Why Transmedicalists are Wrong. I am a binary trans woman. About the…
By: Rori Porter
Tags: Transmedicalist, Nonbinary, Transtrender, Transgender, LGBTQ

I am a binary-ish trans woman. About the most visible of the trans identities, people like me receive a lot of airtime, for better or for worse. Our struggles are more well known than most others under the trans umbrella, and the most frequently traveled path of our ranks is often framed as a guideline or common narrative for the trans experience. We (binary trans women) often seek particular changes to our body, tend to have gender dysphoria, and we are seen and represented in media through actresses and activists like Laverne Cox, Janet Mock, Jazz Jennings, Carmen Carerra, Amanda LePore, Andreja Pejić, Chelsea Manning, and a number of other high profile trans women. That said, these women all have something in common: their experience is binary and tends to make more sense to the general population than non-binary trans experiences. The narrative surrounding trans feminine people is abundant and readily accessible by the masses through shows like Orange is the New Black, Sense8, Euphoria, and Pose, while other demographics of the trans community are quite overlooked.

To get to the core of the anti-non-binary methodology, you need to first understand three tenets of trans representation:

First — Increased visibility/representation correlates to increased public scrutiny

This visibility for trans woman is hard-fought, and visibility for one group cannot be seen as a bad thing in light of another community being overlooked. With increased visibility often comes increased scrutiny, so the representation afforded to trans women can often seem like a double-edged sword. We are more in danger of being taunted and attacked. Trans women of color are particularly at risk for being on the receiving end of hate crimes and face one of the most statistically disturbing demographical murder rates on the planet. We don’t always assimilate well or blend into society’s expectation of what a woman should look like, while trans men often do with the ability to grow a beard and the deepening of their voices when on testosterone.

That said, trans men receive far less news coverage than their trans femme counterparts, and their celebrity rankings are far less prolific. Chaz Bono, Ian Harvey from Transparent, and porn star Buck Angel are some of the only trans men that most people know, if they even know those few. I don’t intend to pass judgment on Buck Angel — quite the contrary. He is highly involved in the transmasc community, and has headlined trans events that I’ve been to. Buck does a lot of good work for the trans community with his advocacy and outreach, and I only mention him because a porn star being one of the most prominent representations of trans men in our culture is truthfully not great for cultural perceptions and is ultimately a microcosm of the rampant fetishization of the trans community.

Buck Angel should always have a place in the community, but his place of prominence is due to a lack of similar role models with a platform. Buck uses his platform to benefit his own community, the trans men under-represented in our world, and that is honestly an amazing thing. Trans men are often invisible in our society, blending in in a way that trans women don’t necessarily share.

To be very very clear, Buck is a hugely problematic figure and his support of the transmasc community doesn’t erase the damage he causes to nonbinary people with his platform. That subject will take a lot to get into, but let’s be clear that Buck is no guardian angel to most of our community, just the ones he approves of. I would get into that here, but I have about two densely packed pages of notes on the subject, so I’m going to reserve condemnation of Buck for another time.

Point being, he is both a transmedicalist and a major part of transmasc representation in a world where that is exceedingly lacking.

Our experiences as trans people are incredibly varied, and so we face different problems.

For the price of a lack of representation, trans men are less at risk in our society that allows and celebrates masculinity in many forms, but punishes femininity in all forms. Our experiences as trans people are incredibly varied, and so we face different problems. Trans men lack representation, and trans women are generally more at risk in public. It is not something to lament, but rather to simply be aware of.

In general, trans people of all genders and walks of life face unique challenges that cisgender people will never face and we must find solidarity in that.

Second — Non-binary representation is almost non-existent

Non-binary representation falls even shorter, with most enby celebrities being mislabeled as cisgender and gay/bi/lesbian, or sometimes cisgender and straight. Asexual non-binary people are a level of unrepresented that feels like I just tried dividing by zero in my effort to find anybody with a platform who fits that descriptor.

While non-binary folk are often completely overlooked and disregarded, they face an inversely enormous level of scrutiny for falling outside of the prescribed gender binary. While I can personally name several non-binary stars like Miley Cyrus, potentially Gerard Way, Courtney Act, Valentina, and lots of other Drag Race alumni, their identities are largely invisible to the public eye. Non-binary drag queens are often just thought of as cisgender gay men, though there is a distinct intersection of gay and enby/trans culture when it comes to drag queens and how they straddle both labels. In the case of Miley, people have chalked up their non-binary identity to them trying to be “fashionable,” and a statement like this came from their own godmother, Dolly Parton herself.

“The idea that gender is immutable, binary, and solely dependant upon sex characteristics is pervasive, and the burden of change is laid squarely upon the shoulders of those whom this misconception hurts most.”

“There are only two genders!” is a common refrain used to discredit and invalidate non-binary individuals, as well as tired phrases like “I identify as an Apache attack helicopter,” as if the idea of not being a man or a woman, being both, some combination therein, or lack thereof, is as absurd as being a conscious, sentient machine of war. Like, “Oh, if someone can identify as agender, I can identify as a potato salad.” The idea that gender is immutable, binary, and solely dependant upon sex characteristics is pervasive, and the burden of change is laid squarely upon the shoulders of those whom this misconception hurts most.

& Third — Non-binary people face a steeper climb than binary trans folks in the path to mainstream cultural acceptance

It can be said that many (certainly not all) binary trans folks are effectively assimilating into binary culture, going from a 1 to a 0 or visa versa, trying to blend in as the opposite sex and/or gender. Non-binary trans folks, conversely, are functionally trying to create the society that allows for them to exist and thrive. Not that we’re playing Oppression Olympics here, but I personally think that nonbinary is a harder path, as when I tell someone I’m a trans woman it’s generally understood, while non-binary folks often have to shoulder the entire burden of educating almost everyone they care about or have to spend any significant amount of time around.

… non-binary folks often have to shoulder the entire burden of educating almost everyone they care about or have to spend any significant amount of time around.

What perhaps troubles me most about the invalidation of the non-binary community is that very often that invalidation comes from within the trans community itself. People are expected to fall into one category or the other, male or female, innie or outie, and any variance is frequently infantilized, discredited, and chalked up to liberal theology gone mad, and often trans people are just as guilty as cis folks of perpetuating anti-nonbinary mentalities. These are very much the same slights that binary trans folks face, but with the added dynamic of binary trans folks gatekeeping nonbinary trans folks for living an experience they don’t understand. Functionally, anti-non-binary gatekeeping is an external manifestation of internalized transphobia.

The fact that biological variance exists outside of the trans community in the form of intersex individuals is also widely ignored in favor of a rigid social construct that simply doesn’t work for all of us or even make much scientific sense. Everyone thinks they’re an expert on gender while very few people actually are.

And that’s the thing — anti-trans + anti-non-binary stances fall apart with the slightest pressure of logical and scientific scrutiny, but bigotry does not abide by the same rules as science and logic. Hateful people seek out only the facts that confirm their bias and use whatever twisted knowledge they come by as justification for treating an oppressed minority as less than human.