Evan Urquhart

A common stereotype about trans people is we're suffering from a delusion. In my experience, one of the most effective ways to combat that stereotype is for trans people to be able to speak calmly and rationally about scientific topics related to sex, gender, and transition.

Does this inevitably result in well-passing, binary, medically transitioning trans people being accepted and everyone else being left behind? I don't think that's so.

When talking through trans issues with a person who is new to them, I consider getting them to accept that trans people who are very well passing and gender conforming should be allowed to live their lives in peace as a great step one.

It moves them away from a knee-jerk acceptance of extremely harsh measures to punish trans people or prevent them from accessing medical care. That's good!

Once someone has moved from uninformed mild transphobia to somewhat-informed acceptance of gender conforming trans people who pass, you can start to have conversations about how passing isn't always under our control.

You can also move from a discussion of how sex chromosomes aren't binary to the idea that gender dysphoria or internal gender sense might not be binary either, all while staying in this logical, scientific framework, andapplying the same principles you've been using thus far.

Maybe it's just because I'm a fan of science and think it's neat (although the author clearly is too!), but I'm not a fan of trans people considering science to be inherently scary or disadvantageous to us.

I don't disagree with you, but also it is so shitty to accept the average person with gender incongruence to have to gain a master's in biology to back up their very existence. It's necessary work, but it's also fucking tiring so I feel this piece so hard.