Thank you for your comment and compliment! I wrote this essay as a final paper in a clinical psychology seminar for a graduate program after realizing how much harm psychology has caused by justifying stigma with scientific methods. I agree that GID and GD are inaccurate terms, and like Gender Incongruence Syndrome, but also want to help expose how much social treatment contributes to trans experiences of distress. It is for example violent to presume that my desire to wear makeup is indicative of a mental illness when it is society that socializes people to take gender norms so seriously that makes makeup on my lips a scandal in the first place. I think the whole concept of mental illness shifts blame onto victims of social regulation and ignores how prejudicial behaviors (in this case from cis people) contribute to pain. I hate being treated like a man, but also wouldn’t prefer to be treated like a woman — I just want to be treated like a person, and resent how much sacrifice is required in order to perform and maintain an identity as a “man” or “woman”. I identify with femininity but not as a woman, and think that this with-as distinction is important for our society to release itself from the tensions as-identifications create (e.g., if I identify as a woman, then neither I nor the category “woman” can change without threatening my sense of self; if I identify with femininity, then I acknowledge I am separate from and interact with the construct of femininity instead of equating myself with it, so both I can the construct can change without threatening anyone who depends on these constructs for identity). I stand with you in solidarity as we proceed toward creating a future that loves and respects people like us!