Genderdiagnonsense
Exhibition addresses waiting time and ‘gatekeeping’ in transgender healthcare
By Mick
“How would you feel if a psychologist were in charge of your body and the direction of your life?” For many trans people, this is not a hypothesis, but a reality. During the Genderdiagnonsense campaign by the activist group TransZorgNu, illustrators, photographers, performers, and other creatives from the trans community respond to the state of Dutch gender care. On May 12, the result was presented to the public at the Amsterdam community center De Sering.
In the middle of a windowless back room of the community center lie editions of the DSM, the standard work for psychiatry. In editions from the sixties and nineties, we see passages with outdated diagnoses such as hysteria and the classification of homosexuality as a psychiatric illness disappear. However, the diagnosis of transvestism is still present in the latest edition from 2013. The only difference is that the name has changed to gender dysphoria.
Obtaining this diagnosis is an integral part of the path to trans healthcare, a journey marked by years-long waiting lists, pathologization, and Kafkaesque bureaucracy. Activist group TransZorgNu opposes this status quo with protests, sit-ins, and now with the art campaign and exhibition Genderdiagnonsens as well.
“We were actually only doing demos, we thought a while ago. With this exhibition, we also want to do something with the creativity of the community,” says TransZorgNu activist Eelke. “It’s about something that should be very simple: ‘I need care, I get care,’ but this has been made incredibly difficult with all sorts of nonsensical procedures and rules.”
‘You’re too non-binary, go back to 59’
“I have also been caught up in this stupid mill,” says the 38-year-old activist. “A psychologist, for example, asked how I masturbated. Oh please, what does that have to do with whether I am trans? But even if the questions are less ridiculous, the core remains: why can’t I decide for myself about my gender care? It’s my body, my life. This is something no one else can decide for me.”
They have tried to capture their experience in the gender board game, which a group of visitors is playing at the table by the entrance of the exhibition. A variant of Snakes and Ladders, with texts on the tiles like ‘your registration has been lost, go back to 3,’ and ‘your doctor wants you to think about it for a few more months, skip a turn.’
On the wall opposite the entrance hangs the project that TransZorgNu used to kickstart the Genderdiagnonsense campaign last month. In bus shelters all over Nijmegen and Amsterdam, the enormous poster appeared in the style of a government information campaign with the text ‘Knee surgery? From 2026: a psychiatric evaluation first.’ The message refers to the fact that fewer people regret gender-related procedures than countless other medical procedures.
Further along in the hall stands the sculpture Klem in Tiltzone by Robin Kromwijk. A pinball machine, as a symbol of the experience of a non-binary person who gets stuck in a medical system that is not designed for them. On the wall at the back of the room hangs an adaptation in the colors of the trans flag of Soviet artist El Lissitzky’s Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge with the text ‘stop medical gatekeeping.’
Watching all the Shrek movies 8506 times
Underneath the Lissitzky, drawings by Christiaan Jay Merlijn can be seen. With his work, he highlights the years-long waiting time for access to transgender care, something he has also experienced himself.
“The waiting was exhausting, really exhausting,” says the nineteen-year-old artist. “And then it was even pathologized; they thought I should first work on my depression before I could start on the hormones. While that depression came because I wasn’t getting hormones!”
With his poster, he puts the duration of the waiting lists into perspective. A drawing of two diplomas with the text ‘completing a bachelor’s and a master’s degree,’ an airplane flying over the ocean with ‘flying around the world 1195 times,’ a parent and child crossing the street together with ‘raising a child from birth to third grade:’ all things you can do in the time it takes for a trans person to wait for care on average.
In addition to the exhibited artworks from more than 10 creators, the exhibition also featured a stage for stand-up comedy, music, a lecture by writer Tobi Lakmaker, and the short documentary ‘On Hold’ about the work of World Press Photo Award-nominated non-binary photographer Prins de Vos was shown.
The exhibition is not a conclusion for TransZorgNu, rather a snapshot of the work created for the campaign so far. The Genderdiagnonsense expo will be on display again on Thursday, May 29, at Het Roze Huis, St. Antoniusplaats 1, Nijmegen. The organization is open to new submissions from trans artists.
More information: