It’s very true, and part of the reason is that most trans folks are relatively invisible (in a good way).
Imagine this scenario:
(Conversation at work): “Hey, did you know that Susan used to be a dude?” “Huh. Weird.”
And they go forward with that knowledge in the back of their mind, and hopefully treating Susan no different than they did before. But here’s the thing: They have associated Susan with “used to be a dude,” but that isn’t necessarily connected to “trans” in our brains.
So when we hear Trans, we don’t think of Susan; instead we think about the category we see on porn sites. And ‘trans = sexual’ is reinforced.
Exactly, and this is one of the principal manifestations of transmisogyny. We’re treated as sex objects but also as objects of sexual disgust and that duality creates a world in which many of us historically have struggled to support ourselves outside of sex work. We face violence for it, often sexualized. And then when we dare to have our own sexual desires or wind up with kinks or sexual hang ups they’re pointed at as proof it’s all we think about as though we hadn’t been taught that that’s our only value.
And throughout all of that we’re pushed out of public life as obscene. The people who prey on us tell others that we’re the predators.
And throughout all of that we’re pushed out of public life as obscene. The people who prey on us tell others that we’re the predators.
As an Albertan, I can absolutely confirm this. David Parker and his band of bigots are busy labelling anyone who is trans (or a teacher, or gay, or supporting any of the above groups) as a degenerate pedophile groomer.
