Guest Article

Why the Term Transition is Transphobic

Van Ethan Levy, LMFT, LPCC

The term transition is based on the idea that gender looks a certain way and that people need to change from looking/sounding/acting/and more, a certain way for their identity to be respected. When we are born, doctors assign us a gender based on our external genitalia (which is rooted in transphobia because they are basing it off the idea that men have penises and woman have vaginas.

The reality is, we are who we are, and our outside appearance does not change who we are on the inside. We then navigate the world with the assumption that if a doctor told me so, then this must be true. For some of us, who we are does not match what the world has told us.

The term transition implies that we were one gender and are now another. But that is not the case. We are and always have been our gender, it just may have taken us a while to find the words, support, understand, knowledge and/or much more to affirm ourselves and our identities. Our outward appearance does not dictate and/or represent who we are.

There is no one way to look: male, female, trans, non binary, conforming and/or another identity. Therefore, changing how we look on the outside is not a transition, just like getting a nose job, liposuction, butt implants and/or other surgeries to affirm our self-esteem are not transition surgeries. Rather, they are affirming surgeries to how we want to appear externally. Yet, when discussing these external changes regarding trans people we are so quick to label with words like transition.

When a cis person takes hormones that their body is not producing enough of, we do not label their experience as a transition. Yet when a trans person takes hormones that their body is not producing enough of, we slap on the label transition. This others trans people and again reinforces that the term transition is transphobic, designed to other trans people. If the term transition was used for everyone; trans, cis, non binary, non conforming and/or many more identities, then it would not be transphobic. When a cis person changes up their style, hair, accessories, and/or other parts of themselves/identity(ies) we do not label this experience as them transitioning, when trans people do, we label it as 'transition'.

It is important to recognize that the term transition has been and is continuously used and weaponized against trans/nonbinary/ non conforming/and/or more identities, as a gauge to see if someone is “something enough” and/or to assimilate what society has dictated (social constructs) of how people need to look/feel/act/sound and much more. There are many words, terms and/or phrases that we have used across time that are problematic that we were unaware of. Often people state, I have always used the term transition and/or I am trans or know a trans person who uses this term. This is not a justification as to why it makes it okay. We can do better, so let’s do better.

At the same time, it is vital to know that we should NEVER dismiss someone’s personal identity while not taking the person’s identity and thinking it is okay to copy and paste it on to someone else. An example is if someone identified as transsexual, respect that, that is their identity and know that you should not call someone transsexual (unless they explicitly state that, that is their identity) because the term transsexual is transphobic.

When we are unaware of the harm that our language is creating and it is brought to our attention, it is vital to explore our own internalized transphobia. Often, people become defensive when they hear terms like transphobic and/or internalized transphobia. This defensiveness and resistance is the privilege we hold and our ego prevents us from taking the time to process and explore our own internal concepts. People have a belief that trans/non binary/ non conforming and/or more identities cannot be transphobic and/or have internalized transphobia, and that is false. Everyone has and will always have internalized transphobia and it is an active process to continue to work on it.

The difficulty with affirming language is that the language that is supposed to be affirming has often been designed by people who are in positions of power and are not part of the community. They hold privilege and are unable to truly conceptualize and understand what it is like to be part of the population. Often, the people in positions of power are cis/het/white-passing/middle to higher SES/neurotypical/able-bodied and/or more.

It can be difficult for folx who are trans/non binary/ non conforming and/or more identities to cultivate affirming language due to many factors, such as, but not limited to; basic survival (lack of access to housing/food/job), knowledge, access, awareness and/or many other factors. While we are at times barely surviving, folx with privilege are labelling our experience and dictating how we need to live our lives while arguing with our experiences.

Our community is suffering and experiencing chronic violence while accepting the knowledge cis folx are imposing on us. We justify that it is “okay” because our oppressors (whose oppression we are unaware of most the time) have “empowered us” with language for our experience. Can you see the irony in someone who holds privilege and power “empowering” someone on their own experience and/or identity?

Van Ethan Levy, MA, LMFT, LPCC, (they) (elle), a trans and non binary therapist, is a queer, non binary, trans, socialized as female, nBPOC (not Black Person of Color), who is autistic, and has dynamic disabilities amongst many more historically excluded identities. Van provides consultations and trainings on trans and non binary identities, is the organizer of the 2022 Virtual International Do Something: Identity(ies) Conference, authored the interactive book, Exploring My Identity(ies), and produced the Documentary, Do Something: Trans & Non Binary Identities, Website: VanEthanLevy.com