Thread by @reclaimingtrans

If you claim that being trans is a "mental illness", a "disordered coping mechanism", etc, and that GNC lesbian and gay people are more susceptible to it, aren't you basically pathologizing GNC gay and lesbian people by saying they're more likely to develop this "disorder"?

That kind of thinking feeds right back into the theories behind classic "reparative therapy", that both gay and trans people have a "gender identity disorder", that our gender development was knocked off track in childhood somehow, but trans people's "disorder" is more severe.

This is why conservative Christians have no problem with the idea that trans people are "confused, self-hating gay people". It fits right in with their particular conversion therapy ideology and they see winning acceptance for anti-trans conversion therapy as a stepping stone...

...towards bringing back support and legitimacy for anti-gay conversion therapy. In their view, "same-sex attraction" and "gender dysphoria" are two manifestations of the same "disordered gender identity development" caused by something going wrong in one's childhood.

Placing the "root cause" of these "disorders" in childhood allows conservative Christians to justify actions like banning LGBT books, curriculum and school clubs, forcing queer/trans kids into conversion therapy and even taking queer/trans kids away from supportive families.

Often they claim that the specific "root cause" of "disordered gender development" is failure to connect with the parent of the same assigned sex and/or over-identifing with the parent of the other assigned sex. They use this to justify enforcing conservative gender roles.

So you end up with a justification not only for anti-gay and anti-trans conversion therapy but also for enforcing conservative Christian gender roles and eradicating LGBT people's ability to live openly in the larger culture lest we spread our "disorder" to vulnerable youth.

This is why not only trans people but also gay people, feminists and anyone else concerned about resisting conservative Christian patriarchy and authoritarian attacks on autonomy in general should be opposed to anti-trans conversion therapy. It doesn't stop with trans people.

I started figuring out these connections when I was still a rad fem detrans lesbian & conservative Christians tried to co-opt/exploit my story. They had no trouble with me saying I was a lesbian who transitioned from self-hatred, in fact it was one of the things they focused on.

One person who liked my detrans story was Michelle Cretella from the anti-LGBT hate group American College of Pediatricians. She's also helped lead multiple conversion therapy groups, including NARTH before it rebranded. She's dedicated to promoting anti-LGBT conversion therapy.

In regards to anti-trans detrans narratives, she latched on to the idea that lesbians were transitioning to try to become straight men and act out a kind of heterosexuality because they were suffering from internalized homophobia. This fit in with her conversion therapy ideology.

When the leader of an anti-LGBT hate group who's spent years leading multiple conversion therapy groups started drooling over my detrans story, I started to question just what I'd gotten myself into and what kind of impact I was actually having. I knew this was a very bad sign.

I had been trying to use my detrans narrative & activism to create a better world for butch & other GNC lesbians but here was this anti-LGBT conversion therapy activist trying to use my story to promote her agenda. She saw my story not as a threat but as an opportunity.

Something had to be wrong when agents of Christian patriarchy saw my story as useful to their agenda & it didn't take me long to figure out this went beyond attacking trans people. It's also a way to attack gay rights, feminism & other threats to right-wing Christian control.

In the past I would've thought that conservative Christians would find me & my detrans story threatening to their worldview but as I learned more about their beliefs, I realized the exact opposite was true. My story aligned with their views just fine, confirmed them in fact.

These Christians thought I'd started working through my "disordered gender identity" but hadn't gone far enough for their tastes because I still had "same-sex attraction disorder", so I was still "sexually broken". But that didn't mean my story wasn't helpful to their cause.

Realizing that right-wing Christians could use my detrans story to promote conversion therapy for gay & trans people was an absolutely horrifying wake-up call. It was a huge reason why I started questioning what I was doing & whether it was actually "feminist" or "pro-lesbian".

It forced me to see how the Christian Right's attack on trans people was an attack on the whole LGBT community and an attack on feminism too. It was a way to enforce white Christian heteropatriarchy. I realized I was helping patriarchy instead of resisting or dismantling it.

You can't separate anti-trans conversion therapy from anti-gay conversion therapy. Promoting one makes it easier to promote the other but resisting them both helps create a freer world for trans, gay and GNC people, for feminists and all who defy conservative gender roles.

Promoting conversion therapy for trans people is pro-patriarchy and anti-feminist. Pathologizing trans people makes it easier to pathologize gay people, GNC people and even feminist women. Many conservative Christians claim feminists have "gender identity disorders" too.

Fighting back against anti-trans conversion therapy is fighting back against patriarchy & for feminist liberation. Fighting anti-trans conversion therapy is part of fighting for gay liberation too. All our struggles are connected & none of us will be free until all of us are.