[sigh] OK, this is a can full of worms, isn't it?

Here are my main points:

1) As someone who has been around for a bit, I'll point out that no matter *how* you try to reframe trans people's experiences, no matter what language you use, no matter what labels and designations you adopt, their impact NEVER really lasts.

Cis people, or significant subsets of them, always shift the goal posts of legitimacy in their eyes as to what makes a person "real." You can't make yourself more legible to someone who has no desire to open their eyes and see you in the first place.

I certainly have done this. And I stayed off the "mainstream path" of my own particular communities to find my own ways to understand myself as a woman and that was extremely helpful.

I'll note that when trans people are exploring ways to make our experiences more legible to cis people, there is often a deeper underlying struggle to find ways to make our lives more legible to ourselves because we've internalized the malignancy of cis people's prejudicial views of trans/non-binary/etc. people.

2) When you do this, I'd advise that you seek a paradigm/understanding of yourself that builds for resiliency and solidity, that you seek out understandings of yourself that very specifically rip cis people's meddling, abusive fingers from your core of self. Because right now, if you're on this path of seeking understanding, that's probably because cis people, in some way, still have their fingers inside of you, and are hurting you.

Do this in a way that permanently BREAKS those fingers.

3) I'm not sure that centering your understanding and sense of womanhood/manhood/personhood/gender/sex on a medical resource that can be ripped away at any time by cis people and the state is really the best way to go.

If you center your understanding of self & being upon something like HRT, then by gosh, you can be SURE that cis people will put every resource they can into taking that from you.

Collectively, their intent is to control you, hurt you, & bend you to THEIR understanding & will.

@timberwraith "Born in the wrong body," "souls," etc. were all attempts by trans people to frame their experiences in a world where healthcare was non-existent. Trans kids don't use or require medical rationalizations either.

And honestly, the only way you can frame yourself as legitimate to people who literally don't think about gender is to fit yourself into the boxes they expect. They aren't willing or capable of processing anything else.

@gwynnion "'Born in the wrong body,' 'souls,' etc. were all attempts by trans people to frame their experiences in a world where healthcare was non-existent."

That certainly hits home for me. I never dreamed that I'd EVER be able to shift my physical being in 1986, but I still knew I was a girl/woman. The framings you mention are exactly the ones I reached for and embraced under the available conditions.

I still do today, even though I was able to change my physical aspects.