I remember 10 years ago being gay was still kind of "a big deal" (10 years before was a big no no). Now it's not such a big deal, no one bats an eyelid at 2 guys kissing at the Christmas party or whatever.
One of the things that helps me cling on and not kill myself is the thought that things might improve for trans people too. With famous people coming out, such as Jenner (debatable) and Lavern Cox, as well as trans actors playing trans roles in UK Soaps, maybe it's a good sign? There was also the first openly trans woman serving in the UK army recently.
Do you think we will ever reach the same level of acceptable as gay people?
I think we will. It may take longer because organizing trans people is like herding cats. I hope to see it in my lifetime, though.
I would say so. It's just going to take time for people to get over it and learn to accept it.
for the Gay community , what changed was the willingness to come out and unite. The Trans community needs to do like wise.
Quote from: Dee Marshall on December 24, 2015, 01:51:32 PM
I think we will. It may take longer because organizing trans people is like herding cats. I hope to see it in my lifetime, though.
Herding cats is easy; you just have to say please, and open a can of wet food. 😂
Lets hope, i know its gaining ground quickly over the last 2-3 years as same sex marriage is becoming more wide spread so is the general acceptance of the " just be happy " mentality.
~Shan~
Quote from: stephaniec on December 24, 2015, 02:05:43 PM
for the Gay community , what changed was the willingness to come out and unite. The Trans community needs to do like wise.
Spot on.
I wish we all see it in our lifetime. People are becoming more accepting in some places, but there's plenty of work to do still.
Hugs
Quote from: Dee Marshall on December 24, 2015, 01:51:32 PM
It may take longer because organizing trans people is like herding cats.
You think it's as easy as that!!!!
Sophie
Gay people are still not all that accepted everywhere but as others have said they've made quick progress in some parts of the world. Can't see a reason why trans people won't follow suit - but there needs to be education on the matter to move forward properly. And education is one of the things many establishments like schools (in my country at least) just don't want LGBT issues to have any mention in. I think there might actually still be a law against talking about it in schools.
Yes of course. The number of people coming out as trans is growing every year, and soon everyone will probably know someone who is transgender. The prevalence has been underestimated significantly, so it was never really something that got a lot of attention before. In the UK the NHS cannot even handle the number of referrals anymore apparently.
Unlike before, there are a few advantages we have now. Faster acceptance due to the internet and social media. Change happens a lot faster than it used to just by how we are all connected. People will generally have more exposure to trans people from a younger age.
Secondly, the transition process and ages at which trans people are coming out are younger, therefore they have a better chance to look like genetic females and thus will face less discrimination. I think because of the way trans people have been treated over the years, the majority who came out before were much older, and that has been harder for families and society to accept than someone who would be transitioning socially as a child and then later medically as a teen.
And the way science is progressing, perhaps in the next 15-20 years we'll get to a point where people can change their gender at any age and be indistinguishable from those who were born their identified gender. I predict that within 20 years max (probably more like 10-15), trans people will be accepted in society with a very small minority still being ignorant.
The debate in 15 years will probably have moved onto Transhumanism and changing gender will seem like no big deal anymore in comparison. That's what I bet. :)
Yes, I think so. I think media tends to lead in these matters, and pop-culture shows improvement. Trans-panic jokes used to be part of the standard sitcom repertoire, and trans characters used to be favorite victims on the crime procedural circuit. Nowadays, the trans-panic jokes have fallen into disfavor, and every season of TV brings more positive portrayals of trans people
The same pattern occurred with homosexual people. They went from "sirs not appearing in this film" to jokes to real characters. This shift in pop cultural acceptance has been echoed by changes in acceptance, both social and legal. Our pop-culture is a mirror of reality, showing us (in this case) where we're going. I think the signs are positive.
That said, there are too many lives lost in the interim, and we can't allow pop culture to be the sole driving force. People react badly to trans people, most often, because they don't know any trans people. Fear and ignorance bread hatred. By coming out, being out, and living our lives... trans people are banishing that ignorance. It's easy to hate someone from afar, but much harder (but not impossible) to hate someone that is your daughter, brother, co-worker, or friend. Again, this coming out and showing people that they can't just hate from afar, is what drove acceptance for homosexuality.
Most people these days know at least one gay person, and I think some day soon that will be true of transgender people.
I Believe that we are gaining major acceptance in the CIS community. At The rate it is going, It has taken us 1 year as compared to 10 years in the LGBT to gain the ground we have. I could definitely see the TG community one day being honored as spiritual gurus, such as the two spirit people in the Native American world. Time will only tell. But our path towards the future is a good one. Just my two cents.
:)
Quote from: Jenniferinutah on December 24, 2015, 07:43:25 PM
I Believe that we are gaining major acceptance in the CIS community. At The rate it is going, It has taken us 1 year as compared to 10 years in the LGBT to gain the ground we have. I could definitely see the TG community one day being honored as spiritual gurus, such as the two spirit people in the Native American world. Time will only tell. But our path towards the future is a good one. Just my two cents.
:)
Ah, I pity the poor fools that come to me for spiritual advice. I'll have them buying me burritos and listening to vague wordisms in return before my sense of ethics can say "Boo" about it.
Anyone who tries to honor me as a spiritual guru is going to get some "teaching" they won't like. (https://www.susans.org/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fthefiringline.com%2Fforums%2Fimages%2Fsmilies%2Fcool.gif&hash=d4879c0267a356dff26cd86b0fa87ea42a6199e1)
All I want is to be just some guy.
The modern day oracles of Delphi. Hey, if they want to leave donations I'd be happy to peer into the crystal ball.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Quote from: Tysilio on December 24, 2015, 11:47:11 PM
Anyone who tries to honor me as a spiritual guru is going to get some "teaching" they won't like. (https://www.susans.org/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fthefiringline.com%2Fforums%2Fimages%2Fsmilies%2Fcool.gif&hash=d4879c0267a356dff26cd86b0fa87ea42a6199e1)
All I want is to be just some guy.
Awww!!! Lol ;) And for me spiritual guidance is whether to have gin or vodka. :)
However I think the second point is the important one here. You want to be some guy; I have transformed myself into an average twenty-something single girl who does what all the others do: I have a normal job, I listen to other's break up stories and I shop on the high street.
I don't want to come across the wrong way here, but I really have no interest in becoming a proud transgender advocate or whatever. I'll be nice, yet for me transition is an unfortunate set of obstacles I'll have to scramble over before I can reach the smooth road ahead. I care about being passable, like most, but being passable as a real woman not as an obvious transgender/transsexual person.
The majority of my social encounters now involve me, as a woman, being treated as such without question. To be fair I've had the odd idiot shouting ->-bleeped-<-, but it's happened to my totally non-trans anything friends as well. Some men use it as a general term of insult whether they believe it or not. >:(
What bothers me, and this is purely personal, is too much trans activism focussing on setting us up as a separate species. I really don't want to be seen in those terms; even the whole 'trans-woman' thing seems like a millstone I wouldn't be strong enough to carry.
Greater acceptance of those who change tracks is what I'd be happy with :). I don't want to live outside any particular gender mainstream just join the one I feel part of. But that's just a personal view; if you want to be something other than a sexual or gender binary that's fine - it's just not for me, sorry.
Which is why this is difficult - we can pick and choose our master statuses in ways that other minority groups can't. I can be a proudly queer person, or I can go fully femme and disappear; which is my preference. When that's all sorted out I won't be coming back - sorry!!! It's just that I see transsexualism as something that can be repaired medically rather than an ongoing lifestyle definer. I know other people think differently and I also think they have the right to :)
I don't know; most of this is over my head but I do know that I'm happiest as a woman without the word trans in front xx
I'm kind of surprised why we aren't more accepted than gay people (I'm gay myself, so I get a double whammy) because you would think people would understand identity issues more easily than they can confront issues about sex, because most societies repress talk or expression about sex, and struggle even more with the idea of sex outside social or religious norms. Trans people I would have thought would actually be easier for people to understand than an attraction to the same sex. But I guess the gay aspect also comes into the trans phenomenon making it even more convoluted and difficult to understand, as well as being complicated by how people view cross dressing and presenting as a different gender. Trans conditions are a mixed bag instead of being a more straightforward issue which is why we're a little behind there, I reckon. It's much more complicated for the average person on the outside to come to understand than being gay. Even though, really, it isn't that complicated.
I really hope so, at least in a hand full of cities,counties,and states they're making it illegal to discriminate against transgender people....sadly only city in az is phoenix :-\
Quote from: windlep on December 24, 2015, 01:48:13 PM
Do you think we will ever reach the same level of acceptable as gay people?
I'd like to be optimistic and say yes. But we will never have the same level of visibility as gays. We are fewer in number and many of us aren't... well visible. We don't get politically involved and many of us just disappear into normal society.
So, if we do become well accepted, I think it will be a while.
Cindi
Yes, when pigs fly.....hey there goes a piece of bacon flying across the room and my dog is a great catch ;D ;D
Much of gay liberation has been a response to being hurt by discrimination. People fought back and allowed themselves to be visible. In the 60s I thought most gay people lived in San Francisco or New York and I left home to join them. It was part of the sexual and cultural freedom of that era to finally be OUT. Before that we had codes and clues like how you wore a hanky or keys dangling just so. I did not realize till the 80s, after my own coming out, how many LGB people were all around us.
We trans people who own it and are willing to be liberated, visible and out are making the biggest difference. Grade school children, who are trans, and their parents have stood up against the bullies and bathroom nonsense. We can be as strong and we will remain a part of this cultural fabric. Nice that we get some choices about how we wear it eh?
I certainly think so. There seems to be a general albeit slow move towards accepting people as they are. Of course there are a small number of highly conservative people who make a lot of noise about how things should be the way they have always been but what I have noticed a lot more recently is that people in general are starting to see this for the bull that it really is, so I am quite confident the day will come.
I sure hope so! But I guess it's hard for some people to understand why we would want to change. I mean I get all the time, "but you seem feminine." And it's just like, well you don't know how I feel on the inside. But that's just it. They don't know what we feel on the inside. Their minds can't wrap their head around it because they've never felt anything even remotely close to it before.
So what I'm at least hoping to happen is that people will accept without understanding. We want them to understand. But it's ok that they don't. As long as they accept it as something that's real, it's fine. But like Gay, it may take a while. Trans people gotta start banding together.
But one thing that's really good is when it gets into the media. For example, in Glee there was a trans character. And they even gathered a ton of them for a choir. We gotta get together like that! :)
I think its already happening, when I came out as a child I was subjected to mental abuse and lets shrink it out and fix him from my dads side of the family. Then when I came out to my mom's side and wifes family I was quite shocked by the level of acceptance. Many family members and my wife cried for me that I had lived in such despair all those years.
There are some exceptions but what honestly blew my mind was my grandfather who if you ever met was rough around the edges, men play poker, smoke cigars and drink. doesn't understand mental illness in that people should be able to just suck it up, was accepting of me when he would have been the last person on earth I told (thanks mom).
My moms sister called my cousins in for a meeting and made a big deal about the news she was about to tell them. They are both males in their very early 20's. the reaction she got was "that's it? mom its 2015 good for him"
There will always be a generational and location based discrimination during our life times, but our children will grow with a level of acceptance we could only dream of.
I do have to add that as debatable as the bruce jenner subject is and I for one have had to deal with assumptions and fallout of her coming out...mom and sisters feel I should be loud and proud and don't understand why I just want to be seen as me and as such took it upon themselves to tell everyone even when I asked them not to. I attribute this to the gay movement and the fact they watched the "Cait" reality tv before knowing about me.
The positive aspect is both my mom and sisters said had they not seen the story they would have probably taken longer to come to accept me. It's still a struggle though because as much as it opened their eyes, they can't wrap their head around the fact is, everyones story is different and doesn't fit into this reality tv series picture of what being trans is all about.