Trans News Worldwide

[smalltownguy]

March 13, 2019

Pentagon Imposes New Restrictions on Transgender Service Members
Under new policy, a diagnosis of gender dysphoria could disqualify an applicant from military service


The U.S. military imposed a series of new restrictions Wednesday on the ability of transgender people to serve in the armed forces, expanding the scope of ineligibility while stopping short of a ban.

Under the new policy, gender dysphoria—a conflict between one’s birth gender and the gender with which they identify—will be treated as a mental health condition that could disqualify an applicant from service, the Pentagon said.

The above said is not full news on this subject . It is a briefing on the news.

[smalltownguy]

15 March, 2019

Meet The Transgender Troops Racing To Get a ‘Gender Dysphoria’ Diagnosis Before April 12

A ‘gender dysphoria’ diagnosis means transgender troops can carry on serving after President Trump’s ban is enforced. But not all trans troops can see the right medics in time.

For transgender service members, the clock is ticking.

Now that the Department of Defense is implementing the transgender troop ban on April 12, those currently serving have less than 30 days to receive a gender dysphoria diagnosis in order to seek medical treatment. After that, they would face discharge.


When the ban goes into effect, as the National Center for Transgender Equality noted, a small number of service members who have previously transitioned will be permitted to stay for now, while transgender civilians who wish to enlist will be turned away.

Caught in the middle are transgender service members who haven’t yet secured a gender dysphoria diagnosis and must get one before the ban begins. Several service members in this predicament told The Daily Beast that meeting the April 12 deadline will be hard.

“I’ll have to take time off work to travel 120 miles to the closest transgender care team in order to get a diagnosis,” Chloe, a lieutenant commander in the Navy who requested her last name be omitted for privacy, told The Daily Beast.

Chloe is a transgender woman who says she’s seven years away from being eligible for retirement, so losing her position now would be devastating. If she doesn’t meet the deadline, she told The Daily Beast, she would wait for change or try to tough it out.

“If I don’t get a diagnosis in time, I intend to continue serving and doing what I can to assist my transition and ease my dysphoria until the policy changes again or until I’m eligible for retirement,” she said.

Leaving gender dysphoria untreated presents mental health risks—and a growing body of medical literature clearly indicates that transition improves transgender well-being.

The Trump administration has claimed in both court filings and public messaging that its new policy is not an outright ban on transgender troops because they will still be allowed to serve in their birth-assigned sex. LGBT advocacy groups and medical experts, however, have pointed out the potentially devastating consequences of barring service members from seeking transition-related medical care in order to keep their jobs

That explains why many in Chloe’s situation feel such urgency to get a diagnosis now.

“This [deadline] puts me and others in the position where we have to ‘speak now or forever hold our peace’ and it’s a very uncomfortable place to be,” Bryan Bree Fram, a lieutenant colonel in the Air Force, told The Daily Beast. “We’re on the clock—and the clock is running out.”

For Fram, who is non-binary and serves “at a remote, geographically separated unit,” the nearest military provider who could provide a gender dysphoria diagnosis is over four hours away. Fram will try to get a diagnosis—but might not be able to in time.

Fram is also the communications director for SPART*A, an advocacy organization for transgender service members that has tried to draw public attention to the impact of the troop ban ever since President Trump first announced it via Twitter in July 2017.

This new deadline, says Fram, only adds to the anxiety that transgender service members have been experiencing for nearly two years, as the Trump administration fought to lift the preliminary injunctions on the ban, succeeding at the Supreme Court in January.

“This policy has already created an immense emotional toll on me and my family,” Fram told The Daily Beast. “None of this occurs in a vacuum. It isn’t just the service members who feel the stress, families face the same issues of uncertainty and fear.”

In a statement, a Department of Defense spokesperson said, “We encourage anyone experiencing physical or mental distress to see their medical provider.”

For Caleb, a transgender man and a petty officer in the Navy, the new deadline comes after a lengthy quest to get a gender dysphoria diagnosis from a military provider.

Ever since the Department of Defense announced its latest recommendations for the transgender troop ban, Caleb’s various assignments have kept him on the move.

“Since then, I’ve been in training courses in four different states, sometimes for months at a time, and I’ve deployed overseas twice,” he told The Daily Beast. “This hasn’t granted me any time to pursue the diagnosis I knew I might need in order to keep my career, especially since there was no military medical staff in some of those locations.”

Caleb, who requested that his surname be withheld for privacy, had one stint at home last December—and he used it to put in an official request for an appointment.

“The earliest available appointment was over two months later,” he said. “It also happened to be just three days before I left for my next deployment.”

After the Supreme Court decided in January to allow the troop ban to go into effect while various federal court cases unfold, Caleb took to calling for an appointment every day, hoping that others had canceled so that he could get slotted in sooner.

“I talked with other medical staff members to ask if there was anything they could do, and I always got a response along the lines of: ‘There’s no way this ban will go into effect before you get back,’” he told The Daily Beast. “Nobody really saw the urgency of my situation—and they cited things like funding and the time it takes on the administrative side for policy changes to go through. I wasn’t convinced.”

Just four months into the new year, Caleb is in a bind. He has only been able to see a psychiatrist once for an initial visit.

“Now, the rest of my career essentially depends on whether the doctor decides he has enough information after one visit to make the diagnosis,” he said. “I’ve reached out via email about the deadline and all I can do is wait for a response.”

Elliot Sommer, a graduate student who serves in the army reserves, is playing the same waiting game. He has already received a civilian diagnosis for gender dysphoria, but that must be verified by the military before April 12 so that he can remain in the reserves.

“It’s completely out of my hands which is probably the most frustrating part of the whole thing,” Sommer said. “I’m just trying to do the best that I can. I still go to drill every month and try to do my job to the best of my ability.”

In the absence of guarantees, transgender service members caught in this position have started to develop contingency plans.

Sommer said that he’s “looking for a second job.” Fram would try to “seek a waiver to the policy,” but with no expectation that the military would grant it. And without a gender dysphoria diagnosis, Caleb couldn’t imagine serving after his contract expires.

“I can’t see myself choosing to stomach a few more years of living a double life,” he said. “Years of glaring misinformation between how you view yourself and how everyone else perceives you can take a toll.”

Still, Caleb says that he has “faith that this is a moment that will pass quickly” in the future—although he wishes “that it didn’t have to cost people their careers and in many cases their livelihoods.”

Fram, similarly, believes that although the Trump administration is forcing transgender people out of the military, the overwhelming consensus of medical experts, LGBT advocates, and public opinion will eventually win out.

“Though this door to open service is closing, we’re all going to be pressing up against it with the examples of our honorable and dedicated service,” said Fram. “When it opens again—and I’m sure it will—no one will be able to point to us and say that we left the mission incomplete.”

[smalltownguy]

2nd april 2019

Google’s anti-trans controversy is the latest case of big tech overcorrecting to the right

Google just smoothed over one spat with the LGBT community, but it’s already well into the next one.

Last week, in an effort to monitor the ethical development of artificial intelligence and presumably to assuage public concern, Google launched an eight-person advisory group dedicated to the task.

Controversially, Google included Heritage Foundation President Kay Cole James among the technologists and domain specialists on its newly minted Advanced Technology External Advisory Council (ATEAC).

The inclusion of leadership from the Heritage Foundation, a hyper-conservative think tank with vehemently anti-LGBT views and a deep track record of advocating for climate change denialism in the service of the oil and gas industry, would seem to be an odd fit for an AI council if not a downright puzzling one.

While the group’s less scientific views alone would seem to fly in the face of much of Google’s cutting-edge, scientifically grounded work, the inclusion of a figure openly dedicated to fighting against the rights of the transgender community is causing the company’s latest culture conflagration.

A group calling itself Googlers Against Transphobia in a petition denounced the company’s decision to include James:

In selecting James, Google is making clear that its version of “ethics” values proximity to power over the wellbeing of trans people, other LGBTQ people, and immigrants. Such a position directly contravenes Google’s stated values. Many have emphasized this publicly, and a professor appointed to ATEAC has already resigned in the wake of the controversy.

Following the announcement, the person who took credit for appointing James stood by the decision, saying that James was on the council to ensure “diversity of thought.” This is a weaponization of the language of diversity. By appointing James to the ATEAC, Google elevates and endorses her views, implying that hers is a valid perspective worthy of inclusion in its decision making. This is unacceptable.

The group has called on Google to remove James from the council, arguing that trans people are disproportionately vulnerable to technologies like AI, a problem compounded by the perspective of an advisor incapable of seeing trans people as people — one who casually called transgender women “biological males” just a few weeks ago. At the time of writing, 1,437 Googlers had signed the petition. When reached for comment about the Heritage Foundation’s presence on the ATEAC, Google declined to provide insight on the choice.

Beyond James, the ATEAC includes a behavioral economist, a mathematician, a natural language researcher, the CEO of a drone company focused on energy and defense (some have objected to this as well), an AI ethics specialist, a digital ethicist and William Joseph Burns, a former diplomat and current president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a formally nonpartisan though practically left-leaning think tank. The decision to loop in James is presumably an effort to counterbalance Burns, but the man’s bipartisan reputation and observable failure to be as far left as James is right undermines that particular argument.

Google’s choice to honor the Heritage Foundation by seeking its counsel on one of the sector’s most high-stakes issues epitomizes big tech’s ongoing fear of looking out of step with the right. To that end, companies like Google, Twitter and Facebook have often over-corrected to the right and continue to do so.

It took Facebook two years to realize that white nationalism is just an expedient synonym for white supremacist values rather than a harmless form of pride akin to American pride or Basque separatism. Last month, Jack Dorsey appeared on the Joe Rogan Experience, a clearinghouse where fringe conspiracy theorists and far-right hate mongers can launder their views without the threat of critical thinking or a proper interrogator.

Meanwhile, Apple takes an admirable leadership stance on issues of identity, particularly around LGBTQ issues, but its CEO Tim Cook is still happy to take a seat next to President Trump, whose administration has taken aggressive steps to limit the rights of transgender Americans again and again. Surely the fact that Trump invited the company to repatriate the 94 percent of its total cash holdings previously stashed outside the United States at a deep discount had nothing to do with Cook’s ongoing courtship.

Unfortunately, tech’s underlying fear of being “found out” as liberal and its obsession with a misguided notion of ideological balance is enough for many tech companies to court extreme viewpoints that don’t fall anywhere near the middle. More unfortunate yet, disingenuous grifters wait in the wings to devour every scrap of validation that falls their way, ready to clamber up these companies’ own platforms with their outsized soapboxes, shouting until the Overton window inches their way.

It’s increasingly clear that anything goes in Silicon Valley’s craven attempts to placate opportunists on the right — both within Congress and without — so long as that corporate cognitive dissonance keeps the lobbying wheels greased.

[smalltownguy]

12-Apr-2019

Trump's 'indefensible' transgender military ban has taken effect

The policy has been widely criticised by rights activists and repeatedly challenged in court.

DONALD TRUMP’S CONTROVERSIAL ban on transgender Americans in the military comes into force today following a protracted legal battle.

Trump’s administration has insisted that there is “too great a risk to military effectiveness and lethality” to allow transgender people to serve – reversing a policy enacted under his predecessor Barack Obama.

The Pentagon says the restrictions are not a blanket ban, but they would bar many if not most people who identify as transgender from enlisting in America’s armed forces.

The policy – which has undergone various iterations since Trump first announced it on Twitter in July 2017 – has been widely criticised by rights activists and has been repeatedly challenged in court.

The US Supreme Court ultimately ruled in January that the policy could take effect pending the outcome of ongoing litigation.

Under the latest version of Trump’s policy, no one who has transitioned to another gender, been diagnosed with “gender dysphoria” or who requires hormone treatment will be able to enlist.

But currently enlisted troops who have already transitioned or have requested gender reassignment surgery prior to today will be allowed to remain in the military.

For Aaron Belkin, director of the Palm Center, a research institute focusing on sexual minorities in the military, the policy amounts to a transgender ban.

“When (the Department of Defense) disqualifies all applicants with a history of gender dysphoria (unless they renounce transgender identity for years) and all applicants who have ever received treatment for gender dysphoria, that is a ban,” Belkin said.

Repeating ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’

The policy “depends on directly banning the transgender people who are immediately identifiable and threatening the rest, forcing them to remain silent and invisible,” he said.

“It is ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ all over again,” said Belkin, referring to the policy under which gay service members had to hide their sexual orientation or face dismissal from the military.

Under the Obama-era policy, transgender recruits were to start being accepted by 1 July , 2017. The Trump administration postponed that date to 1 January, 2018, before deciding to reverse the policy entirely.

The Pentagon estimates that 9,000 people who identify as transgender are currently serving in the military, out of a total of 1.3 million active-duty personnel.

Of this figure, a thousand say they have undergone gender reassignment surgery or want to do so.

But according to transgender rights activists, the figure is higher.

“As many as 15,000 transgender service members stand to lose their jobs,” Army Staff Sergeant Patricia King, who is transgender, told ABC News this week.

The new policy is “indefensible,” Meghan McCain, daughter of the late senator John McCain, wrote on Twitter.

“This discriminatory policy will lead Transgender service members, patriots who have decided to serve their nation, to live in the shadows,” she wrote.

[smalltownguy]

17-04-2019

Navy allows transgender sailors to dress according to gender identity while off duty



The Navy will allow sailors to dress and “live socially in their preferred gender while off-duty,” a policy announcement that comes amid new Pentagon restrictions on transgender people joining the military.

The statement, signed by Vice Adm. Robert Burke, clarifies that there is no policy prohibiting servicemembers to “express themselves off-duty in their preferred gender.”

“Appropriate civilian attire, as outlined in the uniform regulations, will not be determined based on gender,” according to the policy, which Burke signed in March.

The guidance does restrict off-duty attire in some overseas posts “to meet local conditions and host-nation agreements with foreign countries,” which would rest on the discretion of regional commanders.

The clarification follows a Supreme Court decision clearing the Pentagon to enforce its restrictions on those who identify as transgender from signing up for service while the new rules are being challenged in court.

The policy, which went into effect Friday, stipulates that any current servicemembers diagnosed with gender dysphoria may continue to serve as their preferred gender. However, transgender people wishing to enlist now must adhere to standards associated with their biological sex.

Diagnosed gender dysphoria recruits can enlist “provided they can demonstrate 36 consecutive months of stability in their biological sex,” the Pentagon policy states. They must also be cleared by a mental health care provider to ensure that a transition “is not necessary to protect their mental health.”

The Pentagon argues that the policy, which is backed by the White House, is not a ban. But many LGBTQ organizations have filed lawsuits likening it to the Clinton-era “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, which closeted gays and lesbians serving in the military.

Transgender advocates have decried the Pentagon rules but voiced support for the Navy’s latest policy statement.

“The Navy is taking care of its transgender service members by giving them the option to dress and express themselves as they choose,” Bree Fram, director at the LGBTQ military advocacy group SPART*A, told NBC News on Sunday.

NBC News reported that no other military branches have announced similar off-duty clothing policies for transgender troops, citing the Palm Center, a nonpartisan public policy think tank and OutServe-SLDN, an LGBTQ military advocacy group.

In addition to off-duty attire policies, the Navy policy emphasized zero-tolerance for harassment or hazing, stating that all servicemembers “are expected to continue to treat each other with dignity and respect.”

[smalltownguy]

1st May 2019

Trans powerlifter smashing women’s world record slammed by Kelly Holmes: 'Bloody joke'

A TRANSGENDER powerlifter who has beaten the women’s world record has unintentionally sparked controversy — with Dame Kelly Holmes calling the news “a bloody joke”.

Powerlifter Mary Gregory shared the exhilaration of her win on social media and also praised the inclusivity of the event organisers.

Posting to Instagram, she wrote: "A huge thank you to @raw_powerlifting_federation_, from the bottom of my heart!

“As a transgender lifter I was unsure what to expect going into this meet and everyone - all the spotters, loaders, referees, staff, meet director, all made me welcome and treated me as just another female lifter- thank you!”

Mary had broken multiple world records on Sunday, including masters world squat record, open world bench record, masters world dl record, and masters world total record.

She signed-off her triumphant post with wine and pizza emojis.

But former swimming champion Sharron Davies dubbed the competition “unfair”.

On Twitter, she wrote: "This is a trans woman a male body with male physiology setting a world record & winning a woman’s event in America in powerlifting.

“A woman with female biology cannot compete... it’s a pointless unfair playing field."

The post was then responded to by Double Olympic Champion Dame Kelly Holmes, who tweeted: "It's a bloody joke and all getting ready for biological women to boycott certain events.

“Have a trans category if need be but even better a trans games.

"Otherwise I’m starting to worry about the backlash and abuse that the trans community will get from spectators. It will happen!"

However, Mary, who wore a T-shirt with the slogan “share the platform” as she held aloft her trophy, had thanked spectators for their support in her post.

”And thanks to all the fans in the audience who cheered me on and congratulated me,” she wrote.

Transgender participation in competitive sport remains controversial with male-to-female and female-to-male athletes sometimes bound by different regulations.

The current Olympic rules state that female-to-male transgender athletes can compete “without restriction” but male-to-female athletes must undergo hormone therapy, according to guidelines adopted by the International Olympic Committee in 2016.

[smalltownguy]

2nd May, 2019

10 transgender women seeking asylum just won their immigration cases after months of violence and discrimination

Ten transgender women who traveled with the caravan that President Trump targeted during the midterm elections have won their asylum cases and been released from a detention center in Texas.
For Estrellita, the decision to flee her home country of Honduras to seek asylum in the United States wasn't an easy one. Even though she faced discrimination for being transgender, she considered staying so she could help others like her.
"I wanted to change things but that made me more of a target," Estellita told CBS News via email. "I was assaulted and threatened by those who didn't agree with me and hated trans people. I love my country and wouldn't have left but for the persecution I suffered. But I thought the U.S. would be pretty and the people would be nice and that has turned out to be true."
The 10 were part of a roughly 80-member group of LGBTQ migrants from Central America that splintered off from a much larger caravan of thousands that came up through Central America in the fall. The larger group was a frequent target of Mr. Trump in the lead up to the 2018 midterm elections. Mr. Trump often referred to the group as an "invasion," despite the group being hundreds of miles away.
"I am telling the caravan, the criminals, the smugglers, the trespassers marching toward our border, turn back now, because you are not getting in. Turn back," Mr. Trump said at a campaign rally in Chattanooga, Tennessee in early November, days before the election.
Among the 80, was a smaller group of 30 transgender women who presented themselves together at the border in Tijuana. They were immediately detained at South Texas Detention Center, an immigration prison that, prior to the group's arrival, had no experience in housing transgender women.
Estrellita said that she plans to open a trans women's shelter. "So many advocates have helped me and I want to turn around and help others," she said.
Her comments to CBS News have been translated by Cristian Sanchez, an attorney at Raices, an immigrant rights group in Texas. Sanchez worked closely with the group of transgender asylum seekers to match them with attorneys and sponsors.
Cataleya, another one of the 10, said in a video posted on Twitter that she felt "extremely happy because my dreams have come true.
"I feel so happy because I know that I'm heading to my new life," she said. "My future starts now."
The path to asylum was not easy. Traveling through Central America to the United States is a notoriously difficult journey, but for members of the LGBTQ community, the trip brings even more danger, said Aaron Morris, the executive director of Immigration Equality, an LGBTQ immigrant rights organization.
"The reality is that it's extremely difficult to make that journey without a strong community behind you," Morris said in a telephone interview with CBS News. "People can often get targeted by the very people that they're traveling with."
While traveling in the caravan, some of the women said they experienced "derogatory name calling and insults from others in in the caravan," Sanchez said. While some migrants were offered rides in vehicles, Sanchez said that the transgender women weren't allowed on those rides. According to Raices, migrants said that while traveling in the caravan they were "the last ones to be taken care of — for food, everything." That's why the LGBTQ members banded together.
Sanchez and Estrellita claim the harassment continued after they applied for asylum and were detained at the Texas facility. According to Sanchez, officers were "discriminatory and used derogatory slurs against them."
"Although I do believe South Texas Detention Center is trying its best given a new situation, there are definitely some ways that STDC can improve their care," Sanchez said in an email to CBS News.
An ICE official told CBS News that they would look into the allegations.
The remaining 20 or so transgender women remain in custody at South Texas awaiting court dates or have already lost their cases, according to Sanchez. Estrellita and Cataleya are the lucky ones; immigration judges only approved 35 percent of asylum cases in 2018, a record low, according to data provided by the Syracuse University's Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse.

[smalltownguy]

8th May 2019

Teacher gives transgender lesson, parents sue Woodburn School District

Parents sue Woodburn schools after teacher educates son about being transgender

The parents of an elementary student suing the Woodburn School District for almost a million dollars say a second-grade teacher kept their son from recess and educated him without their permission about being transgender.

The lawsuit filed in Marion County Circuit Court accuses the school of false imprisonment, negligence and the intentional infliction of emotional distress.

The student was 8 years old when his teacher, after noticing the boy used the staff bathroom, pulled him aside, kept him from recess and showed him videos and books "in an effort to promote (him) becoming transgender," according to the complaint.

District Superintendent Chuck Ransom declined to comment on the case, citing the pending litigation.

The then-second grader at Nellie Muir Elementary School and his parents had made arrangements with the school for him to use the staff restroom because of a digestive-related medical condition.

His teacher assumed the boy was not comfortable using the public boys' restroom because he was transgender, according to the lawsuit.

The complaint also alleges the following:

In April 2018, without notifying the parents and without any authorization from the school district, the teacher began developing a lesson plan to help the boy understand what it meant to be transgender.

She then began keeping the student inside the classroom alone during recess at least three times to show him videos and teach him "it is acceptable to become transgender."

These lessons included episodes of the reality television series "I Am Jazz" about a transgender girl named Jazz Jennings, books "I Am Jazz" and "Who are You? The Kid's Guide to Gender Identity" and discussions on the difference between male and female body parts.

The books and show, which were recommended by an "unknown non-school employee transgender individual," exposed the boy to sexual topics and sexual discussions, according to the lawsuit.

During the lessons, the student was not allowed to go outside for recess until he finished the videos or books.

Student took books home to parents

The lawsuit accuses the teacher of singling out the boy by pulling him from regular student activities without his parents' permission.

At the end of the school week, the teacher told the boy to take the books home and share them with his family.

His parents first found out about the lessons when he brought the books home.

"(They) were extremely shocked to find out that she would expose (their son) to various sexual concepts, such as the difference between male and female body parts," the family's attorney Edgar Diaz said in the lawsuit.

The parents filed a complaint with the school but said school officials minimized what has occurred, telling them "If this happened in Portland, it would not be a big deal."

The school stated in a hearing letter that evidence was found that the teacher pulled the student from regular activities and shared potentially controversial materials without his parents' permission.

Officials recommended the teacher follow school policy when it comes to "controversial issues" and notify parents when she alters a student's regular school day.

The lessons had lasting damage, according to the lawsuit.

The boy became confused about whether he going to turn into a girl. He now shies away from playing with "girl" toys or playing "girl-related" games. He underwent personality changes, becoming more depressed, aggressive and isolated and now attends counseling.

"He has also become afraid of attending his current school, seeing (the teacher) and using the boys' bathroom," Diaz said in the complaint.

His parents have also struggled with anxiety, stress and depression following the incident.

Parents fear gender identity confusion
The parents now fear their son will have gender identity issues because the teacher, not them, taught their son about identity.

The lawsuit accuses the teacher of false imprisonment for confining the student during recess time without a valid reason and claims the school breached the "special duty entrusted by the law" to supervise teachers and protect students from controversial topics and emotional harm.

Diaz said the school district failed to properly train and supervise the teacher.

Furthermore, the teacher's actions demonstrated she either meant to inflict severe emotional distress or knew her conduct could result in emotional distress, according to the lawsuit.

Diaz said her actions "constituted an extraordinary transgression of bound of socially tolerable conduct."

[smalltownguy]

10th May 2019

The Chinese transgender individuals forced to take treatment into their own hands.

Huiming* (not photographed) was in her early twenties when she decided to remove her male genitalia. But living in China, her options were limited.

For one, gender-affirming surgery in the country is only available to individuals diagnosed as mentally ill, which Huiming was not. It also requires the permission of an individual’s family – something Huiming felt certain she would not obtain.

Going overseas for the operation was another option, but one Huiming simply could not afford. “Operations were rumoured to cost more than $30,000 back then,” she said. “That is more than the lifetime savings of many families.”

In desperation, Huiming* tried putting ice on her male genitals to stop them functioning and even booked a surgery with a black-market doctor, but the doctor was arrested before her surgery was done.So she felt she had only one choice left: Huiming would perform the surgery herself.

“I was very happy and scared. I was scared because I was bleeding so badly – I could have died right there. I was also scared because I would still die a man, since I only did part of the surgery,” Huiming, now 30, told Amnesty International.

Her story is shocking, but in China it is sadly not unique. Discrimination and stigma against the transgender community pervades all walks of life – including the medical and legal professions – and has left individuals such as Huiming to take drastic and often dangerous measures in their quest to become themselves.

Since puberty, Huiming had felt deeply uncomfortable with her assigned gender. As a child she was disgusted by her developing male sex characteristics. “I would pluck the hairs on my legs with one hand, and do my schoolwork with the other,” she recalls.

She had no access to the internet until she was in her late teens – her only previous source of information on transgender life being illegal publications covering stories of “ladyboys” from Thailand. It was after she began investigating online that she took the first steps towards self-medication.

Desperate to align her sexual characteristics with her gender identity, she began to take hormone pills – designed to be taken monthly – every day. Her body changed rapidly, but still she struggled to accept herself.

“I saw myself as a pervert who was neither man nor woman,” Huiming said, describing a constant struggle between the intense urge to get rid of her male sex organs and the fear of being disowned by her family if she transitioned.

While self-medication and self-surgery may seem like extreme options, seeking professional help is also fraught with problems. These stem largely from the view in Chinese society that being transgender is an illness.

Yasi, 22, had long been tormented by the idea of “being a man” when she went to see a psychiatrist in 2017. Her experience was typical of many transgender people who seek medical advice.

“When I spoke to him, I felt that he didn’t see transgender people as one of the communities in society. He saw us as patients that needed to be cured,” she said.

“At best, most of the doctors understand the concept of being transgender, but they do not have the knowledge to offer you help."

Bizarrely, one of the criteria to be eligible for gender-affirming surgery in China is to obtain familial consent – even as an adult. It's a conversation that is often avoided, and frequently traumatic for those brave enough to raise it.

When 20-year-old Zijia from Chongqing came out as a transgender woman, her family thought she was sick.

“They asked me to suppress my gender identity, get married and have a child – all so everyone in the family can be happy,” she said.

But the lack of support did not stop Zijia from pursuing the life she wanted. For years she had felt like a fraud, forced to disguise herself as a man when she saw herself as a woman.

So in 2017, she started taking hormone medication. Her body gradually started to align with her gender identity – her skin became softer, her breasts grew and her body hair growth slowed. She was excited about the changes happening in her body but, like many others, her greatest worry was buying and taking dangerous counterfeit medication.

In the absence of formal channels to access prescribed medication in China, transgender individuals are often forced to obtain hormone treatments in ways that put their lives at risk.

“We were stuck in a situation in which there was no medical professional who could take care of our healthcare needs. Therefore, everyone tried medicating themselves.”

Another transgender person who took this path was Shanshan from Beijing, 21, who turned to the black market when her anxiety about her gender incongruence became too much to bear. She had suffered frequent beatings and verbal abuse from her father throughout her childhood due to her feminine temperament.She went to one of the best high schools in Beijing, but she was bullied and could not get along with her classmates.

“My greatest anxiety is being a man, a man in a medical sense,” she said. “It was very, very painful. Sometimes it felt so bad I wanted to commit suicide.”

She started acquiring hormone medication and using it without a doctor’s supervision. She continues to self-medicate now and cannot imagine stopping.

“No matter where I go, I have to prepare enough hormones,” she said. "If I am travelling and I run out [of medication], I just go home. I must carry them with me all times. Or else I will die. Stopping hormone treatment is excruciating.”

As long as deeply ingrained discrimination persists in China, transgender people will continue to face a choice between living a lie or risking their life to align their sex characteristics with their gender identity. For many, the only avenue for support is the internet, where transgender people have shared their stories and made each other realize they are not alone.

After her unsuccessful attempt at self-surgery, Huiming covered the bleeding wound with a thick stack of tissues and took a taxi to the emergency room. The doctor agreed to lie to her family and say that she had had an accident.

But traumatic though it was, this experience hardened Huiming’s sense of who she was. She sought support from other transgender people , and met someone who changed the way she looked at herself.

“It was a non-binary transgender person. That person showed me the possibility of living with the gender identity I have. I wasn’t that abnormal. Someone else was as ‘abnormal’ as I am.”

She eventually let go of her fear and came out to her mother before going to Thailand for gender-affirming surgery in 2017.

“She was a bit frustrated, but she accepted me,” Huiming said of her mother’s reaction.

As a first step, acceptance is all China's transgender community asks.

*All names are changed to protect the identity of interviewees.

[Shad]

Great -keep the news coming!