Every time I read another story about anti-trans discrimination, what infuriates me the most is seeing cis people make excuses for their oppressive behavior. In this case, a teenage trans girl, Lila Perry, was bullied for using the girl’s restroom at her school. Quotes include:
“I’m not trying to be ignorant, but [the transgender student] is bringing it out in public for everybody else to deal with.”
“The way I was raised, I have no problem with a transgender, but he shouldn’t be in the women’s locker room until he has the surgery.”
“The girls have rights, and they shouldn’t have to share a bathroom with a boy.”
“As a parent, it’s my right to educate my child, to make decisions on when it’s appropriate for my child to understand things about the opposite sex.”
These statements are ignorant, literally. Trans girls are girls, not boys, males, or the “opposite sex.” Whether they have had surgery or not is entirely irrelevant. Anatomy does not define gender or sex.
If you have a problem with trans people using restrooms matching our gender identities, regardless of our body configurations, then you have a problem with trans people, period. Don’t claim you have “no problem” with us and then misgender us and tell us to have “the surgery” before using the same facilities as cis people.
This bullying has to stop. We just need to pee.
Exactly. I can’t read the Washington Post article now, cause it’d probably make me rage-quit the internet for a while, and I need to do some work.
Oh, and I just remembered that you’re across the country, but the WP story probably happened in my area (I live 30 min outside DC). Bleh. We’re better than this, really. I hope a swell of support is going out to the girl, and those ignorant people are getting educated. For my part, gonna share what you wrote on FB.
Thanks for sharing! This was in Missouri. But I don’t excuse this kind of ignorance whether it’s in the deep South or my own backyard.
Yeah, you’re right. Every person in every place deserves to be respected. It does make me sad though, cause the girl’s probably a lot less likely to get support in Missouri than she would in the DC area :/ I can only hope the internet is rounding up a storm of support for her. You and I are helping, at least! And coverage in the Washington Post probably helps, too.