Are We To Be Feared?

 There is an article in Bilerico asking the question “why are we hated?” She points out some interesting observations…

1.) Hate is easy.
2.) Sympathizing with transgender people is hard.
3.) Most people don't know a transgender person.

I think these three points are all interrelated, it is easy to hate something that you don’t know about and because it is easier to tap into a person’s fear than any other emotion it makes it easy for them to hate us. Number 3 is the key to break the cycle, by being “out and about,” showing people that we are just like them makes it very hard to hate us.

Another observation that the author Brynn Tannehill makes is, “It's assumed to be a choice” and “Transgender people challenge deeply-held paradigms, and that makes people very uncomfortable,” I think that is a result of people bury their head in the sand and not want to learn anything that challenges their beliefs. You can present them with all the medical facts in the world but they will ignore it.

Another point that she makes is the lack of positive media coverage and that is slowly changing. We are starting to see changes in the way movies portrays us, movies like “Boy meets Girl” and “Orange is the New Black.”

I think the last observation that she makes is changing very rapidly, “It's socially acceptable.” I think we are starting to see society view of us beginning to turn around, we are about 10 years behind gays and lesbians but we are making faster headway than they did.