I like this poster and have shared it with everyone on my Facebook list. That sound you hear is probably the imploding heads of people who knew me in a past religious life.
What an insightful poster. I have a transgender friend, and while we’ve not run into any of these problems, it’s definitely food for thought. Thanks, as always, AAG, for sharing. :)
I have a friend who is not transgender. However, due to the genetic makeup of his body, he looks extremely androgynous. This does not bother him in the slightest, and when he gets mistaken for a woman he mostly thinks it is funny. However, last week we were in the pub, having a quiet drink, when a drunken man came up to us and said ‘they (pointing at some giggling, equally drunken girls behind him) want to know if you’re a man or a woman…well what are you?’ My friend told him he was a man, and laughed it off. I nearly punched the guy. There is so much wrong with that situation I don’t even know where to start. I wish people would think before speaking… I know my friend wasn’t offended but that doesn’t make it right.
In the group of web developers and geeks in my city, I occasionally see transgender people as “it” or hear phrases like “you won’t believe what I saw on the train yesterday” and it makes me want to throttle them. From now on I might just link them to this poster. Thanks!
Err, in the above comment I meant to say “see transgendered people _referred_ to as “it”". Too many comment edits ate the words I wanted to keep! Opps.
Most of these are really important suggestions. The only one I would disagree slightly with is not discussing gender identity except with the person in question. I’d rather have someone feel like they could ask a mutual friend about my gender identity rather than guessing if they weren’t comfortable asking me.
I don’t think it’s too offensive to ask a friend ‘oh do you know what bobby’s preferred gender pronoun is?’, especially if ‘bobby’ is not present. I think talking about gender identity is important and by making it a total taboo we may have people address these issues less rather than more.
I like this poster and have shared it with everyone on my Facebook list. That sound you hear is probably the imploding heads of people who knew me in a past religious life.
I heard that sound when I posted it on my vanilla Facebook!
What an insightful poster. I have a transgender friend, and while we’ve not run into any of these problems, it’s definitely food for thought. Thanks, as always, AAG, for sharing. :)
I have a friend who is not transgender. However, due to the genetic makeup of his body, he looks extremely androgynous. This does not bother him in the slightest, and when he gets mistaken for a woman he mostly thinks it is funny. However, last week we were in the pub, having a quiet drink, when a drunken man came up to us and said ‘they (pointing at some giggling, equally drunken girls behind him) want to know if you’re a man or a woman…well what are you?’ My friend told him he was a man, and laughed it off. I nearly punched the guy. There is so much wrong with that situation I don’t even know where to start. I wish people would think before speaking… I know my friend wasn’t offended but that doesn’t make it right.
In the group of web developers and geeks in my city, I occasionally see transgender people as “it” or hear phrases like “you won’t believe what I saw on the train yesterday” and it makes me want to throttle them. From now on I might just link them to this poster. Thanks!
Err, in the above comment I meant to say “see transgendered people _referred_ to as “it”". Too many comment edits ate the words I wanted to keep! Opps.
Most of these are really important suggestions. The only one I would disagree slightly with is not discussing gender identity except with the person in question. I’d rather have someone feel like they could ask a mutual friend about my gender identity rather than guessing if they weren’t comfortable asking me.
I don’t think it’s too offensive to ask a friend ‘oh do you know what bobby’s preferred gender pronoun is?’, especially if ‘bobby’ is not present. I think talking about gender identity is important and by making it a total taboo we may have people address these issues less rather than more.
I’ve done that too, just because I felt so awkward asking someone I didn’t know very well.