yes, this exact definition is written into law in parts of the US (https://www.wsj.com/articles/male-inmates-in-womens-prisons-11622474215) and UK (https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/housing-trans-women-in-female-prisons-is-lawful-high-court-rules/).

It's genuinely heartbreaking that raising issues like these is so often mischaracterised as hating trans people. I don't. Not at all. I have zero desire to make your life any harder. But issues like these are important. And people get a bizarre amount of hatred for raising them.

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Steve QJ
Steve QJ

Written by Steve QJ

Race. Politics. Culture. Sometimes other things. Almost always polite. Find more at https://steveqj.substack.com

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