One of the favorite arguments by the gender deconstructionists against recognizing the differences between “classic” transsexuals and the ill conceived umbrella category of transgendered is “what about all those poor transwomen who cannot afford surgery? Leaving aside considerations of finding a way if it is important enough to you, let’s take a closer look at reality. The reality is that separating transgender and transsexual means actual recognition of the “medical model” view of classic transsexuality and reinforces the fact that surgery is a highly successful and long established treatment for those with actual “gender-body dysphoria” or classic transsexuality.The current actively sold idea of an umbrella of transgender category makes this distinction impossible for most to understand because it promotes a gender deconstructionist viewpoint that attempts to erase all differences between those individuals with an absolute need to bring body and mind into congruence and those who will never understand this need.What does this actually mean to those “poor transwomen or man who cannot afford surgery”? It ensures they will never get it at all even if they need it desperately.

In more civilized countries the medical model is not only recognized, it is funded. When a large group that purports to speak for transsexual people actively promotes the idea that surgical correction is not required, it will not be covered. It will continue to be called a cosmetic procedure by insurance companies, never covered under Medicare or Medicaid and almost certainly will be left out of any future revision of the health insurance nightmare our country suffers under today. Rather than a compassionate concern for these poor transsexuals, if they are actual gender-body dysphoric transsexuals they are being doomed to never reaching congruence or a somewhat normal life as a woman or man of operative history. This is virtually guaranteed due to the majority of the voices saying “we didn’t need this surgery so no one else should either”. It is actually no different that what was argued by the earliest radical lesbian feminists, that to be gender outlaws and support deconstruction of gender norms, no transsexual should get surgery. This can be a literal death sentence for those with actual classic transsexuality if allowed to become the dominate viewpoint.
Only those of us who have suffered an actual GID crisis can understand what this means. I remember my own quite well, the exact day and even time is etched into my brain. There might be a spectrum for transgendered people but the essential fact is that those with classic transsexuality are outside that spectrum, not an end point of it. What it means in blunt terms is that eventually a number of these poor transwomen and transmen will most likely suicide…that’s what the GID crisis is and it is well documented and understood. It is the life and death point that is reached when the incongruence between mind and body cannot be lived with a moment longer. In a classic transsexual this is not going to respond to a simple change in gender role, it is a deep seated need to BE and once known to be possible, it must be obtained to the fullest degree possible. Actual classical transsexed transmen follow this same imperative to the fullest degree the current state of their treatment options makes practical. Raising the differences in surgical outcomes as a defense of denying the need of surgical correction is an absolute fraud once this is understood.Separation of the concept of transgender from classic transsexuality can now be seen as what it actually is, literally a matter of life and death for once you know that mind and body congruence is indeed possible, at the point of GID crisis it becomes an absolute necessity. Those who never experience this will never understand it, will never be able to empathize with it, it is literally outside their world. All the various arguments for lumping these people under an umbrella of transgender makes it possible to erase them from political view, medical insurance view, socialital view.

What about those poor transpeople who cannot afford surgery indeed, they are being victimized not by those of us who wish acknowledgment of the differences, but by those who use them as pawns in battle to destroy gender as a concept. Recognition of the differences means that the legitimacy of the medical model of transsexuality and it’s almost certain biological basis as opposed to psychological ones will eventually make it impossible to deny medical coverage for a recognized medical condition and the highly successful treatment for it.The very existence of classic transsexuality is living proof of the differences between the sexes on some essential level. This has proved problematic for some branches of feminism, most gender theory and everyone not transsexual under the “transgender” umbrella. The study of sexual dimorphism is a third rail in research to this day, not for scientific reasons, but for political ones. So apparently is the mere differences between transgender deconstructionists and women of operative history. We say different, they hear better although that is not thought or intended. We say we are women post operatively, they move heaven and earth to deny that to us. The remaining question is why?