“I’m beautiful in my way ’cause God makes no mistakes, I’m on the right track, baby, I was born this way.” — Lady Gaga, “Born This Way”
Actively listening to our bodies and what they’re trying to tell us often seems impossible, especially in 2025 when transgender and nonbinary people and our bodies are under attack.
Bigoted, anti-trans people like Donald Trump, J.K. Rowling, and others say or suggest that a queer person who listens to their body’s internal wisdom is choosing a path of regret, disappointment and long-term harm. But the truth is that anti-trans folx don’t want us to live embodied experiences because they believe that by taking away our bodily autonomy, they can strip us of humanity, our power that they want for themselves, and our courage to survive. While anti-trans rhetoric can feel inescapable these days, it’s important to remember that anti-trans opinions are not even backed by science.
In May 2025, the Associated Press reportedexternal link, opens in a new tab that research commissioned by anti-trans policymakers in Utah concluded that trans youth are not harmed by gender-affirming care. Instead, this type of care often leads to “positive” mental health outcomes and improves psychosocial functioning.
Although science indicates that the body of a trans person is as healthy a body as any other, anti-trans rhetoric can be more powerful than fact. Intellectually, even if we recognize these bigoted laws for what they are — lies and propaganda — our minds and our bodies will still often respond to them as immediate, real threats to our physical safety, which, through a complex array of instinctual body processes, can then impact mental and physical health long-term.
A body on which external sources (e.g., anti-trans laws and policies) are trying to exert control is a body that’s been politicized. Although the United Nations considers bodily autonomy to be a fundamental rightexternal link, opens in a new tab, if you live in a politicized body in the U.S., the reality is that you may not always have control over what happens to it. When bodily autonomy feels, or is, out of reach, those of us in politicized bodies and personhood may consciously or unconsciously try to silence our body’s internal cues of dysphoria, like that sense of being trapped in the wrong body or widespread feelings of unease and discomfort with one’s body, to manage the stress of living in a world that’s trying to prevent our minds and our bodies from living in harmony.
You can’t control what others say about you, which, speaking from experience, is difficult to accept when their opinions are forged in hate and you want to scream at the top of your lungs, “YOU’RE WRONG!” However, you can control your response to hate, and in our opinion, living authentically as yourself—if it’s physically safe—is the best response. According to The Body Positiveexternal link, opens in a new tab, to exercise our autonomy effectively, we need to feel comfortable with our bodies and the unique experiences of living in themexternal link, opens in a new tab.
We’ve learned from history that it’s impossible to hide from hate, so living authentically is the best way to resist it. We also recognize that that’s easier said than done. In a world where trans and nonbinary embodiment is defined as ideology rather than biology, how can we learn to trust our bodies and their internal messages of gender dysphoria, instead of silencing them, so that we can live authentically?
In our experience (and science agreesexternal link, opens in a new tab!), ignoring feelings of dysphoria can cause more harm than good. It can lead to extreme behavior that can kill you. We know. Because, in 2024, it almost happened to Ollie, one of the writers of this piece. After years of trying to force their body into submission to meet some “masculine” gym bro ideal, their organs shut down, causing long-term damage to their kidney function and brain.
And Ollie isn’t alone.
A 2015 studyexternal link, opens in a new tab of 300,000 college students in the United States found that trans and nonbinary students were at a significantly elevated risk of eating disorder (ED) diagnoses and symptoms, as compared to their cisgender peers. Nearly 16% of the trans students surveyed reported receiving an eating disorder diagnosis in the past year, compared to 3.52% of cisgender queer women, 1.85% of cisgender heterosexual women, 2.06% of cisgender queer men, and less than 1% of cisgender heterosexual men. However, it’s worth noting that rates in men may be underreported, as new research suggestsexternal link, opens in a new tab that men’s symptoms often go undiagnosed because they don’t usually present in the ways EDs have been traditionally recognized—for example, men don’t fit into the SWAG external link, opens in a new tabstereotype of EDs often portrayed in media.
The reality is that discrimination and stigma are major risk factors for the development of EDs because of their direct relationship with negative internalized beliefs (like “I don’t deserve love or happiness”), the National Eating Disorder Association argues in an article on the presentation of these illnesses in the queer communityexternal link, opens in a new tab. Recognizing this, we believe it’s essential for anyone to know how to access life-saving self-help tools and resources when they are struggling with eating habits, body image or dysphoria, especially because access to this careexternal link, opens in a new tab can be limited.
This series is here to give you some of these tools.
