The Umbrella

From Clipart Library

There is a meme that is making the rounds on Facebook and it says “At the end of the day, I rather be excluded for who I include, than be included by those who I exclude!”

Words definitions continue to morph into other definitions and word come in and go out of use all the time but somethings those changes are not for the best. The word “Trans” is one of those words that are continuing to morph.

This article from 2014 was recently posted on Facebook…

Trans Women Are Not Drag Queens
Everyday Feminism
By Maddie McClouskey
April 14, 2014

The headline could be seen as exclusionary.

For me I subscribe to the umbrella definition of trans, that it covers anyone who crosses the gender norms; from drag Queens and Kings to post op trans people.

Many people do not know the difference between trans women and drag queens!

There seems to be an assumption that all people assigned male at birth who grow up to wear clothing from the women’s section identify the same way.

And that couldn’t be further from the truth.

I agree with this there are differences between a drag queen and a trans woman.

Performance vs. Identity
I am sure you have heard confusing (and sometimes offensive!) terminology used interchangeably about drag queens and trans women.

Using identical labels (and insults) for entirely different groups of people is a rhetorical way to imply that those groups are the same.

There are nuance between “drag queen,” “trans woman,” and “trans”

For many outside of the community might not see the differences and even those who are in the community can argue over the differences.

I did a training recently and reading the comments someone wrote (they must have been trans) that my definitions were old and I used offensive words. They didn’t elaborate so I don’t know exactly what words they were talking about but I can guess.

My guess is that the person was referring to was “Transgender” because I use the word as an umbrella term and I also used “Transsexual” but I add that the community does not like or use the word and I use it only in training to distinguish between those who have transitioned.

So today I want to talk about inclusion.

Those who use the word transgender or trans to exclude crossdressers and drag queens/kings from those who have transitioned I see them as trying to exclude "them" from "us:. To me, I rather be inclusive than exclusive When we exclude people from our umbrella we are being elitists, we are prescribing to a pecking order.

Every once in a while I get a comment to post saying that I am “just a man in a dress” obviously that is exclusionary. The same for those who use “just a crossdresser” and for me I see those comments as internalized transphobia or lateral hostility, they want to disassociate from those they see as inferior.

Let’s move away from creating silos and instead look at the commonality between us.