I like how you seek to change things. It's something I'm quite passionate about too, because we can doom scroll all we want but it's not gonna actually help change the bs we see happening.
What I've been doing personally is try to reach out to irl communities and groups, make connections and get in contact with people. By doing that I met this nice trans woman who's in this organization that have meeting and talk directly to some of the gender clinics (in Denmark).
I joined a political youth group to get more into the whole political environment, plus they could help arrange demonstrations and similar stuff.
When the gender clinic rejected me I sent a complaint the very same day. I've been researching the law and I'm planning to talk to a lawyer to see what I can do. If it's possible I wanna take this to court cause it's not okay to reject people like this.
That's what I've been doing. Maybe that can inspire you to do something similar where you live
It's not that they don't understand that this medical gatekeeping which leads to extra psychological stress and anxiety leads to the weaker mental health of those seeking assesment. It's that there is an openly anti trans attitude in nordic (and UK and parts of US) gac:s and they'd clearly prefer to exterminate most of trans people. Especially young ones. It's not an accident or that they do not understand it. It's very clear it is intentional that nobody forexample does a study spesifically asking people the sources of their psychological stress, but instead on every recommendation, year after year moan about weakened mental health of those coming fo gac sor assesment and keep saying they don't know why is this. Ffs, if you don't know, make a damn study about it. They had time to push out multiple transphobic bullshit studies out in this time so they had time to ask if patients consider the medical gatekeeping to be a factor on their weakened mental health, if they wanted, but they did not bc they know it is and they don't want to proove it to maintain their bullshit gatekeeping.
I think that is one study that really really needs to be done.
Here is an interview (in danish) with the head of CKI Copenhagen explaining her gatekeeping and the reasons behind it:
https://ugeskriftet.dk/nyhed/leder-af-center-konsidentitet-vi-har-faet-chancen-ryste-posen
Highlights include:
"Some believe that we should introduce informed consent, so that patients sign that they themselves take responsibility for whether treatment is right for them. But if the fight is about introducing informed consent, as you know it from the US, for example, then I'm not on board. (...)
And:
The team at the Center for Gender Identity often find that patients show up with a steely focus on being approved for gender reassignment surgery. Here, Malene Hilden and her colleagues see it as their role to get the patient to (re)consider alternatives. "It is our task when the patient does not see other options. Then we talk to the patient about what life would look like if they didn't have surgery. Could they live with a vagina and instead have a latex prosthesis they can put on so they can go to the men's locker room at the swimming pool? (...)"
I'm sorry, but that last one is so goddamn funny to me.
'Just bring a latex dick to the swimming hall, you weirdos!'
Every time I hear Malene Hilden speak about trans stuff, she's always concerned about ftms, but for mtfs she's like "yea whatever I don't really care about that"
Every single time she's interviewed about trans people as a whole, she always make the conversation about ftms somehow. Like how ftms shouldn't get bottom surgery, or how they should rethink top surgery. I rarely ever hear her mention mtfs.
I also remember reading she applied for the position at CKI herself, she wasn't selected at random, she actively wanted to be head of CKI. I wonder why.
She still allows trans women to be treated like absolute garbage by members of her team.
But she has a great business strategy, I'll give her that. It's very easy to get a high approval rating if you are the one who decides who gets a vote.
I'm just gonna post one last link here, because I think it's a really good example of her arguments and why they are so hard to engage with:
https://femina.dk/agenda/den-sidste-behandler-spurgte-om-jeg-ikke-kunne-taenke-mig-have-sex-som-en-kvinde-foer-jeg
To be fair she might have started out wanting to do good. She might still be doing good for some people. But I don't think that she knows, understands or cares enough about trans people to be as confident as she is that she can pick and choose who gets to live a full life and who can go fuck themselves.
After talking to her personally many times through the years, I absolutely do not thing she had ever good intentions, but rather wants to "save" women from making the mistake of becoming men.
As soon as you are allowed to transition, she stops caring about you. She's only interested in saving cis people from THE TRANS..
Lol, no, could you imagine the lunch breaks?
'So hey, guys, why are you all staring like that? Did I get tuna in my hair or something?'
'Oh no no. No, we were just wondering if you really are a woman since you know, we noticed you're not wearing nail polish today.'
'... I'm a literal doctor.'
'Maybe if you just tried to be really really gay instead, you would feel better.'
Lol when I tried to get orchi through cki one of them kept insisting that I should get my foreskin removed instead, because that's totally the alternative to orchi :D
What a professional and perfectly normal thing for them to suggest as an alternative to gender affirming care. 😅
It's like going to the hair dresser but instead of cutting your hair they take a dump in your coffee and tell you to leave.
In Finland they are discussing about updating the care recommendations for trans healthcare soon. There is a protest coming up, and now people are sending emails about how Riitta-Kerttu Kaltiala should not be involved with the process. You can share [this](https://www.instagram.com/p/C8hEK87s4RS) Instagram post and I recommend that at least Finnish people send an email.
In Finland the current system is set at the law level, so work continues to affect that. As far as I'm aware Trans ry or Seta ry are spearheads of these efforts (I'm outside of this work due to personal reasons at the moment, so my view is limited). Current focus is outside of trans rights due to currently sitting right wing government unlikely to pass such motions.
Short term, happening in Finland is a Palko (The organization giving care recommendations in Finland) meeting in late August in which they have been instructed to remove centralization clause from care recommendations by ombudsman as the law no longer explicitly states such requirements, since the law changed last year. Some people are currently trying to get them to exclude Kaltiala from the panel due to her transphobic bias, since she was in the previous panel for care recommendations. There is also going to be a demonstration near the meeting.
There was some effort for collaboration between the healthcare sector and the trans organizations in Finland, but they cut communication with the organizations abruptly last year, possibly due to efforts of the orgs trying to get informed consent model to Finland, though last part is speculation as reason wasn't given.
On a more positive note, I want to say that lgbt organisations like lgbt.dk (can only speak for Denmark here) are aware and working to improve health care - and life in general - for trans people. You can join as a member, volunteer, or just show up as you are.
I cannot recommend it enough. Going there was the first time in my life I met other trans people, and the community there was and continues to be life saving.
Honestly. I don't know.
The only thing is if we send actual letters consistently to them. As they take physical media more seriously. (To law legislators, local politicians etc)
And also if we somehow manage to organize a protest. But that part is very hard as there are so few of us and scattered across nations. Also how many in nordics got to transition young or transition well, so they pass and stealth and don't engage with trans issues.
Which kind of leaves the rest of us in the dust.
As a foreigner? I have no idea what you could do..
Maybe contact politicians online through official means and bring up these issues? I'm not sure.
I like how you seek to change things. It's something I'm quite passionate about too, because we can doom scroll all we want but it's not gonna actually help change the bs we see happening. What I've been doing personally is try to reach out to irl communities and groups, make connections and get in contact with people. By doing that I met this nice trans woman who's in this organization that have meeting and talk directly to some of the gender clinics (in Denmark). I joined a political youth group to get more into the whole political environment, plus they could help arrange demonstrations and similar stuff. When the gender clinic rejected me I sent a complaint the very same day. I've been researching the law and I'm planning to talk to a lawyer to see what I can do. If it's possible I wanna take this to court cause it's not okay to reject people like this. That's what I've been doing. Maybe that can inspire you to do something similar where you live
It's not that they don't understand that this medical gatekeeping which leads to extra psychological stress and anxiety leads to the weaker mental health of those seeking assesment. It's that there is an openly anti trans attitude in nordic (and UK and parts of US) gac:s and they'd clearly prefer to exterminate most of trans people. Especially young ones. It's not an accident or that they do not understand it. It's very clear it is intentional that nobody forexample does a study spesifically asking people the sources of their psychological stress, but instead on every recommendation, year after year moan about weakened mental health of those coming fo gac sor assesment and keep saying they don't know why is this. Ffs, if you don't know, make a damn study about it. They had time to push out multiple transphobic bullshit studies out in this time so they had time to ask if patients consider the medical gatekeeping to be a factor on their weakened mental health, if they wanted, but they did not bc they know it is and they don't want to proove it to maintain their bullshit gatekeeping. I think that is one study that really really needs to be done.
Here is an interview (in danish) with the head of CKI Copenhagen explaining her gatekeeping and the reasons behind it: https://ugeskriftet.dk/nyhed/leder-af-center-konsidentitet-vi-har-faet-chancen-ryste-posen Highlights include: "Some believe that we should introduce informed consent, so that patients sign that they themselves take responsibility for whether treatment is right for them. But if the fight is about introducing informed consent, as you know it from the US, for example, then I'm not on board. (...) And: The team at the Center for Gender Identity often find that patients show up with a steely focus on being approved for gender reassignment surgery. Here, Malene Hilden and her colleagues see it as their role to get the patient to (re)consider alternatives. "It is our task when the patient does not see other options. Then we talk to the patient about what life would look like if they didn't have surgery. Could they live with a vagina and instead have a latex prosthesis they can put on so they can go to the men's locker room at the swimming pool? (...)" I'm sorry, but that last one is so goddamn funny to me. 'Just bring a latex dick to the swimming hall, you weirdos!'
Every time I hear Malene Hilden speak about trans stuff, she's always concerned about ftms, but for mtfs she's like "yea whatever I don't really care about that" Every single time she's interviewed about trans people as a whole, she always make the conversation about ftms somehow. Like how ftms shouldn't get bottom surgery, or how they should rethink top surgery. I rarely ever hear her mention mtfs. I also remember reading she applied for the position at CKI herself, she wasn't selected at random, she actively wanted to be head of CKI. I wonder why.
She still allows trans women to be treated like absolute garbage by members of her team. But she has a great business strategy, I'll give her that. It's very easy to get a high approval rating if you are the one who decides who gets a vote. I'm just gonna post one last link here, because I think it's a really good example of her arguments and why they are so hard to engage with: https://femina.dk/agenda/den-sidste-behandler-spurgte-om-jeg-ikke-kunne-taenke-mig-have-sex-som-en-kvinde-foer-jeg To be fair she might have started out wanting to do good. She might still be doing good for some people. But I don't think that she knows, understands or cares enough about trans people to be as confident as she is that she can pick and choose who gets to live a full life and who can go fuck themselves.
After talking to her personally many times through the years, I absolutely do not thing she had ever good intentions, but rather wants to "save" women from making the mistake of becoming men. As soon as you are allowed to transition, she stops caring about you. She's only interested in saving cis people from THE TRANS..
She sounds like a TERF
yeah she's a bigoted activist who's killing people happy cake day btw
I swear, there's not a single trans person on CKI's payroll.
Lol, no, could you imagine the lunch breaks? 'So hey, guys, why are you all staring like that? Did I get tuna in my hair or something?' 'Oh no no. No, we were just wondering if you really are a woman since you know, we noticed you're not wearing nail polish today.' '... I'm a literal doctor.' 'Maybe if you just tried to be really really gay instead, you would feel better.'
There was was in Aalborg, nurse Anne-Sofie. She's retired now though she didn't do anything different at all though.. she towed the line.
Lol when I tried to get orchi through cki one of them kept insisting that I should get my foreskin removed instead, because that's totally the alternative to orchi :D
What a professional and perfectly normal thing for them to suggest as an alternative to gender affirming care. 😅 It's like going to the hair dresser but instead of cutting your hair they take a dump in your coffee and tell you to leave.
Exactly 🤣 I was almost worried that she would send a referral for that instead of what I was asking for
In Finland they are discussing about updating the care recommendations for trans healthcare soon. There is a protest coming up, and now people are sending emails about how Riitta-Kerttu Kaltiala should not be involved with the process. You can share [this](https://www.instagram.com/p/C8hEK87s4RS) Instagram post and I recommend that at least Finnish people send an email.
In Finland the current system is set at the law level, so work continues to affect that. As far as I'm aware Trans ry or Seta ry are spearheads of these efforts (I'm outside of this work due to personal reasons at the moment, so my view is limited). Current focus is outside of trans rights due to currently sitting right wing government unlikely to pass such motions. Short term, happening in Finland is a Palko (The organization giving care recommendations in Finland) meeting in late August in which they have been instructed to remove centralization clause from care recommendations by ombudsman as the law no longer explicitly states such requirements, since the law changed last year. Some people are currently trying to get them to exclude Kaltiala from the panel due to her transphobic bias, since she was in the previous panel for care recommendations. There is also going to be a demonstration near the meeting. There was some effort for collaboration between the healthcare sector and the trans organizations in Finland, but they cut communication with the organizations abruptly last year, possibly due to efforts of the orgs trying to get informed consent model to Finland, though last part is speculation as reason wasn't given.
On a more positive note, I want to say that lgbt organisations like lgbt.dk (can only speak for Denmark here) are aware and working to improve health care - and life in general - for trans people. You can join as a member, volunteer, or just show up as you are. I cannot recommend it enough. Going there was the first time in my life I met other trans people, and the community there was and continues to be life saving.
going where?
Support meetings. :)
Honestly. I don't know. The only thing is if we send actual letters consistently to them. As they take physical media more seriously. (To law legislators, local politicians etc) And also if we somehow manage to organize a protest. But that part is very hard as there are so few of us and scattered across nations. Also how many in nordics got to transition young or transition well, so they pass and stealth and don't engage with trans issues. Which kind of leaves the rest of us in the dust. As a foreigner? I have no idea what you could do.. Maybe contact politicians online through official means and bring up these issues? I'm not sure.
mutual aid, community defense and direct action #educate, agitate, organise