Man plays basketball while ciscentric essentialism burns as brightly as ever

[Butterfly]

Man plays basketball while ciscentric essentialism burns as brightly as ever
Questioning Transphobia
Written by Helen
04 November, 2010


http://www.questioningtransphobia.com/?p=3406


Via OutSports and many others I learn of Kye Allums, a basketball player who also happens to be a transgender man. While I'm delighted that Mr Allums has been able to begin his transition, the fact that he remains on the women's team at George Washington University in Washington, DC, is – or should be – a cause for concern. The story as reported provides an almost complete microcosm of one of the primary issues facing TS/TG people: the erasure of our identities by a phallocentric cissupremacy. Under this system, the only thing that really matters to our oppressors is, as usual, what's going on inside our underwear. It's essentialism at its most fundamentalist – and it's unacceptable. It's unacceptable that cis society continues with these outrageous breaches of human rights simply because of its own discomfort at the idea that some people are trans.