I don't think we've talked much about informed consent here, and what it means to someone who identifies as S+, so I thought I'd lay down my thoughts.
We're currently in a state of crisis when it comes to consent, as strange as that is considering all the progress we've made in recent years. People like us have fallen through the cracks though, and nobody is willing to take the political fallout they'd inevitably face by standing up for us. Look at what happened to JK.
Simply put, if a trans woman hasn't informed me that she is trans before entering into a physical relationship with me then that trans woman has sexually assaulted me. If we've had sex then she has raped me. There's no room for ambiguity here, it's rape to not inform a partner of your biological sex.
Shockingly there are some who argue against this, likening transitioning to something like a tonsillectomy, "why should we need to divulge our medical history to a partner?"
I don't know if this argument is disingenuous or just deeply delusional, but it's certainly dangerous. It can destroy lives.
I think a main objective of our movement should be to codify this into law across the globe, that not informing a partner that you've transitioned is sexual assault and/or rape. I don't think there's any other way to protect ourselves, since so many of these people flat out refuse to respect our sexual autonomy.
[–]C3P0 1 insightful - 2 fun1 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 2 fun - (0 children)