#cis friends

Positive feedback loop.

Cis person is chill about trans people -> trans people notice, feel at ease, friendship ensues. -> Cis person learns community vocabulary, is at ease (past the "what if I say something like offensive" phase) -> trans people notice that this cis person is comfortable talking about trans issues and talks about us how we talk about ourselves, there’s no awkwardness with them, we might even identify that they’re someone who spends time with trans people often, befriending ensues. ->

The more trans people this person puts at ease, the more trans friends they end up with, the more perspectives they encounter, the more they learn how to be a good friend and ally.

trans people have every fucking right to be afraid of and uncomfortable around cis people

but calling that sort of distrust stupid or claiming they are wrong does not help at all

cis people are the ones who KILL trans people so of course we can be afraid??? it doesn't work both ways, either

and don't get started with "not all cis people are like that" because if you say that it kind of puts you into that category