To anyone who refuses to accept the Transgender community,
I, myself, am not transgender nor do I have any close friends who are. But for some reason, I find myself infuriated with close-minded people who don’t even try to understand this concept. After several trying debates with a friend, I think I have an idea of how you, that select number of stubborn and unaccepting individuals, view the transgender community.
I’ve noticed that most people who look down on transgender people never even try to understand what it even means. The National Center For Transgender Equality defines transgender as:
“A term for people whose gender identity, expression or behavior is different from those typically associated with their assigned sex at birth. Transgender is a broad term and is good for non-transgender people to use. ‘Trans’ is shorthand for ‘transgender.'"
Of course, the full meaning of being transgender does not fit inside the confines of a definition. In simpler words, gender is how you feel and sex is what you were born as. Obviously, us cisgendered people will never fully understand what’s it’s like to feel as though you were born in the wrong body. You can’t wrap your head around what it’s like to feel as though you’re a different gender.
So, you could say for you that this would be unimaginable. What some of these people have to go through is unimaginable.
Identifying as transgender is not a trend and it’s not new either. Lately there has been light shed on this topic due to people and celebrities finally feeling confident enough to make this a public conversation. According to “Advocate,” hate crimes against trans people have gone up 13 percent since 2015. Considering that’s around the time the movement started, I don’t find that a coincidence.
You’re probably thinking “so what?” The point is, someone cannot help how they feel. Let me say that again, just in case you missed it there: they can’t help it. That’s what makes me mad about people who won’t accept them. Someone just doesn’t decide to be trans, it’s how they are born and have been introduced to the expected behavior of a boy and a girl.
The hate that some of these people receive is not only unwarranted and discriminatory, but just plain immoral. The only thing that this community of people want is to be treated as who they really are and to be treated with respect. It blows my mind how some people’s only argument against this community is because they make them feel “uncomfortable” and that “they need to accept themselves for what they were born as.”
They don’t care how “uncomfortable” you are, they are just going to be themselves anyway. And frankly, what someone chooses to do with their body and with their life shouldn’t affect you at all. Your personal feelings about their life isn’t their problem in the least. They are accepting themselves in the bravest way possible, fulfilling their personal needs in a society full of selfish, small-minded people.
It’s 2016, so that means it is time to start opening up to all kinds of people who have been hiding in fear all of these years. No one is asking you to fully understand what the transgender community goes through, but in the least, be open to accepting someone who is just trying to live a life they are satisfied with.
“I followed the trail out of the room, invigorated by the possibility of reinventing my own body. The meaning was mine, as long as I was with those who had the vision and vocabulary to understand my creation.”
― Nick Krieger, "Nina Here Nor There: My Journey Beyond Gender"
“We make assumptions every day about other people's genders without ever seeing their birth certificates, their chromosomes, their genitals, their reproductive systems, their childhood socialization, or their legal sex. There is no such thing as a "real" gender - there is only the gender we experience ourselves as and the gender we perceive others to be.”
Sincerely,
An ally to the LGBTQ+ community, and an advocate for true equality
