Leave Trans People Alone

Nat Villasana
Jul 29, 2017 · 2 min read

I don’t think a lot of people realize the magnitude of violence against trans people in the United States and worldwide.

Or rather, I’d like to think that not-trans people are ignorant of the daily harassment and discrimination that trans people face, rather than fully aware and fully okay with participating in everyday forms of hostility toward trans and queer people.

“Man wearing a dress” jokes aren’t funny. Transwomen are frequently assaulted for wearing dresses. Girls are murdered for not looking like they’re “supposed” to look.

I shouldn’t have to link to the piles of statistics and news articles about how dangerous it is to be a trans person in the United States, let alone Georgia. I shouldn’t have to cite death tolls just to prove that U.S. culture is hostile to trans people.

Why would it be okay to stare or make fun of a person when they aren’t wearing the clothes expected of them? Why do not-trans people seem so determined to make trans people hate themselves?

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard — “Wow I can’t tell if that’s a man or a woman!” or “…but what’s their biological gender?”

Why are some people so keen on knowing the details of other people’s sex organs? How does that affect them and their lives at all? “What’s their real gender? What were they born as?” Apparently they were born as someone who couldn’t catch a break from disrespectful, invasive lines of questioning.

Why does the answer to these questions really matter? How are you going to treat that person differently depending on the answer, and why?

Stop fostering an environment that’s hostile to the lives of trans people. Leave trans people alone.

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Nat Villasana

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digital media artist and software developer

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