Trans Person Identity, Transphobia, And How To Become A Trans Ally
Joining me this week is Gage, a Trans advocate and cohost of the Girl-ish podcast. Today we talk about coming out as a trans person, trans visibility in the media, experiencing transphobia, and how to be a trans ally.
To view the interview, please visit our YouTube channel.
Gage’s 3 tools for how to help others who are coming out as a trans person, experiencing transphobia, and want to know how to become a trans ally:
“So for coming out, I would say, I mean, it’s a little bit tricky, but everybody comes out on their own terms. So, um, you know, when I was first coming out, I would kind of get discouraged, or obviously I was very optimistic about all the possibilities that could come with transitioning, but I was a little bit overwhelmed by, you know, watching people that had been transitioned for so many years, they had all their surgeries, they look gorgeous. Like you couldn’t even tell or anything. Like they, they looked perfect and here I was sitting there with short hair. I still hadn’t transitioned yet. So I think if you are in the beginning stages, number one, I would say, make sure that you’re in a safe environment to come out. Um, there’s always little things that you can do privately. If you want to grow your hair out, if you want to start collecting your wardrobe before coming out, that’s what I did.
I would recommend doing that, especially if you’re not in a safe environment and also just don’t compare yourself to other people. A lot of trans people end up comparing their transitions to others, and everybody has their own journey. So you just have to follow the steps that you take, and eventually you’ll get to the place that, um, you notice everybody else says is else is that I know so many people that I looked up to on YouTube that I now talk to as friends and as colleagues. So you’ll get there. Eventually. It just takes some time and you need to follow your own journey.”
“In regards to being an ally, I would say, like I said – a lot of research make sure, you know, um, well, you don’t have to know, but be receptive to criticism and do some research on current terminology.
I would also encourage looking at a lot of statistics in regards to violence against trans women. A lot of people don’t know that trans women of color are pretty much the biggest target across the world for violence. Um, there has been hundreds of trans women of color that have died just this year alone and every single year, all across the globe just for being trans. So I think if you learn a lot about the violence that we are discriminating, it’ll help you put into perspective. You know, that this is a real issue. It’s not just a matter of, oh, like people just can’t accept us for who we are. Like we, and people are actually getting murdered for living their life as trans people. So that’s also an important thing that people realize.”
“And in terms of transphobia, this one is the most annoying, but I would say, I mean, the saying, kill them with kindness is kind of overused, but I think this is the best way to combat transphobia, especially because basically any type of systemic oppression, whether it’s racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, anything, it kind of all comes down to education and the way that our society has been brought up.
A lot of the people have experienced transphobia online, or that get into arguments with people who have basically gone their entire life thinking a certain way. Um, I know that religion is a big thing. You know, the Bible says what it says. So a lot of people who are religious use the Bible in order to be homophobic or transphobic towards the LGBT community. Um, so I would say, you know, it, it’s really a moot point to get angry and frustrated and yell at people and use profanities because you’re talking to somebody that has gone their whole life with this viewpoint. And it’s, it’s not going to change no matter how much you try and explain to them. Uh, for me, like what I do is I use a lot of statistics. Um, a lot of people try and argue that this is the way it’s supposed to be.
This is how society has always been, but there’s so many statistics and studies out there that prove being trans is not just a choice. It’s actually a biological thing that happens in our brains. So I think knowing a lot about the topic and being able to present different types of evidence to prove what you’re talking about will shut them up. But a lot of people still don’t even listen to science or they don’t listen to the evidence and they always have that mindset because of how they grew up. And that’s fine, but it’s, it just takes a lot of energy out of you to have to argue with someone who’s ultimately not going to change their mind.”
Visit today’s guest on Twitter and Instagram: @gageelle
YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/c/GageElle
Podcast at https://girlishpodcast.com/
