#transissues

Honestly, the greatest infomercial I have ever seen!!! Why aren't all commercials like this??

*Additionally: the director, scriptwriter, and editor of this video was done by an ftm artist who deserves nothing less than appreciation and credit*

Spread his name

OLIVER AARON NELSON

Just like binary trans people, non-binary (or enby) trans people have been around for a long time. Only recently has it even come into the attention of the general public. 

Unfortunately, the concept of being outside of the gender binary is one that is often criticized or brushed over - most people who do not identify as enby often do not truly understand. Enby people can face invalidation from all angles, even in the transgender community itself. It is important to point out that people who identify as enby are not "special snowflakes", and most certainly not "the reason people shit on the transgender community".

This kind of lack of understanding in today's society tends to lead to the erasure or invalidation of the enby community. Here are some ways in which this may occur:

Language often excludes enby people. So many words in languages are unnecessarily gendered - right down to objects being labelled as masculine or feminine by languages such as French. While this cannot be helped - after all, these languages were created so long ago - simply consider how it may feel. Some enby people don't want to be associated with gendered words, while some do. Maybe keep it in mind the next time you're generalising a group of people with a gendered term!

People rarely perceive their (a)genders accurately. Unlike many binary transgender people, it isn't common for an enby person to have an end goal in their transition. There is often no possible endpoint where enby people can hope to be safe when being read as their true (a)gender identity. This means enby people can be misgendered more often, and tend to face denial, invalidation, and violence for most of their lives.

Some people go as far as to tell enby people what (they think) their pronouns should be. This generally comes with the excuse that their pronouns are wrong, hard, ungrammatical, or silly. God forbid non-binary people decide not to use pronouns at all  - the lack of respect for their pronouns (or rather, lack of) only gets more apparent in this situation.

Bathrooms. If an establishment even has gender-neutral bathrooms, they’re often far out of the way. This is inconvenient, time-wasting, and isolating. And if enby people aren't perceived as the "right gender" for the bathroom they do use, they aren't safe - physically or emotionally.

Transgender healthcare is scarce enough as it is - and it only gets worse for non-binary trans folks. Many enby people never seek healthcare for fear of discrimination, since non-binary people don't fit into the image of "legitimately transgender". This is not to say that all enby people even want to physically transition, but it is a big problem for those who do.

There is little to no coverage of non-binary people in the media. This is also true with gender nonconforming (GNC) binary transgender people. How are enby people meant to be understood or get respect when so many people don't even know they exist? We cannot understand something we do not know about or are not educated about. Medica coverage for non-binary or GNC transgender people could significantly help to educate people on the topic, and spread more understanding!

Non-binary erasure has some pretty huge impacts. Non-binary trans people are more likely than a binary-identified trans person to:

Attempt suicide (43% non-binary versus 41% binary trans)

Face police harassment (31% non-binary versus 21% binary)

Earn less than $10,000/year (21% non-binary versus 14% binary trans)

Face assault, physically (32% non-binary versus 25% binary) or sexually (15% non-binary versus 9% binary), due to gender bias.

These numbers only get higher for non-binary people of colour (POC).

So, what can we do to change this? Spread. Accurate. Information. About. The. Enby. Community. Seriously, the best way to tackle this problem, right now, is education - much like with ALL transgender issues! Misinformation, as well as an inadequate amount of education on these topics, that is the biggest enemy we have to face.

Sources:

https://everydayfeminism.com/2015/08/common-non-binary-erasure/

https://www.teenvogue.com/story/9-things-people-get-wrong-about-being-non-binary

https://www.teenvogue.com/story/what-not-to-say-to-nonbinary-people

Always a great day when you get correctly gendered!

I look back at photos of me and the way I would always choose "feminine" poses, and as I got older I did it to be "funny." Looking back though I see a kid who is uncomfortable in their gender who also sees that being funny is one of the few ways to be masculine. I see that I was using humor as the only way they knew how and could safely navigate MINIMAL gender exploration.

I don't know how I feel about that, because on one hand it was the only too I had at the time. On the other hand was the cost of my gender exploration misogyny and toxic masculinity? Or were those holding me back? Were they both? I don't know.

In looking at other transfeminine people that I have been listening to and watching on the internet, I notice a lot of over lap in senses of humor. It seems a lot of them have very absuridst senses of humor and so do I. I wonder if that overlap is related to the absurdity of transitioning, or at least wanting to transition.

I should clarify. When I say transitioning is absurd, I don't mean that it is illogical to do. I actually believe that transition is or at least has the potential to be a very logical response to one's inner life. If someone is looking to transition there is either something they are trying to improve in their life that is related to gender, or it is possible they are just curious about the experience. While I believe both are acceptable, the second one is more unlikely in our culture and also could be its own post. My point in saying this is that the absurdity of transitioning isn't in the choice to transition but the context in which anyone must do so.

Transitioning is absurd because it is such a personal thing, and its regulated by society. Something as personal and fundamental to societal life as: knowing one's relation to it, understanding one's personal boundaries, knowing how one enjoys expressing themselves, knowing how they relate to other people, figuring out what a life well lived means, finding ways to sustain oneself, and even fucking puberty are all transitioning.

I think transitioning is a flawed word, or at least we use it wrong in day to day life. It is used to put trans people in a box of "not growing as person in the socislly acceptable way." We all transition from being one thing to another as we grow up. Cis people go from a boy or girl to a man or a woman, that is the transition so "normal" we don't even question it. Us on the other hand, we get to recieve a label for it but why?

Is our transition that much different? Is it because some of us take hormones and go through... Well puberty we go through Puberty 2: Electric Boogaloo if we go on hormones. Everyone goes through puberty, so what's so bad about it? Is it because I chose to go through puberty this time? Is that too much ownership of one's body?

How about surgery? Some people get surgery, and how is that wrong? "Its because it is cosmetic!" Some may ignorantly shout, but if that is the problem then how come I don't hear about hate groups dedicated against Berry Manalo and people in Hollywood? What excuse do you have?

Besides medical side is any of the rest of it a personal transition or is it just a transition in the way society sees me? I don't know and I haven't gone fully public so I can't know yet, but at this point it seems that its more about how people react than about changing myself. Rather, it seems that is more about doing the same things that cis people do.