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@roadriverrail Splitting off before the transphobia discussion...

I don't think that's accurate. I think dysphoria, the trauma many of us have are separate, usually unrelated things, and neither are really intrinsic to bring trans. Being trans just means that your internal sense of gender doesn't fit the category you were assigned at birth. That can be true without causing you unbearable pain or trauma. It's also possible to have dysphoria or gender-related trauma without a strong sense of gender identity different from you both category. (That can get confusing as hell.)

Dysphoria is a bit of a bucket term but what many of us experience is a sort of body horror at having the wrong parts. That isn't caused by anything as far as anyone can tell. That's just or brains being wired to expect something other than what's there. It can be traumatizing if it's bad enough but often isn't.

This body horror is categorically different from when someone looks at themselves in the mirror and doesn't like their weight or wishes they were more muscular. That's wishing for things in-line with your biological programming. Dysphoria is when your body is just wrong.
This is part of why dysphoria is so hard for cis people to understand. Their bodies are fundamentally right so they've never experienced that feeling. They just want more defined abs or something.

Many of us are also traumatized. Often that comes from having to fake a social fever role that doesn't fit you. My "favorite" example is the special hell (for me) that is guys church BBQs. Lots of just standing around trying to be a guy and have guy talk. The important thing about that example is that no one was intending to hurt me, they were just treating me like a guy. Many of us also experience more direct physical or emotional abuse. I was picked on all the time by the jocks in my class for being, well, not a jock? It may not have been gender related but it also kinda doesn't matter. They treated me like crap and left scars.

Where this all gets messed up is diagnoses. Because the medical system works on terms of disease and treatment, it's not good enough for you to say "I hate my penis and want a vagina", you have to prove that having a penis is causing you harm that they can fix with a vaginoplasty. This means that if you look at a psychology textbook definition of dysphoria, it's going to focus on the depression and anxiety, not on the root cause that is having the wrong body parts or the wrong hormones flowing through your body.

@YouShallNotPass @Ghostynn @Terra @Dani @AlwaysAutumn