Hats off… In politics it takes guts to come out as trans when your base is unlikely to support you.
I don’t know Wallis’ preferred pronouns are, but given that the article is referring to them as a he, and that for now he’s presenting as male, I’m just going to go with male pronouns for now.
I always feel nervous when statements like these are made by prominent individuals though. It’s not that I don’t doubt the goodness and sincerity behind his words, but I think he ought to measure them more carefully before speaking.
Using myself as an example, in my teens I struggled with the idea that I might be transgender. It’s not that I knew that transgenderism was even a thing. Back then (the 90’s/early 00’s) a *”tranny”* was just a man who wore female-coded clothing. What I do know is that I have had difficulties with and resented my female body for as long as I can remember.
Puberty for me was an expression of true body horror. From age 12 I began sleeping on my front, hoping that the pressure of my body would cause my developing breasts to sink back into my torso. I tried to bind my chest with clingfilm, before eventually discovering sports bras. I cut my hair shot and wore loose baggy clothing in an attempt to disguise my developing silhouette, and as my body continued to change in spite of me, maybe ***to*** spite me, I then turned to anorexia, and I smiled as I watched as my hungry body gradually swallow up and strip me of every aspect of my femininity.
It wasn’t until many years later that, reexamining my experiences from an adult perspective, that I realised that I hadn’t rejected my femininity because I believed that I was a boy—I rejected it because I was a victim of child sexual assault. In absence of therapy I had instead turned my trauma inwards, targeting my femininity as having being responsible for my abuse, as opposed to the reality that it was just a very sick man craving my sexless child body.
I think that messages like this can be potentially harmful as I am absolutely convinced that had I been born a few years later than ’91, at a time where the internet was more accessible, I would have absolutely sought medical transition, and that the decision would have ruined my life.
I cannot overstate my belief in the necessity of mandatory pre-transition exploratory counselling. It’s sad that, even in spite of my lived experiences, I’ve been labelled a TERF on account of these opinions, but medical transition is not something to be taken lightly. Hormine replacement therapy isn’t man/woman juice respectively, and in the case of FtM transitioners specifically the recipients are at permanently increased risk of embolism, bone fractures, cardiovascular disease, blood clotting, stroke, hormone-dependent cancers and heart attacks. This is an aspect of transition I NEVER see talked about.
It’s not as if I don’t understand the misery that accompanies having to inhabit a body you feel exists in complete incongruity to the self, I know better than most people. Even at 30 years old I still struggle with body dysmorphia, and I would jump at the chance of mastectomy, but I think it’s important that young people who’re struggling with issues with their identity are given time and space free from judgement and pressure to explore their options before immediately slapping the transition button because they’re scared of “waiting too long”.
At any rate, I do wish Mr. Wallis well with his transition, and that it’s ultimately the correct decision for them.
I’m really happy that he’s found who he is, and is ultimately going to pursue this, and I’m really sad at the amount of shit he’s going to have to deal with as a result of it.
It requires an enormous amount of courage to come out, especially when your colleagues are brazenly working against the interests of people like you.
He speaks a truth here, too, which applies to much more than gender dysphoria (but probably more to GD than anything else).
If you have something that’s intrinsic to you, like GD or a non-straight sexuality (or anything else, really), then denying it and keeping it bottled up only hurts you. It eats away at your mental health, while offering no benefit to anyone but the people that would want to deny your identity anyway.
Edit: Just to add a little note that I’m using male pronouns because he is apparently choosing to continue using them for the time being.
3 comments
Hats off… In politics it takes guts to come out as trans when your base is unlikely to support you.
I don’t know Wallis’ preferred pronouns are, but given that the article is referring to them as a he, and that for now he’s presenting as male, I’m just going to go with male pronouns for now.
I always feel nervous when statements like these are made by prominent individuals though. It’s not that I don’t doubt the goodness and sincerity behind his words, but I think he ought to measure them more carefully before speaking.
Using myself as an example, in my teens I struggled with the idea that I might be transgender. It’s not that I knew that transgenderism was even a thing. Back then (the 90’s/early 00’s) a *”tranny”* was just a man who wore female-coded clothing. What I do know is that I have had difficulties with and resented my female body for as long as I can remember.
Puberty for me was an expression of true body horror. From age 12 I began sleeping on my front, hoping that the pressure of my body would cause my developing breasts to sink back into my torso. I tried to bind my chest with clingfilm, before eventually discovering sports bras. I cut my hair shot and wore loose baggy clothing in an attempt to disguise my developing silhouette, and as my body continued to change in spite of me, maybe ***to*** spite me, I then turned to anorexia, and I smiled as I watched as my hungry body gradually swallow up and strip me of every aspect of my femininity.
It wasn’t until many years later that, reexamining my experiences from an adult perspective, that I realised that I hadn’t rejected my femininity because I believed that I was a boy—I rejected it because I was a victim of child sexual assault. In absence of therapy I had instead turned my trauma inwards, targeting my femininity as having being responsible for my abuse, as opposed to the reality that it was just a very sick man craving my sexless child body.
I think that messages like this can be potentially harmful as I am absolutely convinced that had I been born a few years later than ’91, at a time where the internet was more accessible, I would have absolutely sought medical transition, and that the decision would have ruined my life.
I cannot overstate my belief in the necessity of mandatory pre-transition exploratory counselling. It’s sad that, even in spite of my lived experiences, I’ve been labelled a TERF on account of these opinions, but medical transition is not something to be taken lightly. Hormine replacement therapy isn’t man/woman juice respectively, and in the case of FtM transitioners specifically the recipients are at permanently increased risk of embolism, bone fractures, cardiovascular disease, blood clotting, stroke, hormone-dependent cancers and heart attacks. This is an aspect of transition I NEVER see talked about.
It’s not as if I don’t understand the misery that accompanies having to inhabit a body you feel exists in complete incongruity to the self, I know better than most people. Even at 30 years old I still struggle with body dysmorphia, and I would jump at the chance of mastectomy, but I think it’s important that young people who’re struggling with issues with their identity are given time and space free from judgement and pressure to explore their options before immediately slapping the transition button because they’re scared of “waiting too long”.
At any rate, I do wish Mr. Wallis well with his transition, and that it’s ultimately the correct decision for them.
I’m really happy that he’s found who he is, and is ultimately going to pursue this, and I’m really sad at the amount of shit he’s going to have to deal with as a result of it.
It requires an enormous amount of courage to come out, especially when your colleagues are brazenly working against the interests of people like you.
He speaks a truth here, too, which applies to much more than gender dysphoria (but probably more to GD than anything else).
If you have something that’s intrinsic to you, like GD or a non-straight sexuality (or anything else, really), then denying it and keeping it bottled up only hurts you. It eats away at your mental health, while offering no benefit to anyone but the people that would want to deny your identity anyway.
Edit: Just to add a little note that I’m using male pronouns because he is apparently choosing to continue using them for the time being.