Quote"Growing up as a White male, I never knew discrimination," de LaFreniere said Thursday at a news conference.
Very telling comment! Very honest! And it is a major reason why some people have a problem with people that transition. The people in a given social role have earned their stripes, so to speak. Than someone comes along and transitions, and expects everyone to extend to them the same respect and acceptance as is given to everyone else, even though it may be perceived that they did not earn their place.
Like it or not, we live in a hierarchy called the patriarchy, and women earn their place and status in that hierarchy during the course of their life. People that transition, especially m2f's like the person quoted, never have to go thru a lot of the things most women do to find their place in the women's world. It has been my experience, that people are not cognizant of the discrimination this person speaks of, because they have not lived the life. And some people perceive them to thoughtless, instead of clueless. It's a huge difference.
Having said all of that, it's still discrimination just the same. Just a tough learning curve for both sides. Cases like these could help shorten that curve. Out of bad things comes good also.
