groups based on interest/activity vs groups based on identity?

[gender_euphoric]

Do you think the future of trans and nb community will have more to do with actions/interests/activities vs groups based around identity words? I noticed on the soon-to-be gone Imzy.com a community based on binding was more successful than most of the trans groups I could find. And while it was definitely trans inclusive/friendly, it didn't assume anything about the ppl posting's identities. It was purely based around the activity of binding.

On facebook there's a particular top surgery group I'm in and they've become more committed to being inclusive of nonbinary, nonconforming, and similar people. There are also people out there who are or live as binary women who want top surgery. There's been minor controversy about whether those folks should be in the group.

Also, sometimes trans women ask about binding in trans male-leaning communities--usually they are needing to hide breast growth for various reasons. I also assume some section of trans women and amab NBs might want to take hrt but might not actually want breast growth, so for them, top surgery and/or binding could be a solution.

I also wonder about the future of trans X, exclusive community/support spaces. Does birth sex assignment matter as much as previously thought?
anyway, just opening a discussion topic
-jay

Comments

[pauraque]

I do think there is potential for an activity-based group to be more inclusive and less intimidating than an identity-based group. Sometimes it is easier to say "I do this" rather than "I am this".

There is value in identity-based support spaces, but if they define themselves too narrowly they can inadvertently become identity-policing, as kindkit alluded to. In my experience the most successful identity-based groups I've seen leaned more on the inclusive side as well. I was in a trans/gender questioning peer support group IRL and I benefited enormously from being around people whose identities differed from my own. We spent a lot of time discussing areas where our experiences were different and where they were parallel even if not the same.