As a transgender man, myself and many of my fellow transgender Americans are awaiting the much anticipated leveling up in the United States cisgender population.
Yes, you heard that correctly. We would like for you all as cisgender Americans to unlearn your unconscious bias towards our community. Rather than asking/expecting us as transgender people to have to call you out on your ignorance to the issues that our community faces daily, we as transgender people have been tired for decades of having to do your work for you. Do the work. Allyship is actionable.
That also relates to educating yourself on an issue and then going deeper and doing your work to then ask informed questions to then learn more. If you as a cisgender person say to a transgender person for us to let you know if you are ever ignorant, that tells us as transgender people you are a walking red flag.
It tells us as transgender people that you as a cisgender person with your whole chest feel entitled to say to us that:
- You as a cisgender person are expecting to not correctly consistently engage with transgender people and don’t want to be held to the expectation to do so with respect and kindness for us as transgender people.
- You as a cisgender person are expecting transgender people to be ok with not being engaged with respectfully or accurately and that you as a cisgender person expect transgender people to just take that kind of mistreatment and become accustomed to it.
- You as a cisgender person are insecure and in your mind you feel the need to attempt to assert yourself in some oddly crafted bias hierarchy that you have coded and comes to you as first nature in your brain that makes you feel as a cisgender person emboldened to instruct a member of marginalized community to be ok with the treatment of being “othered”.
- It displays a lack of willingness as a cisgender person to actively better yourself as a human being and shines a light on the darkness that lies with your discriminatory soul.
- It displays that you as the cisgender person have a superiority complex and are not a safe or supportive individual to associate with.
If this article has triggered you as a cisgender person that means you have more work to do. Just don’t expect a transgender person to hold your privileged cisgender hand and walk you through your journey to enlightenment as we are already there. Meet transgender people where we are at or simply do not disgrace yourself with ignorance in our presence.