Hey, so my name's James. I'm a 31 year old, white, straight, cis-gendered guy who pretty much checks off all the boxes labeled "privilege." As such it's really hard for me to have a solid, fundamental understanding of a changing social landscape and systemic problems such as discrimination. This is particularly difficult for transgender issues, and I hope you'll forgive me for saying this, but efforts to educate often come across as far less didactic and far more dictatorial. Imagine somebody telling you Pluto is not a planet but never explaining why it's not a planet, what the difference is between a planet and a dwarf planet. It's sort of like that.
So in a nutshell I'm looking for a place to ask questions. I want to understand, I want to be an ally, and I want to be a strong proponent for transgender rights.
I'd like to tell a story about myself. When I was a sophomore in high school some 15 years ago, my English class had to do a penpal project with students in Japan. Our teacher was offering up suggestions for things we could talk about and she explained that Japan really liked to keep things small. They liked small apartments, small cars, small yards and so forth. Maybe it would be interesting to tell them about how we liked to keep things big. I raised my hand and explained that Japan was a country of more than 130 million on a mountainous archipelago and kept things small because they had to. Somehow I came across horribly and the whole class became dismissive of me, with the idea being that I was suggesting that bigger is inherently better (technically, if I had to make an argument I'd argue that all other things being equal, personal choice is best. On a relatively small landmass choice is extremely limited). I was trying to help us not be condescending to not brag to Japanese students, and somehow my efforts completely backfired. My point with the story is that my whole life I've come across poorly - it's a trait I've somehow never gotten better with. This is meant to be a safe space and while I want to ask questions, I recognize there are good odds I'm going to come across as hostile, which all I can do is promise is completely unintentional. So I'm wondering what are the best resources I have for gender fluidity 101, and where are the best places (and what are the best ways) to ask questions?
