Thread by @stephenwhittle

1. @Hilary_Cass - until the early 2000s genital surgery wasn’t a realistic option for UK based trans men - the only surgeon was crippling trans men with appalling surgery - so 99% of us didn’t even attempt to have genital surgery

Now Trans Men can choose from none to minimal…

2. … intervention metoidioplasty w/out scrotoplasty/ urinary hook-up to an all singing & dancing phalloplasty w/ vaginectomy, scrotom, ‘testes’, an erectile device & pump, & the ability to stand & pee

That requires 5 or in some cases more surgeries & still carries some …

3. … risk rsp. if wanting the ‘full works’. It as as the lead surgeon says as much an art as a science. But when successful it can fulfil the 3 requirements of
— looks good.
— works well for intercourse & orgasm
— enables Stand to pee

It is major & caution is still urged.

4. In order to have it TM need
— a safe job that accommodates the stages,
— family support for the recovery period, &
— to learn how to have a successful sexual relationship before starting such surgery, as the change in body ‘geography’ can be challenging post surgery

Having…

5. … said that long waiting lists/poor work situations mean many trans men will not embark on genital surgery for many years post transition, if at all.

Whatever their surgical status they continue to have happy steady relationships, to build careers & to raise families.

6. Is this relevant to the Cass Review?

You imply young people who say they are non-binary, are being cautious because they are not really trans.

A. Isn’t everyone (apart from the plastic people on Love Island) to some extent non-binary. It’s just some feel more …

7. … non-binary than others

To imply a young person is not really trans unless they are desperate for full transition is contrary to contemporary understanding & best practices, which call for more flexibility not less.

B. Affirmative treatment is fundamentally misunderstood

8. Recognising & acknowledging a young person’s distress, that their incongruence is real & providing initial relief by using a preferred name & pronouns, builds the trust required for the YP to open up & be willing to enter a long term therapeutic relationship.

Whether or .,,

9. …, or not they then transition, they will be in a better place to make a good life.

C. You fail to acknowledge there is no trans ideology.

It is ironic in light of your narrow view of counting success: a job, spouse & house.
How heteronormative can you get?

These are…

10. … standards most non- professional, non middle class, people cannot achieve

D. You expect young trans people to achieve this high standard despite the prejudice, discrimination & hate crime that has multiplied since the rise of GCs in 2016.

Further how many non-trans…

11. … people fail to achieve this, & of those who do, 1/3 of marriages end in divorce, more kids live in complex families & at least 2 homes than ever in history& lesbians gave the highest per head divorce rate

E. This insistence on higher levels of resilience & …

12. … standards is what TP have always faced

We have to:
- Work harder & faster to get & keep any job
- be more hetero & normative than everyone else,
- never be profligate, achieving the semi detached was a must
- & not rock the boat by asking for more than you deserve …

13. I was told I had to achieve that in 1975 - not 2024

Ironically I have achieved it, but it was nothing to do with doctors, or meds, or surgery.

It was down to my imagining a just alternative & working my socks off to achieve it

F. If only you …

14. … had asked the major ‘trans’ theorists; @susanstryker @katebornstein @JayDProsser, @sally_hines @JoanRoughgarden @Max_Morris @JuliaSerano even dare I say @stephenwhittle & a huge tranche of wonderful young researchers, you would… find that they call for more …

15. … acceptance of different ways of being trans without making passing or surgery the ‘be all’ to trans lives

In response Janice Raymond’s 1979 trans-exclusionary thesis ‘The Transsexual Empire’, Part of @Allucquere ‘s ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ said to reclaim our history…

16. … in order to take back our lives.

G. The only people demanding genital affirmation are the GCs

They claim they still have a right to speak ‘truth’ to & about the body of the ‘other’, whatever the results of genital affirmation.

If you met a trans man unless you are …

17. … his medical doctor, or his lover, you probably could not imagine what his genitals might look or feel like - they come in such a wide variety of forms.

But if you did become his lover, like myriads of partners & spouses reaching back down the centuries, you would…

18. … discover:-
The penis does not the man make.

The genital shape of the person you love really doesn’t matter. Like millions of women (& men) before you who have lived with & loved gay, lesbian or trans people you would discover that, just as women’s magazines…

19. .., promoted throughout the 80s, intercourse is not the only, nor even the best way, for a woman to reach orgasm.

But all of that will only become relevant to our happiness if we are not expected to meet these super- heteronormative standards you are promoting .

20. Your review is undermining everything done to promote alternative ways of being trans

I suspect for you, like GCs, we make the solid ground that comes with a capitalist, patriarchal system, shake beneath your feet.

I intend to carry on stamping my feet & even harder

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