Trans Rights Whats In It For You

[Music]

[Music]

on a snowy day

when i was 10 years old i got the itch

to go sledding

so my father took me to the hardware

store i picked out a sled

and i was in line with it and he went

over to look at

hammers or something and um

just to give you an idea of how i looked

back then

here’s how i looked um just imagine that

person but all bundled up for winter

so this older guy walks by me and bumps

into me

and he goes oh i’m sorry little girl

and i’m not paying attention right so

i’m just confused

but my father just wheels on the guy

and and he starts yelling at him he’s a

boy how can you think that he’s a girl

and and i really thought in that moment

that i was gonna watch my father

beat this guy because he thought i might

be a girl

so that was really scary and it was one

of a thousand little moments

that you know told me that i had to push

these feelings

that i was different right had to push

those feelings down

and it and it delayed my transition

for another quarter century at my lowest

point

this is how i looked um so

that fear that trans people feel that

fear of transitioning

it’s rooted in reality at time of

recording

there is no federal law that protects

trans and non-binary people

from discrimination so we’re a

vulnerable population

trans folks are worried about getting

and keeping a job

the rate of unemployment for trans

people is one third higher than the

national rate

we are worried about being able to own a

home

or even keeping basic shelter over our

heads

the rate of housing and security for

trans folks is twice the national rate

and our home ownership rate is half of

the national rate

and finally we fear not just rejection

but we fear violence

in 2020 37 trans people in the united

states were murdered in hate crimes

the vast majority of them were black

trans women

who have to try to survive at the

intersection

of transphobia and white supremacy

which makes them aggressively targeted

by perpetrators of hate crimes

so what i do for a living is i’m a

trainer

for the equitas health institute you can

see me

doing my thing out in the field there

and among the many things

organizations hire us to do we’re often

hired

because organizations want to do a

better job serving the trans community

so i’ll share these statistics with them

right

and they’re they’re often shocked

sometimes horrified

and they want to do better they do but

sometimes i also get a vibe of

that’s a shame we should treat trans

people better

but do we really have to change all

these things about

how we operate to cater to this small

minority

what’s in it for us and today i want to

talk about

how creating a world where trans people

have full citizenship

where we can use a bathroom without you

know being afraid of

getting accosted or assaulted where our

names and our pronouns are respected

that’s also a world where everyone will

enjoy

gender liberation

so when we’re born we’re put into one of

two boxes

the boy box or the girl box and

you know we don’t have a choice in that

right we’re we’re babies we’re infants

but which box were put in has a

tremendous

impact on the entire trajectory of our

lives

it impacts how we’re supposed to act how

we’re supposed to look

who we’re supposed to love what emotions

are

acceptable for us to express and what

emotions that were expected

to repress right

and for trans folks one of the big

reasons why we face

the bias and discrimination and

prejudice that we do

is we are living examples that not

everybody

fits in one of those two boxes not

everybody

is in the box that they should be in

based on where they were put at birth

or both but the boxes don’t just

negatively

impact trans people i think about

a lot about during the

current global public health emergency

one of the things that’s happened to

women in the united states is that women

are four times as likely as men

to have lost their jobs or to have left

the workforce

you know during this this global crisis

and the reason for that is that the

gendered norm that it should be women

who take the primary responsibility

of caring for children of teaching

children

during this emergency that norm has

aggressively reasserted itself

what about men well in the u.s men

six million men in the u.s suffer from

depression

but they are much less likely than the

rest of

the public to seek help for mental

health concerns

why because men are not supposed to ask

for help

because of the box

i tried to survive in that box i

did but but finally in my mid-30s i

transitioned

and i transitioned because my fear

of what would happen to me if i came out

got eclipsed

by my fear of future regret of how it

would feel if i never

even went over and saw what it was like

in the other box

so this is a picture of me from a few

years ago

oh hey thanks instagram filters that’s a

good one um

so i transitioned and it was the best

decision of my life

it really was uh the fog of what julia

serrano

once called gender sadness lifted for me

but i wasn’t done learning or evolving

or growing one thing that i learned

after years of transitioning and after a

lot of therapy

was that i didn’t want to stay in one

box permanently

this box was much better the new box was

much better

but i didn’t necessarily want to stay in

that box permanently all the time

so i started to explore a greater range

of gender expression

as you can see in this picture recently

i’ve really jumped in to that

exploration

and i mentioned this simply because

instead of for example my decision to

transition which

though it was a good decision was made

out of fear

my decision to expand the boundaries of

my gender expression

i made that decision out of hope that

i now can think about the future

in a hopeful way rather than just

worrying about avoiding the worst

possible outcome

so the fight for trans liberation is

in many ways just essentially making

sure the doors of those boxes

are at least unlocked for people and

the way that that is connected to gender

liberation generally

is is this so many of us

haven’t even asked these questions trans

and non-binary folks are kind of forced

to confront these questions but most

people aren’t

so some of you may be very very

comfortable

in the box that you originally put in

you may feel connected to it

it fits for you that’s great that’s your

authenticity

and that’s awesome but i do want

everyone to think about this

particularly if maybe you’re just

meh about the box you’re in

think about think about whether

that box has kept you from living your

most

authentic life as it kept you

from jobs or hobbies that you think

don’t fit

with the box that you were put in as it

kept you

from looking the way that you want to

look or associating with people

the way you want to if the answers to

any of those questions end up yes

you know this is not just

a effort a struggle for trans folks

it’s an effort that will benefit

everyone

we can create this better world or you

don’t have to fear stepping outside the

boundaries of the box that you were put

in

we can create a world where trans folks

have full citizenship

equal rights we can live in dignity we

can live

openly and not be afraid of

that bringing harm to us

that world is the one that i hope that

we can build

together thank you

you