Post #2 on Bilerico: Whose Responsibility Is It?
Bil’s second post of questions about trans and feminism went up yesterday, and I am superlate in posting this (sorry, Bil).
It seems like a good time to do another installment of Stuff Bil Doesn’t Know Enough About™. This week’s question is in direct reference to two other blog posts inspired by my post admitting I have questions about feminist and transgender issues and encouraging others to add their own questions so we could have a community dialogue.
Over at Questioning Transphobia, Lisa brought up the inherent privilege in my request for answers. The comments section on her post are very interesting even though some of them really take me to task. On Father Tony’s discussion a commenter took a different tone that I want to highlight. Question below and comment additions after the jump.
Why must trans people primarily bear the burden for educating cis people? Why do some cis people not do some of their own education to learn about the issues before the questions begin?
Why is the education itself necessary to justify equal civil rights protections?
Keep in mind that everyone participating in the discussion is writing from their own experiences. Please be patient and civil in your comments. Let’s learn from each other!
I think everyone made the point about the privilege of asking for education, and at this point, it’s a matter of whether you want to participate or not, more than anything else.
Anyway, in many ways, Bil’s post is a continuation of the discussion from this post.
One of my responses to the post:
After listening to our explanations and our experiences, even if what we’d said leaves you completely befuddled and scratching your head, please, please acknowledge that we are still fully human, fully equal. That we DO deserve basic rights and protections from harassment and discrimination (ie: policies that exclude us, and ONLY us), even if you don’t understand us.
Is understanding really required to recognize someone elses humanity?
This. When these discussions happen, trans people are held to much higher standards than cis people, to the point that it is usually impossible to meet those standards.
The fact is that it should not be necessary to educate people on every aspect of our lives to justify our existence and access to civil rights. Our existence should be sufficient to justify our existence and access to civil rights.
The fact is, no matter what people understand or believe about trans people, we exist, and thousands – tens or hundreds of thousands – of us come with a rather similar (but not identical) set of stories about our lives and how they relate to sex and gender. We have these stories before the first time we hear the words “transsexual” or “gender identity disorder” or “genderqueer” or “transgender” or about hormones or surgery.
And the question should never be “Can we mind meld with people and implant intimate knowledge of our lives into their brains?” because that’s simply not a fair demand, and yet it is the demand made of us whenever talk of education begins.
Being trans isn’t a moral condition, it’s not a delusion, it’s not confusion about gender or identity. The problems and barriers trans people face are social – the fact that people do not believe we are who and what we say we are. There are reams of books and articles written by psychiatrists and medical doctors who have worked with trans people, who verify that this is the best treatment for who we are, that nothing else has worked. Why is this ignored?
While I feel that Bil genuinely has good intentions, I don’t know that he understands that what he’s essentially asking is why we deserve rights. Maybe he doesn’t realize that’s what he’s asking, though I think we all alluded to that fact in the previous round of comments.
Anyway, I posted over there too, since he already had a discussion going.
Allie
16 Sep 08 at 11:50 pm
That is the framework that Barney Frank and HRC set up, and so many people drank the kool-aid right then because they had something to gain for doing so.
I think that’s a very good point, though.
Lisa Harney
17 Sep 08 at 12:06 am
Is understanding really required to recognize someone elses humanity?
That’s exactly the point I was trying to enunciate all day, but couldn’t. Why do we actually need to have a discussion on understanding feminist and trans issues? The response is right there. Thank you.
z
17 Sep 08 at 1:13 am
The person I was responding to made that point, and I was just building on her point.
It’s the core issue for all of this, IMO.
Lisa Harney
17 Sep 08 at 1:31 am
what is making my head explode is why someone who’s -gay- would have any difficulty making the tiny leap to make this connection whatsoever, or rather to turn the whole thing around and put oneself on the other side of this, because hi! who hasn’t done this to at least -some- degree around straight people?
belledame222
17 Sep 08 at 4:19 pm
Hello Lisa, I’m glad you liked my comment. I’ve been reading your blog for quite awhile now, when I have the time. I’ve learned so much from what you’ve written and have a lot of respect for you. I can’t really add anything to what I’ve said at TBP except that I agree with you wholeheartedly.
Mouse
18 Sep 08 at 1:38 am
[...] Post #2 on Bilerico: Whose Responsibility Is It? « Questioning Transphobia "Being trans isn’t a moral condition, it’s not a delusion, it’s not confusion about gender or identity. The problems and barriers trans people face are social – the fact that people do not believe we are who and what we say we are." (tags: intersex) [...]
links for 2008-09-18 at Racialicious - the intersection of race and pop culture
18 Sep 08 at 8:31 am
Why do transpeople deserve rights?
because we’re Americans living in this country, that’s why.
Monica Roberts
18 Sep 08 at 12:52 pm
YES, Monica. It really should be that simple.
I object to the education point because it’s an excuse. It doesn’t mean I refuse to educate (or I wouldn’t have this blog) but I think it’s a red herring when it’s the reason given to deny rights.
Thanks, Mouse.
Lisa Harney
18 Sep 08 at 2:18 pm
What really hit me was the point about trans people being held to a higher standard of proof. You know this is true across the board for all groups of people that society had chosen to margnalize. You have to be better, smarter, faster just to even approach equality because we have internalized such a warp view of value. It galls me that bigotry and hatred needs no proof it is simply understood as the correct mode of thought.
Renee
20 Sep 08 at 3:09 pm
Yes, and that this higher standard was explicitly used as the reason that trans people haven’t earned the right to be included in ENDA, when if the same standard were applied to the people saying it (white gay men, in this case) they’d scream bloody murder.
It also erased all the work trans people have been doing for close to 40 years, all the medical papers and books and research written about trans people.
Lisa Harney
20 Sep 08 at 3:16 pm
[...] also ties into the recent discussion on The Bilerico [...]
Isis Tsunami « Questioning Transphobia
20 Sep 08 at 8:23 pm
Why do transpeople deserve rights?
because we’re Americans living in this country, that’s why.
That is probably the most infuriating, bullshit response to that question I’ve yet seen. Being a US citizen is not some special status conferring human rights… if anything, being a person is. It just might make some of them more likely to be recognised.
I realise most of the people participating here and there likely are US citizens and most of the examples given related to that context… but nothing about the topic looked restricted to a particular nation to me, and nor should people’s rights be.
aesmael
23 Feb 09 at 7:13 am
Monica didn’t imply that trans people outside the US don’t deserve rights. The conversation centered a lot on ENDA and HRC as well – and this was before everything that happened with S onewall and Julie Bindel, or that would’ve come up too. Most specifically, Monica was speaking from her perspective as an American woman.
Lisa Harney
23 Feb 09 at 3:39 pm
I did acknowledge that many or most people participating here are speaking from the perspective of US citizens. That doesn’t make it any more meaningful of a statement.
We both agree that surely it is not to mean that trans people outside the USA do not deserve rights. What does it mean? Not that only US citizens in the country deserve rights, since I’m sure you’d agree the rights of non-citizens should also be respected while visiting or living in the country. Nor that only people in the United States or within its jurisdiction deserve to have their rights respected; everyone should.
So really, what does it mean to say trans people deserve rights “because we’re Americans living in this country, that’s why”? The most charitable way I can think to look at that is to say what Monica probably meant was something like “Trans people deserve to have their rights respected because they / we are people too”, but what was said was “Americans” and “this country” which looks unthinkingly myopic and exceptionalist to me.
It doesn’t, literally, mean anything I’d want to see any person agree with unreservedly. Even if the conversation were restricted specifically to a United States or American context it would still be excluding anyone without citizenship like immigrant workers, overseas students or tourists from recognition. It’s infuriating.
aesmael
9 Mar 09 at 1:13 am