'Ex-Trans' Activists Exposed: The Big Name Behind Their Fight Against Gender Transition

http://www.advocate.com/transgender/2015/07/17/ex-trans-activists-exposed-big-name-behind-their-fight-against-gender-transit?page=0,0&fb_action_ids=720971918024651&fb_action_types=og.comments

After an investigation spanning six weeks, The Advocate reveals how those few voices arguing against gender transition are finding followers.
BY  Dawn Ennis
July 17 2015 11:35 AM ET

Mark Angelo Cummings — author, former occupational therapist, and social media personality — has been a transgender man for 12 years, but now says he is "ex-trans." And, with his newlywed wife, he seeks to build a movement against gender transition.

"I have been a member of this community for a very long time," Cummings tells The Advocate. "I considered myself a very strong advocate in the beginning, trying to educate people regarding this issue." He cofounded the Internet program Transition Radio with his ex-partner Jessica Lynn Cummings for that express purpose.

Now he says he has a different lesson to teach:

    "Educate people that they don't have to do this, that they can live comfortable in their skin. Instead of gender specialists giving people letters to get hormones and surgery, let's deal with the real issue they have, which is neurological impairment, mental issues."

Quote from: Shana A on July 17, 2015, 02:53:06 PM
'Ex-Trans' Activists Exposed: The Big Name Behind Their Fight Against Gender Transition

http://www.advocate.com/transgender/2015/07/17/ex-trans-activists-exposed-big-name-behind-their-fight-against-gender-transit?page=0,0&fb_action_ids=720971918024651&fb_action_types=og.comments

After an investigation spanning six weeks, The Advocate reveals how those few voices arguing against gender transition are finding followers.
BY  Dawn Ennis
July 17 2015 11:35 AM ET

Mark Angelo Cummings — author, former occupational therapist, and social media personality — has been a transgender man for 12 years, but now says he is "ex-trans." And, with his newlywed wife, he seeks to build a movement against gender transition.

"I have been a member of this community for a very long time," Cummings tells The Advocate. "I considered myself a very strong advocate in the beginning, trying to educate people regarding this issue." He cofounded the Internet program Transition Radio with his ex-partner Jessica Lynn Cummings for that express purpose.

Now he says he has a different lesson to teach:

    "Educate people that they don't have to do this, that they can live comfortable in their skin. Instead of gender specialists giving people letters to get hormones and surgery, let's deal with the real issue they have, which is neurological impairment, mental issues."

Having read the article... Am I correct in understanding that this individual has discovered that they're genderfluid after fully transitioning, but have also decided that others should not be allowed to transition? Because that's a wee bit hypocritical.

Sent from my XT1028 using Tapatalk

Yes, I read it too and consider this an individual supporting further intolerance and hatred while gaining notoriety for  nonsense.  What they say about us as community is sadly wrong and damaging.  Too bad they cannot accept other ways of being for some while they have had the freedom to make what they consider mistakes.  Hypocrisy is too nice a term for this sort of demented mendacity.

"Sure we'll throw the whole trans* community under the bus.   How much money do we get?" *facepalm*

I think Jennifer Finney Boylan might have been on to something when she said, "We eat our own." 

Sad.

So, a pair of people who both identified as trans, and are now claiming that transition is wrong and people shouldn't change their bodies because it's their minds that need changing, are still presenting as their trans-identified gender and using its pronouns and names, despite claiming that everyone else should just stick with their birth sex?

Yeeeeah... I smell a wee bit of hypocrisy there.

Also, Cathy Brennan acknowledges that she might have identified as trans had she been born more recently? The plot thickens.

(And again, I don't think any of these people really understands body dysphoria... there's so many of us who, even if each and every person were freed from the social institutions of gender roles and were free to behave however we want, be seen however we want, with the complete freedom to be masculine as a girl or feminine as a guy, would still have clinical distress due to our bodies feeling wrong. Almost every single regret story I've ever heard has come from people who only desired the social role, and viewed the bodily transition as a means to achieve the social role rather than the bodily transition being a desire on its own.)

I agree. I'm not sure these individuals really understood what they were after during their transition. Expressing femininity or masculinity cannot get rid of the very real feelings that many people, including myself, experience about their body and wanting to change it through hormones, surgery, et cetera.

This is where those of us who never had problems with gender, and instead merely sought to modify our physical sex, which process solved our problem, get incandescent with rage at the arrogance of people who presumably did have a problem with "gender" and therefore unsurprisingly didn't find a solution in merely modifying their physical sex. The two things are not the same, and you need to know which one is causing the problem, otherwise the solution probably wont be the right one.

On the basis of that it makes me bloody angry that these pathetic little twerps, who clearly had a completely different problem to me, seek to ban something that was the only thing which did help me. I'm sorry they weren't bright enough to understand the true nature of their problem, I'm even more sorry that they now appear to be too stupid to realise that their problem was different from a lot us who do benefit, but none of that gives them the right to be arrogant pricks and start trying to ban stuff. GAH! 

<exit rant mode>

I've read the whole article and all of the comments so I understand why people are infuriated by the views of these people but I honestly feel sorry for them, they are deeply troubled human beings.

Please try to keep comments civil please

This is just another case of, "it is what happened to me so it must be what is happening to you". He is projecting his own anger at himself onto the world. His reliance on debunked theories makes that plain.

We are free to express ourselves in whatever way we wish. I began transition for me, no one else. I am sorry that these folks didn't realize what was right for them. I did not rush into this, I struggled for decades before taking the leap. I hope they find peace as they become more in tune with who they are, find a healthy message that reaches folks like them but also back off from the treatments that are saving my life and the lives of other transsexuals. I am in touch with all aspects of my gender, feminine and masculine. I know myself better than they ever will and I balk at anyone who would dare insult my intelligence or motivations.

I detest those it wasn't for me, so it isn't for anyone else type people.

  Um, I see a lot of conflicts in that article. Like, um whaaat! The article is not readable with all of these conflicts. Too much mixing of their Yin and Yang.

Joelene

Yeah, well, while some of their ideas could have been expressed better, I do agree with some of what they're saying, including being transgendered as a psychological condition (which is axiomatic, surely). I also agree with the concept of "educating people that they don't have to do this [transition]". I identify with this latter point. I've been confused about my gender since childhood and have been on several courses of HRT, yet I feel no closer to understanding where my head's at regarding my gender, let alone transitioning. Many transgendered people, myself included, do not yet know, may never know, which transgender narrative(s) applies to them. Yes, maybe, probably, I'm gender fluid. But honestly, I really don't know.

What I do know, however, is that someone suggesting that I'm "not bright enough" to understand the nature of my gender is rude, intolerant and totally counter to what transgendered people everywhere (I'm assuming) hope to achieve. That is, widespread understanding and tolerance about transgender issues at the level of the individual and the wider community. To shut down or lambast some transgender experiences over others is to suggest that we know all there is to know about being transgendered -- we do not.

In my opinion, the sharing of ideas among transgendered people should not be met with intolerance. I for one am glad that people speak out about their trans experiences, no matter how their personal experiences are unfolding. It's really helpful. If you are party to censoring, condemning or shaming people whose transgendered experiences you don't agree with, then I think you're party to shutting down potentially important insights that someone other than yourself might find invaluable. Who knows, perhaps you'll also learn something.

Well, Trans Regret is a thing. It's rare, but it happens, and when you find you've made irreversible changes that you now hate, well maybe you get a little irrational about other people's choices.

(That's me trying my hardest to be charitable).

The last thing we need...

Seriously, they are using arguments that you would hear from people who know nothing about it which is weird because they know the answers to those arguments yet they pretend they don't.  Like their "cutting of an arm" example as if they don't understand the difference.  Please.

These two could have been a positive force even with their advocating of alternatives to transitioning and their kinship to the two-spirit concept.  The problem is that, while what they suggest may work for some transgender people, it won't work for the dysphoric ones whose problem originates from the actual physical aspects of their bodies.  It just doesn't work that way.

I do agree that there would be fewer people transitioning if our society was less gender-binary and people could express themselves however they wish but it wouldn't work for a whole ton of us.  If only they presented this in a way that wasn't so generalizing.  You know, more like a "Hey, before you transition, rule this out first" type of thing.

The way they are doing it really smells of paid interests.

Quote from: Carrie Liz on July 17, 2015, 05:24:42 PM
And again, I don't think any of these people really understands body dysphoria... there's so many of us who, even if each and every person were freed from the social institutions of gender roles and were free to behave however we want, be seen however we want, with the complete freedom to be masculine as a girl or feminine as a guy, would still have clinical distress due to our bodies feeling wrong.

Exactly!  In fact, many of us have come to this conclusion after years of trying alternatives.  For me (and likely others), this was the last stop before suicide.  Telling people who are at that point that they need to go back to the start and try harder is super dangerous.

Quote from: Carrie Liz on July 17, 2015, 05:24:42 PM
...there's so many of us who, even if each and every person were freed from the social institutions of gender roles and were free to behave however we want... would still have clinical distress due to our bodies feeling wrong.

Maybe. Maybe not. We'll probably never know, as it's not exactly testable. I get the sentiment, though.

Quote from: Echo Eve on July 17, 2015, 09:12:36 PM

Maybe. Maybe not. We'll probably never know, as it's not exactly testable. I get the sentiment, though.

It's totally testable.  There are many transgender folks who live comfortably as their true gender yet still experience dysphoria because the need to transition transcends social needs.

I'm one of those people.  My desire to live socially as a woman is socially-driven and is not derived from gender dysphoria.  It is socially driven because I do have the biological imperative to physically transition to alleviate the dysphoric misalignment that plagues me.  Blending in as a woman is only the social aspect that's more like an afterthought that will make life more comfortable and less awkward.  So even if that component didn't exist and we all could feel totally comfortable wearing whatever we want and acting however we wish, there would still be some of us who would still suffer without a transition.

Quote from: Abysha on July 17, 2015, 09:22:12 PM
It's totally testable.  There are many transgender folks who live comfortably as their true gender yet still experience dysphoria because the need to transition transcends social needs.

I'm one of those people.  My desire to live socially as a woman is socially-driven and is not derived from gender dysphoria.  It is socially driven because I do have the biological imperative to physically transition to alleviate the dysphoric misalignment that plagues me.  Blending in as a woman is only the social aspect that's more like an afterthought that will make life more comfortable and less awkward.  So even if that component didn't exist and we all could feel totally comfortable wearing whatever we want and acting however we wish, there would still be some of us who would still suffer without a transition.

It's untestable because we do live in a society that puts a heavy emphasis on binary gender roles. So unless you can control for that we're left with personal anecdote as the only measure.

I have no problems with people who regret, just people who think that because transition was not the right path for them, that no one else should be allowed to transition. That they are trying to save the rest of us from their mistake.

No one ever sees under my shirt or in my pants. I needed those areas to be different, to be feminine. I needed that before I knew it could happen, before I knew what society thought. I suffered, mouth breathing for decades, because I couldn't stand my own smell. The feel of my own skin and the state of my hair made me sick. I am asexual, my body is for me alone. If I were trapped in a void, alone for eternity, I would still need to transition. That is not a suggestion it is a fact. Social transition is almost a byproduct. I did and do experience social dysphoria but it is not nearly as intense or impactful as the physical.

My transition is about and for me, no one else. I am not transitioning to a gender binary. I am an aromantic asexual femme tomboy trans woman. If I simply wished to be seen as a cis woman I would feel hopeless. It was in accepting that I don't belong in the binary that I found my trans identity and gender freedom at long last.