TransActive IV: What Can I Do? (Basics)
Filed by dentedbluemercedes
September 13, 2010
http://dentedbluemercedes.wordpress.com/2010/09/13/transactive-iv-what-can-i-do-basics/(Part four of a series on advocacy. Part one spoke about changing the narrative used to describe trans people, part two was on Expectations, and part three was on advocating for trans people if cisgender/cissexual. Here, I provide basic things that people can do — for some it will be old-hat, for others not. If you haven't read the previous chapters, please do so, as they provide grounding you need before starting.)
(This series is not connected in any way to the organization TransActive Education and Advocacy, it merely has a similarity in name.)
I'm sometimes asked how people can advocate for the trans community, usually by apprehensive people who have visions of standing out in front of government buildings with picket signs shouting slogans, or sometimes by people who are whipping themselves up into an energetic frenzy so that they can be as boisterous as possible. The truth is that that's only one form of activism (a kind of last resort, really), and the larger picture is, well, more mundane. That is not to say it's easier, it can be very complex at times, but in the end it's... well... a different kind of drama.
