If you ask focus groups to play word association when they hear the word “transgender,” most audiences will hit a few common themes: “Oppressed,” “discrimination,” “violence,” or “controversial” make frequent appearances, with “isolated”, “suicide”, and “alone” not far behind. Not much changes if you switch between “transgender person” and “transgender youth,” and it remains consistent across racial and educational backgrounds. I’ve heard these words—hidden on the other side of the “glass” so the group of cisgender participants believes they can speak freely with the cisgender moderator where no transgender people can hear them—from both strong progressive audiences who express a great deal of familiarity with trans people and less engaged moderate audiences. I’ll let you guess what conservatives say.
Thank you Gillian for this. As a grandparent of a non-binary child, and a non-binary transfemme person myself, I was deeply affected by the senseless death of Nex.
The children who bully are simply the proxies for the adults who know no better than to sow hate. Transpeople have become pawns by politicians to distract their followers from the real problems they face.
Thank you Gillian for this. As a grandparent of a non-binary child, and a non-binary transfemme person myself, I was deeply affected by the senseless death of Nex.
The children who bully are simply the proxies for the adults who know no better than to sow hate. Transpeople have become pawns by politicians to distract their followers from the real problems they face.
Gillian, this was really beautiful. Thank you for putting so much thought and heart into words for our community. We really need this right now.