Lauren Kelsey
Jul 28, 2017 · 2 min read

The thing that bugs me the most about this is the assumptions that the author has right at the start. The author is invalidly generalizing and essentially using stereotypes against cis people. Yes, of course there are some very transphobic cis people out there, just like there may be some trans people who hurt people and make mistakes. Everyone is human, nobody is perfect, and just because someone did something wrong doesn’t mean that they intended to hurt anyone, and in my opinion, intentions are the most important thing. Personally, I don’t think that a person who supports trans people but makes one mistake (that no one ever told them about) should be labeled as transphobic, because they’re supporting trans people, so they’re not transphobic. Yes, they may have violated your insanely specific requirements for being an ally, but if they support you and your rights, why do their mistakes even matter? If you know that they support you, why are you upset about one tiny thing that they did wrong, that ultimately doesn’t affect your rights or the amount of respect you receive at all? Why would they bother to share this on Facebook if they were transphobic? Regardless, if you‘re asking to be respected as a trans person, which is your right as a human being, then you have to treat cis people with the same respect, because we have those same human rights too. Respect consists of starting with a clean slate and having no assumptions or preconceptions about a person based on some facet of their identity (AKA discrimination). Of course, our rights aren’t threatened like yours are and we are not capable of understanding what you are going through. However, I don’t think there’s any excuse for making such blatant assumptions about people. It’s really just immature and hypocritical. As a Democrat, it also makes me very angry because I know that this is exactly the reason that Trump won. I don’t know what goes through your head when you read Facebook posts supporting trans people, posted by people you don’t even know, and somehow get the idea in your head that they MIGHT not be a PERFECT ally, and decide to write an entire essay about it. There are trans people and campaigns telling cis people to use #ProtectTransKids, and then there are trans people telling cis people that it’s not okay to use that hashtag. How are cis people supposed to know who to listen to? You can’t fault cis people for doing what the trans community tells them to do, and then being told by another part of the trans community that it is not enough or even that it is transphobic.

Practice what you preach. Treat people with the same respect that you would like to be treated with.

    Lauren Kelsey

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