Kia Ora,

What do we who(whether we agree with it or not) come under the "trans" umbrella really have in common ?

Is it purely the fact we are "birth sex non-conformists" ? Is this all that we really have in common ?

Many have suffered Discrimination and Gender dysphoria, but not all of us have suffered...

Many want to surgically change sex-many don't...

No two journeys are exactly the same...

Some are liberal-some are conservative...

So what's the common glue that binds us together ?

Does a simple thing like "clothing" have anything to do with it ?

Food for thought 

Metta Zenda

We have all felt the same pain ...a pain that cis people wont never even come close to understanding.

Something to contemplate indeed.

A few quick thoughts:

I think that we have a lot in common:  Our human state; our brief time on this plane of existence; a real opportunity to learn, to grow and to love;  a shared starting point i.e. GD;  the same opportunity to author our life experience etc  Discomfort with our current physical presentation is really the least of it but it is a common and uniquely powerful starting point - it causes us to ponder who we really are, what we really are, whether we can be more than our ego; more than our starting state and to determine where we wish to travel

Safe travels

Aisla

I think we all got the thing in common that our asigned gender dosen't tell it all about our gender identity.

for cisgender you get asigned female or male, and then thats it.

for transgender theres more to the story, the gender we got asigned is misleading and we may want to change it.
Somethimes we may keep it, or theres some truth into it, but even when we partly identify with our asigned gender it still not enough/the whole story, so there are still some part left behind.
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Quote from: Anatta on February 23, 2014, 10:30:01 PM
Kia Ora,

What do we who(whether we agree with it or not) come under the "trans" umbrella really have in common ?

Is it purely the fact we are "birth sex non-conformists" ? Is this all that we really have in common ?

Many have suffered Discrimination and Gender dysphoria, but not all of us have suffered...

Many want to surgically change sex-many don't...

No two journeys are exactly the same...

Some are liberal-some are conservative...

So what's the common glue that binds us together ?

Does a simple thing like "clothing" have anything to do with it ?

Food for thought 

Metta Zenda

I believe that there are no LGBT issues, no trans* issues, no women's issues, and no men's issues.  There are only human issues.  All people are my people and we all should stand together. 

But, meanwhile, back in reality where that doesn't happen . . . .

Trans* people usually share the same enemies.  The purveyors of transphobia and those who oppose our civil rights do not distinguish between different points in the spectrum, nor do they usually even know about them.

We share many of the same needs.  We all seek to be safe in our jobs, in public spaces, and in our homes.  That means anti-discrimination legislation and public education benefit all of us.

We all suffer rejection from the larger society and even from our own families. 

We all experience our gender differently from cisgender people.  Even if the desire is not to transition to the same place or in the same direction, or even the same number of times, or even to transition at all, the fact is that we all cope with a sense of gender dislocation.  The solutions and the destinations may differ, but the fact is we all have an issue and a journey.

And I'm sorry, but we are all human beings.  Even if our humanity is often forgotten, sometimes even by ourselves.

Those are just off the top of my head . . . I suspect I could list a lot more if I gave it a little thought.  But really, I tend to think that the umbrella concept exists because we all have so much more in common than we have different. 

The Phoenix

As per usual you are more erudite and addressed the question more completely than I did.  Much appreciated and very well said.

Aisla

Quotefalseprinces wrote:
We have all felt the same pain ...a pain that cis people wont never even come close to understanding.

I really think this sums it up.

Quote from: ThePhoenix on February 24, 2014, 04:24:59 PM
I believe that there are no LGBT issues, no trans* issues, no women's issues, and no men's issues.  There are only human issues.  All people are my people and we all should stand together. 

I definitely agree with everything ThePhoenix eloquently said (and everyone else on this thread for that matter), but I would add one more thing:

Gender is a very basic, deep way in which we express ourselves to the world. Feeling like we are not allowed or approved of by society to act the way we want to act, or dress the way we want to dress, or love who we want to love, gives many of us a feeling of being different, of being the "other". 

Feeling that way encourages us to cultivate compassion for other groups of "different" people: ethnic and religious minorities, LGBTQAI, the dis- and differently abled, people who are subjected to sexism and ageism. Feeling different helps us to reach that level of thought that ThePhoenix says above: all of our problems are human problems, not relegated to each group.

Questioning something as "basic" as sex and gender norms paves the way for questioning societal thoughts and practices that someone growing up within "normal" bounds doesn't ever think could be any other way.

Quote from: ThePhoenix on February 24, 2014, 04:24:59 PMTrans* people usually share the same enemies.  The purveyors of transphobia and those who oppose our civil rights do not distinguish between different points in the spectrum, nor do they usually even know about them.

We share many of the same needs.  We all seek to be safe in our jobs, in public spaces, and in our homes.  That means anti-discrimination legislation and public education benefit all of us.

We all suffer rejection from the larger society and even from our own families.

ThePhoenix sums it up perfectly for me.  It's not us who are bringing ourselves together as such, but our collective rejection from mainstream society which forces us into a group.

Safety in numbers?

I'd rather be going through this with someone, anyone, who understands the pain of gender dysphoria by my side.  While our individual needs might be unique, we have plenty in common that can be put to good use for giving support to one another and for combating discrimination.