Gender: A Spectrum

Caitlyn Jenner

NOTE: Caitlyn Jenner is in NO way a good advocate for trans people and has said many problematic things. This section does not discuss them, but they are there. This whole segment is just to highlight the issues that arose with transphobes after Caitlyn Jenner's coming out.

Unless you've been living under a rock, you've probably seen or heard about Caitlyn Jenner coming out as trans and her VanityFair cover. She's so brave and beautiful, don't get me wrong. This chapter is more or less about the things I've seen transphobes and other trans people talk about. The good and the bad.

Let's just get the bad out of the way, shall we? Recently, a bunch of people have gotten heated over the community calling Caitlyn by her name and saying how brave she is.

"B**** isn't brave, our troops are brave!" They yell to us supporters.

Caitlyn is brave.

Our troops are brave.

The kids who wake up and fight cancer day after day are brave.

It's not a competition.

"I'll pray for him."

Praying for someone is cool, but you cannot "pray the trans away," similarly that you cannot "pray the gay away." Assuming that someone is trans because of a lack of faith is ridiculous. Christian people can be trans, anyone of any religion can be trans. "Trans-ness" has nothing to do with religion, it has nothing to do with sexual orientation, it has nothing to do with how a person was raised.

"B**** can do all the surgery he wants, he will still be a man!"

The amount of surgery someone gets, or lack thereof, doesn't even have to do with "how trans they are." If Caitlyn says she is female, she is female. No amount of hormones or surgery will "make" her female, she's female because she says she is. She could not have any surgery and she would still be female.

"Well B**** is just doing this because all the spotlight is on their family and now is a comfortable time for him. That's not bravery."

There is not a "right time" to come out as trans. Even when all states secure job security for trans people and marital rights for trans people and trans people are just as accepted as gay people, it will still be hard to come out as trans. Imagine that, your parents think you are male and call you B**** your whole life, and then suddenly you come out as trans and that was all a lie. Your parents are going to still have to take time to get used to all of it. All of your friends will slip up and you will still have to go through all of the procedures you feel are necessary for your personal transition. Still sound hard, huh? That's what it will always be. You'll always have to be brave and take a chance to come out. This is exactly why, too. There will be people who accept it and are all for it, and people who do not and are wholeheartedly against it.

"Wow, she looks just like Jessica Lange!"

Supporting Caitlyn is a great thing and I have no problem with people calling her beautiful or calling Jessica Lange beautiful. However, people have been using this negatively saying things such as, "She tried but looks just like Jessica Lange... Fail!" That is where the problems are in that you are being rude by saying that she is invalid because she happens to have a similar face structure to Jessica.

The list goes on, and doesn't seem to end. It saddens me that as much as Caitlyn is taking a huge step and as much as she's shining a light together with Laverne on the transgender community, she is still being taunted. She is stepping up as a role model to trans people but there is so much negativity toward her and trans people in general, the good gets ran over.

I respect Caitlyn and my heart is with the whole Jenner family as they go through the struggle to be seen as people and not be seen as simply Caitlyn's transition.

It makes me sad for closeted trans people, myself included. People who either are too afraid to come out or who have to stay closeted for safety reasons. At work, I hear the most horrible things that people have to say about Ms Jenner. It hurts knowing that everyone feels so negatively about it and I'm at the other end of the register, having to force a smile and a nod in order to keep my job. Have faith everyone, the storm will pass in time.

On a side note, can we please take a moment to realize, this is the first trans woman to ever be featured on the Vanity Fair magazine. So as we tend to focus on the negative, we can always look at this as a step up in equality! We are creating history one milestone at a time.