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"There has been much written recently about the increasing demand for gender-affirming services; specifically, surgical procedures. However, transgender and gender diverse people have always existed. So to then have the need for gender-affirming care. For a long time, this need refused to be seen or acknowledged. Medicine as a field and society as a whole are finally starting to open their eyes.

"It is not that 'there is growing interest in gender-affirming surgery and LGBTQ+ care in medicine,' as is commonly quoted. The truth is that the medical field is just beginning to dismantle and emerge from the active oppression and negligence of care that was long practiced against our marginalized queer community. By integrating gender-affirming principles into the foundational practices of medicine, we are doing the bare minimum. We are providing care that has always been medically necessary, but only recently acknowledged as such.

[...]

"Many of the rights and privileges I enjoy as a white queer person were in no small part fought for by transgender women and queer people of color. Despite this reality, these groups represent some of the most oppressed members of our society. As the 'gay liberation' movement marched forward, transgender people were in many ways left behind. No longer. Working in this field as a queer person has allowed me to see the need, the role, and the impact that someone from the queer community can have in academic medicine. The time for academic institutions to see us, hear us, and make change is now. It was not social obligation that led me here. It was a passion to connect, support, and to serve the community I fiercely love and belong to."

-- Blair Peters, MD (queersurgeon), "The Long Overdue Rise of Gender-Affirming Care", Medpage Today, 2021-06-19

[Tomorrow, 2022-03-31, is the annual International Transgender Day of Visibility.]

[I just posted this as a Twitter thread, regarding today's episode (#139) of FilkCast, which I'd been listening to since it started.]

I haven't complaind about the wizard rock before, because I know "do people have to give up Harry Potter?" is contentious,
  and I feel bad penalizing artists who wrote good songs before JKR poisoned the whole meme-space,
  and yes I've noticed a song or two over the last couple years about this and saying JKR's wrong,
  and a lot of it is genuinely good musically, ...

But the message it sends is still "we love this more than we love our trans friends whom we know it hurts" / "we want this too much to give it up for their sake". Especially a whole episode of it.

Things you mentioned in the intro, not referring to JKR as anything other than "the author", saying they're "taking this world back" from her, noting that she made you angry too ... it's not enough. It feels like mere pinkwashing, like merely rationalizing not wanting to do the hard thing.

It feels like "If we add the right phrases and symbols, that makes it okay and lets us off the hook so we don't have to face the fact that it's still problematic, right?" And no, that does not work. It's still the Potterverse, it's still celebrating the work of someone who wants me not to exist, and it's still saying "we love this more than we care about how it hurts you." Fuck that.

So I will definitely not be listening to this week's episode. I've not yet decided about next week's, or any after that. I'll decide that after I've slept on it a couple of times.

But today -- today I feel gut-punched. What you tried to do in your intro, not good enough.