James Finn
1 min readJan 25, 2022

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Something to consider here, and I’m just throwing it out there ... People who can afford surgery tend to be upper middle class to wealthy, and they tend disproportionately to be white.

So if the only valid trans people are people who have had surgery, is that not classist and racist in effect?

I mean, it’s usual to define racism by disparate impact rather than by intent. Some of the trans women most in need of protection are Black trans women, who suffer disproportionately from sexual assault, murder, and abuse by cops.

I knew a lot of Black trans women when I lived in Detroit, and while many of them dreamed of surgery, affording surgery wasn’t something most of them could even imagine.

So are they not trans?

I’ve written about a friend of mine who is a Black trans woman who is a legal-advocacy force of nature in Detroit. Part of her work includes advocating for trans women behind bars, many of whom are locked down with men and suffer routine, daily risk of rape.

Prison officials lock them up with men because they haven’t had surgery. Are these women being raped by man in prison not genuine trans people?

The idea seems hard to entertain, especially given many of them have been on HRT and presenting as women practically all of their lives.

They’ll never have surgery because they’ll never be able to afford surgery. So, what then? We just throw them to the wolves or wash our hands of them?

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James Finn
James Finn

Written by James Finn

James Finn is an LGBTQ columnist, a former Air Force intelligence analyst, an alumnus of Act Up NY, and an agented but unpublished novelist.

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