Because politics and religion defines someone's cultural understanding of what is considered mentally healthy and what is not mentally healthy. I thought this was a universal understanding of what mental health is but I guess not. This is why you see different societies Make determinations on what behavior is considered normal versus abnormal and can put that into a mental health context. Facebook is simply recognizing this universal truth that societies are different and it is okay to have that debate and discussion.
Mental health is not determined by politics or religion. It's a medical assertion.
If they were taking the position that it's OK to say to say something like "this behavior is immoral", that would be entirely different. But what they're actually saying is that it's OK to engage in medical diagnosis because your personal belief system leads to you find the existence of certain other sorts of people objectionable.
> Facebook is simply recognizing this universal truth that societies are different and it is okay to have that debate and discussion.
I disagree. I don't think that's what Facebook is doing at all.
That's a surprising stance of moral absolutism which I doubt you carry into the rest of the aspects of your life. If you look at medical assertions and how they have changed over the years they are absolutely in line with the cultural assertions that come from a religious and political viewpoints. This is also why they vary broadly around the world based upon the cultures. You merely need to study different cultures around the world and view what they believe and see what they consider normal and deviant behavior as it relates to what is mentally normal and mentally deviant from a health perspective.
Let me provide you with an extreme example because you're not seeming to understand that there can be small variances everywhere so this extreme example should demonstrate exactly the point that culture deems what is mentally healthy behavior or not.
In most other societies especially any western society this not only would be considered criminal behavior but it would also be considered mentally deviant behavior. It would indicate a problem with mental health to engage in this behavior and promote it.
So it is quite clear to anyone that a culture through its religion and political power makes a determination on behaviors and the outcome of that determination is around mental health.
So the assertion that some people may have that transgenderism is a mental health disorder and their religious and political viewpoints are the reason they have around it isn't really that far-fetched considering what goes on in the world. I think if you simply look at the Facebook posts that do not get people banned that are asserting that in a political and or religious context transgenderism is a mental health disorder it's plain to see that is absolutely what Facebook is doing. They are carving out this exception allowing political and religious discourse around this. Because your cultural understanding is not the world's cultural understanding.
That just passes the buck to the medical community, who have to figure out whether something is a disorder or not, which again becomes a decision informed by societal norms and practicality.
An interesting, nuanced essay on this (from a slightly earlier era):
> At this point, I don’t care enough to say much more than “If it’s a psychiatric disorder, then attempts to help transgender people get covered by health insurance, and most of the transgender people I know seem to want that, so sure, gender dysphoria is a psychiatric disorder.”
- The Categories were made for Man, not Man for the Categories
