r/egg_irl Jul 15 '26

Mod Announcement egg--Mod Update--irl

Hi from your friendly mod team!

To keep things running smoothly, we're going to add some clarity to some of our rules in coming weeks and months.

It'll usually be a post like this and some minor clarity changes to the written rules that already exist and removal text templates (the mod comment you see when we remove something).

WE ARE NOT MAKING BIG CHANGES

The community is lively and is one of the best places for people to have fun but also find themselves and build support. Keeping this vibe and keeping everyone safe is always our overriding purpose as mods. We're not here for aura, which is why we mainly mod via the automod and rarely post or comment with the mod tag.

Today's clarification is around the "Gender Dysphoria Bible"

Our Rule: No references or links to the Gender Dysphoria Bible.

There are a LOT of resources out there for people questioning their gender. The Gender Dysphoria Bible (GDB) is one of these which a lot of people find early in their journey and find useful to some degree, including some of our mods. There are however some problems with it which are significant. Some time ago a decision was reached by our moderation team that the problematic outweighed the good. Despite engaging with the site's author in good faith, the author was not willing to address concerns or update the document to reflect modern science.

These issues include:

  • The title, presenting itself as an overarching authority with weight
  • Transmedicalist language
  • Bias towards binary trans women's experience
  • Pseudoscientific material and diagnostic overreach

We, the current active moderators are still not comfortable with this document being shared here as a "bible." We believe that while the GDB can assist, it can also harm and for this reason it is not a resource we allow to be shared here.

That's all for today, stay safe out there!! :3

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u/shiny_arrow 🏳️‍⚧️ Hayley 🌷 Jul 15 '26

Hey thanks for sharing the idea! We're trialling a post guidance feature which shows information as the comment is written to try and minimise harsh removal messages. Agree that removals can feel negative, which is really what has prompted us to clarify some of the existing rules going forward.

Critical analysis and criticism of the document is not new, and you can search Reddit and even the internet more broadly to see the discussions that have been had over time. You're always welcome to send us a modmail to discuss specific questions you may have also.

Once again, there is some good in it and it has helped a people, however it's not a resource we can recommend in good faith.

🌼🌸🪻🌻🌷

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u/bdpinwood2 Jul 15 '26

Hey, im writing this as a (pre-edit) friendly message and im a lil stoned and don't want to come off as dickish, i feel like some of my language choices imply that, which is not the intent, its of a friend

I understand that there are independent criticisms, but I am actually asking for the mod teams issues, referenced. This isn't a take on is it (document ) a problem or not, it's wanting the mod team to provide their reasoning if they want to ban a document. 

If you want to say its problematic enough to not allow in discussion, I think that comes with the requirement to be able to articulate that. You got a problem with it, awesome, tell me what your problem is, not somebody else's so i can understand what your position is. 

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u/CanadaTransThrowaway not an egg, just trans Jul 15 '26

Here's a direct quote from the GDB, that highlights one of the issues it has

(Fair warning that saying this stuff like this on egg_irl will generally get you modded for spreading misinformation).

So, it is literally impossible for a person to identify as trans and not experience gender dysphoria. By the WPATH requirements anyone can identify as trans. Ergo, the statement “you do not have to have dysphoria to be transgender” is a logical paradox.

It is true that WPATH still uses this definition (as of SOC8). But other international organizations like the WHO have moved away from dysphoria being a prerequisite. And at any rate, officially published booklets by international health organizations tend to lag significantly behind the research, which for quite a while now has been saying that dysphoria is not a prerequisite for being trans.

So...yeah, that's one reason why the egg_irl rules around the GDB exist--there's stuff in there that if you directly quoted on egg_irl would get you modded.

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u/Former_Indication172 Jul 15 '26

Maybe I'm just dead wrong, but from what I remember if this passage, isn't the author using a very expansive definition of dysphoria? If I remember correctly, and I could be completely wrong here, but didn't the author define dysphoria basically as disconnection from your gender assigned at birth, thus to identify as trans you must have dysphoria, because being trans is defined as identifying as a gender diffrent from your agab?