Content warning: transphobia, rage, and swearing
This image has been very popular this past week on Facebook. Originally reposted to the Have A Gay Day Facebook page last week, it’s been shared over seven thousand times (without attribution).
But not getting credit isn’t what has upset me about it; I’m glad that the message is being shared. No, what I’m upset about would be the number of “all lives matter” type comments that people have made in response to this image. And the sheer amount of transphobia people have responded to this image with. And the mocking of trans people who dared to comment that they have felt unsafe in public spaces due to transphobia and that they do need this message to be out there.
Cis people (including cis LGB people) get so fucking outraged when trans people have the audacity to demand basic safety and inclusion in public spaces.
The ability to be safe at school, at work, at home, at the park, at a public library, walking down a sidewalk, while taking a piss–these things are so basic. This should be the least controversial thing in the goddamn world. And yet, according to the cis, we ask too much–drawing attention to transphobia is just too divisive.
I am so fucking sick of the notion that labels divide us–just admit it, you want our labels to disappear because you want us to disappear from public view, discourse, and awareness. Without the label transgender, we lose the ability to discuss our lives and the issues that impact us.
(Screenshot of a facebook post, which is a screenshot of a message sent to the Facebook page that reposted the image in the original post, the word trans has been crossed out.)
Just admit that you want trans people to be silenced already.
“I don’t see it as a trans issue.” “Labels just divide us.” “Everyone deserves to be safe.”
What do all of these statements accomplish?
They derail, they erase, they silence. They remove much needed context. Without labels, we lose our ability to effectively communicate and raise awareness of the oppression we face.
If I say “Trans people deserve to feel safe” and then you interrupt with “But everyone deserves to feel safe”–what happens every damn time?
The conversation stops being about the safety of trans people and becomes all about the feelings and opinions of cis people. We can’t talk about trans people being harassed in bathrooms and dressing rooms, fired from jobs, bullied in schools, abused at home, attacked in public…because the cis are uncomfortable when we aren’t all about them.
Basically, I am disgusted. And it has not escaped my notice that all of this has taken place on an LGBT centered Facebook page. Cis LGB folks: do better.
(I ask that y'all do not go after the person who runs the Have A Gay Day page. The moderator of the page has been actively calling out and blocking people for being transphobic.)
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