Can somebody choose to be transgender? Yipiyap Tutor Alex discusses his own journey with gender dysphoria.

Being trans is not a choice.

I did not choose to transition. In the same way as no-one that suffers pain, chooses to take pain killers. I had to transition to alleviate my gender dysphoria. Transitioning being a need, rather than a want, strengthens our claim for gender affirming health care, making it a necessary treatment and a right that should be protected, rather than something we want.

Is being transgender a personal choice?

Frustratingly, those that argue for transgender rights may use the argument that gender identity is a personal choice and that people ‘should be able to do what they want’. I think this narrative is dangerous as it downplays the medical necessity that transitioning is for many transgender people. Many of us in the trans community transition because we need to in order to reduce the intensity of our gender dysphoria.

While the intensity of gender dysphoria varies, it can often be crippling for some. Trans men with high and/or feminine voices may feel unable to speak in public. As a transgender man, I for one, can’t leave the house without wearing a binder (a vest that flattens my chest).

Terminology:

What does it mean to be transgender?

A transgender person someone whose sex assigned at birth (as defined by hormones, chromosomes, and genitalia) is different to their gender identity (a psychological phenomenon that relates to how we perceive ourselves and the world).

A transgender man is usually someone identifying as a man, who was assigned female at birth. A transgender woman is usually someone identifying as a woman, who was assigned male at birth.

What is gender dysphoria?

Gender dysphoria describes the distress caused by this mismatch and is the primary motivation for transgender people to transition; to live their lives as the gender that they identify as.

What helps with gender dysphoria?

The only treatment for dysphoria is to transition, to live as the gender we identify as, i.e. to have our pronouns and names changed to avoid social dysphoria, to present as that gender, and to in many cases, medically transition (to gain cross sex hormones and surgeries). There is no single surgery that magically changes your sex, instead we may choose to have a series of operations to make our lives more liveable.

Crucially, transitioning is our only option. But it isn’t fun; medically transitioning through surgeries and regular hormone injections is painful and the fear of being ostracised or discriminated against by family, friends, or employers is intense.

The extent to which transitioning is an emotional as well as physical process, evidences the idea that we don’t transition simply because we want to - we transition because we need to. Despite what some media may claim, transgender people do not transition to get attention, for fun, to escape homophobia, or to gain male privileges; we transition out of necessity.

A signpost with two directions both labelled with the transgender icon.

Why do transgender rights matter?

Those that argue against transgender rights may argue that gender affirming surgeries involve mutilating our bodies and that our treatments are experimental and risky.

Arguably, the overwhelming need to transition outweighs this fear; all medical treatments have risks and most surgeries could also be considered mutilations but they are justified as they are performed out of necessity, and so too are gender affirming surgeries. It is simply an element of health care.

Moreover, if the urge to transition is seen merely as a want, then it can easily be dismissed by those that argue that it’s easier not to transition. If it is recognised as a necessity by mental health professionals however, then the ability to transition and to be recognised as our gender is more easily defended as a fundamental human right.

The right to transition goes so much further than the right to express ourselves in any way we want; it is a fundamental right to be able to function as we choose and, importantly, to maintain good mental health in the long term. Acknowledging that transitioning is a necessity makes it far easier to put forward the argument for the protection of this right.

Is being transgender a choice?