Anonymous asked: do you know of any trans* people who have discussed otherkin? i have seen people compare otherkin-ness to being trans* and it leaves a bad taste in my mouth, but i can't really articulate why. :/
I have known otherkin, both sane and less so, and I have come to a very simple comparison between the two and why I don’t think they should be compared. Allow me to use an analogy to explain this:
Otherkin is to transgender as religion/creation science is to evolution.
Now, there are a lot of people who look at that and go, “ok, so why aren’t they both in the same conversation then? Religion and Evolution both explain where we come from, so otherkin and transgender are clearly related.” They don’t deserve to be in the same conversation (at least in the beginning) because one is a belief, one is backed by science, and if you don’t understand that before you move forward you’re going to think that they’re interchangeable.
Otherkin is a religion. It’s fine to believe that you are supposed to be a wolf or a dragon or an elf or whatever “kin” you believe yourself to be. And I’ve known a few otherkin who are certainly great human beings. But you have to recognize that it’s just that - a belief. There is no scientific proof or backing that you are that, you cannot explain or prove that to anyone. And that’s fine. It doesn’t hurt anyone else, and believing as such won’t make you a target for abuse, make you lose jobs, housing, loved ones or friends.
When you say “it’s just like being trans*,” you’re saying your religion is the same as my science. And we have a problem. Because there IS proof that trans* folks are this way - brain scans have shown that trans* folks aren’t just choosing to be their gender, or that they have an unfounded beliefe that they are their gender, their brains are wired for their gender and not transitioning can lead to serious health complications because you’re starving a brain of the hormones it needs and stuffing it with hormones it doesn’t.
Now, imagine you’re a child who doesn’t know about evolution. Someone explains it to you, but says it’s just as viable as the concept that we were all born 6000 years ago, we walked with dinosaurs, and that all of science could just be god testing us. That child won’t understand that, no, it’s not “just as likely” that the universe started 6000 years ago, because there is absolutely no proof of it. They’ll think they are evenly weighted concepts. And their concept of the scientific process - that you have to test and prove things - will be forever hampered.
People who are uneducated in trans* issues, when they are explained that being otherkin is just like being transgender, will think that the science (trans*) is religion (otherkin) and you shouldn’t be able to have others “believe in it.” They can invalidate who trans folks are because “they don’t believe in that,” because they were taught that science is religion. And that’s not just annoying, that’s dangerous.
I’m not saying otherkin is bad in any way. It’s a belief, and all non-inflating self beliefs are not intrinsically good or bad. It’s just not the same thing as being transgender.
I hope that’s clear.
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