Amidst the ‘sexy nurse’ and ‘naughty teacher’ costumes that normally occupy Halloween stores comes this year’s newest trend: mocking Transgender people.
While these certain businesses are responding to these hateful claims with “We want to show she [Caitlyn Jenner] is a hero!” or “We satirize everyone! It’s all in fun!” this couldn’t be farther from the truth. For many years, the Trans community has been the butt of jokes through comedic standup, distasteful media coverage, and hetero-normative culture. This has resulted in many more years of significant increase in violence (including murder) to those in the Trans community.
I won’t get into whether or not you should regard Caitlyn as a hero for her transition. I won’t get into whether or not you should align your religious views for being Transgender. I won’t tell you appropriate pronoun usage for those who are Transgender. All of this you can find out on your own, and chances are you either already know the answer/refuse to accept one.
However, I will tell you: Trans people are NOT costumes.
The last 5 years have been a significant growth for the Transgender community in obtaining rights that Cisgender people have in society. From the obvious Caitlyn Jenner announcement to Laverne Cox being on the cover of Time Magazine: a monumental breakthrough for Trans POC. What can we learn from all of this? The world is growing.
Trans people are no longer the laughing stock of a situation. Trans people no longer are a discussion not found in a typical home, or on television. The Transgender Tipping Point (dubbed from Cox’s Time cover) is starting now. With all of that said, deducing these monumental steps in civil liberty to a costume joke is disheartening for anyone. How far have we fallen as a society to forget the people, the fellow humans, behind the labels to don (expensive and made in foreign countries’) accessories that ridicule what liberation Trans people have achieved? When history looks back on us, will we be known as a society who actually took a person’s skin and made a joke out of it?
Regardless if you disagree with a transgender transition (which doesn’t occupy the majority of the movement, but I digress) or believe they should have civil liberties: what does it say about you to share an image degrading someone who’s been degraded their whole lives? What does it say about you to practice “Loving thy neighbor (except if they’re Trans)”? What will your children come to know of you as you become the generation who thought it was harmless to tell the occasional Trans joke, at the expense of an entire community?
Naturally, the most common response is: “Grow up, it’s a joke. If you can’t laugh at yourself, what can you laugh at?” or “I don’t support them, so I don’t have to respect them.”
Let me tell you what is constructively devastating about that view: Trans people have never been a majority; therefore, have never mocked you for being Cis. So, why do the same to them?
