u/chaucer345

I need you to step in my shoes here.

Imagine if you had to announce to a stranger with a gun the thing you hated most about yourself every time you boarded a plane (or just used the toilet in extreme cases like where they checked for ID in the bathrooms in Texas).

Imagine if people said that the meds that make you not miserable are optional and don't constitute a medical need that insurance should cover.

Imagine if people banned you from competing in freaking *chess* tournaments because you were supposedly born with a competitive advantage that would never go away.

That's the world you seem to want for us. Do you understand how that's a shitty way to live?

So this is probably a bit of a weird one, but basically, I'm trying to find ways to explain gender dysphoria to cis people better. Not being able to explain why you feel the way you do is a tough job for a lot of trans folks, but one analogy that really clicked for me was driver errors.

It occurs to me that the analogy might not work for someone very knowledgeable in the world of CS though, as I could have gotten something wrong on the CS side of things.

The analogy is as follows:

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Start by imagining your body as a desktop computer. The tower is your brain and the peripherals are your body parts connected to it.

Now, in order for your computer to connect to, say, your drawing tablet (let’s call it the PEN15 model), it needs to have a driver, a piece of software that tells the tower how to read input from and send messages back to that tablet.

Most computers come with generic drivers for things like your tablet. And that will work for basic functions like powering it on and recognizing your connections to it. This is analogous to the peripheral nervous system. Your basic reflexes.

But the devil is in the details. Maybe the driver your computer is using expects the tablet to be just a little bit of a different model (which for the sake of argument I will call the PU55Y model). And this causes problems.

Maybe your cursor lags behind the stylus and drawing with it always feels just a little bit off, or you get error messages that your device is unrecognized (ERROR CODE: DISSOCIATION). Maybe the generic drivers take huge piles of memory to run and it makes other programs run more slowly (ERROR CODE: DEPRESSION), or it causes boot errors (ERROR CODE: SLEEP ISSUES). Heck it can even think the PU55Y model is connected and act like it’s getting input from that (ERROR CODE: PHANTOM LIMB).

All of this sucks. Bad.

Now, there are two potential solutions to these errors. You could either swap out the tablet or swap out the drivers. In theory, it would make the most sense to swap out the drivers right? But isn’t it just your luck that the chipset that defines whether your tower is PEN15 or PU55Y compatible is hard wired. There’s some documentation from a random internet forum that says you just need to run a sketchy github program to make everything work (conversion_therapy.exe), but you’ve seen that app brick every computer that’s tried to run it, so it seems like a really bad idea. 

Then the solution is obvious right? Throw out the old PEN15 tablet and get a PU55Y.

Well… Unfortunately, the manufacturer that could make both the PEN15 and PU55Y model (Mom Co. LTD) doesn’t make them for your computer any more. But luckily there are after 3rd party manufacturers who make pretty solid stand-ins. The NEO-PU55Y 1.2 model sold by Surgeon Co. doesn’t have all the features of an original PU55Y, but their dev team is hard at work implementing them for the next release.

So great! Get one of those, right? 

Well, here’s where the trouble from the world outside starts. Your warranty (provided by Healthcare System Fulfillment Services!) doesn’t cover replacements with aftermarket parts like the NEO-PU55Y 1.2. Technically, very technically, your computer works after all. And your boss who paid for your warranty (In theory, it’s your computer, but you use it to make a living so you have to listen to your boss, Mr. Society’s standards for business hardware) says that your machine should be good enough as is and you should just tough the constant errors out.

But all of these errors make working with your computer a nightmare, and it wears the machine down more quickly.

After a certain point, it makes you want to quit using your computer at all. And honestly? Who could blame you?

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So yeah, if you noticed anything that is off about this little parable or might work better, please let me know.

Like, they're only useful to him as controlled opposition until he's tightened his grip enough. Then he can execute them like he obviously wants to. Are they just so rich and insulated from real consequences that they cannot imagine their throats being slit by a tyrant?

And yes, I do assume Trump will do the most evil thing possible the second he thinks he can get away with it.

People seem to think there is a way to ask this question without sounding accusatory. How? Also, do people recognize this question needs to be asked?

It's one of those things that just makes sense, but I've never heard of anyone doing. Vampires lose control and kill someone. The dead person leaves a ghost behind, and the Furies come for payback.

I've just never heard of a Geist or Vampire game that played that interaction out.

It's in draft stages, so I'm looking to polish it up:

If you’re reading this, you seek a deeper understanding of the philosophy of Trans Bio Expansionism.

The general principles of Trans Bio Expansionism are based on recognizing the diverse biology and medical needs of the trans community as real and inherent, while also committing to inclusion and equity first and foremost. This philosophy has a focus on using the biological sciences to break down barriers instead of creating restrictions.

This is intended to be a living document that updates as our understanding of science and our community increases. Our intention is to provide a working model to enhance understanding, not a rigid dogma.

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The core principles of the philosophy are as follows:

1) No one should be excluded from the trans community because of their biology.

In contrast to the trans medicalist view that only those with certain provable biological differences from their sex assigned at birth should be allowed to be “truly trans” the trans bio expansionist position is that exclusions of those who would be happier with a different gender or gender expression should be welcomed under the trans umbrella. Where differences in psychological need or physiological makeup are relevant, sub categorizations of people serve better than exclusion from the trans umbrella. Of course:

1A) Different Subgroups of Trans People have different needs.

There will be some members of the trans community who will have different needs than others. Whether these needs are cultural, medical, or social, all of these needs should be recognized and respected.

2) Trans Identity does have a biological basis, because all psychology is biology.

Following the simple truths that…
-All brain activity is biological

-We have already identified multiple commonly held observable physical traits in the trans population that differ from the traits commonly associated with their sex assigned at birth.
-“Conversion therapy” has proven wildly ineffective for trans people

It is indisputable that trans identity has a biological origin. However:

2A) Trans identity does not necessarily have a *single* biological origin.

It would be arrogant to assume that someone’s persistent gender incongruence has no biological origin just because we haven't charted out the specific underlying mechanism of their incongruence yet.

The working hypothesis of trans bio expansionism that gender incongruence is a symptom, rather than an underlying condition. It is analogous to a cough. Coughing can be caused by a viral infection, a bacterial infection, an allergen, air contamination and much more.

It still manifests as a cough. It still has an underlying physical origin. And it still has a medical need for treatment.

2B) We do not currently have the technology to “change” a person’s gender identity.

Current efforts at so-called “conversion” therapy are obviously destructive. Moreover, the vast majority of these efforts seem to be based on society's desire to make transgender people conform, not a desire to make trans people genuinely happier or healthier.

Notably, they are also seeking “solutions” to the underlying “problem” of being trans without first determining what causes people to be trans. Those who favor conversion therapy have in fact made efforts to cut research funding into those mechanisms, which shows their general bad faith. However…

2C) Biology is highly mutable. 

In contrast to the transphobic view that for some reason the carbon we are attached to cannot be changed in any meaningful way, Bio Expansionism holds that the significant changes to the body that transgender people go through are very meaningful and important.

As advances in surgery, pharmacology, and genetic engineering continue, the technical limitations on any such processes will continue to be overcome. All we need to do is give the researchers the time and money they need to make it happen.

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With those principles in mind, here are Trans Bio Expansionism’s recommendations for public policy:

Medical insurance and government healthcare programs should cover trans healthcare. 

Trans medical care is an inherent need, not a want. And this needs to be recognized by medical institutions and policy makers.

Trans people deserve medical privacy on their IDs.

The purpose of an ID is to identify an individual. There is no pressing reasons for IDs to show the private medical information of what was on a trans person’s original birth certificate.

Trans people should be considered a class legally with regards to housing and employment practice protections.

While the exact implementations of these protections will vary, the inherent nature of gender incongruence and the cultural connections of the trans community are more than sufficient to legally justify their recognition as a people and their legal protections as a minority.

Trans people should not be restricted from public accommodations that fit their gender identity.

We do not endorse the necessity of segregated bathrooms, changing rooms, shelters, and other public facilities in general. In such a place where segregated facilities are deemed absolutely necessary, trans people should be grouped with their gender and not their sex assigned at birth.

Trans female athletes should be allowed to compete in women’s sports with reasonable restrictions. 

Trans women should be included following puberty suppression and continuing HRT for trans athletes who have not gone through traditional male puberty. Those who experienced traditional male puberty should have to undergo two years of HRT. 

Trans children should be recognized as having the same medical needs as trans adults and their care should only be restricted to puberty blockers until they are able to make an informed decision about HRT.

The real medical need of trans children should be recognized. They should, after appropriate psychological and medical evaluation, be provided puberty blockers and then HRT as is deemed necessary. Surgical procedures should be treated with more scrutiny, but not blanket banned.

Trans prisoners should be housed with their gender following chemical or physical castration or Oophorectomy.

This will deter any ill actors and recognize the biological changes that trans people go through as important while not preventing access to facilities that match their gender identity.

Gender Identity Change Efforts should be outlawed.

 
While we recognize the bodily autonomy of trans people to attempt such measures if they personally want to, the current efforts of so called “conversion therapy” are not based on any scientific evidence or any understanding of the biology that they wish to change. Thus a full ban is recommended until such time as there is a true, proven method of doing so and there is a formal structure in place to ensure such “care” is provided only to consenting persons with no potential conflicts of interest or pressure from outside. 

Note, I'm not talking about the small changes here, I'm talking about the big changes.

My personal design philosophy is "Do you absolutely need a complex rule set for this? You don't? Cool, don't make one."

Social maneuvering, conditions, and beats fell into this trap *hard* for me. Like, convincing someone of something takes time and mechanically a single persuasion check shouldn't make someone give you their kidney, but all of the doors stuff just feels needlessly bloated and artificial to me. Conditions sort of felt like they just ended up splitting the rules into multiple parts of the book to understand how your magic worked. And beats lead to some really weird "So class, what did we learn?" stuff that also made XP balancing hard.

I still run 2e a lot, I just find myself stripping all this stuff out to make the game flow better. Does anyone else feel like this?