I would say that things are going very well in Cuba, and going decently well in China. This is my point of view as a Spanish-speaking trans Westerner who currently lives in East Asia.

It’s important not to remove either of these countries from their historical and cultural context. The trans (and general LGBT) struggle in each of these countries is emerging out of their own unique contexts, which include their own local forms of patriarchy and heteronormativity as well as colonially-imposed forms, as well as the worldwide scientific approach that has not been totally free of incorrect theories and practices. On top of that, both countries have to deal with sabotage and concern trolling from the imperial core trying to use things like “LGBT issues” to demonize them.

In Cuba, there are many clear measures going on to address trans (and general LGBT) rights. For example there is the government organization CENESEX, which promotes sex education and LGBT rights, and, as far as I am aware, Cuba has had legal, government-funded sexual reassignment surgery available since 2008. Currently, they are reviewing the Family Code, which is a suite of progressive laws about gender, sexuality, family rights, etc. including topics like same-sex-marriage. Whether or not it passes, it’s clear that the Cuban government is taking trans rights seriously, and that the Cuban public is engaged in serious discussion over the topic.

I have less information about specific laws in China. In 2017, the Comprehensive Gender Dysphoria Clinic was opened. In 2021, The Children’s Hospital of Fudan University opened a clinic serving transgender children and teenagers in Shanghai.

Some reports I have read (from 2017 and 2020) that survey trans and other LGBT populations gives me the impression that the struggles faced by Chinese trans people are nothing out of the ordinary, at least in my view. They face opposition from their families due to traditional values, face some difficulties in accessing hormones and surgeries, and discomfort in certain public places, especially bathrooms. A majority of Chinese trans people who get sexual reassignment surgery receive it in China, but a fair percentage of them report that they experienced something negative during the process, whether that would be discrimination, or a medical issue. However, overall, I did not see any indication that extreme or horrific levels of discrimination are rampant in medical settings. It sounds fairly comparable to medical ignorance and outdated requirements I have personally seen in certain places in the West as well as personally seen in other parts of East Asia. I think also that people feel dissatisfied around the requirements/process for legal gender change, which is a common issue faced by trans people worldwide, as in the places where legal gender change is allowed, it generally includes the requirement to have had SRS, which is in contradiction with what most trans communities seem to end up wanting the law to be.

So, overall, it seems trans rights are progressing in both China and Cuba, within their own cultural/historical contexts, and at a reasonable pace on par with other countries that share similar backgrounds culturally and historically.

Comrade @fellowkid did a great job answering this question for you. I’m more familiar with trans issues in Cuba than I am in China, where, as was mentioned, hormone therapy and gender confirmation surgery is provided by the state.

An additional mention of the soon-to-be update to the Family Code, they’re aiming to recognize all forms of family units. This coverage extends far pass same-sex marriage, and would consider the legal classification of a marriage to include, for instance, platonic unions and polyamorous partnerships.

Cuba is a world-leader in the protection and forwarding of trans rights, and provides more reliant and consistent access to medical care than most imperial core nations.

As for China, it’s been making huge strides lately in increasing access to medical care for trans individuals. There was a study published in BMC Public Health regarding discrimination and perceived discrimination of various LGBT individuals in China. It largely found that the biggest hurdle to LGBT acceptance is from family, where queer participants ranked discrimination from family to be the most prevalent, which coincided with heterosexual participants being least accepting of LGBT people in their own family, but largely accepting of LGBT people otherwise.

This same study also found that gay men and trans people are the most likely to stay in the closet. However, medical interactions were found in this study to be the least discriminatory, which is incredibly heartening, as access to medical care is the first and most crucial stumbling block on the road to trans acceptance. China has been taking a very science-based stance on this (unlike certain anglo countries cough cough) and has been pushing for medical care regardless of cultural acceptance.

It was also found that an increase in a region’s economic prosperity led to a decrease in LGBT discrimination, meaning that as people’s lives improved they were less bothered by the gays down the street.

Last year a documentary “A Day of Trans” directed by trans filmmaker Yennefer Fang released, which interviews four trans individuals of different generations. https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202111/1239389.shtml

One of the people interviewed, a trans man, won a discrimination case against his employer back in 2016, when he became a public face in the fight for systemic protections.

In 1995 Jin Xing was the first person to openly have gender confirmation surgery. She’s a famous dancer, choreographer, and tv presenter that is shown nation-wide, and has been since before most western countries would allow a trans person on tv as anything more than a punchline about degeneracy and prostitution.

Thank you so much for this thoughtful answer. There have, in fact, been some teenagers (16 years and up) who have successfully advocated for their personal right to access surgery, however this is rare, and in general when people speak of surgery it is for adults.

Many gender confirmation surgeries are already currently available to cis people as well, including some surgeries that are available to cis people who are not yet adults, and yet very little, if any, emphasis is placed on this when people look to demonize trans surgery access.

I appreciate your inclusion of surgery performed nonconsensually on intersex individuals, often times as young as at birth. It is important for people to note that, in the US for instance, the current rash of anti-trans medical bills contain explicit exemptions for intersex individuals. Meaning they want to ban the consensual, sought after surgeries of trans adults, but leave in place the nonconsensual, often secret surgeries performed on intersex individuals, which makes it abundantly clear that the bills have nothing to do with protecting the “sanctity” of the natural-born body, and everything to do with attacking the queer, trans, and intersex communities.

There is, absolutely, friction between “stealth” trans individuals and the easily clockable, largely coming from a place of fear and a desire to assimilate (much like you see with gay culture, where “flamboyant” men are derided by the more “macho” types).

The biggest “schism” as it were is the issue of transmedicalism. Transmedicalists have a very narrow definition of what it means to be trans, and subscribe to a belief that the “trans” story is one of being “trapped in the wrong body” (I’m not discounting this experience, merely asserting that it is not universal) and that there follows a linear path of transition. You get diagnosed with gender dysphoria, you get hormones, you get surgery, and then you live your life as ostensibly cis.

To transmedicalists, those with a different path to transition, especially those who exist outside of the gender binary (think nonbinary, genderqueer, genderfluid, third gender, two spirit, etc) are a threat to the assimilationist agenda. This divide is often leveraged against the queer community, with transmedicalists being (marginally) accepted as the authorities, claiming a “scientific” basis for their viewpoints as the only medically correct definition of trans.

Now, while these divides can be harmful to the trans community, I’d like to say from my personal experience that they exist largely online. That’s not to say people don’t hold these beliefs, and that’s not to say that these divisions aren’t blown up and used in social media to reinforce certain oppressive narratives. However, when it comes down to it, when you actually engage with the community, when you’re in trans spaces or working with trans organizations, you rarely encounter a divide so stark you can’t talk it out or at least work together.

I’ve found then when actually surrounded by other queer people, even those few individuals who are staunchly transmedicalist online have a harder time comfortably voicing or enforcing such beliefs. It’s a stance that really exists as a way to ingratiate yourself with the anti-trans cis community (as if that will ever work) and not one that many people find support for in real life, queer spaces. All it tends to do is alienate you from other queer people, especially considering that more and more the trend is towards people rejecting binary gender roles altogether. Statistically, there is a rise in those identifying as gender diverse that is quickly outpacing those coming out in a more “traditional” trans identity.

This is a result of wider education, and more people being made aware of the classist and colonial nature of the gender binary to begin with.

Very roundabout answer here, sorry about that. But yeah, the schisms are real, they are damaging, but they tend to seem more dire and more ever-present online than they actually are out in the real world. Once you log off, you have to face that the average cis person barely considers trans people at all, the ones who do tend to be fixated and angry about your existence, and life is a hell of a lot easier when you can at least lean on other trans people for the bare minimum of “uses the right pronouns and also gets pissed at transphobia”

So, not sure if I’d really describe it as a schism, but yes, resentful people do indeed exist for a variety of reasons. Personally, I am on the ‘not really passing to well’ side (I get ‘ma’amed’ about… 20% of the time I guess? Nowhere near enough for my liking) and I personally am deeply envious of those who have better access to healthcare than me, either through being more affluent or living in a place with the care, or simply being younger and coming out earlier. It’s a shame (albeit understandable) that some people let that envy they have turn into hatred. I can’t speak for the other side but I have seen people like that - essentially they are re-enacting the same attempts that the gay community went through (and is still undergoing tbh) to be ‘acceptable’ to the straights.

In any case, I wouldn’t say it’s on the level of splits within the left, apart from the ‘should we fit in with the cissies’ thing. Personally, I say no, no marginalized group achieved liberation by being well behaved for their oppressors. But I’m not gonna have a fight with someone who just wants to stealth, so long as they leave me alone to be loudly and obnoxiously trans.

Oh and in my experience, ML trans folks are just as toxic, fractured and annoying as other trans folks, possibly more as many have a tendency to want to be ‘right’ - ideological purity is a helluva drug. schniff