Trans-women Deserve Pride Too

It’s International Pride Month. For many in the LGBTQ+ community, this is a month of celebration. Globally speaking, I can only hope there are many joyous events to bring our community together. Love is love, right? Everyone should have the right to love who they want to love and live the way they feel is best for them.

In America, it is not that simple. While America had become much more accepting of the LGB portion of the community, it continues its attacks on the TQ part. Primarily, trans-women. It’s ironic how a country built on the belief of freedom continues to force isolation on gender identity. This remains to be the main reason I find Pride Month not as jubilant as I would like.

Currently, there are still many state legislatures passing anti-trans laws for many young Americans. The youth of our country are not allowed to receive medical support, nor allowed to participate in sporting events aligned with their identity. Similar to abortion bills on their cis-counter part, trans-women continue to be restricted on what they can and cannot do with their bodies. Obviously, these anti-trans bills also affects trans-men, but the purpose of these bills is to stop trans-women and girls from competing in sports. The ideology is simple: born male equals a natural physical advantage. You can read more about my thoughts on trans-women and sports here. The bottomline is trans-women who have undergone two or more years of hormone replacement therapy do not have any physical advantages to their cis-counterpart in regards to sports.

Additionally, trans-women continue to be the punchline for many comedians, with the most recent being Ricky Gervais. Gervais has released a special in which he jokes about irony at the expense of: trans-women. Many people will think it pokes fun at tran-people, but the truth is, the focus is solely trans-women. In America (as it is in other parts of the world), many people believe that a person assigned male at birth begins transitioning to woman as nothing more than a joke. Disappointingly, when the trans-community attempts to call out these comics for the transphobic actions, they are told: if you want acceptance, then understand a joke is just a joke. However, these jokes are not really jokes. Simply put, it’s bullying in the form of comedy.

For example, you have a child who is short and attending school. Everyday the school kids gather around your child and begin calling them a dwarf, a hobbit, or any other demeaning short insults. Everyday your child has to go to school to endure another round of verbal bashing regarding their height. Would you stand by and keep telling your child, “oh honey, you need to understand, they are just joking about your height.” Or would you jump into your car and drive to the school like diablo from hell to strike vengeance on those who torment your child? Of course, this would be in the form of deep discussion with school officials. I am guessing you would visit the school to resolve the “bullying” issue.

These so-called “jokes” at the expense of trans-WOMEN (yes, women, not men), are not jokes. Making a punchline about how trans-women are “pretending” is not funny. These comedians need to understand, the decision to transition is to confirm an identity that many were aware of, but suppressed due to social pressure. These comics do not understand the depression, or suicidal thoughts that many trans-women have suffered in order to become themselves. It is not a topic to poke fun at. Furthermore, to use transphobic rhetoric to justify your jokes is creating more harm than a laugh. Nish Kumar could not have said it any better:

“if a man wants to commit the most heinous crime involving raping a woman in the bathroom, he needs not transition to a woman to do so, he can just walk right in. A sign on the door is not going to stop him. Furthermore, it is not cis-women who are in danger in the bathroom, it is a trans-woman. A trans-woman is more likely to be attacked by other women, as well as men, for using the women’s bathroom.”

To joke about trans-women in the bathroom is feeding into this fear and continually making it dangerous for them.

In conclusion, I feel Pride is more about “freedom to love whomever” and has nothing to do with Trans-rights. As equality for trans-women continues to be restricted and scrutinized, it seems there is very little pride for trans-women. Yet, they still exist and have every right to live their lives. I will continue to write in support of trans-women until the day they are viewed as equals with the rest of the human race. Trans-women are, afterall, humans.

Happy Pride Month.