Tell me about Transgender culture

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Tell me about Transgender culture

Tumblr of scotch: Mar 13, 2006; Please, don't be my neighbor.

There's a transgender megathread in E/N but it's kind of a shitshow with how many trolls show up.

We never turn away people with sincere questions, though!

# ¿ Apr 12, 2015 23:38

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# ¿ Apr 27, 2024 18:36

Tumblr of scotch: Mar 13, 2006; Please, don't be my neighbor.

PT6A posted:

Also, do women have the same irrational fear about trans men "tricking" them into being gay as a lot of men do about trans women? I think that's probably a surprisingly large factor in a lot of the hatred directed toward trans women.

In my 100% anecdotal experience, no. In fact I honestly can't remember ever meeting any cisgender women having that fear, though I've met a couple cis lesbians who have a similar irrational fear about trans women "tricking" them straight.

# ¿ Apr 14, 2015 23:15

Tumblr of scotch: Mar 13, 2006; Please, don't be my neighbor.

Cowslips Warren posted:

Maybe I'm just a really dumb lesbian, but what? Is that really a common fear, that I'd meet some nice lady, we'd go home and OMG she has a dick and she said she was a real woman and cue meltdown? ....that can't be a real thing, just like straight guys always seem to be afraid of a gay guy hitting on them would turn them gay.

I've only met the two, but it does happen. This was like 4-5 years ago so hopefully they've mellowed out since then, but they were super gender essentialist so probably not.

# ¿ Apr 15, 2015 23:33

Tumblr of scotch: Mar 13, 2006; Please, don't be my neighbor.

AdorableStar posted:

What happens when someone starts a relationship and the other party is someone who wants to have kids someday (Not adoption) and is hoping for a life-long relationship? They might not express it at first, but later on isn't it just heartbreaking?

e: I dunno, my opinion is that by keeping your trans status a secret, you will find people who will: Be comfy with it, may become comfy with it, will never be comfy with it, will need something you as a trans person can not provide. By telling them who you are at the start of relationship, you will only find the first two.

So should infertile cis people tell their partners on the first date? What about cis people who just don't want kids?

# ¿ Apr 27, 2015 18:48

Tumblr of scotch: Mar 13, 2006; Please, don't be my neighbor.

spacetoaster posted:

Let's be honest here. A lot of infertile people don't know it until they are trying to have kids and can't.

Let's be honest here. It's plainly obvious that I'm talking about infertile people who know they're infertile.

# ¿ May 15, 2015 20:39

Tumblr of scotch: Mar 13, 2006; Please, don't be my neighbor.

elphiemcdork posted:

EDIT: Also we live in a world where it would be hugely difficult for a straight man to be open about the fact he was dating a trans woman. And possibly even more dangerous for the trans woman if her partner's friends were weird about it and decided they wanted to beat the crap out of her.

For a prime example, some people get murdered just for dating a trans woman.

# ¿ May 19, 2015 19:08

Tumblr of scotch: Mar 13, 2006; Please, don't be my neighbor.

Tautologicus please tell me more about how you know more about this subject than the whole of modern psychology, I'm eager to hear why people should listen to you and not actual experts.

# ¿ May 20, 2015 20:48

Tumblr of scotch: Mar 13, 2006; Please, don't be my neighbor.

Also lol at trotting out the "you should be tolerant of intolerance!!!" line in 2015.

# ¿ May 20, 2015 21:19

Tumblr of scotch: Mar 13, 2006; Please, don't be my neighbor.

Woolie Wool posted:

Do you believe passing as FtM is easier than the other way around? Does the male voice come naturally from hormonal virilization or does it take intense training?

It does need some training, but not as much as the other way around. Testosterone gradually lengthens the vocal cords, which is also what happens in AMAB puberty.

# ¿ May 21, 2015 07:49

Tumblr of scotch: Mar 13, 2006; Please, don't be my neighbor.

The Valuum posted:

Are there a disproportionate amount of trans in the sex industry?

Often, yes. In many places, it's fully legal to fire (or just not hire in the first place) someone for being trans. Even places where it's not legal, it's easy for an employer to just bullshit up an excuse. One of the few comprehensive surveys on the matter found that 44% of all respondents had been refused a job as a direct result of being trans, and 26% were fired from their current job because of it (Grant, Mottet & Tanis, 2011). So when you have trouble finding work, you start to take drastic measures to make ends meet.

_{Grant, J., Mottet, L., & Tanis, J. (2011). Injustice at Every Turn: A Report of the National Transgender Discrimination Survey (1st ed., p. 53). Retrieved from http://endtransdiscrimination.org/PDFs/NTDS_Report.pdf}

# ¿ May 28, 2015 08:39

Tumblr of scotch: Mar 13, 2006; Please, don't be my neighbor.

The Valuum posted:

drat, I never thought about that. You raised another good point with the employment thing. I always figured it would be hard to get a job, especially in certain areas more than others. Can they actually legally do that poo poo? I imagine it wouldn't really matter since it's probably easy to get away with.

I actually thought about that before, around me (rural area) it would be probably impossible to get a job. Even in the city near here I would think it'd be hard. I would guess that trans that are less "passable?" would have a harder time. I stumbled a minute there, is passable the right word?

They can, in fact, actually legally do that poo poo. Only about half of all states plus DC have anti-discrimination laws that cover trans people's employment to some degree (some only protect state employees, some protect state and private both). Everywhere else, both state and private employers alike are free to fire us, refuse our promotions, not hire us in the first place, and so on, due to no reason other than us being trans. That said, it's worth noting that some individual municipalities have their own laws that are more comprehensive than those of their host states. All in all, though, it's a mess and incredibly inconsistent depending where you go. Likewise, even for housing, a lot of places lack anti-discrimination laws, meaning an apartment manager can refuse to rent to you if you're trans.

Of course, non-discrimination laws don't always stop it from happening, they just provide an avenue for the victim to raise hell about it when it does. California is a state that has explicit and comprehensive non-discrimination laws, and yet these things still happen.

But there's good news. Recent court decisions have upheld that various portions of the Civil Rights Act also cover trans people, but for the most part it remains to be seen if courts in non-covering states will actually bother enforcing it.

As for terminology, that's somewhat of a tricky issue. Even within the trans community there's a lot of disagreement, primarily focusing around whether or not the term "passing" has racist connotations since it calls this to some people's minds. Generally speaking "blending" is preferred but a lot of trans people (myself included) don't really give a poo poo which you use.

# ¿ Jun 4, 2015 07:33

Tumblr of scotch: Mar 13, 2006; Please, don't be my neighbor.

Old Man Pants posted:

This is the dumbest poo poo ever. If sexuality becomes race, I think I'd rather leave the planet.

Well, to be fair, I don't think it's just a tumblr thing. There are a lot of trans people of colour who live places where passing for white can still be a big advantage, or who have relatives who've benefitted from it, especially their parents and grandparents back when civil rights for minorities weren't really a thing.

That said, a lot of trans people (even trans people of colour) don't care about connotations or whatever, and in fact I can only think of just a couple that I've met who do compared with a bunch who don't.

# ¿ Jun 7, 2015 15:06

Tumblr of scotch: Mar 13, 2006; Please, don't be my neighbor.

Old Man Pants posted:

I don't know if it will ever happen, but ideally we would all look at each other as "person" instead of otherizing them with some dumb label. It seems people are so set on otherizing themselves though.

While I agree with you about the ideal (and about its unlikeliness of happening), I'm confused about your second point. Are you saying it's trans people who otherize themselves? Because I'm pretty sure it's society as a whole (and particularly lawmakers and/or law enforcement) that does that. In fact I'm pretty sure that's who otherizes most minorities.

# ¿ Jun 7, 2015 22:06

Tumblr of scotch: Mar 13, 2006; Please, don't be my neighbor.

Would you be concerned about your daughter playing with a cis girl of the same size? I went to high school with a girl who was 6' 1", and saw a couple others in the hallways who were about that tall, and that was just at one school.

If the answer is yes, you would be, then I think your problem is less about whether or not the person is trans, and more about just "okay that's pretty big." If no, then you should probably factor in that trans women (as one is called when one is transitioning from male bodied to female bodied) who've been on hormones long enough (exact time varies from person to person, but for me it was noticeable after six months) often end up with lower testosterone levels than cis women, since we take medicines to block either its production or its reception, depending which specific med, with a corresponding decrease in ability to put on and retain muscle mass.

# ¿ Nov 1, 2015 05:26

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# ¿ Apr 27, 2024 18:36

Tumblr of scotch: Mar 13, 2006; Please, don't be my neighbor.

spacetoaster posted:

I honestly have not seen a cis woman as big as a cis man irl. I know there are some big tough women out there, but I don't personally know them. Also, this "transitioning" you're talking about, is it something they allow minors to do? This person, and others, are not doing any of that. I'm assuming that is for adults.

And for the record, yes, I'd be very concerned if 170+ lb girls were playing against 80 lb girls. As someone who's been involved in sports his entire life, that's insane to me to have that kind of size/strength/weight disparity in a contact sport.

How sure are you that the person in question isn't transitioning? Minors are often allowed to undergo gender transition, because gender dysphoria is a medical condition and transitioning is a treatment that's proven to be effective in a vast majority of cases irrespective of age, so why wouldn't they be? Now, minors do often need parental permission, as they do for many other medical procedures, even other necessary ones, simply because they're minors, and most doctors require either their own evaluation of the patient or a letter from their therapist before starting hormone replacement therapy even regardless of age. However, I personally know a couple people who started on HRT at 16 or 17, and there was a trans dude at my high school who started on testosterone late in his junior year, so it actually is entirely possible that the person in question is on HRT as well, unless you've specifically asked someone who would know for sure.

That being said, I would hope that the sports league your daughter plays in has size classes for their various sports, because in that regard you're right, someone who's 6 feet tall and 170 pounds against someone who's half that weight would be unsporting and dangerous, regardless of whether that person's trans or cis.

# ¿ Nov 1, 2015 06:26

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Tell me about Transgender culture