do you feel that the few notorious public figures that come out against the transgender community are able to change public opinion about us and will eventually if left uncorrected and unanswered do real damage to the perception of the transgender individuals place in society or are they just misguided and uninformed and that the public at large is astute enough to see past their ignorance and eventually learn to respect us as equals and help us take down the obstacles that have in the past made it difficult if not impossible to attain full actualization of who we are and our benefit to society as a whole.

I can only answer from my own experience. I will qualify as well as from Australians who in general are very accepting, independent people anyway. The cis people I am friends with regard such outbursts with disdain and coming from ignorant people.

I am accepted as me and people just want to accept people. When they read rants from people in the press etc it is seen as just that; rants.

I think there is also a matter that very few cispeople even bother to read such stuff. It is of no interest to them.

I did bring up the (very USA) bathroom issue with friends and there was just a blank look. The opinion was why is anyone bothered?

Quote from: stephaniec on March 10, 2016, 01:06:21 AM
do you feel that the few notorious public figures that come out against the transgender community are able to change public opinion about us and will eventually if left uncorrected and unanswered do real damage to the perception of the transgender individuals place in society or are they just misguided and uninformed and that the public at large is astute enough to see past their ignorance and eventually learn to respect us as equals and help us take down the obstacles that have in the past made it difficult if not impossible to attain full actualization of who we are and our benefit to society as a whole.

I think it depends on what we as a community do.

Really, it is up to us to educate people and to define ourselves. If we let other people do it for us, whether well-intentioned and ignorant or downright hateful, we will suffer. If we get out in front of those folks and lay out the facts, people will understand. It's really not that hard a concept.

We're a small minority, perhaps one or two million in the United States.  (It's impossible to get any reliable figures.)  Given that the general population is over 300 million, many people, perhaps most people, in the US don't know any TG people personally.  Or if they do know TG people, they may not even realize it.

This is a dangerous situation, because when ignorant and hateful people defame us, most Americans are susceptible to their views because they have no actual TG acquaintances to judge by.

As a parallel example, when most lesbians and gay men were closeted several decades ago, most Americans readily accepted the hateful rhetoric that claimed gay people were evil and sick.  As more and more gay people came out, people began to realize that they did know gay people.  Gay people were their neighbors, their coworkers, and even their relatives.  It's one thing to hate gay people in the abstract when you think you don't know anyone gay.  It's a lot harder to hate when you have a nice lesbian cousin that you love.

Right-wing and fundamentalist hate-mongering against TG people does a LOT of damage.  Since most people don't have any personal acquaintance with TG people to serve as a reality check, many ordinary people accept the most outrageous lies about us because they assume the people who defame us must know what they are talking about.  It's a particular problem because some of the hate-mongers occupy positions that are normally accorded a high level credibility: religious leaders and public officials, for instance.

Make no mistake about it.  We are being defamed in an organized way by opportunists and Bible-thumpers for base motives of political and religious advantage.  Reactionaries are literally trying to convince Americans that TG people are perverted men wearing dresses who want to sneak into public restrooms for the purpose of molesting little girls.  And it's causing a lot of damage.  Look no further than the vote in Houston TX, where exactly that pitch successfully moved the electorate to overturn the city's human rights ordinance.  We need to take this seriously.

5% transgender is a reliable number and to quote Kinky Boots:

"You're never more than ten feet away from a ->-bleeped-<-."

I assure you everybody knows a transgender person, they may just be unaware of it.

Hugs, Devlyn

Quote from: Devlyn Marie on March 10, 2016, 07:43:07 AM
5% transgender is a reliable number and to quote Kinky Boots:

"You're never more than ten feet away from a ->-bleeped-<-."

I assure you everybody knows a transgender person, they may just be unaware of it.

Hugs, Devlyn

My partner and I loved that movie.
Sorry. I know it's not relevant to the topic but, loved that movie.
Hugs
Stevie

Quote from: Devlyn Marie on March 10, 2016, 07:43:07 AM
5% transgender is a reliable number and to quote Kinky Boots:

"You're never more than ten feet away from a ->-bleeped-<-."

I assure you everybody knows a transgender person, they may just be unaware of it.

Hugs, Devlyn

That comes out to 15 MILLION of us. Wow!  I had no idea!  We could be a significant voice.

It's possible they're doing good and harm at the same time. A lot of straight, cis people think of us as basically some variant of gay, and it's growing less and less acceptable to demonize someone just because they're gay. In fact, for your average tolerant person, it probably harms their opinion of the one doing the demonizing more than their opinion of us.

On the other hand, there's also a large group of closed-minded, hateful individuals out there, and for them this sort of rhetoric justifies and fuels their hatred. So they're more likely to do extreme, awful thing to trans people than they would be if there weren't someone in the media constantly demonizing us.

There's a huge PR industry who make a lot of money spreading disinformation to support corporate agendas.   The money wouldn't be spent if it didn't work.  Look how long the tobacco industry got away with killing people.  Look at how action on climate change has stalled for 30 years.   In many ways the attack on transgender people is a slimy PR campaign.

Unfortunately lies and misinformation usually work, especially when you have such a corrupt media that rarely challenges the bigotry and hate.

This is not to say that these people will ultimately win the day.  They won't, but they will make it hard for years.

Sorry to be a downer,
Paige

Quote from: Cindy on March 10, 2016, 01:33:12 AM
I can only answer from my own experience. I will qualify as well as from Australians who in general are very accepting, independent people anyway.

And, incidentally, the young generation of Australians owe our thanks to the Aussie trans people who came before us for this situation.

I am transitioning at a time when it is strange and a little confronting to many people. But it is not offensive, deviant, disgraceful or illegal. I have the benefit of excellent legal protections as well.

So thanks to all the older Aussie transmen and women for fighting for our recognition and tolerance!



P.S. I am a little sad that I will probably never move to the USA given the levels of discrimination there. It's bittersweet because I finally received a PR visa last year after years of applying.

There comes a time when a slur converts the minority blind. Sooner or later the negatives will become positives. Look what happened to the vile campaign against gay marriage just a few years ago. It backfired in a major way. When parts of a majority come to the aid of a minority, the minority gets a chance of acceptance.

I think we are on the cusp of general acceptance. It is indeed an exciting time to be alive.

Personally, I'd rather visit Australia than the US. The US has some nice things , but those cute little marsupials that attack people from trees sounds cool.

back to the topic, My own personal revelation came when I found Susan's after start HRT. The magnitude of perception change that came about transgender people as compared to the media view such as Jerry Springer made me revaluate my whole opinion of myself. I found I was normal.