Ky Schevers

Back when I was still a transphobic rad fem, I decided I wanted to write a book on "female gender dysphoria" and I started doing research on the history of medical transition, gender dysphoria as a medical diagnosis, transmasculine identity and so on.

I started my research as a true believer in transphobic rad fem ideology but by the end of a lot of my views had changed. Some of this was part of a larger disillusionment with the rad fem movement after rad fem groups started working with the Right.

Rad fem/right-wing collaboration made me doubt and question what I had signed up for but on top of that, a lot of what I was learning was also making me rethink my views on trans people and transition.

For one it became clear that a lot of rad fems and gender crits don't know shit about the history of medical transition or trans people or even the history of concepts they criticize like gender identity.

I was also learning stuff that directly contradicted their theories. Like how transition is supposedly conversion therapy for gay people. What I actually found was that many medical professionals thought it was way better if a person ended up gay instead of trans.

These medical professionals thought that trans people, especially those who transitioned, were sicker than gay people. They would much prefer a person with gender dysphoria deciding to live as a gay person than transition.

If a person with gender dysphoria was judged to be a "self-stigmatizing homosexual", they would be discouraged or prevented from transitioning. They were among the groups gender clinics tried to screen out.

That was just one example among many. I processed a lot of new information that ended up changing my views. At first I tried to reinterpret what I read so that it lined up with my rad fem beliefs but eventually I let myself come up with new ideas and understandings.