Do You Need Gender Dysphoria To Be Transgender?

From the outside, the transgender community may look like one happy family, but appearances can be deceiving. Within the trans community, a central debate rages around the question:: Does one need gender dysphoria to be transgender? You’re probably wondering, “What is gender dysphoria?” The American Psychological Association defines it as “psychological distress that results from an incongruence between one’s sex assigned at birth and one’s gender identity.” This condition lies at the crux of the debate. Some members of the trans community believe this discomfort is necessary to identify as a transgender person. Those who espouse this view are known as transmedicalists, while members of the transgender community who don’t believe gender dysphoria is necessary are known as anti-transmedicalists. I consider myself an anti-transmedicalist; I believe that the trans identity encompasses a multiplicity of experiences and can’t be reduced to a single defining feature, such as gender dysphoria.

The belief that one needs gender dysphoria to be transgender implies that becoming transgender requires psychological distress. Within current cultural discourse, members of marginalized groups often refer to an emphasis on suffering as the “Oppression Olympics,” a competition to see which group is the most oppressed. This competition often involves tallying up metaphorical “points” for being in certain minority groups based on the transgressions society inflicts on members of those groups. But this mindset has insidious effects on all people who society marginalizes. The Good Trade's Jess Molly writes that, “By engaging in comparisons, especially in ways that put others down, we are implying that there is only room for one group to be free or that somehow the liberation of one group is more important than the liberation of others.” This mode of thought misleads those who use suffering as a benchmark for status within a group. The social acceptance of one group is no more important than that of others, nor will that acceptance become a detriment to other minority groups. As self-appointed gatekeepers of the trans community, transmedicalists are characterizing the experience of being transgender as one of suffering.

One of the strongest arguments against the transmedicalist position stems from the importance of euphoria, rather than dysphoria. Gender euphoria is the feeling of happiness and relief at being authentic to one’s gender identity. This feeling can exist with or without dysphoria. Andy Connor, a nonbinary writer published in The Guardian writes that, “Dysphoria is important, but it can’t be the entirety of the story told about trans people. Being trans, ultimately, is not just fleeing something that feels wrong. It’s also about finding what feels gloriously right. ” While some members of the trans community argue that gender dysphoria leads to gender euphoria, I’ve found this argument to be false.  I experience gender dysphoria, but not euphoria. My sibling, on the other hand, experiences only gender euphoria and not gender dysphoria. Some people experience both. However, if gender dysphoria and gender euphoria were inextricable, members of the trans community would experience both or neither of these states, not just one of them.

The trans experience is not a singular one; no two people experience it the exact same way, even those of us who agree on the role of gender dysphoria.. The way I experience my trans identity is not the same way my best friend does, nor the way my sibling does. 

So, does one need dysphoria to be transgender? No. Being transgender is not a death sentence; it does not mean that I am bound to a life of suffering from the gender assigned to me at birth. All that one needs to identify as transgender is the sense that their gender does not match the one that others specified for them.

By Mika Abney