Workshop: Gender Euphoria

Introduction and moderation: Youri de Blok en Anne Visschedijk

Introduction

In this workshop we have discussed

what gender euphoria is, and how we experience hearing other people's stories and learning from each other. About 40 people participated.

Gender euphoria

When talking about transgender people it is often about how difficult it is to be transgender, about “being born in the wrong body”. In short, about gender dysphoria. Of course we too know that being transgender can sometimes be difficult. Still, we think these experiences don’t fully determining how being transgender is. The enjoyable experiences, like looking in the mirror and seeing your real self, have as much to do with being transgender. These positive aspects of being transgender are called gender euphoria.

The stories of the participants brought several experiences of gender euphoria to light:

• the confirmation of your identity by the outside world;
• the changes in your life give you space to grow;
• the sense of self-determination, when transitioning and connecting to your body;
• the (new) confidence in yourself that you can use in other aspects of your life as well;
• a stronger sense of freedom now that you're feeling better about yourself;
• which makes you do more, discover new things, and get to know more people you would have missed otherwise;
• the feeling of being special;
• it's a great opportunity to play with stereotypes and other ideas.

Conclusion

It was nice to talk about the positive experiences that everyone has with being transgender. It is important to show these positive experiences to ourselves and to the outside world; from doctors to the media.