My opinions on transgender people started to rapidly change around half a year ago.
I've been aware of how venomous trans-identifying individuals can be for a very long time, both as a reader of KF for many years before this account was even created and just as a person with an internet connection. KF in particular documents absolutely grotesque specimens of transgenderism. Pedophiles and rapists, groomers and abusers, sociopaths and narcissists, the worst of the worst, all of them eager to use their protected identity as a weapon to strike at their transphobic victims and as a shield to deflect against any criticism. That said, I've always tried not to fault normal transgender people for the cancerous growths that KF deals with. I was (mostly) wrong.
There are two reasons for this shift in my views.
The first is detransitioners. Let's be perfectly honest, most of them are prime lolcow material, were fucked up in a plethora of ways prior to their transitions and will continue to be fucked up in even more ways after detransitioning. But a few of them are nevertheless trying their best to make sure that vulnerable children, teenagers and young adults do not make their mistakes. It's easy for transgender activists to just dismiss anyone critical of their movement as transphobic, but it will be much more difficult to wave away the tsunami of detransitioners that is to come in the following years. When I saw the extent to which the transgender activists and the medical establishment are desperate to silence them at every possible step was when the facade started to crack.
The second reason and what truly tore down the facade of the transgender movement in my eyes is the venerable SRS thread. I had seen examples of bad transgender surgeries in the years prior, but I always assumed I was just looking at the worst results, hackjobs done by some backstreet butchers. At the time I had neither the desire, nor the stomach, to gaze into the abyss. When I finally did, I realized that not only had I not seen any of the worst results just yet, but that there are no good results to begin with! Even the best results are just a vague visual resemblance of the genitalia that they are allegedly absolutely indistinguishable from. At this point I have seen hundreds of surgery results, yet every now and then I still get surprised by how uniquely horrific or comical some of them are. Virtually all of them are plagued by a vast array of potential complications: necrosis, bacterial and fungal infections, fistulas, ingrown hair. And not only do they not look the part, they do not work as advertised either. Patients wait for years for their severed nerves to heal, to absolutely no avail. There are no standards for most of these surgeries. Each doctor has their own little twist, their own unique flavor of genital horror. Patients are promised and sold fantastical results by doctors who are well aware of the limits of modern medicine. Once reality sets in, concerns about the results or any complications that arise are brushed aside or ignored entirely. Not a single doctor gives a flying fuck about their patients. At best they're just in it for all the money they can squeeze out of them, and at this point I am convinced that many of them know exactly how much harm they're doing and continue to do so with sadistic glee. The butchers are not the exception, but rather the rule. Informed consent is a farce. Almost none of the people who are transitioning have any idea what consequences the hormones they are taking could have and the havoc they could wreak on their bodies. In particular, the lies concerning puberty blockers are abhorrent beyond belief. Children should absolutely never ever be allowed to transition. The medical establishment does not care about the harm that it is causing to the vulnerable people it should be helping.
This lead me to yet another sad realization: just how little the transgender community cares for the health and wellbeing of its members. Grooming, gaslighting, hugboxing and toxic positivity are the norm, and exceptions to the norm are punished swiftly. You will be happy and you will be positive, or you will be exiled. Vulnerable people looking for help will be sold lie after lie after lie by members of their own community, and once they start complaining about the reality of horrific surgeries and gruesome complications, will be called divisive and delusional. You will be happy, at all cost. The worse they feel about their own transitions, the more they hugbox and affirm everyone else. The less they believe the lies they were told the more they have to try to sell them to others. It is victims victimizing each other, abusers abusing each other, over and over, again and again. Let's not even talk about DIY bathtub hormones...
I used to believe that valid transgender people (who experience gender dysphoria as a result of a yet unknown medical reason) existed. At the moment, I have no idea if that is the case. Perhaps one day when scientists are allowed to do their jobs and study transgenderism freely, without the shackles of activist dogma, we will know the truth. However, even if that were the case, I think such individuals would be only a small fragment of the transgender community as it exists today.
At this point, I believe that the vast majority of people who identify as transgender do so because
- they are fetishists of various types: autogynephiles, meta-attracted autogynephiles, HSTSs obsessed with straight men, fujoshi...
- they have severely internalized homophobia and harmful stereotypes about masculinity and femininity and have annihilated their self-image as a result
- they are desperately trying to distance themselves from past trauma
- they are autistic and mentally ill
- they are victims (and often perpetrators) of grooming and social contagion
- they seek the social capital that comes with the trans/queer label within many circles
- various combinations of the above
I would also like to point out one approach which definitely did not change change my opinion for the better and even had a detrimental effect - that of radical (keyword: misandrist) feminists. This is a very rare attitude on KF, but absolutely rampant on lolcow.farm and many other websites. If your line of reasoning is just Tranny Bad Because Man Bad, you are a joke. At least try to conceal your dripping contempt for men, good optics go a long way.
Kiwi Farms was crucial in opening my eyes, and I hope that it survives this storm. Perhaps I am too optimistic, but I think that the days of the transgender movement, at least as it exists right now, are numbered. The truth cannot be hidden forever.
Lucas will never be a woman.
