By: ginapdx

*broken record time*

Once again, saying ‘LGBT’ or using Queer as a stand-in for that is putting together groups of people who might have highly disparate experiences. I think it’s fair to say that prior to the proliferation of the Internet, trans youth (or adults) had zero outlet for ANY information about their health and medical issues with the possible exception of some trans women who did sex work and got illicit hormones and silicone injections or some fairly wealthy people who went to private clinics. Whatever shortcoming the Internet has in terms of facilitating bulling and transmitting transphobia faster than it was before, even those negatives can’t possibly compare to access to information and finding any kind of community. While there are certainly still people who don’t have Internet access, few young trans people can really conceive of how cut off and completely isolated it was prior to the Internet and how next to impossible it was to find any information about medical transition much less legal issues. That doesn’t mean getting bullied over the Internet is a walk in the park, but compared to complete isolation and non-personhood, it’s more a nasty by-product than a 50/50 proposition.