Growing up as a young, closeted transman looking for transition videos on Youtube, I inevitably ran across references to an account run by a transman named Kalvin Garrah. My introduction to him was through critiques of his content, which involved him promoting the idea that non-binary genders weren’t valid and that gender dysphoria was a requirement for being trans. Due to these criticisms and my upbringing that the gender binary was, at the very least, not set in stone, I never bothered watching his videos. However, I couldn’t escape his influence, even offline.

During the last “wave” of transphobia in the public eye (2013ish-2016ish), the term “transtrenders” became extremely popular on the internet, with its ideas being passed on to those less internet-inclined. A “transtrender” is a term used to refer to someone who, as per judgement of other people, seems to be faking transness. While the internet did not come up with this ideology, it became a quick way for people to pick up socially acceptable gatekeeping of transness and gender.

People whose content was dedicated to finding these “transtrenders”, such as Kalvin and, on the transfeminine side, Blaire White, attracted the attention of young people and were deemed “truscum” by those who disagreed with them. “Truscum” refers to someone who believes that gender dysphoria is an definitive requirement for being transgender. There is now finally research showing how this thinking is flawed. This ideology was easily accepted by cis people as well as trans people whose dysphoria left them debilitated daily, claiming that those who don’t experience their pain must not be having a “true” trans experience.

Ironically, the rising popularity of trans and other LGBTQ Youtubers like Kalvin was one of the prominent reasons for people thinking being trans was becoming a trend. This mindset still exists today, with no evidence other than people not conforming to gender as expected by a society moving excruciatingly slowly towards social acceptance. Their ideas entirely depend on whatever the current line for acceptable deviance happens to be. It’s all arbitrary. This pattern has gone by extremely fast lately, yet people still seem to be ignorant of it.

During Kalvin’s Youtube career as a “transtrender” judge, he often would go after non-binary people and those who he thought weren’t passing enough or who had little desire to transition medically. This was especially true for AFAB feminine nonbinary individuals, and keep in mind that these were mostly minors, including Kalvin. I did watch one of his infamous videos back when a lot of them were still up, and it always rubbed me the wrong way. In that video (clips at 11:27), he discussed a person who was nonbinary but presented femininely, for example not hiding their chest and having pink hair. He diagnosed their chest dysphoria as body dysmorphia, and then showed screenshots of himself harassing this person in DMs because they did not feel like explaining their identity to him. While at the time I was confused about the discrepancy between presentation and identity, Kalvin’s actions seemed extremely excessive and nonconsensual.

Partially due to societal attitude changes towards trans individuals, truscum ideology seems to have shifted to be more accepting of non-binary individuals, but the line still exists at a certain amount of gender nonconformity or supposed cis presentation. That arbitrary line. There is an inherent and consistent classism to these ideas, assuming that everyone has the resources to “fully” transition. Truscum promote accessibility of medical care to all trans people, but of course with the implication that “trenders” are hindering this access for “real” transgender people. I have seen people on the truscum subreddit (proceed with caution, many cis saviors and transphobia) this year vehemently declare that they now only attack those who refuse to transition, not those without access. Personally, I’ve yet to see this shift in practice.

“Transmedicalism” is also a term that has become popular, which refers to people who believe transness should be seen as a medical condition, the general idea of which is also appealing to those who see transness as a mental illness as well as trans people being neglected by the medical community. This ideology chooses to ignore an entirely social view of gender and tends to focus more on the mind-biology disconnect: essentially an evolution of the dysphoria requirement idea. This mindset disrupts many cis/TERF ideas that trans people ignore biology, so this ideology even attracted some who were against original truscum ideology. However, this thinking is still flawed, especially when looking at intersections with sexuality.

An important distinction nowadays is that transmeds can be cis or trans, while truscum can only refer to trans people, so the terms are often used interchangeably. Heaven forbid we call someone transphobic. As such, from now on I will be using the term “transmed” to include truscum ideologies.

Transmedicalists have also come up with a term for the opposite side of the spectrum, called “tucute”, a term really only used by people in transmed circles. This refers to “radical” trans ideology, often ridiculing people who use or support xenogenders and neopronouns (some of which are meant to just be used online). This also ties into ableism, as many who use neopronouns tend to be neurodivergent since ND’s tend to view gender differently. While caricatures of transmeds have existed in the past, it is by no means the same as that of tucutes, since the caricatures of people with more complex identities mimic those made by cis transphobes, a common critique of modern transmedicalism. The additional classism and ableism also play a role in these caricatures specifically. In relation to each other, tucutes are seen as the inferior or the minority, while transmeds come from a relative place of privilege.

While I’m not one to invalidate smaller problems, this entire discourse shrouds the big picture. Trans people, especially trans BIPOC (notably Black transwomen) are being consistently subjected to violence, rape, and murder without repercussions for the perpetrators. Seeing how much each side accuses the other of lacking in diversity, you’d think they care more about the people whose ethnic identities they use as pawns. Many states in the US are now not allowing athletes to play, depriving trans youth of lifesaving medical care, and even implementing unenforceable laws on bathrooms, making an unsafe space for trans people even more dangerous. Not to mention that when we look outside the US, the situation is often even worse. These attitudes apply to all transgender/non-conforming people just because we exist. Not because someone decided to use ze/zir pronouns.

But as usual, finding a scapegoat is much easier than admitting that you’re hated no matter what for something you can’t control. It’s easier to act as if we’d have all our rights if some tiktok teens stopped using bunny pronouns. That mindset is easy to get into, but it’s extremely flawed in perspective.

It has not been and never will be a big “trend” to be transgender. The transmed arguments of “trenders”, gender non-fluidity, strict rules for clothing, requirements of crippling dysphoria, and identity policing are the exact things I receive from cis transphobes. I also won’t invalidate someone’s journey because I, with my limited knowledge of their experience, decide I’m suddenly an expert. As usual, people just need to mind their business.