Similarly, Florence Ashley has advocated for the medical field to focus on helping patients achieve gender euphoria instead of treating patients on the basis of gender dysphoria. They argue that currently, in order for individuals to receive gender-affirming care, they must be diagnosed with gender dysphoria, which is not always accessible and entails people must be experiencing significant distress before they can fully express their own gender identity. Ashley's stance that gender euphoria does not need to be preceded by a clinical diagnosis of gender dysphoria, and that gender euphoria is complex, is echoed by Elliot Tebbe and Stephanie Budge in their 2022 Nature Reviews Psychology article, in which they write, "Gender euphoria is not merely the absence of gender dysphoria, but rather a conglomeration of positive emotions and subjective well-being in response to being affirmed in one's gender."

Gender euphoria has also been expressed through art. Photography in the East Village in Manhattan has served as means to express gender euphoria, contrasting fashion photography, which is said to reinforce the gender binary.

In 2019, the Midsumma festival in Australia hosted "Gender Euphoria", a cabaret focusing on "bliss" in transgender experiences, including musical, ballet, and burlesque performances. A reviewer described it as "triumphant – honest, unpretentious, touching, and a vital celebration". In the book's foreword, Evans wrote: "I want people to learn about gender euphoria (before) gender dysphoria... I want the young trans kids that will read this book to be proud of who they are, and to imagine wonderful, magic lives for themselves."

See also

  • List of transgender-related topics
  • Gender transitioning
  • Detransition
  • Transmedicalism
  • Wrong-body narrative

References

Further reading

  • Health Law Standards of Care for Transsexualism – An alternative to the Benjamin Standards of Care proposed by the International Conference on Transgender Law and Employment Policy.
  • The Lord Chancellor's Department Government Policy concerning Transsexual People