Savage takedown of transphobes goes viral
(Pexels and coolrissian/twitter)
Somehow, we still live in a world where it’s controversial to say that transgender people’s gender identities are valid.
Despite a scientific study showing that trans people are born that way, many dispute the existence of anyone who’s not cisgender.
Trans people suffer discrimination all over the world. In the US, at least 11 trans people have been killed this year, after a year which saw the highest number of trans killings – 28 – on record.
(HECTOR MATA/AFP/Getty Images)
And if that wasn’t enough, trans people often face obstacles while simply trying to assert their basic humanity.
On May 28, Penelopy Mansell went to Revive Fitness gym in New Zealand’s capital, Wellington, expecting to be given the tour and told why she should join.
Instead, she was refused entry to the gym, with a staff member informing her that trans women were banned unless they had undergone confirmation surgery.
As one excellent meme parodied earlier this month, cisgender people often react poorly when faced with a proud trans person.
(amyrmarv/twitter)
In April, Piers Morgan claimed that genderfluid people were “damaging to society.”
But somehow, it’s even worse when someone else in the LGBT community leaps on the anti-trans bandwagon.
One oppressed person hitting out at another – it cuts a little deeper.
(ASIF HASSAN/AFP/Getty)
A tweet slamming queer people who do just this has gone viral, with more than 175,000 people retweeting and liking the post.
Its creator, who calls themselves ‘they-man’ on Twitter – playing off 80s superhero He-Man, we assume – wrote that “every lgb person who doesn’t advocate for the t, who wants to drop it from the acronym, can get the f**k outta this community.
They continued: “lgbt pride was started by trans women of colour and y’all have the audacity to be transphobic? nah f**k off mate.”
(coolrissian/twitter)
In the comments, they explained that, “you have to remember that terminology for trans people and even bisexual, pansexual etc people is really recent.
“In the past, and even now, there was no understanding of the difference between transgender people and those who are attracted to the same gender.
“It wasn’t understood that one is about gender and the other sexuality,” they added. “There’s HUGE overlap there.”
(coolrissian/twitter)
“Trans people were considered ‘more wrong’ than gay people, an extension of the same ‘problem.’ the oppression was messy and overlapped.”
They pointed out, with justification, that “no homophobe ever stopped beating on a trans person bc the victim said they’re actually straight.
“The lgbt community is a community bc of shared goals and EXPERIENCES. oppression isn’t cut and dry. it’s messy and it always punches down. that’s why we’re in this together.”
Amen to that.
