Australian Govt Booklet Tells ‘Gender Diverse’ Teens to Consider Sex Change Surgery – Heat Street

The state government of Victoria in Australia had funded the production of a guide encouraging gender diverse teenagers to undergo hormone therapy and sex reassignment surgery. Created by a government-backed youth organization called Minus18, the OMG Im Trans booklet encourages young people to embrace their gender identity and provides them with tips on coming out, speaking to doctors, and other issues.

The freely available guide revolves around the topic of gender, and says that having to deal with gendered expectations is all a bit bullshit.

When were born were assigned a sex, its written on our birth certificate and then all these things the TV shows we watch, our schools, the toilets we use shape how we feel and how were supposed to act. But that little piece of paper doesnt always align with how we feel about our own gender, it states.

For a lot of people gender might not be strictly male or female, the guide continues. I could be somewhere in between, or something else entirely! I have friends who experienced gender more fluidly, it can shift and change over time.

The guide contains an entire section on medical transition despite repeatedly stating that gender is by no means biological, and that the gender assigned to you at birth is nothing more than a little piece of paper that assigns arbitrary expectations to people based on their genitals.

Medical transitioning, it explains, allows for transgender persons to feel more comfortable in their own skin and that it can have a big impact on the way a person expresses their gender.

Medical transitioning isnt about fitting in. Sure, that can be part of it, but its really about doing what helps you feel most comfortable personally, reads the guide. Surgeries and other treatments are just tools to help achieve what feels right to you, and shouldnt ever be seen as essential to being a real man, woman or anything else.

So why go through with it if genders simply the matter of presentation that can shift and change over time then? The guide glosses over that part, and instead provides readers with details on how to approach doctors, where to go, and how to undergo both hormone replacement therapy and sex reassignment surgery.

The following section, titled why passing is bullshit proceeds to say that wanting to be recognized for the gender you present yourself as reinforces the idea that theres a right way to be male, female or any other gender, and thats actually a bad thing.

Whether you strongly identify male, female, non-binary, or dont have a need for labels at all, the most important thing is to do what feels best for you, it concludes.

It raises the question as to why the Minus18 would produce a guide encouraging young gender diverse people to undergo medical treatments and surgeries while decrying the whole point of doing soor why the Australian government paid for any of this.

Ian Miles Cheong is a journalist and outspoken media critic. You can reach him through social media at@stillgray on Twitterand onFacebook.

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Australian Govt Booklet Tells 'Gender Diverse' Teens to Consider Sex Change Surgery - Heat Street