I hate the term "gender affirming care". I'm not getting surgery or whatever because I feel the need to be "affirmed", it's to address dysphoria. I get "affirmation" from my friends, family, colleagues etc because they're nice, normal people. But also because it gives room for this kind of bs - ThreadSky

katymontgomerie.com • 18 days ago

I hate the term "gender affirming care". I'm not getting surgery or whatever because I feel the need to be "affirmed", it's to address dysphoria. I get "affirmation" from my friends, family, colleagues etc because they're nice, normal people. But also because it gives room for this kind of bs

Reposted from Parker Molloy

One thing I always roll my eyes at is when people will say things like "No one tell Elon Musk that his hairplugs are also a form of 'gender-affirming care.' Checkmate!" I see something like this in the replies to any post about attempts to take healthcare away from trans people and I don't get it.

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sunnythehoney.bsky.social•18 days ago

My doctor called it
Gender harmonization...

And i eas like... yeah... it is

aoilainn.bsky.social•18 days ago

As an agender person, my gender can only be "affirmed" by never mentioning it.

owainsutton.bsky.social•18 days ago

I'd never thought about it this way. Thank you for raising it.

You're absolutely right. "Gender-affirming care" exists for for me. It's when a medical professional addresses me (or refers to me) according to my gender, as relevant. Nothing else.

grey.tertiusfamily.net•18 days ago

I see where you are coming from (and largely agree) but at the same time I wonder if terms like this help us normalize for people who get icky feelings about surgery? Like... we should not have to pander... but we also currently do have to, as part of the path?

Am I totally wrong?

katymontgomerie.com•18 days ago

Trans healthcare is fine and does that

grey.tertiusfamily.net•18 days ago

Yeah I missed the followup post.

I like "trans healthcare" a lot.

billieburton.bsky.social•18 days ago

This is a good point. Using 'Gender-Affirming' Care opens up a few strong angles of attack that play well on social media and with the anti-trans base - it being unnecessary and superfluous for one.

laurelpowell.net•18 days ago

The more we can talk about health care for trans people as just another part of the broader health care ecosystem, the harder it becomes for people to cleave it off & isolate it the way they did with abortion care. so I'm 100% onboard.

billieburton.bsky.social•18 days ago

Exactly. Framing it as normal, part of the furniture, highlighting that treatments are already totally routine for other conditions. That it is not a burden on the system and not an undue or unnecessary cost. Normal.

katymontgomerie.com•18 days ago

"Trans healthcare" is a good, descriptive, and politically important term. They are coming for trans people. They are trying to stop trans people having healthcare. They want to wipe us out. This isn't about them attacking "affirmation" or "gendered care".

nattygo.me•18 days ago

I am not sure that I agree.

Calling it "trans healthcare" would play into the all-to-prevalent idea that being trans is necessarily defined by receiving a certain kind of healthcare.

There are also people who do not consider themselves trans who receive such care (e.g., some non-binary folks).

nattygo.me•18 days ago

I'm not sure "gender-affirming care" is the best name for it, either, but since all human beings have a gender, it's a term that excludes no one.

nattygo.me•18 days ago

(All human beings have a gender *identity*, I should say.)

expede.wtf•18 days ago

Saaaame here 💯

radekcdydd.bsky.social•18 days ago

Sounds like it's just a problem of terminology. Affirming something is slightly different from affirming someone. Gender-confirming care? Gender-aligning? Gender-conforming?

owenfuckem.techwork.zone•18 days ago

It's better than reassignment, which was the older term.

rebelraising.bsky.social•18 days ago

I was around, I think, when this sort of language first started being used officially - I remember the civil servants renaming the (2004) draft Gender Reassignment Bill as the Gender Recognition Bill and it was a powerful acknowledgement that it was about recognising an already real gender...

rebelraising.bsky.social•18 days ago

... but I can 100% see the problem with its shift across to the medical sphere - it's very euphemising when actually that ends up losing what the *medical* bit is actually about.

elizabethoutside.bsky.social•18 days ago

I hate all “gender” terms as they pertain to trans people. Not because gender isn’t relevant on some level, but because say, a gay guy who loves doing drag is a *core issue* of gender (likes/manner/roles/aesthetics/etc.)…But being trans? *NOT* a core issue of gender. Critical misrepresentation that

elizabethoutside.bsky.social•18 days ago

gives rise to the kind of bs you’re referencing.

elizabethoutside.bsky.social•18 days ago

Protecting trans kids, self-id, ubiquitous informed consent, other healthcare, etc., are *critical* because trans people ARE f/m/nb…they’re *NOT* their assigned sex at birth with subjectively queer “genders.”

theaudra77.bsky.social•18 days ago

Just like no one told him his penis needed to be longer. But hey it's fucked up now either way.

captnamy.bsky.social•18 days ago

Never thought of it that way.
Hmm

Plus the acronym for gender affirming care is GAC.

I kinda GAC at that.

alicemydaughter.bsky.social•18 days ago

Interesting. I use the term gender-affirming care a fair bit, because it’s kind of standard medic speak. I do use trans healthcare too. On reflection I think when I write I write g-a-c but when I speak I say trans healthcare. Odd. What’s that about? Anyway, just wanted to say I’m listening.

katymontgomerie.com•18 days ago

In the end I'm not coming for people who say it. I'm not trying to be fussy about words. The support is what matters. But I just think it's a weak term that gives more wriggle room to bigots and hides the reality of what is going on

adiii.bsky.social•18 days ago

I'll admit that I'm at least partly responsible for the growing uptake of "gender-affirming care" in the UK - I pushed it heavily while in my SLT roles at GGP

Looking back I feel it was a mistake and that it would have been better to stick with Trans Healthcare as the main descriptor

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