With the level of danger that many trans people endure every day, coupled with the seductive ‘American Dream’ that so many marginalized groups desire, the ‘born this way’ narrative could be about safety. The logic goes: If we talk about ourselves in a way that makes us easier to understand – ultimately less human – maybe people will be comfortable enough to give us the dignity we should have had in the first place. If we neatly package ourselves in ways that don’t leave any room for scrutiny, we can be the perfect models of oppressed peoples. So when people pull out the trauma from the formation of identity that people go through, it’s so that there’s little room for pathology.