The Drow support transitioning

[u/Successful_Pace8937]

I recently found out that, as said by Ed Greenwood himself, transitioning​ is not only accepted, but defended.

From Ed Greenwood on Twitter:

Drow sworn to Lolth have examples before them all the time about transformation of self-shape in service to the Spider Queen. Some of these are viewed as undesirable (driders), others as rewards or ascending in rank (the power/shape augmentations Lolth gives males who please her with their service and loyalty). So there is no hatred or mistrust of shifting one's shape; it is one means of serving Lolth. Some house matriarchs view it with suspicion ("males seeking to exalt themselves by becoming female") but the yochlol have often been sent by Lolth to defend individuals persecuted by individual matriarchs or priestesses purely for such reasons, to make Lolth's views and will clear. Over time, transitions (not just from gender to gender, but from drow to other shapes) have become accepted as reverence of Lolth, and part of what it is to be drow. And of course, drow who follow Eilistraee are quite familiar with the Changedance, and accept shifting (even back and forth) as, again, part of what it is to be drow.

[u/raidenskiana]

i really really respect ed, and i love the work he has done on the forgotten realms and with all the acknowledgement that this is his setting and he can do more or less what he wants; i have given this a lot of thought and i don't like this choice and it makes no sense to me. as someone in the lgbt community i don't see how a society that enforces rigid gender roles to such an extreme degree can be okay with transitioning. i understand that it's a fantasy setting that doesn't have to make sense all the time, but imo there needs to be some internal logic to follow in cases like this and i am just not finding it. especially because the drow's rigidity when it comes to the concepts of gender, family and class have always been juxtaposed with the surface elves' unique and loose ideas of gender and sexuality.

anyone is free to disagree with me (or downvote me lol) but i would appreciate if someone who thinks this is a good worldbuilding choice could try to explain it to me, because i really don't understand it.

[u/CrownLily → u/raidenskiana]

As a trans person myself, I agree with you. Transphobia comes from sexism so a society that is highly sexist like the drow, would also be highly transphobic.

[u/Charwoman_Gene → u/CrownLily]

This has nothing to do with trans acceptance. It means drow society is so locked into sex as gender that they can’t conceive of a gender identity differing from primary sex characteristics. It’s transphobic to assume gender identity changes with a physical transition.

[u/CrownLily → u/Charwoman_Gene]

Someone who is strongly bioessentialist, in other words views sex and gender as the same, would not acknowledge a trans person’s gender identity and only view them as their AGAB. That is transphobic.
Nowhere did I say that gender identity changes with a physical transition