a woman produces perhaps the most culturally significant story ever written about the hubris of men ,,, but we need TWO women scientists in it who talk about the monster to make it feminist enough

great observations!!!

you have nothing to apologise for! 🫶

not only do i agree with you - it’s something i advocate for consistently in my PH work! something is getting lost in translation I think. it is my view that we will promote trans health by forwarding an agenda of bodily autonomy BUT one that recognises trans need within it as exceptional.

completely agree! just don’t think when we use it as a “gotcha” it’s advancing this.

yes, they are similar. no, they are not the same. what we are demanding when we demand dignity and care for trans communities is a demand for an end to barriers and cruelty that render gender-affirming care life-saving *in the first place*. the same is not true of veneers.

but to make an argument in the public sphere that, say, a cis hair transplant is the same as *gender affirming care* is to undermine the terms that require us to make a plea for trans rights to gender affirming care in the first place.

hormone use, for instance, is now routine, normalised and even aggressively advertised to people cis and trans alike.

torrey peters once said in interview (and i am paraphrasing, poorly) that many of the experiences of transness are not unique to trans people and that the work ahead is to remind people of our commonalities in this regard. and i agree. wholeheartedly.

gender affirming care is *life-saving* - on a scale of thousands and thousands across years. the same cannot be said of hair transplants for cis men - not matter how prohibitively expensive they are.

the right folks will keep advocating that HIV justice work - health justice work in general - is anti-racist, pro-trans, pro-migrant. but this needs to be much more widespread a sentiment. /6

worse still, a reform government may (or: will) eventually use these realities as arguments that shore up the need for strong borders. they will say migrants bring infection to our country, instead of the truth: that it is our country that places them at risk. it is our country who is sick. /5

these ideologies drive people away from the care they need, strip them of it, render them afraid and unaware. the kinds of conditions that viruses thrive within. /4

the grim reality of fascism, regressive racism, virulent transphobia, and widespread anti-immigrant sentiment; all of these will - not just threaten to - undermine any achievements we stand to make in HIV equity. /3

it is an immense privilege that there is broad support in the UK for this kind of roll-out. these days, whenever we celebrate an advancement in health technology like this, i cannot help but think about the wider context in which they are emerging. /2

you know what’s very british? using antisemitism as a mask for violent settler colonialism.