Surgery?

[Shana A]

Surgery?
T-Notes
by Robbi Cohn September 18, 2010

http://goqnotes.com/8331/surgery/

Okay. You might ask, "What's up with Robbi? She refers to herself as transsexual, but she hasn't had any surgeries yet? I guess she just isn't that serious or maybe she's not bona fide transsexual. If she were really TS, wouldn't she rather be dead (hyperbole) than live without surgical alignment? Is she pre-op or non-op? Is she TG or TS?"

This "labels" argument has been bandied about in the trans world ad nauseum. I, for one, am really tired of this exercise in mental masturbation. Our obsession with nomenclature has become so overwhelming that it may actually interfere with being trans. Following last month's column about biology and missing the forest for the trees, maybe we need to simplify our penchant for labels and classification.

[Janet_Girl]

I have only had one surgery, an Orchidectomy.  It isn't because I don't want SRS, it is strictly cost.  I find it insulting to be classed as not being a real transsexual because I don't have money or insurance.

[Robyn]

We were having sort of this discussion in #Chat last night. My points in public room and in PM pretty well matched this, but Robbi has published a very clear and helpful article, IMHO.

Each journey does have similarities to others, but each is truly unique in some way.

While labels are necessary to form the rough picture, no one's identity or worth should be slave to labels. And no one is 'better' or 'worse' for the surgery options taken or not.

Robyn
The grandmother has spoken.

[lilacwoman]

the problems arise when the TS label is applied to non-TS transgendereds and the bigots and fools use a non-TS to claim that laws allowing for gender expression and surgery funding is a waste of time and should be stopped.
That's why it's important to maintain the distinctions - even if it gets up the noses of non-TS TGs which it does.