In the past month there have two incidences of hate speech towards transgender populations that have caught my attention and impacted my communities. I am writing this reflection in response to these incidents, while keeping in mind that unfortunately violence towards the Trans community is a reality that Transgender individuals live with on a daily basis.
I'd like to include a content warning for transphobic material. I offer a brief description of the incidents below and provide the link to news articles for people who want to read more. If you want to skip the recap and just read my reflection, start reading after the page break.
First, at the University of Virginia, a mural on Beta Bridge (a spot often used to advertise a wide variety of university events, wish people happy birthday, etc.) which stated “Protect Black Trans Woman” was defaced to read “Protect 2A Black Guns.” Students rushed to correct the mural, only to find it vandalized again. You can read more about it here.
It’s not lost on me that I knew the name Hannah Graham before enrolling at UVA but did not hear of Sage Smith until I saw a poster while walking around the downtown mall. Sage Smith is a black transgender teenager from Charlottesville who was reported missing in 2012. Violence against trans women of color is not just a statistic reported in the news, it is something that happens in my communities.
Second, JK Rowling has come under fire for supporting a UK government official who was fired for her stance that it is impossible to change sex. Rowling has been tabled as a Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist, or TERF, a term many view as derogatory. It's a new word for me, but the basic idea is that TERFs believe granting Trans people equal rights would undermine the fight for woman's equality. This article explains the whole JK Rowling Twitter debacle in the context of UK politics. Because I listen to a podcast that treats Harry Potter as a sacred text, many people in that community have been devastated by JK Rowling making a statement against trans rights.
I'm all for freedom of expression. I don't think JK Rowling is a terrible person (I think she's terribly misinformed and inflicted a lot of pain as a result). But I am tired of my own tendency to take a nuanced approach when other people's identities are at stake. Life is too short, the stakes are too high. So here are some true statements:
Trans Women are Women. Trans Men are Men. Non Binary People are People. Gender is a spectrum. The inclusion of Trans rights in the fight for gender equality strengthens the movement, it does not diminish it.
I don't understand what it means to be Transgender and I never will fully, because it is not a part of my experience as a Cisgender identifying person. But I can respect it. I've gotten a lot of things wrong, but then I relearn and re-adjust and become more respectful.
The Transgender and Gender non-conforming individuals I have gotten to know in my life have encouraged me to question what it means to be a woman. Do makeup and nail polish and dresses make a woman? Do periods and childbirth and the fear of being sexually assaulted? Is a woman with a deep voice or a flat chest any less of a woman? Is an unmarried or childless woman any less of a woman?
I had a professor in college who asked our class the first time we realized our own gender. By and large our class shared stories of being corrected for behaviors outside of their expected gender norm. Boys do this. Girls do that.
We are programmed to think of the world in gender binaries that suffocate and harm all of us. I am grateful for Transgender and Gender non-conforming individuals for transgressing these binaries and inspiring a Cis girl like me to examine my own gender. I have a lot of internalized biases when it comes to gender that I know I need to work through.
My anthropology and biology classes have taught me that gender is a social construct. Anthropology showed me that there are cultures that recognize a third gender. There are cultures where men care for children and women work. None of the behaviors we associate with gender are scientifically bound, they are taught.
Speaking of science, my genetics class taught me that there are individuals born with two X chromosomes who phenotypically have male genitalia. There are people born with both male and female genitalia. The levels of estrogen present in individuals with two X chromosomes varies widely from individual to individual and fluctuates throughout a person's lifetime. The same is true for the levels of testosterone in XY individuals. So no, JK Rowling, sex isn't real. It's a classification we came up with to explain away phenotypical differences between humans.
These things blew my mind when I first learned them. I find myself constantly having to relearn them. But they are true.
They say the truth with set you free, and by living their truths despite the literal threats of murder they are faced with from our society, Transgender individuals set us all free to express our genders in ways we see fit.
I think we can live in a world where protecting the 2nd amendment doesn't come at the expense of protecting Black Trans Lives. I think we can live in a world where the identities of Cisgendered people are not threatened by that of Trans people, but rather enriched.
To any Trans or Gender Non-Conforming Individual who may be reading this, I see you, I recognize you, I want to make the world safer for you.
To any Cigender person who may be reading this, we've got work to do.
I'm heartbroken and angered by the recent news so I felt compelled to write something affirming of Trans identities. The price of silence is too costly so I'm trying to speak out. I'm trying to learn how to be a better ally and I know I will fail along the way. If anyone has resources to share, please leave them in the comments. I leave you with this article I really like that helped me reframe some of my language to be more inclusive of gender non-conforming folk.