The other morning I woke up and noticed a post about Trump’s latest twitter escapades. It hurt me, sure, but I wasn’t surprised. I worried for my community and I tried to get on with my day.
A few hours later, I was back on my phone and suddenly my Facebook was full of people ranting and reacting to the Trans Military Ban. Now I follow a lot of trans and queer pages and friends so I might tend to have more than the average trans-ness on my Facebook feed. That said, suddenly EVERYONE was posting about it. Most of them cis. A lot of them straight and cis.
Now don’t get me wrong, I love all of the support. I love it when my cis, straight friends feel compelled to stand up and speak out for marginalized communities.
What got me was that just days before Trump’s twitter post, the Texas senate passed a bathroom bill requiring all transgender people to use the bathroom of the gender listed on their birth certificate.
I saw maybe two posts about that bill. A bill that could actually become law very soon. Not just words on twitter. And actual law with very real consequences.
Yeah, I don’t live in Texas. I’m not in the military either. But I gotta admit bathroom bills scare me a lot more, though both of them worry me about what they might lead to.
And I have to wonder how many of the people posting are just jumping on the whole “let’s hate Trump all over social media” bandwagon. Where are the people freaking out about all of the trans people being murdered. A trans person (mostly trans women of color) has been killed almost every other week so far this year. Where are the memes about that? The petitions? The hastags?
I’m glad for the support, really I am. I dunno if I’m jaded or judgmental or what, but I can’t help but get a little annoyed at all of the shares by people who are just following what’s in right now.
Especially when so many of them are getting it all wrong. I saw one post were two guys were arguing on the difference between “transgender” and “transsexual.” Really guys? That’s not the issue here. (Not to mention their definition and terms were all 10 years behind the times.)
I will say it is great to get to weed out a few more transphobes from my facebook.
Also be sure to check out this video, he says a lot of what I was thinking and offers some ways to be a good ally.
Thursdays with T 