If you were born cis, do you think you would be transphobic?

[MisterQueer]

And by transphobic, I mean things like scared of trans people, thinking trans people are mentally ill, thinking they're weird/gross, etc.

I feel like this is an interesting subject and I've yet to see people talk about it. Please be honest.

As far as I go: yes, if I were cis, I'd probably be transphobic. Because trans people have bad portrayal in the media, like trans women being displayed as men trying to trick other men into sleeping with them (Ex: Hangover 3), and trans men being portrayed as butch lesbians who scare straight women... the list goes on.

[Meowt]

I'm from a rough area, and since Primary School (well, especially Primary) the majority of my peers have been, or expressed opinions that are racist, homophobic and definitely transphobic. A lot of the people around me came from poverty and 'disadvantaged' upbringings - I myself have always had a family with just enough money, and a family who are supportive and tolerant.

People around me and the media have been mostly negative, but being around LGBT people from a young age it was never something that struck me as wrong, or weird.

With friends (until the age where I realised it wasn't cool) racist, homophobic and transphobic remarks were normal - but I never thought that there was any truth to this.

Everyone is different - everyone has different influences, being family, friends, media and personal experience - if I were cis I wouldn't think that I would be intolerant of groups because my parents taught me otherwise (and strictly, I'll add).

[Semira]

It's a difficult question to answer. Asking if I was not me, how would I think? But if I'm not me, how would I know?

Based on how I am and setting aside my gender issues, I don't think I would be trans-phobic. When needed, I can get along with virtually anyone, even people that are rude to me. I don't care about things like gender, race, religion, etc when I come across someone new.

I've also come across people that have beliefs that internally I find very strange. As an example, I've met people who truly believe they are vampires (their version of it at least). In my head do I think it's kind of weird, yes. But when interacting with these people I am still respectful and am perfectly fine with letting people think or behave any way they want as long as it doesn't harm anyone.

So if I was born cis, internally I might find trans-gendered a bit odd, but I'm confident that I would still be respectful. And really...odd is okay. It breaks up the monotony of normal.

[Laura_Squirrel]

Nope. I have always thought that prejudice, discrimination in any form is amazingly stupid. Being born as a cisgirl would not change that.

[Ms Grace]

I used to have internalised transphobia... and I'm trans! There's no way I can answer this question it's way too hypothetical.

[AbiDrew]

I'm sorry to say that I certainly would have been.  In fact, I was DESPITE being trans, for a very long time, before I finally accepted myself, though I had to learn to accept others first.  I can definitely blame mine on my upbringing.  Many of my family members are still having trouble accepting me, and a couple have outright rejected me.

[SonadoraXVX]

Probably I would be transphobic, unless I had a closed loved one who transitioned or was trans, and felt there pain. You got to realize, perception is shaped by your values, environment, culture around you, without having direct contact with someone close to you who is trans, you may have negative perceptions of a set of people, it also depends on your education, in the social, psychological, anthropological sciences, medical sciences(ie.even then some of the latter are prejudicial), sans hard sciences, unless you or someone you care about is trans.  I still see prejudice towards gay, lesbian, bi, other ethnicities to this day, sad to say.

[V M]

Not at all, I'm the type who would be curious to better understand and try to help in some way

I see mental illness as a separate issue in that there may be transgender people who suffer with mental illness as well but being transgender is not a mental illness in of itself

[Soli]

I can't see why I would be, I've always been very open to everything, like I'm really against any religion but it never really bothered me to have anyone discussing their beliefs or philosophy or moral.

It's a highly hypothetical question, I'll never know what it feels like to be a cis female.

There is something in the eye of the cis women I go by on the street... I don't know yet what it is. But there is something. I'm certain they don't look other cis women like that... or do they?  I think it looks like a competitive look, but maybe I'm wrong.

[sigsi]

I really don't know what to put.
If I was going by my parents/siblings standards, I would be a hypocritical religious, slightly racist, sexist, LGBT intolerant, judgemental person.
Being raised "sheltered", I didn't know what trans* was until I heard about "The Pregnant Man" on Oprah at 13, and thought it was an odd story that didn't make sense. Not a "mental illness" or "gross", just didn't make sense.
Sitting in a car with my mom at 14, she says that the goth person walking down the street "shouldn't come out of their house if they are going to dress weird". There I am wearing dark jeans and a black t-shirt wishing I could look like them.
I always was arguing with my family about how they shouldn't judge people based on their appearance or how they are, and judge people based on their personality and how they treat people. None of them could understand why I cared to defend someone if I wasn't "one of them".
At 14 I thought it was stupid if someone had an eating disorder. I had anxiety disorders my whole life, yet silently judged those internet people for "just wanting to be thin". Funny enough, by 16 I had an eating disorder (ironically, due to gender dysphoria).

I would like to think that I care about people enough to not judge them without knowing them, but without the experiences and life I had, and without my suppressed gender dysphoria underlying everything, would I still be the same person who thinks the way I think? In a somewhat twisted way, I am grateful to be born how I was due to the paranoia of acting like the rest of my family.

[FreyasRedemption]

Probably not. I've despised sexism and homophobia as long as I can remember, and provided that I would know about the existence of trans people, I would probably defend our rights the same way.
If a little bit more uninformed, as I wouldn't have a reason to look up everything possible about trans people, which is what I did when I started to seriously suspect that I was trans.

[Elis]

I would think yes; which is one of the few good things about being trans. I grew up going to a secondary school where LGBT stuff wasn't discussed at all. I wasn't really aware there were gay people; let alone trans people. I may have seen stuff on TV about mtfs but I didn't understand it. I saw a doc on the pregnant man bit didn't understand that either. I assumed gay people chose to be gay because it wasn't found in nature; while knowing now it's found in 465 animal species. I was taught in school age of consent for gay people was 18 (which I believe was outdated and the law was changed by then) so assumed that gay sex must be horrible and painful. So I'd definitely be trans phobic.

[Midnightstar]

If i wasn't trans i would have ended up being transphobic because i think for me i had a hard time understanding it
and i think it scared me. So me being transgender has taught me a lot about myself and about understanding things and being more open minded. 

[suzifrommd]

There's no "if" about it. Before I knew I was trans, I WAS transphobic.

I didn't have any ill will toward trans people and was supportive to the transfolk I came across. But I believed they were weak people who couldn't resist their urges.

[Deborah]

I don't know.  Everything about me my whole life has been influenced on way or another by being trans.  I can't begin to unravel how these things, including my attitudes, would have developed differently if I had been CIS.  Maybe I would have been very different, better or worse.  I would hope the same or better but it's impossible to know.


Sapere Aude

[KathyLauren]

If thinking that people are "weird" counts as phobic, then I'd have to say that the answer is yes.  A big part of my years of denial was that I thought being trans was too weird for me.   I still think it's weird, but now I embrace my weirdness. 

I don't equate weirdness with being immoral, which is where I think the line on phobia lies.

[Eevee]

I said yes because I was raised to think like that. I was homophobic, transphobic, and every other -phobic supported by my conservative, fundamentalist Christian parents until a bit after I moved away. I changed after I was able to do some self-reflection without their twisted words surrounding me, but only because I was able to admit to myself that I was bisexual and transgender. I think I was able to tap into a lot of well-hidden empathy after that. I'm not sure if I would have changed my tune so much without that, since the indoctrination into hatred ran so deep in my family. Maybe I would have since (I think) I'm an otherwise nice person. I guess I'll never know.

[jsmastah]

When I was younger, before I knew and understood what being transgender was and all that. I was homophobic, as in school  from peers and in church as a kid I learned that "gay was bad and gross" (IT'S NOT SND IS COMPLETELY FINE) it wasn't until my senior year of highschool I really started to change and mature, after befriending my punk  (music genre) friend's friend at the time, who ultimately saved me from a lot of my demons I had chasing me from childhood.

[JoanneB]

This would be an easy question to answer back 50 years ago when I was far younger. Of course I would be. EVERYONE (essentially) was. Society was built in part on homophobia and transphobia. I've seen a lot of changes since I was a teen. Astronomical in their scope. Minor in terms of actual numbers.

As my wife loves to say, "We speak the language spoken when we were children". This applies to everything, not just the spoken word, but also to how we view and interact in the world.

[arice]

No. I was raised in a small town where homophobia and intolerance were rampant but I was raised in a family that taught tolerance and respect. The only thing I was taught to be intolerant of was wilful intolerance (intolerance born from ignorance was to be countered by education).
Therefore, if I was cis, I wouldn't understand what trans people were going through but I would have been raised to be an advocate for their rights and inclusion.

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