lately I have noticed on facebook, twitter and other social media that some cis and transgender people have come to the idea that if they don’t like a particular trans person, they can choose to not respect that person’s gender identity as an attack on them.
This is at its very core problematic because it implies that respect for our gender identity is a reward given out to the “right kind” of transgender people and not a right to all as it should be and that this ‘reward” can be taken away at any time.
I don’t know about you but i don’t find this acceptable in the very least.
It isn’t just cis people either.
I see this kind of policing within the transgender community as well, many forums and discussion sites online that cater to transgender people have this mentality in one form or another. Often unpopular transgender people will be labeled as “fakes” or “just crossdressers” and driven out of the community.
This has got to stop.
Just because you don’t like someone or don’t like something a person has done does not give you the right to erase their identity. I don’t care if this person killed more people than hitler, stalin, genghis khan and the black plague combined, their gender identity is their gender identity and its not yours to take away.
You don’t get to take away someones identity because you don’t like them, or because you don’t think they “pass”, or because of their hormonal or surgical status. You don’t get to decide if someone is transgender, or how they identify. They do.
I see some sites who claim to be guides for transgender people talking about “fake transsexuals” or some other such scaremongering bullshit and all i have ever seen is unpopular transgender people being pushed out of a community , while having their identity stripped. This only serves as a mechanism of humiliation and degradation. (i’m looking at you tsroadmap, knock your bullshit off) .
We need to reject this toxic mentality as a community and accept all trans* people as they identity and stop using our identity as a reward, instead treat it as the inherent right it should be. This goes for transgender and cisgender people alike. If you see anyone trying to do this please call them out, I certainly will.
