Trans Day of Remembrance 2009
Nov. 20th, 2009 11:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
the_fantastic_ms_foxBeing trans tends to curtail your life options. Sometimes it's subtle. Sometimes someone flat-out kills you. And if the system is already gunning for you (if you're poor, in sex-work, a migrant, racialized, colonized, disabled, etc...) it's more likely to be the latter. It could be a blow to the head from a drunken rowdy, or a cop. Or it could be from being refused healthcare. Or an early death from toxic levels of stress. Or it could be suffering and losing so much that suicide seems sensible.
And so we struggle to get by and be treated as human. Often, we wonder if we will win this struggle. Both it in our private lives, and in society at large.
But I assure you that not only will we win, we are winning. Every day.
On CBC I hear respectful, thoughtful stories about trans people. When they interview someone (usually homeless) who is MtF, and whose voice is down in her boots, the host mentions that she's trans so that listeners don't assume she's a dude. There are fictional trans characters in media. They are often respectful. Sometimes they even have a shred of accuracy. And now and then they're even played by trans actors.
Any BC Women's Centre worth its salt has pro-trans resources, or at least policy and posters. Healthcare professionals are being trained in trans issues. And I recently was interviewed by a police trainee, only to find out that he really wanted to interview MtF prostitutes so that he could better serve their needs.
This was not the case twenty years ago. Heck, it wasn't the case five years ago. There were perhaps one or two topical annual stories about trans people They didn't interview out transsexuals on the radio, let alone ones who didn't have auditory cisgender-passing privilege. And "trans-inclusion" was still "a divisive issue in the feminist community."
The US has passed a bill funding the investigation of hate crimes, including those based on gender identity. The American legal/penal system is still pointless, classist, racist, transphobic, and otherwise not worth describing as partof any "justice system." But, from now on, it'll be harder to plead "not guilty of murder by virtue of the victim being trans."
In Nepal, a person had the gender marker on zer ID legally removed.
Caster Semanya will keep her gold medal.
I read "ze" more and more often in print.
People are coming out and transitioning younger. And more people are transitioning into queer identities.
Trans people are doing research on themselves.
Ivan Coyote is the Vancouver Public Library's Authour in Residence.
Cisgendered strangers are cautious about which pronouns and gender labels they use to refer to me, and quick to mention friendly anecdotes about their trans acquaintances, because they want to let me know they support me if I'm an FtM dude.*
And the Canadian Parliament will soon vote on whether to add "gender identity and expression" to the list of prohibited grounds of discrimination.
Five years ago, I wasn't sure if things like this could happen in my lifetime.
But still we feel that irritating feeling. Like our rights are being trampled on. There are two reasons for this:
1. Our rights are being trampled on. Being transgendered still often means an instant demotion to "semi-human."
2. More and more of us are seeing this as avoidable; changeable; a thing over which we at least a limited degree of power.
#1 Is changing slowly. But #2 is changing quickly.
As a consequence of #2, we're not as often browbeaten until we turn inward and hate ourselves. Instead we're angry. And motivated.
Why the change? Every time we win in the fight for oppression, we realize that we can win. And then we get pissy, uppity, and (god forbid) assertive. And then we're that much more likely to win again.
It's a beautiful self-catalyzing cycle.
It's called "Liberation."
*I'm still not, but I appreciate the thought.
And so we struggle to get by and be treated as human. Often, we wonder if we will win this struggle. Both it in our private lives, and in society at large.
But I assure you that not only will we win, we are winning. Every day.
On CBC I hear respectful, thoughtful stories about trans people. When they interview someone (usually homeless) who is MtF, and whose voice is down in her boots, the host mentions that she's trans so that listeners don't assume she's a dude. There are fictional trans characters in media. They are often respectful. Sometimes they even have a shred of accuracy. And now and then they're even played by trans actors.
Any BC Women's Centre worth its salt has pro-trans resources, or at least policy and posters. Healthcare professionals are being trained in trans issues. And I recently was interviewed by a police trainee, only to find out that he really wanted to interview MtF prostitutes so that he could better serve their needs.
This was not the case twenty years ago. Heck, it wasn't the case five years ago. There were perhaps one or two topical annual stories about trans people They didn't interview out transsexuals on the radio, let alone ones who didn't have auditory cisgender-passing privilege. And "trans-inclusion" was still "a divisive issue in the feminist community."
The US has passed a bill funding the investigation of hate crimes, including those based on gender identity. The American legal/penal system is still pointless, classist, racist, transphobic, and otherwise not worth describing as partof any "justice system." But, from now on, it'll be harder to plead "not guilty of murder by virtue of the victim being trans."
In Nepal, a person had the gender marker on zer ID legally removed.
Caster Semanya will keep her gold medal.
I read "ze" more and more often in print.
People are coming out and transitioning younger. And more people are transitioning into queer identities.
Trans people are doing research on themselves.
Ivan Coyote is the Vancouver Public Library's Authour in Residence.
Cisgendered strangers are cautious about which pronouns and gender labels they use to refer to me, and quick to mention friendly anecdotes about their trans acquaintances, because they want to let me know they support me if I'm an FtM dude.*
And the Canadian Parliament will soon vote on whether to add "gender identity and expression" to the list of prohibited grounds of discrimination.
Five years ago, I wasn't sure if things like this could happen in my lifetime.
But still we feel that irritating feeling. Like our rights are being trampled on. There are two reasons for this:
1. Our rights are being trampled on. Being transgendered still often means an instant demotion to "semi-human."
2. More and more of us are seeing this as avoidable; changeable; a thing over which we at least a limited degree of power.
#1 Is changing slowly. But #2 is changing quickly.
As a consequence of #2, we're not as often browbeaten until we turn inward and hate ourselves. Instead we're angry. And motivated.
Why the change? Every time we win in the fight for oppression, we realize that we can win. And then we get pissy, uppity, and (god forbid) assertive. And then we're that much more likely to win again.
It's a beautiful self-catalyzing cycle.
It's called "Liberation."
*I'm still not, but I appreciate the thought.
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no subject
Date: 2009-11-21 07:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-11-21 07:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-11-21 07:45 am (UTC)Bryson Yuzyk: A Man Who Will Maintain Numerical Hat Supremacy
We didn't win. Clearly our opponents had extra hats that we didn't know about.
no subject
Date: 2009-11-21 08:09 am (UTC)And it helps to realize just how much has changed in the past five years. My experiences are not yours, and it's not just because you're younger & luckier & prettier, and thank goodness for that.
no subject
Date: 2009-11-28 07:12 am (UTC)