the difference between gender incongruence and gender dysphoria - get it right people jfc

before we get into this i want to say that i am non binary and to clarify that non binary people are part of the trans community, we are represented on the white line of the flag!!

i would like to put a HUGE trigger warning here for mentions of both gender dysphoria and gender incongruence. as well as reiterate to please use my correct pronouns and not refer to me as girl or girlie

gender dysphoria and gender incongruence have lots in common but have vital differences. these differences are why gender dysphoria is not needed to be trans. now let’s get started.

“gender incongruence? wtf is that”

gender incongruence is the disconnect a trans person feels between their mind and their agab (assigned gender at birth). which may cause discomfort.

“wait sorry what’s gender dysphoria?”

gender dysphoria is the term to describe the distress and unease that may be caused by gender incongruence so intense that it may lead to anxiety and depression as well as have a harmful impact on daily life.

so in simple terms gender incongruence is the disconnect someone may feel with their agab and gender dysphoria is distress that MAY OR MAY NOT be caused by that.

“well how can that disconnect exist without discomfort?”

well it can’t but that’s why the definitions of all these words are so important. the difference between discomfort and distress is the entire reason incongruence can exist without dysphoria.

“their is no difference between discomfort and distress”

they are very very similar yes but when they are being talked about in this sense they have EXTREMELY important differences.

the word discomfort insinuates slight pain which is very very important when talking about this as it’s almost on the opposite extreme when referring to distress. this is what comes with incongruence.

the word distress insinuates extreme anxiety, pain, or sorrow. this may come with gender incongruence but it may not, hearing someone is trans does not immediately mean they feel like this.

“well why are you even making this thread”

there has been a huge discussion over wether trans people need gender dysphoria to be trans and so much of it is because of a misunderstanding of what it means. trans people do not need to feel distressed about there body to be trans-

the only thing that’s important is that they feel a disconnect between their mind and their agab.

“well is it actually gonna be harmful if people don’t know the difference in the future?”

yes extremely. people have already started to forget the meaning of gender incongruence, and have tried to blend it together with gender dysphoria but this subconsciously puts the idea-

that all trans people essentially hate themselves which is not true at all and is quite clearly an awful thing to push into people’s minds.

this is the end of the thread!! please again use my correct pronouns and do not call me girl or girlie i’m ok with pretty much everything else.

sources -
i used this for the definition of gender dysphoria - https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/gender-dysphoria/
i used this for the definition of gender incongruence - https://healix.com/wp-content/uploads/White_Papers/Gender-incongruence-white-paper.pdf
the definitions of distress and discomfort are literally from google their extremely standard terms.

other important info -
all the shitty parts of the dance community - http://dancecommunity.carrd.co 
neopronouns - https://neopronoun.carrd.co/ 
xenogenders - http://xenogenders.carrd.co 

i also made this whole thing into a carrd!! http://genderincongruence.carrd.co