What not to ask a transsexual
What do transsexual people and pregnant women have in common? Both cause strangers to lose all sense of propriety, says Juliet Jacques
* Juliet Jacques
*
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 3 November 2010 10.00 GMT
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/nov/03/what-not-to-ask-a-transsexualThrowing myself into living as female, I anticipated the difficulties of 'passing' in public. I was less prepared, however, for the barrage of questions in more private spaces. I soon realised that being expected to field invasive questions, often from strangers, is as much a part of the 'real life experience' as handling abuse in the street, and one reason why so many transsexual people aspire to live in 'stealth'.
I was reluctant to cover this, primarily as I thought I couldn't address it better than Calpernia Addams (and partly because readers might think I'd stolen her idea). But the reason why her video resonates with so many transsexual people is because of the frequently encountered assumption that by externalising our gender dissonance, we somehow invite any question on any aspect of our lives.
