I was a racist, a homophobe, and a misogynist. Not proud of it, but there it is. I've spent a lot of time teaching myself that we're all equal and deserve the same respect. When I figured out I was transgender I realized I was going to be the target of people like myself.

Thanks for making us think.

Hugs, Devlyn

Hello,

I am so confused.

If I were cis I guess I would also be heterosexual, as I am now. So I guess my filters would be less porous. However, I work in a very LGBT friendly hospital and we are very liberal. So I hope I would have the compassion and understanding to be trans supportive.   

No, I don't think so. It's always been my philosophy that if it's not hurting anyone let people be happy.  I've also always tried to imagine myself in another person's situation before I judge.       I've never looked at minorities as statistics or numbers, but always as humans.   Not saying that I would have been an advocate or anything, just not transphobic.

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Having grown up in the environment that existed in my family, there was a constant tension between me and my parents. What ever they would say, I would disagree with. If they didn't like someone, I would ask "why?" And me being me caused a lot of tension as it was. Now in my career (working in the health care field) I deal with all kinds of people. So to answer the question, since I was born as I am, I don't know if I would be phobic towards others.

If I were born cis, than I wouldnt be me. How could I know then how would I think if I was someone else?

Make your best guess. 

Hugs, Devlyn

Quote from: Devlyn Marie on May 30, 2016, 10:51:34 AM
Make your best guess. 

Hugs, Devlyn

My best guess is maybe.  LOL.  My parents were not homophobic even though they were pretty conservative.  They didn't accept it as normal but they did accept my gay cousin pretty easily back in the 70s.  They were also not religious fundamentalists, being Episcopalian instead.  So in that respect I was raised to accept and not judge this sort of thing.  (Except when it came to me they judged harshly, but that's another story.)

Any homo and trans phobia I might have developed would have happened after I became a religious fundamentalist.  However, a big part of why I fell into that pit was because I was trans.  I got it into my head that maybe God would fix all the trans conflicts if I could find him.  I thought I needed to believe all that fundamentalist stuff in order to have the right kind of faith.  This also led me through a succession of denominations ending up as Catholic before I ended that futile search.  Maybe if I hadn't been trans none of that would have ever occurred and I would have remained as I was raised.

So everything in my life is tangled up in the Gordian Knot of being trans and trying to make it go away. 

Given the people I associate with, I'd wager I wouldn't be. All prejudice and any phobias I may at one time have had I absorbed from an American missionary school I went to. However, these never got rooted very deep, and on exposure to the real world mostly dissolved naturally.

That said, if working strictly with the definition of the original post—which includes the word "weird"—I guess I might at least sometimes be. I find I more easily accept people who act naturally and gracefully than anyone who seems to be putting on an act or a facade. I believe this would most likely also apply to some transgendered people who are just learning to assimilate the posture, speech and other mannerisms of the gender they were not brought up as.

I feel this is also true elsewhere. While unfamiliar styles look good on models, this only comes after they've learnt to wear them naturally and with confidence. Moves of students first learning to dance may first look staged and ungraceful, but with internalization can become automatic and beautiful. An ugly duckling stage is easy to understand and accept at workshops and other like situations, but in the context of chance daily encounters and mundane activities is more likely to seem weird.

If i was cis I'd still be queer, so likely not - but you never know, there is a lot of transphobia still about in the wider LGBTQIA community.

I don't know if I'd be educated about trans issues, because a lot of people aren't if they don't have a direct reason to be. So that might lead to some more subtle forms of transphobia and internalised transphobia that really come from ignorance and making assumptions instead of outright hate

Trans people are rare enough that they wouldn't be on my radar until our paths crossed. Transphobia would certainly be a paranoid overreaction.

Quote from: JMJW on May 30, 2016, 12:21:11 PM
Trans people are rare enough that they wouldn't be on my radar until our paths crossed. Transphobia would certainly be a paranoid overreaction.

Aw, you made me do it! From Kinky Boots:

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

Hugs, Devlyn

Quote from: Peep on May 30, 2016, 12:18:11 PM
If i was cis I'd still be queer, so likely not - but you never know, there is a lot of transphobia still about in the wider LGBTQIA community.

I don't know if I'd be educated about trans issues, because a lot of people aren't if they don't have a direct reason to be. So that might lead to some more subtle forms of transphobia and internalised transphobia that really come from ignorance and making assumptions instead of outright hate

I'm gay. If I were born cis, I'd still be gay. However, cis gay men are some of the most transphobic people I've ever met. Most gay people want people with the same set of genitals as them, just like straight people want their partner to have the opposite set. One thing that I've always known is that I can get over not having a penis- I'm just scared my partner wouldn't, since so much of the "gay culture" is surrounded by penises<mod edit> and being proud of loving penises <mod edit>. For example, in Key & Peele's sketch, "Office Homophobe", Keegan plays a flamboyant gay man who really loves penises... it's just phalus, phalus, phalus<mod edit> all up in Gay Land. So it's no wonder a lot of gay men are transphobic. 

Moderator edit: A repeated use of a slang word was edited to a more inclusive biological(clinical) term. We want this to be  a safe site. Thanks.

When I was doing the guy thing, I came across several LGBTetc people, and most of them I thought, "well...hey, they're not doing anything that harms me or mine..." and had a live-and-let-live philosophy.

I did encounter one person who was wearing a dress and low heels, and hadn't shaved in a few days. My then-wife made some comment under her breath, and I just said he's not hurting anyone, and if he has mental issues...no harm done by wearing a dress. He probably wants to, anyway.

So yeah, I was probably more of an ally.

I would say no because there was a brief time where I didn't know I was trans*, knew about them, and wasn't transphobic then. But I am probably an exception because of my background, I grew up in a liberal place with a liberal family and I'm part of the younger generation. Had I been growing up in a different environment maybe I wouldn't be so open minded. I was pretty ignorant in my young teens when it came to be lgbt stuff but that changed as I got older.

If I was a cis male (I can't grasp being a cis female as accurately), maybe I wouldn't have entirely discarded the racist, sexist, homophobic and transphobic influences from my childhood and our culture (though, our culture is steadily becoming more accepting of human nature), and would feel a sense of superiority. For as long as I can remember, though, I've been constantly seeking new vantage points to understand. This characteristic isn't contingent upon me being transgender, but rather not having a father, or any single person I've wanted to emulate, or any single ideology I've strictly followed for very long (whenever I think I might be complacent, I always feel an impetus to learn something new). As a result, I often hear from people I rekindle my relationship with after a couple years, that they feel like they are meeting a different person. Therefore, while I'm sure I would be less empathetic of those struggling with gender dysphoria, I think I would eventually want to understand them.

I don't think I would be, going by the fact I'm not really gay but I'm not homophobic
_{my sexual orientation is a bit of a mess to be honest though i'm pretty sure i'm ace (i don't like the idea of a relationship like that and i've never had a desire for it)}

My household isn't like that either so I wouldn't pick up on that kind of thing from my parents q:

No, I wouldn't be.  I'm white, and my first best friend, when I was five (in 1967) was black.  In high school in the late 1970's I had friends who were part of the "sweater vest and manicure" set, and I never talked about them behind their backs or asked about their sexuality. 

Bear in mind I never thought of myself as trans* at the time, since I had no idea or knowledge that gender transition existed or was possible.

If I were a cisgender guy, I would still be just as liberal.

I can't say for sure but there is the possibility I would be.  I was raised Southern Baptist and the reason I left the SBC was, being trans and bi, I was tired of hearing what a horrible person I was.  If I had not left the SBC, I wonder if I would have succumbed to their indoctrination or would I have still been open minded.  I would like to think I would have been the latter.

I feel like coming out to myself as transgender, and then later genderfluid did so much character building for me. If that never happened, if I never identified as a gender minority, I would think I would have ended up much less accepting, and certainly a lot less knowledgable (I have memories of using that t six letter t word and thinking it was the right word to say).

To put simply, I wouldn't think I would be transphobic, but I would certainly be uneducated and stubborn to learn about it. So maybe, yeah, probably actually would've ended up transphobic, and that sounds so horrible to type (because this sentence makes perfect sense). 

I'm about as socially liberal as they come and even in my less liberal days, i was very tolerant and a supporter of diversity. My parents taught me pretty well in that respect. They may have not been perfect in their tolerance but they evolved nicely.