( tdov post under the cut bc it got long af!!! )
this trans day of visibility, i'd like to invite myself and everyone who ends up viewing this post to reflect on the diversity of the trans community, and how we are not a monolith. i want to invite myself and you all to reflect on the following.
trans people are of all different backgrounds, whether that be of racial, ethnic, or national backgrounds, socioeconomic statuses, and religions and faiths.
many of us know about our identities in our childhood, and many of us don't find out about our identities until later in our lives.
many of us are disabled, and many of us are not disabled. many of us are able to obtain diagnoses for these disabilities, and many of us are not.
many of us are intersex, and many of us are not intersex.
many of us are overweight, many of us are obese, many of us are at a healthy weight, and many of us are underweight.
many of us are mesomorphs, many of us are ectomorphs, and many of us are endomorphs.
many of us are middle-class, many of us are upper-middle class, many of us are lower-middle class, and many of us tow and are below the poverty line.
many of us are immigrants, and many of us are not.
many of us are adopted, and many of us are not.
many of us are religious, many of us follow a non-religious faith, many of us are secular, and many of us are not religious or faithful at all.
many of us struggle with debilitating mental illnesses, and many of us who do may find it extremely debilitating and difficult to navigate our ways through life and take care of our duties, while many of us who do, on the other hand, are able to do these tasks with much more ease and grace. many of us have been able to obtain diagnoses for our mental illnesses, many of us have been able to obtain some diagnoses for our mental illnesses, and many of us have not been able to obtain any diagnoses. many of us have access to the therapy and healthcare we need to manage our mental illnesses, many of us do not. many of us are also neurotypical.
many of us struggle with debilitating gender dysphoria, many of us are only occasionally bothered by our gender dysphoria, and many of us experience little to no gender dysphoria.
many of us struggle with lifelong health issues, many of us have health issues that arise later in life, and many of us have never struggled with health issues. many of us have access to the healthcare we need to address these health issues, and many of us do not.
many of us are living out and proud and don't give a damn about what the rest of the world says about us, and many of us continually struggle internally with our identities, are afraid of attempting to find a balance between our identities and our social lives, and constantly fear the judgment of others.
many of us struggle with internalized transphobia and homophobia, many of us are recovering from internalized transphobia and homophobia, and many of us are actively fighting against our internalized homophobic and transphobic tendencies. many of us may not have struggled with internalized homophobia and transphobia.
many of us are social, and many of us are isolated.
many of us have supportive families and friends, many of us have varied support between these two groups, and many of us have no support at all.
many of us continue to retain contact with their families, many of us have to build our own found families, and many of us do both.
many of us have strong support systems, many of us are building them, and many of us do not have them.
many of us have access to the healthcare and therapy we need, many of us have access to some healthcare we need, and many of us do not have access to any of the healthcare or therapy we need.
many of us decide to transition fully and go on hormones, get top and/or bottom surgery, and update all legal documents; many of us decide to only take hormones and change our legal documents; many of us decide to just socially transition and change our names, pronouns, and maybe our names and sex markers on our legal documents; and many of us prefer simple non-transition related lifestyle changes, such as those involving diet, exercise, and therapy.
many of us are able to take care of and financially provide for ourselves well on our own, and many of us face poverty and homelessness.
many of us deal with addictions and alcoholism, many of us deal with substance misuse, and many of us deal with neither of these things.
many of us are suicidal, and many of us are not.
many of us have self-harmed, many of us are actively self-harming, and many of us have never self-harmed.
many of us regularly experience transphobia and microaggressions, and many of us do not.
many of us have other marginalized identities that intersect with our transness, such as racial and ethnic background, religion, ability, and socioeconomic status, and many of us do not. many of us experience regular racism, homophobia, ableism, xenophobia, sexism, misogyny, exorsexism, and other bigotries and microaggressions, and many of us do not.
many of us have been abused, many of us are actively being abused, and many of us have never been abused.
many of us have been sexually assaulted, and many of us have not.
many of us are traumatized, and many of us are not.
many of us have been subjected to conversion therapy, many of us are actively being subjected to conversion therapy, and many of us have never been subjected to conversion therapy.
the trans community is extremely diverse. this trans day of visibility, i'd like to remind everyone who may be reading this post that no matter what we as trans people may be going through, no matter how we came to the conclusions of our identities, no matter what factors make up our background, none of it, absolutely NONE of it, should take away from our transness and how we deserve to have a safe space to be affirmed, heard, and accepted. also, i would like to invite us to keep in mind how the visibility we are given nowadays is very often not controlled by us trans people and instead by overarching liberal media that misses the major details of radicalism and self-acceptance in our lives and instead paints us in a(n often inaccurate) respectable and digestible light to the general cisheteronormative public. the visibility we're otherwise afforded are also unfortunately controlled by the rising fearmongering, spread-like-wildfire conservative hitpieces that attempt to frame us as dangerous yet miserable people who are out to control the institutions that govern our lives and destroy, damage, and mutilate the bodies of confused children and adolescents.
but that's not reality. that is not reality. this trans day of visibility i'd like for all of us to move forward keeping in mind that our lives, our lives as trans people, are nobody's to control and dictate but ours. nobody can paint as accurate of a picture of our lives as we can. so the next time you read something that pushes for assimilation, disregards the radical roots of our community's revolution conceptualized to share who we really are and to control our own narratives, and otherwise paints us as simultaneously a danger and a miserable population, i encourage you to take that content with a grain of extreme salt and instead remember the radical roots of our revolution, the real struggles many of us are facing in our lives, the struggles of homelessness, poverty, mental illness, disability, addiction, exclusion, disregard, dismissal, rejection, access to public life, and potentially even legal consequences in some states and some parts of the world. remember our radical self-acceptance, autonomy, and resilience in such a hostile world instead. remember how many of us managed to fight for what we have all on our own, with no support, help, or guidance. remember how many of us are struggling and at risk of facing legal consequences for just being who we are and having the audacity to participate in public life. remember how many of us move through this world with little to no support yet still manage to stay here because resilience in our identity and our faith to our friends, siblings, and found family in our communities who are struggling are what are keeping us here on this earth. especially remember how assimilationist and conservative rhetoric does not accurately paint a picture of who we are as a community, the strife that we've encountered and had to fight back against for decades, if not centuries, all around the world.
happy trans day of visibility. please remember to move through the world with an open mind and continue to learn. always look at situations where you'll be exposed to people you don't understand as learning opportunities instead of threats to your livelihood and the livelihood of everything and everyone around you. active listening will go a long way in the journey to understanding the trans community and becoming our allies. i love you all so very much. ❤️
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