Latest / Queer 101 with Peppermint / Gender-Affirming Care Explained—Without the Scare Tactics

Transcript

Gender-Affirming Care Explained—Without the Scare Tactics · Queer 101 with Peppermint

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_02: When Roe v.
• 0:00
  SPEAKER_02: Wade was overturned, many of us were not surprised because we have seen for years how this government in particular has made it a point to target folks with bodily autonomy, regardless of whether you are transgender, black, indigenous, a person of color, disabled, living with HIV, living in the South, working class, we all deserve the right to determine our futures for ourselves.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: Can't help but be reminded of gender-affirming healthcare.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: Things like puberty blockers, hormones, surgeries that alleviate our dysphoria and save our lives, because those are heavily gatekeeped too.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: While some doctors do offer these things on an informed consent basis, many others require that a therapist verify that you are trans enough to deserve them first.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: The right to access gender-affirming health care is under attack across the United States.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: In some cases, doctors who prescribe puberty blockers or parents who support their children's transitions in any way can be criminalized for doing so.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_01: If you believe in bodily autonomy, then you believe in trans healthcare.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_01: Here's why.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_01: Bodily autonomy is a core belief that each of us are entitled to make the decisions that we want to about our bodies, and that these don't have to be understood by people around us.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_01: Being supportive of bodily autonomy means that you are supportive of people having access to things like safe, regulated abortions.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_01: It means you believe that people are entitled to get whatever cosmetic surgeries or tattoos that they wish to get if it's going to make them feel happier.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_01: It also means that you support access to trans health care.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_03: Hey, hey, hey, y'all.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_03: Welcome back to Queer 101, the podcast, where we talk about any and everything under the sun, including queer art, queer culture, queer literature, whatever we want, honey.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_03: And of course, queer politics.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_03: A quick word for anyone who hasn't tuned into this new season yet, season two.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_03: I'm changing things up a bit for this season two.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_03: First of all, we are uh not joined by my fabulous co-host, previous co-host Hugh Ryan, who is doing some fantastic things, and hopefully we'll get to see uh have a visit with Hugh later on in the season.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and I am gonna be focusing a lot on topics and guests and um all that jazz uh that are really meaningful to me.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_03: Things that are just like top of mind.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_03: Uh and I've even had a couple new segments that I think are really gonna be fun that y'all are gonna like too.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_03: But no matter what I've done or do, I would like for y'all to please, please, please let a bitch know I shouldn't curse.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_03: Fuck shit, bitch cunt.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_03: There we are.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_03: I cursed it out of the way.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_03: Should we bleep that?
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_03: Um these are just on my mind.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_03: You know, this is as close to a live as it's gonna get right now, just so you know.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and also I want this to be a conversation, though.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_03: I want it to be a dialogue between you and me in the comments.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_03: I want to hear from you.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_03: Please let me know what you think of like the show, the direction, things you want me to talk about.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, bring it into the comments.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_03: I may now if you like come for me, I will cut you.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_03: But you can have a civil discourse, darling.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_03: Um, or civil disagreement.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_03: But whatever it is, keep it civil.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_03: Please, honey.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and if you have any questions, of course you can leave them in the comments.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_03: Or you can DM or email me at queer101podcast at gmail.com, and I will never respond.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_03: I'll answer your message.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, so let's begin.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_03: I want to talk about something that is definitely in the news a lot, but without a really a whole lot of clarity or factual information, and that is gender-affirming care.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_03: Gender-affirming care.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_03: Um, here's the bottom line, people.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_03: Everyone deserves to feel at home in their own bodies.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_03: And I would also venture to say that everyone deserves free fucking health care.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_03: That's my opinion.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_03: Gender-affirming care, it can be life-saving, stabilizing, and deeply personal.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_03: It can be all those things, and it might be one of those things, and it might not be any of those things, or it might be different things.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_03: But whatever it is, it's none of your damn business.
• 4:20
  unknown: Okay.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, I'm very combative today.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_03: Um, I also want to stress that gender-affirming care, contrary to popular belief, is not just a trans issue.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_03: It is ultimately, you know, I mean, listen, gender-affirming care, by definition, is any type of care, medical or therapeutic or self-care that is done for the purposes of affirming one's gender or affirming even what they what they communicate about their gender, right?
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_03: You know, the biggest type of gender, the and the easiest gender-affirming care that you can all probably understand is, you know, a haircut.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_03: Back in the day, and I don't even know what age you are, but like back in the day when I was younger, a man having uh long hair meant he was trying to be a woman.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_03: Just that.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_03: Like having long hair.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_03: Of course, when we got to the 80s, all that went out the window.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_03: And that really was a kickback against a resistance to the strict gender binary.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_03: But before that, if a guy had hair that was long and wasn't like uniformly cut or professional, because they called that professional, then a guy was tr basically trying to have sex change.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_03: And that was gender-affirming care, not gender-affirming care to have sex change, but that was gender-affirming care.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_03: Men would go, like, he might want to grow his hair out long, but he wouldn't do it.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_03: He would have to get his hair cut short so that he could blend in and behave and and conform and and feel better about being masculine or manly, right?
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_03: Um that's just like my little aside.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_03: No matter what it is, it's all about bodily autonomy, the ability to make your own decisions about your own body, getting the haircut you want, have taking the medication that makes you feel better, and that is between you and your doctor.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_03: You know what I mean?
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_03: And bodily autonomy isn't just about making changes that that to your body that other people might feel uncomfortable with, but you're like, whatever.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_03: It really is like, you know what, listen, if your doctor says that you've got some kind of, you know, terrible disease or or condition, and this is what most people do, most people take chemotherapy for it.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_03: If you don't want to take chemotherapy for it and you just want to try to eat some healthy food or do nothing, that is your business.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_03: That is bodily autonomy.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_03: And so it goes both ways, right?
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_03: Um, just as long as you we are not like harm, if you have a communicable disease that's like the plague, you know, and it's contagious and everyone's getting it, then obviously there's a public health concern.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_03: But I digress.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_03: Bodily autonomy is for everyone.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_03: And so the question is not just whether trans people get health care, it's honestly who gets to decide what happens to our bodies.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_03: And when I say our bodies, I don't just mean trans people's bodies.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and this really does connect to the broader fight, just it's it's not just a trans issue, it's an abortion access issue, it's a um reproductive access issue, it's about contraception, uh disability rights.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_03: It's also about um uh class and status and who has access to money, who can afford those fancy whatever drugs, the fertility drugs, who can afford a doctor, who might not just be your general practitioner, but also like your fertility specialist.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_03: Who can afford, you know, who can afford to save their DNA?
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_03: That's not so clinical, but who can afford to freeze their sperm or their eggs for later use uh when it comes to parenting and bodily autonomy?
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_03: This is an expanded conversation about um reproductive health care.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_03: And so, you know, also the conversation that's been really coming up lately is a conversation about hormones and hormone replacement therapy.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_03: We've obviously been hearing a lot about testosterone from their current administration uh and ordering the soldiers and the military fighters to uh people who are enlisted in the military, to, I think the army specifically to have like almost force them to um take it, I think, or making it available.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_03: I'm not sure.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but that is uh gender affirming care.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_03: And it is also um, you know, well, it's also what is bringing what is inflating the conversation about hormones.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_03: And I think I mentioned this on a recent episode, but I was watching my good old Judy girl, uh Tamman Hall, who and I just done a podcast called the um, which y'all should check out.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_03: Uh I did the um menopaunx podcast, like menopause but menopaunks podcast recently.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_03: So keep your eyes appealed for that.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_03: And we were talking about uh um hormone replacement therapy and how estrogen treatment and hormone replacement therapy, which commonly, although commonly we we we think of as prescribed to perimenopausal what menopausal women, people who are menopausal, perimenopausal, post-menopausal, um, as a treatment, and that's the first time I'd ever really heard about hormone replacement therapy was in the context of menopause.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_03: Um there's a lot of women who've been, or a lot of people in general who've been discouraged from taking any hormone replacement therapy, especially estrogen, because of fear of cancer and um, you know, heart attack and like all these other things.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_03: And while those things might be a like a possibility on paper, they're not widespread and it's not like an inherent risk or danger, contrary to what a lot of people thought.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_03: And doctors were telling people, don't take it because of this, and mothers and people were telling their family, like family lore, don't take hormones because of this and this and this.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_03: So maybe that's why people are so ignorant about gender-affirming care that as related to trans people, because they think that taking hormones is like gonna give you cancer and blow up your brain.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_03: When it just, you know, balances out your body.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_03: Every single person who's human needs three at least at least three of the probably thousands of actual hormones.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_03: They're not necessarily sex-related hormones or sex development hormones, but there are many hormones that are in our bodies.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_03: One of them uh is testosterone, another one is estrogen, the other one is progesterone.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_03: And they all work hand in hand to keep everybody's body balanced.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_03: And believe it or not, you can be the most manly man in the world or the most feminine woman in the world, both of those people have both estrogen and testosterone, and it should be balanced.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_03: Clock the T.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_03: Anyway, um, it also is an issue of disability rights and uh, you know, intersex bodily autonomy because there are people who are born who have different conditions that they would call intersex conditions is more of a subject or an umbrella term that, you know, would cause them to have different chromosomal makeups, different hormone uh, you know, sort of makeups in their body.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_03: Um, hormone makeup.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_03: I would actually start a line called hormone makeup, but I would spell it different.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_03: I don't know what's wrong with me today.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_03: Um anyway, and so that's another area besides just HRT or hormones education in general.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_03: So many people, myself included, are really undereducated about intersex, can various intersex conditions.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_03: I know PMOS, formerly PCOS, uh, is a, I think might be a related condition, Swire syndrome, Turner syndrome.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_03: There's a several different ones, too many to to name, especially since I don't know nothing about them.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and neither do you, so shut the fuck up, none of your business.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_03: But we all need to educate ourselves on what we don't know so that we can understand it's none of our business, and this is for doctors, not for you.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but also HIV care, reproductive justice, obviously, medical racism.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_03: Like all of these things intertwine in what constitutes gender-affirming care and access and how people can access it.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_03: So it's not just as simple as everybody just go to the doctor tomorrow and the next day you are, you know, uh a different sex.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_03: It's just not as that doesn't happen.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_03: Um so defining gender-affirming care, honestly, it really does mean health care and support and you know, psychological care, therapy, whatever that helps people live in alignment with their gender.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_03: For instance, as a there's a lot of young men who go through puberty and at a pubertal age, pubertal age will develop breast tissue because that's when everybody's bodies are starting to develop.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_03: And if they develop breast tissue, it can develop into what they call gynecomastia or like titties on a boy.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_03: And when boys are younger of that age, other boys may tease them and may feel uncomfortable.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_03: They want to develop into like the this like looks maxing guy, and they have boobies.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_03: And that is there's nothing wrong with that.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_03: It's natural, it's what happens to their body, it's not necessarily typical.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_03: Um, or it might not be what people can it certainly isn't what people consider as the standard for male development, and that can cause some serious stress where a boy doesn't want to take off his clothes or change in front of anybody.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_03: He might feel a certain way, maybe he wants to bind or wear a tight shirt underneath to hide that.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_03: Lots of different things that people do to hide their unwanted extra breast tissue.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_03: And the more extreme methods that people will go to is taking uh hormone replacement therapy, taking having um surgery, surgical intervention.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_03: But that's not something you just decide at the at the grocery store or you can do in the lunchroom.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_03: That sounds absurd for me to even imply that a boy who's worried about having extra booby titty fat is gonna get it done at lunch.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_03: But that's exactly what the president of the United States has said about trans people that we are getting gender reaffirmed assignment surgery by the lunch lady in school.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_03: It's not happening, just like it doesn't happen to your your child.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_03: And so, but that is something that I believe should be available to that young man and his parents alongside the guidance of their doctor, right?
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_03: So gender affirming care, that's what it what it can include, but it also can include everything from names and pronouns to gender uh, you know, sorry, gender social transition, like what you wear, like the clothing and how you just present, haircuts and whether somebody wears makeup or not, things like that that impact your presentation.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_03: Uh therapy, counseling is alongside gender affirming care.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_03: And for many trans people, it is a prerequisite to even receiving gender-affirming care, you know, like medical gender-affirming care.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_03: But then once you do, then you may have access at a younger age to things like puberty blockers.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and that is the the usually often the very first um level of gender-affirming care, medical gender-affirming care that that people that youth can receive.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_03: And that is for nine times out of ten in the United States, 18 and older.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_03: For some people, it's accessible at 17, maybe 16.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_03: There's a lot less states that offer it now for anybody under 18.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_03: And there's some states that have recently raised their 18-year-old age to 19 only for trans people.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_03: How's that freedom?
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_03: But all that to be said, not only would it go against this the typical standards of care for trans people that are in the DSM V, it would also possibly can be considered malpractice.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_03: And then it wouldn't even look good or even be effective to try to give surgery to somebody who hasn't had years of hormone therapy.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_03: Because in order, that's almost like saying, let me let me braid your hair, but you're bald.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_03: First, you have to do the hair growth serum, whatever, and then we can braid your hair.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_03: The surgery is like braiding your hair.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_03: The hormone replacement therapy is taking monoxidil or whatever to grow your hair.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_03: You have to do them in order because otherwise it just doesn't work.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_03: Y'all president is up here talking about people are getting their hair braided in the lunchroom.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_03: Go with me here.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_03: I'm using an example.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_03: But it's not happening.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_03: People need to grow it first.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_03: But none of that's happening in the in the lunchroom.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_03: It's happening with the privacy of their doctors and their parents.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_03: Then they might decide for some for a lot of people, for most people, that's enough.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_03: Some people may decide, just like that young man, maybe his friend decided to wear a shirt, maybe the other friend decided to take some hormone therapy, to have a little bit more testosterone.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_03: But you don't just pop that at the at the pop that, pop that, ow.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_03: You don't just pop that, you have to get a doctor to prescribe it.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_03: And before a doctor would prescribe it, they would usually test to see what your levels of hormones are in your body to begin with.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_03: And then they would figure out how much to supplement, right?
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_03: Because there is a targeted number goal.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_03: It's different for everybody, but there is a standard and typical goal.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_03: Then that other person, that other boy, may say, well, not the hormones the hormones didn't work, and the diet shirt was these boobies were bumping.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_03: So now I need surgery.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_03: And that is something that a cisgender boy can get with his doctor and their parents.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm keeping all of this within the framework of cisgender people because most people are cisgender, and most cisgender people don't understand any of this.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_03: And so I need to do this as if it has nothing to do with trans people, so that you can understand how reasonable it is for you to get it, and then you can understand why denying it to someone just because they're trans is fucked up.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_03: There are other surgeries depending on what the desire is and what the need is.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_03: There's even things like voice care.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_03: There are speech pathologists and speech specialists who specialize in voice work.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_03: And these people work with singers and they work with actors all the time.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_03: Your favorite actor who was, you're like, damn, I didn't know he could speak in that language or speak with that accent, or I didn't know she could sound like that, or wow, that doesn't sound like that.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_03: They worked with this voice specialist, the same type of person that works with many people who would like to receive voice care for gender-affirming care.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_03: Maybe you're a girl who, you know, go went through puberty and for some reason she is has a really deep voice.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_03: There are women with deep voices.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_03: I know boom.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_03: And maybe she doesn't want a deep voice.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_03: Kathleen Turner comes to mind.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_03: And y'all don't know, but if you're old, then you know.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_03: Um and she obviously had a deep smoky voice, but there's some women who probably don't want that.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_03: And if they don't, then gender forming care is an option.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_03: Voice, non-surgical, voice work, also surgical work.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_03: Believe it or not, it is possible.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_03: I wouldn't recommend I I'm kind of afraid of that.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_03: Um, the more common ones are things like hair removal, legal document changes, like getting your driver's license changed, getting your passport.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_03: That is uh a major, you know, talking point in this country right now.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_03: Passports.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, but all that to be said, there is no single way to be trans, y'all.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_03: There's no way to be trans, there's no single checklist for a transition, a medical transition, a social transition.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and not every trans person needs or wants the same care.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_03: Just like those three teenage boys with the boobies didn't, they didn't all want the same treatment.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_03: One got the tight shirt, one got hormone replacement therapy, one had surgical, and one of them was like, let them fly free.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_03: And that's what they did.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_03: You know, but bottom line is gender-affirming care, it is individualized, it's not one size fits all, and it should be done with your medical professional.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_03: Boom.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_03: Because why?
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_03: Because of bodily autonomy.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_03: Bodily autonomy is exactly what we thought.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_03: It what exactly what I said.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_03: It means having the right to make informed decisions about your your own body.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_03: Ultimately, it really does mean making any decisions about your own body.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_03: The right to do that.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_03: But informed decisions when in the in a medical context, it needs to be informed.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_03: It's better if it's informed, uh, you know, and it's better if it's guided.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_03: Um, which gender affirming care in in this country, it always is, well, I can't say it always is.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_03: It is, and it pr m um predominantly is, with the exception of people who decide, maybe because they feel the need to, access it illegally, unsafely.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_03: And those are the people that we um have heard stories of botched sort of surgeries, injections of substances from, you know, um the hardware store construction grade cement getting put into someone's body because they're desperate to ha to try something that will be anything but and just so you know, there are levels of gender-affirming care and well left levels of dysphoria.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_03: You know, it's not body dysmorphia, but there are levels of insecurity that people feel, or levels of thought and feelings that people feel about their um own body, ranging from insecurity to like absolute extreme feelings of like either disgust or frustration, whatever.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_03: And that can be for anybody, whether they're cis or trans, when it veers the more extreme versions of it veer into gender dysphoria.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_03: And I think anybody can experience gender dysphoria, of course, but for many people, when it's grave enough to make decisions that are life-altering, and I'll say if it's grave enough to need remedies because your life is so miserable and it's impacting your life so gravely that you need a remedy or relief to that, that is the type of that's where it usually fits for trans people.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_03: Never being able to transition medically is not just like, oh, well, I could just wear some tight t-shirts.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, there are some trans people who feel that way.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_03: For many trans people, it is a collection of all those things or several of those things.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but an informed decision alongside with your doctor is what we're doing in the United States.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_03: And that's what we want to fight for for everybody to be able to access that.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_03: And they should be able to have the right, bodily autonomy in general is having the right to say yes or no, or maybe or not yet.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_03: And, you know, this is what I need, this is who I am.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_03: And for trans people, bodily autonomy means being with trusted experts, being honestly the trusted experts on our own lives.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_03: And so currently we're seeing all these attacks on gender-affirming care, you know, about control, you know, and they're really it's not care at that point, it is control.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_03: When politicians are, you know, saying that they're trying to protect us or protect little kids by taking away our choices, that is not protection.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_03: It is control.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_03: It is a level of control to stop people from feeling empowered in their own body.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_03: Because, honey, when I have to really think back when I was younger, teenage and beyond, I had a level of insecurity about myself, especially as related to my body and how I looked and presented to people, that was stifling.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_03: And now that I've obviously transitioned medically or begun medical transition and engaged in medical transition for myself, in addition to other forms of gender for me care, I feel so great.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_03: I am happy all the time.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_03: You know, like obviously, if I stub my toe, I'm like, oh, you know, angry about it, or if something happens, I feel like I do have reactions to things that happen in the world.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_03: But about myself, my body is not, nothing about my body is a a good excuse to not follow my dreams or not try new things.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_03: And that is definitely thanks almost entirely to my engagement with I'm getting married to gender-affirming care.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and so what people are doing is a lot of fear and misinformation.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_03: We are seeing scare tactics being used about, you know, we need to protect little girls, and then you see these now pretty much AI-generated advertisements politically with an some big burly person who's six, seven feet tall with a mustache, you know, trying to join the little baby girls ballet team.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_03: Whatever.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_03: The point is, I don't know anything about sports, trying to be in the presence of little babies.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_03: And that is psychological that is subconsciously supplanting that trans people are also all um trying to harm children sexually.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_03: I don't have any other way to say it.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_03: And a PDF.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_03: And that's not true.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_03: Um, I mean, it's just you gotta think.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_03: They can never, they're rarely ever actually getting real trans people and engaging with real trans people in the majority of these ads and these things and these clips, and they're never like, how do you feel?
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_03: And who are you, and what do you need, and what is that they're not that's not usually happening.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_03: Um, so it's really misrepresented to scare people, you know, and there's a lot of myths about it.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_03: You know, people are just being rushed into care, that parents have no role or no say, and that the doctors are careless or the doctors are there to make money.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_03: I also think gender-affirming care should be free.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_03: However, you're not about to tell me that every single time you visit a doctor, it's been free in your whole life.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_03: I know we're not about to say the only people who charge for any medical care are the ones who provide gender affirming care for trans people.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_03: I know you're not about to try to convince me of that.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_03: Because if you want to have a conversation about why the medical industry is too expensive and why the medical corporations and insurance uh um companies are putting profits before people just like your favorite you fill in the blank company or corporation, food, housing, all that stuff is profits before people as well.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_03: Now, we can definitely be on the same page about I have a problem with that.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_03: But you're not about to just make trans people suffer.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_03: No, ma'am.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_03: Um, the other thing is that the doctors are careless, and I guess there's this notion that doctors who care for trans people only care for trans people.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_03: That's not true.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_03: Every single doctor that I know of who cares, who treats trans people, treats black people, treats short people, treats uh people with diabetes, treats people who they like they don't they'll see anyone.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_03: There's another misconception is that trans identity, then the whole topic of transness is new.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_03: No, darling.
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_03: She's been around, they've been around, he's been around too.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_03: Um, that uh gender-former care is experimental and that we don't know anything about it.
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_03: That's definitely not true.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_03: It goes back almost a hundred years now.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_03: Well, literally a hundred years now.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_03: Um, certainly back to um it goes back several many decades into the 60s and 70s in the United States.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_03: And before that uh goes back to, you know, uh Weimar Germany and Magnus Hirschfeld's uh Sexual Institute Institute for Sexual Institute for Sexual Freedom, wisdom, whatever, sexual institute, uh Magnus Hirschfeld.
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_03: Um and, you know, it's not new.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_03: And in reality, care usually involves several many conversations, assessments, screenings, consent, medical guidance, age age-appropriate steps at the time, right?
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_03: And woo, honey, if I told you how long I had to wait just to get a damn appointment just to talk to somebody, then you would understand that it just does not come so easy.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and so there's a lot of misinformation that turns trans people into these sort of political targets or footballs.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_03: And they're not trying to understand our health care.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_03: They are trying to make our existence sound dangerous so that you are looking the other way for some puff the magic dragon instead of the fact that your rent just went up.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_03: And so did your gas, and now you got motherfucking diarrhea from your groceries.
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, bitch.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_03: I don't know, I'm so punchy today.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_03: Um let's talk about who's most impacted.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_03: All y'all.
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_03: Next.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_03: That's not true.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_03: The people who are most directly impacted by when I'm talking about everybody's impacted in terms of their bodily autonomy.
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_03: And in a wider sense, everyone's impacted even by lack of uh blocking access to gender-affirming care.
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_03: Obviously, trans people are immediately impacted.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_03: Then people, cisgender people who need or want gender affirming care are impacted.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_03: But then when it comes, when it comes to the when you're when we get to the point where we when we we go from the government, your employer, and no every no the only people who have access to your medical records are you and your doctor and your care your caretaker, you know, your your guardian if you're a minor.
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_03: What going from that, what, last year, till now the president can look through your medical records and decide.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, I'm I'm being slightly hyperbolic.
• 32:31
  SPEAKER_03: Let me not, that government officials can now have access to your medical records and get them from your doctors without your permission and utilize that information and share it with corporations and CEOs, essentially, like Meta and whatever other apps that they have, and be and surveillance like Flock and you know uh any of these other surveillance companies, these AI surveillance companies, going from privacy to like zero privacy.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_03: I think that's troubling.
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_03: And in order for them to be like, find everyone who's trans, type this into the computer and get everyone who's trans and go through the anyone who's taken this drug, that's how we know they're trans.
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_03: Type, type, type, who?
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_03: In order for that to happen, they gotta have access to all our records, y'all.
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_03: Otherwise, they can't compare who is and who isn't.
• 33:31
  SPEAKER_03: They can't look through, in order to look through everybody's records to find who is doing what, they gotta look through everybody's records.
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_03: That includes yours.
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_03: So my point is bans and restrictions, they don't necessarily hit everyone equally.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_03: They definitely hit the most impacted people right away.
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_03: Trans youth, black and brown folks, people who are closer to poverty, unhoused people, poor uh, you know, immigrants who maybe they their um access to medical care is impaired by how and when they can travel, what what what they have on their ID, their their documented status, things like that.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_03: Disabled trans people, rural trans people who are out in the middle of wherever they are and can't get into a city because that's where most of the the medical centers are located.
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, you know, undocumented folks, obviously, trans people who without supportive families.
• 34:37
  SPEAKER_03: And this is these are the people who are more commonly associated with detransitioning.
• 34:42
  SPEAKER_03: People whose parents they don't, you know, family members.
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_03: I don't want to just imply that it's youth.
• 34:47
  SPEAKER_03: They could even be adults whose families are not who are disapproving of their transness and they don't have the tools.
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_03: Maybe they're on their parents' health insurance, maybe they're 25 years old or 24 years old, and on their parents' health insurance, and they want to start taking, get they want to go to a doctor and talk about gender-affirming care.
• 35:07
  SPEAKER_03: Well, that's gonna show up on the the bill or whatever, and that won't necessarily be a secret if they're on their family's health insurance, um, or on their parents' health insurance, rather.
• 35:19
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, wealthy people, of course, may be able to travel for care.
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_03: Other folks may lose access completely.
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_03: And really, this is why the issue is it's also a race issue, it's a class issue, it's a disability geography issue, immigration issue, uh, immigration status issue, I should say.
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_03: Um, you know, when care is restricted, then all of a sudden it's about privilege.
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_03: And I was having this conversation the other day with a friend, I won't say who, but there's a couple people who I know who are, you know, because I am in New York, and New York's very mixed.
• 35:55
  SPEAKER_03: You're gonna meet all different types of people, poor, old, young, here, immigrant, that, blah, blah.
• 36:00
  SPEAKER_03: And so I was talking to somebody who happened to, I I'm assuming, have access to a little more money, and whose daughter, um, trans daughter, grew up and I think, you know, socially transitioned as a youngster and medically transitioned with guidance of her family, safely, healthily, at whatever age she did.
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_03: And now she's 21 and she's been living out as a trans person for well, she's she's gone through mo many stages of her transition, but she's living stealth, which is a whole nother conversation.
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_03: But it's basically no one knows that I'm trans, you know.
• 36:42
  SPEAKER_03: That's essentially what stealth is.
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_03: Um, or at least most people don't know, and I'm not and not publicly.
• 36:48
  SPEAKER_03: I'm not stealth.
• 36:49
  SPEAKER_03: I'm just saying that's what someone who's stealth would say.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_03: And this girl, you know, probably won't be the first impacted when the Medicaid cuts come in 30 days, you know.
• 37:05
  SPEAKER_03: Uh that's what I meant by people who are more affluent, having a little more access.
• 37:13
  SPEAKER_03: But I would even argue that, you know, do y'all think, what do y'all think?
• 37:17
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, I really do think that unless you have infinite access, eventually it's gonna run out.
• 37:22
  SPEAKER_03: So even having access to money as the services and things dry up, the options are also dry up.
• 37:29
  SPEAKER_03: That's my that's my assumption.
• 37:31
  SPEAKER_03: Never been rich.
• 37:33
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but more importantly, let's talk about what gender-affirming care can actually provide for people.
• 37:42
  SPEAKER_03: It can give all types of support, mental health, um, the actual gender-affirming care treatment.
• 37:48
  SPEAKER_03: It can provide safety, mental health services, a self-recognition, dignity, stability, the ability to participate in school or work or sports, hopefully, if you live in the right state, family functions, community life.
• 38:01
  SPEAKER_03: You know, just a walk down the street and feel good about yourself.
• 38:04
  SPEAKER_03: Believe me, y'all, this is what it's all about.
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_03: It really is.
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_03: And like I said, there have been so many situations younger, but when I was younger years ago, when I stifled myself and didn't go for my dreams, didn't go, didn't want to leave the house because I felt so, I just did not feel good about myself.
• 38:24
  SPEAKER_03: And now I'm like, this is who I am, and I'm supposed I'm supposed to have been, you know?
• 38:29
  SPEAKER_03: And I want to make up for lost time.
• 38:31
  SPEAKER_03: And I also want people to not have to waste time for that.
• 38:35
  SPEAKER_03: But it's not about what I want.
• 38:37
  SPEAKER_03: The point is, gender for me care can provide this for so many trans people.
• 38:41
  SPEAKER_03: Um, it's it's not like contrary to popular belief, it's not necessarily a cosmetic thing or some sort of optional thing in terms of internally.
• 38:52
  SPEAKER_03: Obviously, it is an option, but for me, I've heard trans people, well, I've heard trans people say death before detransition.
• 39:02
  SPEAKER_03: And that is a very grave thing to say.
• 39:05
  SPEAKER_03: And I think it's it might come off as hyperbolic and dramatic.
• 39:09
  SPEAKER_03: And I certainly, you know, if I weren't able to really reconcile and go through the very long and arduous thought process and ask myself the question, am I still the same person?
• 39:23
  SPEAKER_03: Whether I have the same clothes, the same hair, the same makeup, the same medications, am I still the same person?
• 39:33
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 39:33
  SPEAKER_03: I think for me, the answer is yes.
• 39:36
  SPEAKER_03: However, I also asked myself for a gender-affirming medical care.
• 39:40
  SPEAKER_03: If I were treat, if I had a treatment, or if I had a a diagnosis, rather, that was didn't give me that long to live or would cause me a lot of pain, would I want to live out the rest of my days without access to that?
• 39:55
  SPEAKER_03: It's certainly possible.
• 39:56
  SPEAKER_03: But it sounds like torture and miserable if you knew that like just breathing was hard for you to do and painful, or like, you know, if you've seen those people like, you know, they've got like allergies that are like not typically talked about, like allergic to water, you know, and I don't mean to compare medical conditions at all.
• 40:18
  SPEAKER_03: I'm just saying I'm trying to get myself in the frame of mind of like, what would it, what would it mean?
• 40:23
  SPEAKER_03: What would I withstand?
• 40:25
  SPEAKER_03: And I I don't know that I would want to withstand any of that, you know?
• 40:29
  SPEAKER_03: It's a it's about survival for a lot of people and just general well-being.
• 40:33
  SPEAKER_03: But also, trans people shouldn't have to prove any of that or go through suffering just to deserve care.
• 40:40
  SPEAKER_03: Health care, you know, and we shouldn't have to be justifying that to people with no medical degree, some some Tammy at the damn um cash register at the damn grocery store who's upset and all twisted because somebody's buying a damn whatever they're buying.
• 40:58
  SPEAKER_03: You know, Tammy, it's none of your business, Tammy.
• 41:01
  SPEAKER_03: And I think that trans people deserve care because not only because we're in crisis, but because we are human and human beings, we have the care.
• 41:10
  SPEAKER_03: We have the supplies.
• 41:12
  SPEAKER_03: We we have we have enough.
• 41:15
  SPEAKER_03: We have enough for everyone.
• 41:17
  SPEAKER_03: Y'all can all transition.
• 41:22
  SPEAKER_03: Um, I think one thing that's been key for me is the importance in this time.
• 41:31
  SPEAKER_03: Whatever the hell we're going through.
• 41:34
  SPEAKER_03: Fascism, authoritarianism, is that we are we prop up, support, and utilize the services that are provided by small community-based organizations, in this case, trans-led organizations that are focused on trans people, but the greater population as well.
• 42:03
  SPEAKER_03: Um and so I think that is really key.
• 42:07
  SPEAKER_03: I certainly think that that is going to be the answer or the anecdote to a lot, sorry, the antidote, not anecdote, the antidote to a lot of what we're experiencing right now or will experience.
• 42:18
  SPEAKER_03: Um and really supporting trans led organizations, medical organizations that really give back to the community and really service the community specifically, that name those things.
• 42:33
  SPEAKER_03: Because those are the organ, those are the facilities and organizations that are being attacked and having their funding cut and all these different things.
• 42:40
  SPEAKER_03: And I think it's important to push back against misinformation when you hear it, even if it comes in the form of a joke.
• 42:47
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, support clinics and funds that are helping people access care.
• 42:51
  SPEAKER_03: And you'll notice that many of these um facilities service multiple sects of the community, of the population.
• 43:03
  SPEAKER_03: Where you'll find trans-related care, you'll also find uh reproductive access and abortion-related care.
• 43:10
  SPEAKER_03: And where you find abortion-related care and trans care, you're also going to find AIDS and HIV care and sexual health care, expanded sexual health care with other STI treatments and things like that and testing.
• 43:21
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and then most almost most importantly, and more importantly, or equally as important, vote for leaders who will protect bodily autonomy and they say it 100%, and they are able to contextualize abortion is health care, gender-affirming care is health care, housing is health care, all those things are health care, and that they say it every time.
• 43:43
  SPEAKER_03: And help trans people with practical support, y'all.
• 43:45
  SPEAKER_03: It is yeah, you know, give somebody of$20, you know what I mean?
• 43:52
  SPEAKER_03: Help give them a ride, offer to if you know that there's a uh a job opening and you have the ability to bring in people to interview, just get somebody trans in there.
• 44:04
  SPEAKER_03: Find it, find them.
• 44:06
  SPEAKER_03: Trust me, y'all, please.
• 44:08
  SPEAKER_03: Um, you know, whether it's rides to appointments or mutual aid funds or housing support, legal document help, and ask, offer.
• 44:18
  SPEAKER_03: Just offer with no response nesting.
• 44:20
  SPEAKER_03: You know what?
• 44:21
  SPEAKER_03: If you ever need help with your thing and you need somebody to pay for it, let me know.
• 44:23
  SPEAKER_03: Until then, shut your mouth.
• 44:25
  SPEAKER_03: That's it.
• 44:26
  SPEAKER_03: They'll remember, trust me.
• 44:27
  SPEAKER_03: Or even just providing emotional support and listening and respecting people's names and pronouns and not making a big deal of it.
• 44:34
  SPEAKER_03: If you mess up, just be like, oh she they oh she oh oh she?
• 44:37
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, she, great.
• 44:38
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, next.
• 44:39
  SPEAKER_03: And what did you do?
• 44:40
  SPEAKER_03: She said she was going to the thing.
• 44:42
  SPEAKER_03: Easy as that.
• 44:43
  SPEAKER_03: Protect trans people, protect our choices, protect, we will protect yours, protect our privacy, we will protect yours.
• 44:49
  SPEAKER_03: Protect our health care, we will protect yours.
• 44:51
  SPEAKER_03: Protect our right rights to exist in public, we will protect yours.
• 44:54
  SPEAKER_03: Protect j honey, gender-affirming care is about dignity and health and freedom, bodily autonomy is not just a slogan, it is honestly the foundation of First Amendment rights in our country.
• 45:12
  SPEAKER_03: And it's and it's the key to living safely and honestly, you know, and the fight for trans health care is connected to every single fight against bodily control and for bodily autonomy, and that is why we have to join coalition.
• 45:28
  SPEAKER_03: So, in conclusion, our bodies are not debate stages, our lives are not campaign props, we're not political footballs.
• 45:43
  SPEAKER_03: Gender-affirming care is health care, bodily autonomy is a right, and liberation means trusting people to know who they are.
• 45:55
  SPEAKER_03: And if you can't understand that, it's none of your damn business anyway.
• 45:59
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you for coming back.
• 46:00
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you for tuning in.
• 46:02
  SPEAKER_03: Please like, share, and subscribe.
• 46:03
  SPEAKER_03: I'll be here every single week.
• 46:05
  SPEAKER_03: Um, share this, please, with somebody who you know needs to hear it.
• 46:09
  SPEAKER_03: And um let me know in the comments how much you enjoy season two.
• 46:12
  SPEAKER_03: And remember that Queer 101 is available everywhere you get your favorite podcasts.
• 46:16
  SPEAKER_03: I'll see y'all next week.
• 46:18
  SPEAKER_03: Bye.
• 46:22
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you so much for joining us today on Queer History 101.
• 46:25
  SPEAKER_03: This podcast is part of Pride House Media, produced and edited by Josh Rosenbein.
• 46:31
  SPEAKER_03: Original music composed by Nell Balaban.
• 46:34
  SPEAKER_03: If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe wherever you listen to your podcast.
• 46:39
  SPEAKER_03: And while you're there, leave a rating and a field.
• 46:42
  SPEAKER_03: It really helps others discover the show.
• 46:45
  SPEAKER_03: Stay connected and join the conversation by following us on CoverMet 247 on all socials and at Pridehouse Media or email us at queer101podcast at gmail.com.
• 46:57
  SPEAKER_03: See you next week.