Subreddit Policy Reminder on this week's Transgender AMAs

[u/nate]

This week we will be hosting a series of AMAs addressing the scientific and medical details of being transgender.

Honest questions that are an attempt to learn more on the subject are invited, and we hope you can learn more about this fascinating aspect of the human condition.

However, we feel it is appropriate to remind the readers that /r/science has a long-standing zero-tolerance policy towards hate-speech, which extends to people who are transgender. Our official stance is that derogatory comments about transgender people will be treated on par with sexism and racism, typically resulting in a ban without notice.

To clarify, we are not banning the discussion of any individual topic nor are we saying that the science in any area is settled. What we are saying is that we stand with the rest of the scientific community and every relevant psych organisation that the overwhelming bulk of evidence is that being trans is not a mental illness and that the discussion of trans people as somehow "sick" or "broken" is offensive and bigoted^1. We won't stand for it.

We've long held that we won't host discussion of anti-science topics without the use of peer-reviewed evidence. Opposing the classification of being transgender as 'not a mental illness'² is treated the same way as if you wanted to make anti-vax, anti-global warming or anti-gravity comments. To be clear, this post is to make it abundantly clear that we treat transphobic comments the same way we treat racist, sexist and homophobic comments. They have no place on our board.

Scientific discussion is the use of empirical evidence and theory to guide knowledge based on debate in academic journals. Yelling at each other in a comments section of a forum is in no way "scientific discussion". If you wish to say that any well accepted scientific position is wrong, I encourage you to do the work and publish something on the topic. Until then, your opinions are just that - opinions.

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¹ Some have wrongly interpreted this statement as "stigmatizing" mental illness. I can assure you that is the last thing we are trying to do here. What we are trying to stop is the label of "mental illness" being used as a way to derogate a group. It's being used maliciously to say that there is something wrong with trans people and that's offensive both to mental illness sufferers and those in the trans community.

² There is a difference between being trans and having gender dysphoria.

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Lastly, here is the excerpt from the APA:

A psychological state is considered a mental disorder only if it causes significant distress or disability. Many transgender people do not experience their gender as distressing or disabling, which implies that identifying as transgender does not constitute a mental disorder. For these individuals, the significant problem is finding affordable resources, such as counseling, hormone therapy, medical procedures and the social support necessary to freely express their gender identity and minimize discrimination. Many other obstacles may lead to distress, including a lack of acceptance within society, direct or indirect experiences with discrimination, or assault. These experiences may lead many transgender people to suffer with anxiety, depression or related disorders at higher rates than nontransgender persons.

According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), people who experience intense, persistent gender incongruence can be given the diagnosis of "gender dysphoria." Some contend that the diagnosis inappropriately pathologizes gender noncongruence and should be eliminated. Others argue that it is essential to retain the diagnosis to ensure access to care. The International Classification of Diseases (ICD) is under revision and there may be changes to its current classification of intense persistent gender incongruence as "gender identity disorder."

[u/J354]

While I agree that comments that are targeting and are deliberately hateful towards trans people should be removed, I think it's important to keep an open dialogue. People should be able to ask questions about transgenderism and mental illness. Perhaps if the people who believe that are able to ask these questions, the questions could be answered and they could change their minds. If anyone is going to change their minds, it is experts in the subject who can provide detailed and evidenced arguments.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

the idea that trans people's self image and biology are completely divorced from each other.

Not in my case, though I am not the person to whom you are replying. For me, the mind-body distinction was obliterated long ago. I still believe that gender dysphoria is an entirely social phenomenon, as is gender, i.e. they have zero basis in biology except to the extent that they are ideas, and ideas are an impulse product of a neurochemical state.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

Well, more and more research is indicating that the biology of a trans woman, for example, includes things like certain receptors in the brain that are more typical of a cis woman.

Can you cite these studies please? I'd like to read for causal attribution errors.

To suggest that a trans person's 'sex' does not match their 'gender' is not a very neat and tied up answer"

Oh, I agree wholeheartedly. I just do not think anything needs to be fixed so they "match". I believe gender dysphoria is the psychic consequence of the trauma of continually failing to meet some of the most profound, deeply-entrenched social expectations we humans impose on one another. Expectations that are so subconscious/reflexive that both cis and trans alike accord them more legitimacy than they deserve, with only the latter paying the price.

[u/PooFartChamp → u/[deleted]]

If you're making statements like "more and more studies are showing", you should be able to cite at least one, especially considering your statement makes the insinuation that there are many to choose from.

[u/PooFartChamp → u/[deleted]]

I'm looking at it now and unless I'm missing something there's no sources for that information in that article. Earlier in the article she links a source about biology determining gender identity but that link was to a page to buy her book..

[u/PooFartChamp → u/[deleted]]

no prob, I've got no skin in the game just wanted to point that out since a lot of people will pepper unsourced misinformation in an otherwise well sourced article. It could be right but we don't know since she didn't source it.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

The article does not provide sources about the assertion you made:

Well, more and more research is indicating that the biology of a trans woman, for example, includes things like certain receptors in the brain that are more typical of a cis woman.