Whether you believe transgender men are men or transgender
women are women you cannot deny the basic fact that we exist. You may not
like that a group of people exist. You may disagree with how a group of people
either choose or are compelled by their specific biology to live. You may feel
disgust or disdain. You may not and have a right to not like anyone you want
but it is an observational fact of life transgender people exist. It is an
observational fact of life that some transgender people take medical steps to
change themselves in every technologically available way.
You do not have to like us, but we still get to live in public life.
You do not have to personally agree that doing so makes a
person a man if born anatomically and chromosomally female. You do not have to
agree that having all the procedures makes a person a woman if born anatomically
and chromosomally male.
However, we decided as a society to be as liberal about this
as Iran, or Thailand or most of Europe or most of Asia or most of Latin
America, and all the well developed parts of Africa. We decided to draw a line
between the rights of one person and the rights of others. For this reason,
while you do not have to agree with, like, respect, or admire transgender
people …. You do not have a right to impose on them your views.
Your right to dislike transgender people ends at the tips of
your fingers.
Beyond the span of your arms, beyond that personal space
around you nothing you think matters unless most of the other people around you
agree. To make it plain, your right to an opinion on someone else’s body generally
ends at the wall of the bathroom stall.
You have a right to use the wrong pronouns and call people
out of their name.
Other people have the right to do the same to you. People
around you have the right to think you are a jerk for doing that. Those people
may have a right to sue you or file a complaint against you even under the
terms of this white house memo. You don’t have a right to harass or bully
people.
This is not just about liberalism VS conservatism, republican VS democrat.
One can find people on every side of the usual political
divides who for their own reasons dislike transgender women. (Trans men rarely
even figure on the radar of most people. Surprisingly it never occurs to them
that a person who is female in body but masculine in brain might just want to
live as a man.)
There
are black conservative Christians who hate transgender women as much as white
conservative Christians. There
are trans-exclusionary-radical-feminist who are hard core leftist but believe that
all people born with an XY chromosome set are out to rape them. Both
groups agree on just one thing… somehow transgender women, male to female, are
new… and the source of societies problems.
Transgender veteran at a protest against a transgender millitary ban. Photo credit Ted Eytan from Washington, DC, USA Wikimedia Commons
Indeed when Obama was in his first term with a veto proof
congress laws that would explicitly protect transgender people were not
passed. The reasons for this. On one hand groups like the Human Rights
Campaign were somewhat anti transgender. Groups like GLAAD are named as they
were because they were by for and about gays and lesbians. A lot of old line
gay and lesbian people, shamefully in hindsight, bore very hostile attitudes
towards transgender people. Furthermore, the transsexual/transgender community
is partially at fault as well. Many of us if we pass… simply pass and live our
lives. Before the internet removing all actual privacy that was viable. Now
no one can have a real secret unless they drop totally off the grid.
In the great state of Illinois there is a law which
specifically names transgender people for protection. This should have been
done at the federal level. Take this as a wakeup call.
Brains,
Not Bodies Define Gender.
As I have written before our brains have sexually dimorphic aspects
of them. Gender is nothing more and nothing less than the expression of those
parts of the brain. Sex is anatomy and genes. Neurology is anatomy and that
neurological atypicality makes transgender people transgender. You can no more
define us out of existence that you can define autism out of existence.
This is not an opinion there is plenty of research to this
effect.
