Member-only story
“What’s With All These Trans People?”
Two powerful concepts cis people must understand if we want to support our trans community: pronouns & privilege
Being a member of a few online support groups for parents of *trans kids, I’ve come to learn that we’re all asked questions exactly like these. Again, and again, and again. Folks who simply “don’t get it,” or have no experience raising trans kids seem to have a voracious penchant for attempting to find that one, ultimate, mind-blowing question they figure we’ve never, ever thought of.
“Don’t you think you’re encouraging this too much?”
“What if it’s only a phase?”
“Is this because you always secretly wanted a daughter?”
These people are looking for, you know, that one question that will, at long last, enlighten us and render us indebted to them forever, for their brilliant uniqueness and sage insight… which would undoubtedly help us see the error of our ways before we self-destruct and take the whole family down with us!
[Shaking my head at the thought of how much I deal with these questions.]
