Being identified by your medical condition instead

[Muffin]

I saw a thread on a non-TG forum that was basically someone asking a question about their new potential partner because they suspected them of being transsexual. I found it strange, and no different to someone asking "I think my partner is a "lazy-eye person". <---or insert any other medical condition that someone could be born with. "I think my partner is a "person with polio" what should I do? for example.

It seems strange to consider that someone with GID and that transitions from one sex to the other will still be considered something that is in between! To me being transsexual is a medical label that is temporary, I for one consider myself female first and foremost. Not a transsexual, that is just my condition.. that I am going through.

I don't deny my medical past, I know I'm not a natal/cisgendered female which is fine but I don't feel it is right to be labelled a transwoman as it is no different to being labelled a lazy-eye woman or a polio-woman.

The other side of it is the social stigma and the inability for people to separate the individual from the whole. I'd say the majority of men and women with a TS condition end up blending into society unnoticed but a few don't. I feel it is wrong for those few that don't to be used as examples of what a "transsexual" is.

this is I guess the reason why I'm so annoyed by this, not to say that if transsexuals were glorified in our culture that I'd brand it on my forehead no no no. I'd still see it as being labelled by a medical condition, a condition that is temporary and can be over come.

MtF and FtM not Mt(->-bleeped-<-) or Ft(->-bleeped-<-)? >______<

[Silver]

I agree completely, it's ridiculous.

[Yakshini]

I especially hate when mental illnesses are used as labels. "I am OCD" "I am ADD", it all makes me mad. Because of my clinical depression, anyone I have dated spreads the waning to anyone who has been interested in me that "Shawn is depressed". And nobody wants to date someone with baggage, and clinical depression is pretty heavy baggage. It has hurt me pretty bad that I am so widely known for "being depressed" and people ACTUALLY hate me for it.
Feeling sad is generally a temporary mood. No, I am not depressed. I have depression.

[Sinnyo]

Though I don't really agree with it (in theory more than practise!), I think the argument is that people use their condition as a label in order to restore some confidence. I did decide to identify as 'gender dysphoric' in my head for a while because I was grateful simply to have found the answer. Something was missing in the way I saw myself, and then I realised "I am gender dysphoric", rather than what is true today, "I have gender dysphoria". It's an easy and comfortable trap to get into.

Shawn's dead right, and I find people often misuse the labels too - they'll claim to be OCD (which doesn't even make sense as a sentence) when they're probably nowhere near having such a disorder. That gets annoying, as it shows a disrespect both for sufferers and the illness itself.

Edit: Whoops, sorry Yakshini - didn't notice that you'd changed your name!

[Farm Boy]

Yeah, this is something I'm kind of worried about: being labelled by my GID.  Like, when people introduce their friends I've noticed that they will include things of this nature, like, "This is so and so, my GAY friend," but straight friends get no such title.  I'd prefer to be thought of as just me, and not the "transsexual friend" or the token oddity of the group.