Piggyback

I have thought extensively over the years about how sexuality could "piggyback" itself onto gender dysphoria and I've been increasingly refining my thinking on it. 

Imagine a gender dysphoric natal male child who realizes relatively early that they want to be a girl but is then allowed to go through normal male puberty. Upon the sexual awakening and a surge of hormones, the gender disconnect/desire can become progressively tinged (or imprinted if you like) with sexual overtones. 

Now imagine that instead, we treat this child with puberty blockers and then allow for a female transition process. That disconnect is now being addressed which removes a longing that for many of us remained unfulfilled and we may have accepted without question as an illness.

Contrast this with people who might begin cross gender expression without any underlying dysphoria. The motivation could be sexual or other but there is nothing under the surface to treat other than any shame or guilt they may feel. Besides that, there would be no other reason for any intervention. 

Today we risk lumping these two situations together which is why some transitions may be unwarranted and later regretted. The case of Ray Williams is one such example as he now tries to generalize his experience as a detransitioner to others. 

Older transgender people could have and often confused any sexual overtones for perversion growing up because that is the messaging they would have received from society. Today they would instead be identified early and treated rather than left in limbo for years if not decades.

As I addressed yesterday, the problem for these older transgender people is facing the baggage from years of internalized transphobia and needing to reprogram themselves well into adulthood which I am an example of and you may be too.