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"As long as trans people have had the means to change our bodies, people who are not trans have stood in the way of doing so.
"Cisgender people have burned our research, they've made us illegal, they've lobotomized and electroshocked us, they've psychologically tortured us, they've forced us to conform to gender stereotypes to access transition, and they've attempted to create tautologies to determine who was most authentic and deserving of transition, all in the name of limiting access to transgender healthcare. Most importantly, they've succeeded at holding up hoops for us to jump through to access gender-affirming care.
"One of the most constant experience across many generations of trans people is cis people butting their noses into our gender identities and medical care."
-- Katelyn Burns (transscribe), "Is it too much to ask to be left alone?", 2020-05-01 [n.b.: in original, the actions listed in the second paragraph are links to examples]
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"Are there people applying tests of whether you 'act' enough like a gender before they'll help you?"
Exactly that. Not dressing [gender stereotype] enough when showing up for an appointment. Not reporting having had a [stereotype] enough childhood. Not seeming attractive enough an example of your gender, in a therapist's eyes. Having the "wrong" sexual orientation. AFAIK all of these are much less common now than ten or twenty years ago, but still crop up. Trans people sometimes -- used to be usually -- have to present in very sterotypical ways to convince gatekeeping therapists they're really "trans enough" to receive treatment. (And then get dinged in other contexts for "perpetuating gender stereotypes". Can't win.) And of course this screws nonbinary people even worse, having had to claim to be binary-identified to pass gatekeepers. (Again, this has improved recently, with some professionals in gatekeeping roles having learned to see and understand nonbinary people. But it's a recent-ish change.)
Nowadays it might take a bit of asking around to find out which doctors are less like that. Not too long ago it was just taken for granted that they were all like that.
"I mean, lots of cis people don't exactly fall into stereotypes either... but then, logic, clear thinking, and absence of hypocrisy have never been marks of those seeking to control others. :-("
Yep. A classical example is a female therapist telling a trans woman patient she doesn't think she's "trying hard enough" or doesn't seem invested in being a woman because she showed up to her appointment in slacks, when the therapist herself is dressed exactly the same.
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