logical positivism & transmedicalism

logical positivism’s strict criterion of meaning is “a statement is meaningful if and only if it can be theoretically empirically verified or falsified.” this criterion fails itself, and logical positivism was subsequently canceled in the 1950s.

trying to bring it back wrt gender and transness by assuming that since transness and dysphoria exist, they must be theoretically biologically identifiable, will do vastly more harm than good. there is no guarantee that any biological markers found will be present in trans people, or wholly absent in all cis people, because trans and cis are social categories. a medical test should never be considered an authority over what social categories a person should be in, or whether or not someone should socially or medically transition. genetic testing cannot determine someone’s gender, because what social category a person feels most authentic in is vastly more complicated than what someone’s internal body map is like. medical authority over personal identity is not something that we should advocate.

a human experience, especially one so complex as gender, doesn’t need a biological component in order to be meaningful. it doesn’t need to be justified. it can just be. if you determine that you are experiencing what people call dysphoria, you shouldn’t need to prove it in order to get competent care. and you shouldn’t have to prove any degree or type of dysphoria to be acknowledged as being in the social category you feel most authentic in.