When I seriously considered transitioning in the States back in the mid-nineties, all of the literature I was reading indicated that if I wanted to transition, I had to be attracted to women, and I could not have been molested as a child. Other literature indicated that my proposed transition would not be approved unless I intended, and unequivocally stated my intention, to go through the pretty terrible genital surgeries practiced at the time. I didn't know that things were already changing and that the material I was reading wasn't even fully current. However, our practices have taken a long time to shift. Quite a number of individual practitioners still adhere to older models or have a very antiquated notion of what "qualifies" us to obtain transition-related medical services such as hormones and surgery. We read about these injustices here on the boards, although I think that things are rapidly improving. Still, I can't change my birth certificate, some of my friends can't get top surgery, and the clinic I used to go to presumably still bullies people into doing things the clinic's way and outs them on prescriptions (I don't think much will have changed in one year).
Europe is more forward-thinking in some ways than the U.S. is, but the U.S. still has a long way to go, too. I believe that both will evolve to more just systems, but it's going to take time. Always time. And it won't be soon enough for some of us.
I keep thinking of Dylan:
"Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don't criticize
What you can't understand.
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is rapidly agin'.
Please get out of the new one if you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin'."
