Transpeople Are Real Whether You Like It or Not

And once again someone with their head-up-their-ass is going viral. Michelle Smith Glass posted an ignorant tirade about Caitlyn Jenner. The examples of courage cited by Ms Glass are, in and of themselves, reasonable. But she still misses the point and insists that Ms Jenner is not a real woman. The top layer of media, the people we cannot avoid, laud Jenner for courageously putting on an evening gown and that's all Glass bothered to read.

Most of the true journalists and trans community (transfolk & their allies) see Jenner's courage in something else. She knew there would people like Glass, who could have just ignored her, but who will instead go out of their way to try to shred Jenner. Turn about is fair play. I feel the urge to shatter some Glass (and I couldn't resist).

You see, Ms Glass, Caitlyn Jenner's courage is her willingness to stand up to bullies like you and say, "ENOUGH!" Oh, you think you're not a bully? Well you are. You are a bully and a judgmental bitch. Your whole rant is about real women.

You can't be a real woman if you don't give birth. If someone is born with a vagina, ovaries and a uterus is she a woman? Or does she have to give birth first? What if the treatment for childhood leukemia left her sterile at age three? Will she never be real?

Real women are courageous when they are bald and scarred from cancer surgery. I've been lucky enough never to have cancer. Am I not a real woman? What about a complete hysterectomy before puberty? Would she not be a real woman? Or does she not count because she never gave birth and doesn't even have the parts?

Gender is in the head. It is not in the reproductive organs. If someone sewed a penis on me, I'd still be a woman. Insisting that someone have the physiology you demand, and from birth, is cis-privilege and is just as sexist as insisting you have to have penis to run a company or be on the Supreme Court. That's right, Ms Glass, you are sexist. Your genitals are not who you are.

Trans women are real women. We must stop telling transpeople that they don't exist. We must stop. Now! Transfolk are murdered everyday around the globe, because someone like you says it's okay. Every time you support the gender police, you support violence against transfolk. Every time you decide who is and who is not a real woman, you encourage another scared, lonely trans person to kill themselves. After all, if they aren't real, it doesn't matter if they are alive.

Transpeople are real! Transgender people are human beings with hearts & souls and should be treated as such. They deserve human rights: the right to go to the bathroom; the right to have a job; the right to the best housing they can afford (not just where you think "they" should live); the right to walk down the street without harassment or assault; the right to health care. Trans people deserve the right to live. They deserve dignity.

Transgender people are real! Open your eyes and see them!

He for She ~ It's not what you think.

When I heard Emma Watson was giving a speech to the UN about He for She, I was amazed. Turns out, there is no connection to transgenderism. He for She is about feminism.

Feminism is not man-hating. Honest. Feminism is about men & women having equal rights and opportunities. The link above takes you to a blog about it and has the speech embedded. I really like Kadeen Griffiths' take on Emma's speech, which is why I've chosen to link the Bustle page rather than straight to Emma's speech. It's a ten-minute long speech, which isn't long at all and is totally worthwhile. I recommend listening to the whole thing.

My favorite quote from this speech summarizes why I've chosen to write about it here:

“IT IS TIME THAT WE ALL SEE GENDER AS A SPECTRUM INSTEAD OF TWO SETS OF OPPOSING IDEALS.”

If you love someone (including yourself) who is transgender, you've begun to see gender isn't pink or blue, or even a line ~ it is better defined as a circle. There is a little bit of pink opposite a little bit of blue, but almost the entire thing is a broad range of shades of purple. Gender has nothing to do with sex and the fact is, most of us are purple. Masculine & feminine traits are present in everyone.

If we understand gender as a broad spectrum, with all points being equally important, how can we discriminate? People should be hired & paid on the basis of skill, talent, personality and not gender. The perky, friendly, fast pink cashier should make the same as the perky, friendly, fast blue cashier and the perky, friendly, fast fuchsia cashier. 

Everyone, everywhere on the gender spectrum has basic human rights and we, as a society, owe it to ourselves to protect those rights. No one should ever be forced into marriage, prostitution or slavery (even, or especially, when their parents foist it upon them). No one should be denied housing or employment based on gender, real or perceived. Every single human being has the right to worship, or not, as they see fit. Everyone has the right not to suffer violence.

Regardless of where you sit on that circle, you should have the same opportunity for education; the same right to decide whom you marry; the same right to housing and the same right to protection under the law.

Everyone ~ absolutely everyone, has the right to dignity.