Transphobia and being a trans ally

Unfortunately, transphobia is widespread, and the fear of discrimination and previous adverse experiences leads many transgender people to not disclose their transgender status: socially, to employers, to healthcare professionals, and often even to partners. It is thought that transgender people are more affected by violent hate crime than any other minority group.

'All too often, trans people are vilified, demonized, and excluded from considerations of basic humanity. Cisgendered people – when they realize they've seen a transsexual or transgendered person – will not hesitate to interrogate us about the shape of our genitals, challenge our competence to make decisions for ourselves, and hurl bigoted slurs at us. We have to fight for civil rights that are assumed as a given for cisgendered people, because who we are and what we do is not respected and often reviled ... our gender is (as transgender and transsexual people) not respected, invalidated, insulted, and hated. We are denied personhood because our gender is not heteronormative enough: Proper men do not want to become women, and proper women do not become men, never mind the nuances of transgender identities, from two-spirits to androgynes, to ftm-spectrum and mtf-spectrum people who choose not to go all the way.'

- from the excellent blog: http://questioningtransphobia.wordpress.com/about/

How can I be a trans ally?

Allies are extremely important and valuable, in particular where they ensure they act in beneficial, sensible and supportive ways. Being a good and useful ally essentially involves listening to transgender people as much as possible: being educated and aware of issues affecting transgender people, of the privilege afforded to cisgender people, and acting in the best interests of the transgender community.

Recognising one's own privilege is vital - an essential part of privilege is not knowing that one possesses it. Have a read of this privilege checklist and also this one, and consider and challenge your own perceptions and stereotypes.

Individually: avoid making assumptions, always use a person's preferred pronoun, don't challenge their gender identity, listen, and respect confidentiality. Read the 'inclusivity' section of this website as well!

Some short tips on being an ally here.
More details here, an article very much worth reading.

Generally: educate yourself about transgender issues and inclusivity. Read this website and further resources on problems and activism: blogs in particular are useful sources of current news. Try challenging people and organisations where you see that they could behave more inclusively.

Questioning Transphobia is a good place to start, and Bird Of Paradox has an excellent list of resources and other blogs, as well as being a comprehensive blog in itself.

Copyright L Demtchenko, 2010. If reproducing elsewhere, please include credit and a link back.