On Walls and Bridges: Divisions and Bonds in the Polish Trans Community

ABSTRACT Two widely recognized transgender identity formations—the medical model, which emerged from the findings of mid-twentieth-century sexologist Harry Benjamin and is reliant on incremental hormonal and surgical interventions, and the social construct model, which relies on experiential standpoint within a poststructural frame—are often considered dichotomous, even oppositional, categories within the transgender social movement. Such political positioning suggests that they operate for their adherents as adversarial Foucauldian “regimes of truth.” This is demonstrated in the following recent study of transgender persons in Poland. The findings suggest elevated fracturing tensions that may find relief through a more inclusive community model that recognizes the widest diversity of variant gender identities through an encompassing of both, and all, gendered subdivisions.