Transgender, Transethnic, Otherkin and all the rest

Okay so, I get this question a lot.

Maggie!  if you are soooo supportive of the trans community whyyyyyy do you not believe that otherkin, transethnic, and other identity based dysphoria are real?

Well, after sorting out my thoughts on Gabby, I have an answer for you.

So, when we’re born, when that little sperm connects with that egg, we are born with the potential to be ANY gender.  We are born with the potential to have a vagina, a penis, or any number of intersex genitalia which has a wide range of shapes, sizes and functionality.

Sometimes, wires get crossed, mutations happen and things get disconnected and don’t turn out 100% “normal.”  However, the result is usually completely harmless to the child on a physical level.

Sometimes, there’s no harm on a psychological level.  Sometimes the harm is due more to society’s intolerance of that which they perceive as a choice and their business, which it is neither.  And sometimes, the psychological issues are deep and problematic and need correction through hormones and surgery.

The most common form this takes is transgenderism.  Which is, as you know, when there is a psychological disconnect from the brain chemistry and psychology of a person versus the appearance of the physical body.

More uncommon issues can be being born with outer genitalia of one reproductive system and inner reproductive organs of another system.

Or being born with both “male” and “female” sex organs.  Sometimes, people may be born with a penis but develop feminine curves and breasts NATURALLY.  Sometimes people may be born with a vagina but develop no breasts, no curves and be male-bodies without the assistance of hormones or surgery.

This does happen.  It’s not the most common thing in the world but it does.

These are scientific facts.  While in development, several disconnects may happen to a fetus in the womb.  Several traits may not match other traits.

When looked at this way, being transgender is not that weird or unusual.  It just, to this point, has not been discussed.  However, it’s very valid and even scientific.

When we are conceived, there is not any chance whatsoever of a person being born any of the following:

• A different ethnicity than their given genes
• An animal besides human
• A fictional animal
• A plant
• Anything not human

There was never any potential for a person born of a white parent and a black parent to come out Japanese.  It was never going to happen.

You were never going to be anything other than human.  Ever. 

Believing transgender people are valid in their feelings and need to undergo whatever helps them achieve the body that seems right to them is not a leap of faith.  I’m not believing it because I’m being told to.  There is hard scientific data backing up their existence.  Nothing about transgender people is something you have to just accept without an explanation.

I don’t even have to be a doctor or a scientist to figure that out but for the record, many doctors and scientists have done studies and provided proof that yes, transgender people are real, the do exist, they are not delusional, they are not suffering from a mental disorder and their feelings are not part of a religious or spiritual belief.

People who believe they are an ethnicity that they are not, that they are an animal, a plant, an object, that they have people living inside of their head that are real people and not just psychological projections as seen in Multiple Personality Disorder or any of those things believe those based on complete and total faith.

Essentially, I don’t have to believe or respect your identity as an Otherkin, a transethnic person,  or any of that stuff anymore than I have to believe or respect someone else’s religion.

However, I do tend to respect these people because it is the NICE thing to do.  Just like I respect Christians when they believe things that don’t hurt me or any other religion that believe things that don’t directly effect me.  That’s the non-douchey thing to do.  If someone makes a post on Tumblr about how they are dealing with their wolf side, I’m not going to laugh at them or say they are stupid… I kind of view it as a spiritual belief. A faith.  As long as it’s not hurting anyone, I don’t care.

Transethnicity does hurt people so I don’t respect that bullshit at all, but Otherkin… eh, I seriously don’t mind.

However, like all spiritual beliefs, like all faiths, like all religions, it’s a CHOICE.  As a CHOICE it is not inherent to your birth.  You were not born that way.  You may think you were.  You choose to believe you were.  Just like a Christian chooses to believe that God exists.

Comparing yourselves to transgender people is wrong.  You are comparing a chosen faith to a serious medical issue.

Saying that people have to show you the same respect and courtesy as they show transgender people is false and wrong.

Saying that any of these things is off the table as far as people writing about it goes (for example, Hussie’s making fun of it in his comic recently which is what incited this), is silly.  It’s not the same thing as being transgender, being gay, being a PoC, being all those things. 

Unless you can scientifically prove to me that being those things is anything but faith-based choice, I’m never going to believe that people who have those beliefs are oppressed because other people don’t believe the same thing you believe.

Being oppressed for your faith means being beaten, killed, or in the case of the Jewish community or the various pagan religions of old, being the victims of mass genocide.

Someone on Tumblr saying your beliefs make them laugh because they’re ridiculous is NOT oppression.

Saying someone being transgender is stupid and makes them laugh because it is ridiculous IS oppression.

Because one is a choice and the other is a true, in-born, unchangeable identity.

So yeah.

That’s all I wanted to say on that.

ETA: This is not meant to slight anyone (except maybe racist ass transethnic people) but rather just to distinguish the difference between a medical issue and a religion/spiritual belief.  If you feel like, as an Otherkin or something else, you already knew this stuff and I don’t need to say it, I believe you.  But some Otherkin do need to hear this.