Transphobia and You, Part II

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For the first part of my series talking about transphobia, click here!

Even before I was openly trans, transphobic statements have always bothered me. I'm not talking about the blatant name like trap, tranny, shemale, lady-boy, or anything like that, I'm talking about those insensitive jokes that people think are funny when they chuckle about how a straight man, who believes they are only attracted to women, get confused by a trans-woman. You may be wondering why I've picked this very specific example and the reason why is because I probably see this more often on places like Twitter, Reddit, and Google+.

Specifically, last month someone, (@GuyThe_Guy) who I did follow decided to post these highly insensitive comments.

@julie2at is me and I'm sure you know who the other person is. (Just want to shout out
mad respect to @stuxnetsource, while we disagree on many aspects regarding
transgender culture, her heart is always in the right place.)

Look, I can understand that some people like to joke around, but even after a friend and myself decided to educate these types of jokes can really hurt people, much like racist or sexist jokes, he just shrugged it off. This is a completely different sort of transphobia. This is not transphobia in which a person may be simply scared of transgender folks, but this is the type that is just a lack of empathy. Would this user feel the same way if he posted a racist joke? Unfortunately, I could not find out because I was promptly blocked for simply expressing my concerns. This seems to become a trend more and more as society grows, becomes more accepting of gay culture but I feel that understanding transgendered men and women is going to take at least another decade or more before we can feel accepted in society as much as anyone else...

So please, for this Transgender Awareness Week please be very mindful what you say in public or online because words are very powerful and can be very hurtful.

Thank you.