Actually, Yes, I Do Know Some Trans Identified People
And I liked them better when they were hypotheticals
Occasionally I see a Trans Entitlement Activist (TEA) respond to criticism of the trans movement by stating, “You must not know any trans people.”
The problem is that we do (even though trust me, many of us wish that we didn’t). And this is a big problem for their movement. And given that a lack of awareness and insight characterize TEAs, perhaps it is not surprising how blind they are to the reality of the fact that people who are critical of their movement come from a place of knowledge. Because the brutal fact of the matter was that I liked trans identified people a lot better before I knew any personally!
While I can’t pinpoint the exact year, I want to say that it wasn’t until I was in my thirties that I knew any trans identified people personally. In high school in the 1990s the fact that people had operations to change their sex characteristics was known but neither I, nor anyone else, knew someone who had actually done this. Aside from jokes about people having sex change surgeries, the two most prominent mentions I can recall was an article that was either in Scientific American or Discover about a supposedly female computer programmer. In the 1990s it was hard to find stories about women in the hard sciences and the fact that the first computer programmers were women was not well known. No one was talking about Ada Lovelace, Katherine Johnson or Joan Clarke then and given that I had initially wanted to be an astronomer I was excited to find a female computer scientist profiled. So it was disappointing when I learned that she was a he. A man who said he was a woman. First, I want to highlight that even back in the 90s this man who identified as a woman was portrayed as such by a popular science magazine and I felt a lot of incongruence. Let’s just say it wasn’t inspirational and it was hard for me to look up to him as a role model for women in the sciences.
The other one was a movie I did enjoy, To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar. It’s been ages since I’ve seen it, but I enjoyed the movie and the drag queens seemed sympathetic. As time went on I saw other portrayals in the media such as Tokyo Godfathers to the more propagandist Trans America and Orange is the New Black. And let me say, when all I knew about trans was these media portrayals, I was all on board!
And looking back, I think it was deliberate. Growing up, my family loved Star Trek, and one pillar of Star Trek lore is how the portrayal of a black woman as a respected member of the crew paved the way for black astronauts in the real world. The story of Nichelle Nichols’ meeting with MLK Jr and how he encouraged her to stay on the show was inspirational. At the time I, along with other Star Trek fans, believed that Star Trek’s bravery in showing Black people as competent Starfleet officers changed the world for the better. Now, I’m not sure how much of the gains Black people made can be attributed to Star Trek as opposed to the Civil Rights movement in general, but that bit of Star Trek lore was popular and believed.
And people have attributed some of the success of the gay rights movement to the success of shows like Ellen, Will and Grace, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer that portrayed gay relationships in a positive light. So it makes sense that TEAs would have done the same for trans. There was one problem though. And that is the trans movement is not a rights based movement but an entitlements based one. And thus what we knew of trans identified people from TV was very different than the reality of knowing a trans identified person.
A more accurate portrayal of a trans identified person would be someone who keeps everyone in his/her life walking on eggshells as s/he screams about being the victim and how everyone who disagrees with him/her wants him/her dead as s/he calls the boss of the offending person to have him/her fired. Simply put, this isn’t someone that people are wanting to invite to their party.
TEAs have a much bigger problem than media portrayal and communicating their message. And it is that their movement is hollow, built on smoke and mirror and a hefty dose of fear. When you rule through fear then your reign is on borrowed time. It is therefore unsustainable.
Trans identified people, we liked you when you were a story, an idea, a concept without substance. But when you became a reality we changed our minds because the reality of your movement is ugly. I know that for the past ten years you haven’t been forced to take any responsibility or do any self reflection but that’s about to change. And no, I and others who take issue with your movement don’t want you dead. But we do want to hold a mirror to you so you can see what a hollow, shallow and cruel cause you have become.
Do I know any trans people?
No, I’m not personally acquainted with any trans-identified individuals. But then, I’ve never met Donald Trump either, and I still have a fairly confident understanding of who he is and what he represents.
Trans rights activists, allies, and sympathetic media outlets have gone to great lengths to make the trans experience—both individual and collective—not just visible but nearly inescapable in public discourse. We’re told endlessly that we must 'listen and learn.' And I have. I’ve listened to interviews, read op-eds, watched documentaries, reviewed legislative proposals, and absorbed firsthand accounts published in mainstream and alternative outlets alike.
At this point, it’s reasonable to say that many of us understand the movement’s central demands, rhetoric, tactics, and underlying premises. Whether one finds those persuasive is another matter. But the idea that lack of personal acquaintance somehow invalidates informed criticism is simply not credible in a media-saturated society.