swanblood: th8asigma: see the thing is when i...

swanblood:

th8asigma:

see the thing is

when i came out as trans it was treated as a mental illness. i was told that nobody would do anything for me when i was only thirteen years old, i was subject to all sorts of bullshit discrimination i don’t want to go into in order to prove that I “wasn’t going to regret it later” or that it wasn’t a fetish

to be honest

when/if i go for nonhuman-related body mods I really don’t expect that to happen.

But the reason I don’t expect that to happen is because nonhuman identities haven’t been pathologized to the extent trans ones have. And the pathologization of trans identities happened because people tried to speak with authority on the subject, and standards of cared were codified on the word of people who clearly had anti-trans agendas and thought we were all creepy fetishists.

this affected me in 2003 and it continues to affect me now and it especially continues to effect my friends who are just coming out or starting their transitions now.

like sorry i live in a liberal college town and i still don’t know of any doctors willing to prescribe testosterone. that’s actually really inexcusable on behalf of the entire society i’m a part of, and was easily avoidable by addressing the attitudes of people back when trans visibility was first becoming a thing, but nobody did and I’m sorry.

i wish I could tell you something less heartbreaking but I fucking can’t.

so when people say things to me and other nonhumans

“you’re mentally ill”
“you’ll never be [whatever]”
“you need help”
“it’s a weird fetish”

that sound e x a c t l y like the anti-trans shit I’ve been subjected to

when my nonhuman friends break down in fits of self-hatred feeling like they aren’t worth anything because of their identities

exactly the same way my trans friends do

pardon the goddamn hell out of me

for not wanting the attitudes people champion on tumblr to be affecting nonhumans 50 years from now.

sorry for taking my friends’ feelings seriously.

I’m not trans*, but I am several other minorities and I have been trying to say this for so long. Thank you.

People like us, who have experienced discrimination like this, can see it coming. People who are in the queer communities and have seen this happen to our trans* friends can see this coming.

And we speak and we speak and nobody listens because, privilege. Yes, privilege. The privilege to ignore how we feel, mock and say it’s not serious, because you’re not us.