Transphobia, as a term in language, has become such a buzzword on social media that it has lost its potency, much like the use of the word “toxic”.
This isn’t to say transphobia as a phenomenon receives too much public attention (in fact it doesn’t get enough), but rather, we have been desensitised to current affairs around it. And because of anti-trans rhetoric coming out of the US in recent years, transphobia has been seen as something “far away” from our liberal shores.
Except it’s not. This weekend, a British anti-trans activist – who I don’t even think deserves to be named or given any more media attention – will make it clear that transphobia as a movement has support in New Zealand, too.
There’s a groundswell of social conservatives in this country – like all over the globe – that shows that there’s vile and unsubstantiated hatred against transness, informed by incorrect anecdotes, and hate speech masked as free speech.
This has led me to wonder what underlies this modern form of transphobia in New Zealand. This is a conversation I’ve stayed out of until now because I’m a cisgender male and there are so many better-positioned people from within the trans community to speak on the topic.
However, as a queer person, I also can’t ignore this issue. So, let’s look at transphobia from its roots.
Using flat-out lies and disinformation, they say trans people will corrupt the young and sexually abuse them. They’ve even gone so far as to believe drag queens are the devil. Photo / 123rf
Firstly, there’s a modern misconception that trans people are somehow “new”. Sure, the term “transgender” was only coined in the 1960s, but make no mistake: trans people have always been here. Since the beginning of time, trans people have been living their authentic selves in society, it’s just the history books have decided to omit them.
Take the galli priests of Ancient Greece, Phrygia, and Rome, for example. Many scholars believe them to have been trans women. Roman emperor Elagabalus (222 AD) preferred to be called a lady instead of a lord, and sought gender confirmation surgery.
Also in existence for thousands of years have been hijras on the Indian subcontinent (they are legally recognised as a third gender in India and have countless amount of documentation to prove they have always been a part of society), kathoeys in Thailand, plus there are numerous examples from Arabia, Africa, pre-colonisation North America, and of course amongst our own Pacific neighbours with akava’ine, fa’afafine and fakaleiti communities.
Being trans is not new. Trans people were just hidden for too long. This visibility is what is emboldening the current anti-trans movement. The ill-informed anti-woke crowd cannot handle that the trans community is now gaining enough confidence and support to be out and proud.
Transphobia as we know it is masked as upholding of “traditional values”; something most of us are really tired of hearing about.
TERFs, or trans-exclusive radical feminists, claim trans women aren’t real women, and they’re a threat to safety of other women. Conservatives, particularly in the US but also all over the world, claim trans people are a threat to children. Using flat-out lies and disinformation, they say trans people will corrupt the young and sexually abuse them. They’ve even gone so far as to believe drag queens are the devil.
The negative attitudes towards transness in general, the fear, the hatred, the violence and the vitriol … this all comes down to our society’s screwed-up views on gender roles.
When people don’t conform to common expectations of gender, those engrained by patriarchal structures, they feel uncomfortable and scared because they don’t understand.
So what do these anti-trans people do? They lash out. They seek to contain, to exsolve and to isolate, and to create more fear and support for binary views on gender.
Laverne Cox and Caitlyn Jenner meet for the first time. Photo / Instagram
Visible transness in society scares these people because they can’t handle recognising the existence of those they don’t understand.
These feelings have also been informed by the use of trans people at the butt of jokes in modern media. From Friends to Nip/Tuck, Ace Ventura to Big Momma’s House, there was a very particular brand of anti-trans TV and film in the 1990s and 2000s that we all grew up with.
How could that not shape all views on transness? During our formative years, making fun of trans people was both acceptable and used for comedic effect and villainisation.
Years ago, I was presented with a simple and easy counter to anti-trans views. I was in New York in 2015 when Caitlyn Jenner was making global news headlines. Aside from Laverne Cox, Jenner was the most prominent trans celebrity of the time. I rented a room in Manhattan from a woman in her 80s, and we discussed the Vanity Fair interview with Jenner that came out some days beforehand and the world was obsessing over.
“I can’t even imagine,” she said in a thick, Jewish New Yorker accent while smoking cigarettes in the living room she hadn’t left for years, “looking down at my own body and not feeling like it was mine. How horrible would that be?”
With this unpretentious comment, something clicked for me. To accept trans people, you don’t need to understand them or their journey. All you need is a bit of empathy for their experience. Recognise they exist, and that it’s hard. That’s it. Then just leave them live freely in society because they have no consequence on your own life.
Simple as that. If my 80-year-old landlady who hadn’t left her apartment in 20 years could comprehend that being trans is real, trans people exist, and have always existed, so can everyone else.
