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Notes -
There's something of the motte and bailey about your comment. The motte 'trans people have always existed', if presented without qualifications, sweeps a lot of metaphysical assumptions under the rug that people are liable to take on, eg that it's some kind of fundamental human category, that people can be born in the wrong body etc.
The bailey is that trans are 'people with dysphoria who benefit from medical treatment so they feel more congruent with their bodies'.
I accept that their are people who experience gender dysphoria and that a proportion may be content with changing their sex appearance. But there are also people that experience dysphoria even after transition. The simple truth of the matter is we don't know the effectiveness of transition as a treatment in terms of long term follow up, especially for the recent cohort of people. In particular we don't have any evidence against a counter-factual such as alternative treatments.
Also it seems likely to me that the popular trans narratives of the motte are actually contributing to the dysphoria bailey.
Ed: well, that's embarrassing appears I have the motte and bailey the wrong way round...
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