No Blog This Morning

I pre-wrote this blog today because yesterday I had cataract surgery and I didn’t know if I would be able to write my blog this morning… I can’t. So here is a rerun blog post.

It has such a bad connotation, it makes up sound like sneaks, that we are doing something underhanded; but the word passing is used by us all the time.

i haven’t failed to ‘pass' as a woman, i want to look transgender
i-D Vice
By Juno Roche
April 25 2018

Fashion and pop culture only embrace transgender people who don’t look trans. The real ‘tipping point’ will come when we embrace queer beauty outside of the binary, says author Juno Roche.
[…]
In 2014, Time magazine put actress and campaigner Laverne Cox on the cover, and declared the moment a ‘transgender tipping point’. A point at which trans people could, and would, come out of the shadows and claim their rightful and authentic place within wider society. It heralded a time of widespread acceptance, surely, if we were now on covers of magazines, on the sofas of breakfast television and beginning to appear in ones and occasionally twos across the media spectrum. But this visibility had a catch: to be accepted, you had to ‘pass’.

For many trans people they will never be able to integrate into society as a cis gender woman, let’s face it being able to “pass” is a privilege.

There were many voices around me, personal and societal, telling me that safety and success lay in ‘passing and blending’ -- that the more I looked like ‘them’, the easier my life would be. To be visibly or audibly trans would mean risking rejection, economic stability and intimacy, so extinguishing my trans fault lines would help me to have an ordinary life. Our (fairly) recent ‘tipping point’ did nothing to challenge that notion, hiding the amazing work done by the people often depicted as utterly hetero- and cis-normative.

I think the young non-binary trans people are on to something by breaking down the gender barriers.

“Visual non-conformity is a risk factor in causing anti-transgender bias and its attendant social and economic burdens.” The 2015 Transgender Survey hit the nail on its head with that statement; if you have the privilege to be able to integrate into society you are going to get the jobs, you will not be harassed on the street or in a store.

People tell me that I should take voice lessons to hide my transness but I feel that for almost 60 years I lived a lie, and by using a “false” voice I will be living another lie… I just want to be myself.

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While we are still on “integrating” I came across this article about beard removal how some trans people are forgoing electrolysis or laser treatments to remove their beards.

I'm a Trans Woman, and My 5 O'Clock Shadow Is a Badge of Visibility
But it also makes me a target for transphobic abuse
Them
By Lucy Diavolo
April 30, 2018

I've been having a lot of feelings about my 5 o'clock shadow. The hair that sprouts from my jaw has always been a physical manifestation of a biology that I never could accustom myself to. I have a bad habit of making everything into a metaphor, and so the faint outline of a goatee and the stubble on my cheeks is more than just hair. It is symbolic of the catch-22 that is visibility for me as a trans person. Being visibly trans, whether through my facial hair or my willingness to be open about my identity, gives me the power to advocate for myself and lift up my trans siblings — but it also makes me a target for transphobic abuse.
[…]
As much as I never want to be clocked as trans again, I'm far too proud of who I am to give up because I can't achieve full stealth. I've seen too many people spend decades in hiding only to lose the families, careers, and lives they built when they decided to finally come out.

While I realize not every trans person can afford to have their beard removed or that they can withstand the pain, I personally cannot understand why they don’t shave. They are going to get so much more harassment and discrimination because they don’t shave.

But it is their life and they get to make their decisions but they also have to live with their decision.

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I didn’t even know that this bill existed; I thought that they had given up.

PRO-TRANSGENDER RIGHTS BILL PASSES ASSEMBLY, MOVES ON TO STATE SENATE  
A proposed pro-transgender rights bill passed the New York State Assembly, and was presented to the New York Senate Monday.
Posted By: WKTV
May. 7, 2018

A proposed pro-transgender rights bill passed the New York State Assembly, and was presented to the New York Senate Monday.

The Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act (GENDA, A3358/S7010) would protect transgender New Yorkers under State Human Rights Law, and the hate crimes law.

ACR Health officials said they’re encouraged that the assembly is taking up the discussion, and possibly voting to pass the legislation. But spokesman Elliott Sharrow said his concern is getting the bill through the Republican-led state Senate, which has never seen the legislation come up for a vote.

“I think over time, there’s been a lot more momentum as far as the need for this. I think there’s been a lot more talk about GENDA and trans people in general, so I think that’s definitely playing to our favor,” Sharrow said.

All the other years the bill made it out of the house and died in the Republican controlled Senate, will this year break the pattern? I hope so.