The Transgender/ Asexual Easter Bunny.
ttp://willendork.wordpress.com/2008/07/15/the-transgender-asexual-easter-bunny/ (http://ttp://willendork.wordpress.com/2008/07/15/the-transgender-asexual-easter-bunny/)
So, I have this friend. (And I don't mean one of those hypothetical friends people use when discussing themselves in the third person. This is a non-hypothetical, flesh-and-blood friend of mine. Or possibly a very believable hologram. But I digress.) And once, maybe over a year ago now, she told me that although she supports gay folks, she simply doesn't "believe in transgender people" — meaning their very existence strikes her as suspect, as somehow not yet legitimized. This kind of comment, in a new relationship, would probably establish a person firmly in the "acquaintance" category for me, but given that I'd grown used to valuing her friendship by the time she told me this, saying sayonara didn't seem like my most compelling option. Instead, I said my piece and hoped that eventually, she would meet some cool trans folks who, purely by existing as real people in her life, would help her understand the reality of transgendered experience, so she might move from a position of ignorance into one of alliance. I also vented to a friend about the comment — which struck me as horribly misguided and hurtful — who sparked a hearty laugh when she replied, "What?! Are trans people like the Easter Bunny now?"
Ya, we're all either parapheliacs or gays in denial, doncha know?
One of the standard techniques used in marginalising a group is to deny the validity of their life experience. "Don't tell us what being transgendered is like. We, the normative cisgendered, know better than you do what your life is all about."