52 trans entities and LGTBI say about the days around "THE CONSTRUCTION OF GENDER IDENTITY, MINORS AND GENDER DISPORITY"
EDITORIAL GAYLES.TV.- If there is an inalienable right, intrinsic to being, is the right to own identity in any field, national, linguistic, racial but, above all, gender identity felt to be the basis on which the personality of the individual is constructed. And it is the person and no one else who can reflect, debate, mark the limits or the basis on which that identity is built. It seems obvious, does not it? Well, at the conference on childhood, adolescence and trans youth that have been closed yesterday in Madrid, at the University of Comillas, under the title: "THE CONSTRUCTION OF GENDER IDENTITY, MINORS AND GENDER DISPORITY", not one of the people who presented papers was trans.
Surely there will be those who think that it is a professional days and just as it is not necessary to be deaf to be an otorhinolaryngologist, it is clear that you can discuss transsexuality without being one. But it is enough a diagonal reading of the program to see that they deal with issues in which it is offensive, not to say manipulative, not have the voice of the people affected, that is, transgender individuals. Legal aspects, bioethics, life histories. At the root of the question is the fact that The subject continues to be approached from a pathologizing perspective. We have gone from “come and see”, from being the anomaly in the circus tent to being the insect in the entomologist's microscope. An attitude that, if it did not involve so much suffering for so many people, could be called almost rude, as when talking about someone present pretending that they are not.
That is why 52 trans collectives and LGTBI have united and raised their voices, so that we can also hear what trans people and their allied environment have to say about trans identity in childhood and adolescence. Because beyond the studies that the professionals of "specialized units" present on the issue, is the experience in the first person and the right, at least, to be taken into account when you are debating about yourself.
Today We wanted to give this space to these groups and the statement that on the days around the "THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE IDENTITY OF GENDER, MINORS AND DISTRESS OF GENDER" have just published. We believe that it is worth transcribing it completely because it matters that its content reaches as many people as possible and because its dissemination is almost a moral responsibility of those who feel involved in the struggle for integration, diversity and the right to their own identity. That's why we recommend you not stop reading here, it's worth it.
Because identity can not be diagnosed. Identity is a right.
Then we leave you in communication that has facilitated the Daniela Foundation.
Communiqué of Trans and LGTBI entities from all over Spain the Conference "THE CONSTRUCTION OF GENDER IDENTITY, CHILDREN AND GENDER DISTRESS "that has been celebrated today, 6 of October of 2016, at the Pontifical University of Comillas in Madrid.
On behalf of 52 Trans and LGTB collectives from all over Spain, we want to raise our voices about the Conference: “THE CONSTRUCTION OF GENDER IDENTITY, MINORS AND GENDER DYSPHORIA” which was held today, October 6, 2016 at the Universidad Pontificia Comillas.
And we want to do it so that other approaches and perspectives other than those raised here are also heard at these conferences. So that what trans people and our allies have to say about trans identities in childhood and adolescence is heard.
Let's start by saying that these conferences are focused on the reality of trans people, and yet not a single trans person appears on the program as a speaker. This is not by chance, there are many reasons that explain why we are not present and it is not something new. From certain spheres, trans people have never been given the floor, we have never had a voice to speak about our own reality and our needs. And it has not been like that because, we have never been allowed to express ourselves or our arguments have been listened to. Those of those who live this reality in the first person daily.
And the reason for all this is precisely the pathologization that continues to exist when addressing trans identities in childhood and adolescence in the "specialized" units that are represented at these conferences, and the professionals who personify them in the conference.
The pathologization of their perspectives is easily identifiable:
1. The bodies and identities of cis people (that is, non-trans people) are still considered as correct, congruent and valid and that is why our identities are questioned. They are evaluated, they are observed ... to the point that we depend on those evaluations to be able to live as men, women or the non-binary people that we are. This shows a pathologizing vision; believing that we must ensure that we are indeed what we say we are, wondering if this may be due to another disorder, being certain that it is something that lasts over time ... A perspective that has led them to assume that underage people they cannot know what their identity is by excluding them from being full citizens. In the same way that it has been done with non-binary people, trans people who are neither men nor women and therefore also face the prejudices on which these units are based.
Perspectives and interventions that have been forced to modify in some cases and those that continue to resist being carried out in others, in the Units specialized in the care of trans people in Andalusia and Madrid, speakers at these conferences, only through the mandate of the laws that in this sense have been approved both in Andalusia and Madrid. Legislation to which many of its professionals have publicly stated that they are against or consider them wrong, despite having been drafted by the transgender collectives, allied professionals, and subsequently approved by a majority in the assembly.
2. In these conferences, being trans has continued to be equated with suffering from “gender dysphoria”, you just have to see the title of the conference. Not all trans people suffer from dysphoria, we suffer the consequences of cisexism and transphobia and some of us may or may not have discomfort with our bodies and others not. It cannot continue to be assumed that trans people suffer from dysphoria due to this condition. This is also pathologization.
3. That is why, under this vision, trans people have no place in these conferences: What will they know? What will a child or adolescent know about their identity? There are already the professionals, who are the ones who really understand pathologies and treatments. We are not heard nor have we been heard when we have shouted, cried, claimed or denounced. Not when we were on the verge of suicide.
4. We are not here either because it is not interesting to listen to us. Many of the professionals who treat us in health know that we are not satisfied with how they treat us and prefer to avoid the conflict that they foresee and that effectively exists, to continue pretending that everything is under control and that trans people are happy in their hands .
5. Precisely, these days are being held in October, a month in which since 2007 the International Day of Action for Trans Depathologization has been celebrated, launched by the Stop Trans Pathologization Campaign. An international platform started in Spain, which has an adhesion of 405 activist groups and networks, public institutions and political organizations from the five continents. This movement is necessary today due to the pathologization to which some of the professionals who are present at these conferences, or who are members of international medical organizations, try to subject trans people, whether they are minors or of legal age.
This is why the groups that sign this statement ask all medical or social health professionals to:
- Stop talking about dysphoria, evaluation or treatment. Trans people are not sick.
- Stop questioning our identities.
- Stop believing yourself with the right to decide who we are.
- Stop ignoring our voices and our needs.
The identity can not be diagnosed. Identity is a right.
Signatory entities:
Arcópoli
Arelas, trans child association *.
Trans autonomy
Chrysallis. Association of families of transsexual minors Chrysallis Madrid.
Take up
Collective Bolus Bolo
The transgender man
FELGTB (Representing 47 federated collectives from all over Spain)
Daniela Foundation. For the equality of children, adolescents and trans youth and their families.
Triangle Foundation
Trans footprints.
Source: Daniela Foundation
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