Galen Mitchell
Sep 1, 2018 · 1 min read

Emily,

Transsexual is a term individuals use, true. However, it’s usually used by older individuals who came out when the term was still popular, and medical gatekeeping that forced people who were seeking medical intervention to profess attraction exclusively to men. However, it’s not a term used by the medical establishment anymore, and that form of gatekeeping is mostly dead. So, this idea that folks who undergo medical intervention use “transsexual” and those who don’t use “transgender” is just factually wrong. Out of the trans folks I know, only one uses that term, and she uses it for much the same reason you do: to make herself out to be more “true trans” than everyone else. Meanwhile, the rest of my friends (who use the term “transgender”) have actually had more medical intervention than the woman who uses “transsexual” has. This is because true trans “transsexual” vs willy nilly “transgender” is a dichotomy that does not exist, and your insistence that it does is harmful to our community.

Now, anecdotally, I would agree that people who use “transsexual” rather than “transgender” are somewhat more likely to identify as straight. However, as I mentioned in the article and above, that’s largely a function of gatekeeping and age, and straight “transsexuals” are still in no way the majority. Remember, “trans woman” is the term in the data — people who use “transsexual” are included in that set.

Please take your uninformed elitism elsewhere, hon.

    Galen Mitchell

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    Musician, Writer, Post-Butch Punk Femme. She/her. More at galen-mitchell.com.