What Transginders Do Not Want You to Know
What transgender people want yous to know
Many Americans take very piffling understanding of what life is similar for a transgender person, and can observe it confusing and difficult to talk nearly questions of gender identity.
This lack of agreement and empathy contributes to an surroundings in which widespread bigotry persists. Transgender people are frequently victims of violence. Their unemployment charge per unit is twice equally high as the residue of the population, and trans people of color are up to four times as likely to be unemployed, co-ordinate to a 2013 study, leaving many living in poverty. Transgender people are as well much more likely than others to endeavor suicide.
Today, much of the work being washed by members of the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) community is focused on reducing stigma surrounding these identities. Having a grasp of how to communicate openly and respectfully with transgender people can be a positive first stride.
Elliot Fukui, TransJustice Coordinator at the Audre Lorde Project, a community organization in New York City, spoke with CBS News well-nigh some of the common issues and misperceptions facing transgender people today and the appropriate language to utilise to support a person's right to choose their own identity.
"A lot of it isn't as complicated equally folks feel like information technology is. It's really just virtually asking questions in ways that aren't triggering or harmful to folks," Fukui said.
There can be many unlike ways people choose to describe themselves, so don't brand assumptions. "The best practice if you're non sure of someone's pronoun is just to enquire in a respectful way. I usually ask when I encounter someone for the first time: What is your preferred gender pronoun?" Fukui explains.
Fukui identifies as a gender non-conforming trans homo.
Being a trans man means Fukui was assigned female person at nascency and has now transitioned to life as a man. At the aforementioned time, Fukui says he is non-conforming, or doesn't abide by societal norms or conventional ways of dressing or acting. Fukui wears whatever he wants and behaves how he wishes. Today, his nails are painted and he'southward dressed in loose fitting pants and a T-shirt.
Transgender is the term for those whose gender identity differs from the sex they were assigned at birth. That means a person who was built-in male feels like he is a female on the inside, or vice versa. A common misperception almost transgender people is that they all dress in drag or undergo surgery or hormone therapy to alter their bodies. Medical interventions can be costly and time consuming and some transgender people choose to forgo a concrete change.
The contrary of transgender is 'cisgender.' This term that came out of transgender activism and describes someone who identifies with their assigned sex at nativity. And then, a person born male who is happy beingness a human being is considered cisgender.
"Transgender means 'beyond' and cis means 'same.' It's a fashion to talk nigh gender issues without making cisgender 'normal,'" Fukui explained.
Fukui says that transgender people are coining these terms in order to expand the traditional binary gender system of male person/female. Information technology's an attempt to include all people of every sexual preference and gender identity so that they tin can feel accepted by society and safe in the world.
Presently, this world isn't very safety for transgender people. Seven transgender women take been murdered in the U.Due south. already this year -- and those are only the cases that were reported. Transgender people are 50 percent more likely to be victims of homicide than gay or lesbian people.
They tin can also find themselves targeted by police who assume trans people are sex workers. Nigh one in six transgender people has been incarcerated in their lives, and that number jumps to nearly one in two for the black transgender population, according to a report from the National Centre for Transgender Equality.
There has been progress, however. As the uphill boxing that transgender people have been fighting for decades becomes more visible, with celebrities and popular culture icons like Laverne Cox and Janet Mock sharing their stories, more Americans are starting time to look at transgender people in a positive light.
"I've been doing this [work] for a very long time and it's amazing to see this visibility that'due south happening," Fukui said. "Information technology's amazing to see the piece of work that's happening. There are then many trans organizers all beyond the land doing such amazing work and I do feel as we build more back up and beginning shifting this civilisation we are going to run across changes in our community. It's already happening."
As more transgender people come out, momentum continues to build toward acceptance. A survey commissioned by the Human Rights Campaign showed significant growth in the number of Americans who say they personally know someone who is transgender and a corresponding increase in favorable feelings toward transgender people.
Fukui admits that while being transgender is a struggle at times, he loves who he is.
"I get to feel the world in a very unlike mode in a very open way, and in a way that tin connect me to a lot more folks than maybe if I'd been born cisgender or someone who's non trans-identified."
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Source: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/what-transgender-people-want-you-to-know/
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