The New York Post recently reported on a disturbing story of a woman in North Carolina who had herself blinded by a psychologist because she felt she was meant to be blind. This isn’t as unique a phenomenon as we would like to believe. In the psychiatric world, Body Integrity Identity Disorder describes this condition, where people believe they are meant to have a disability. This leads many to live a transable lifestyle, where either they simulate disability or intentionally become disabled.

Transablism has not reached the same level of cultural acceptance as its more respected cousin, transgenderism, but it is not clear why. When we accept the basic arguments in favor of transgenderism we are more or less forced to accept the arguments for transablism as well. In both cases, individuals claim their physical condition does not match their psychological reality. In both cases, individuals claim they have a right to determine their own identity. And in both cases, acceptance and inclusion is demanded of society at large.

These claims also hold true for another controversial trans identity. Transracialism has in the cases of Rachel Dolezal and Shaun King thrust race into the same murky trans waters as gender and disability. It is tempting to treat the gender-bending of the traditional trans movement as the gateway drug that leads to transablism and transracialism, but in fact all three are rooted in the same seminal shift in social values. It portends the erosion of almost all moral standards.

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