Transphobia Runs Rampant

A panoramic view of the City of Málaga, taken from the top of the Gibralfaro Castle. Mattie Baird, July 2023.

Please note: The English version of this site/newsletter is translated from Spanish to English using artificial intelligence software (https://www.deepl.com/) Therefore, there may be grammatical errors present.

Dear reader:

Good morning. This issue was not published right on time because, truly, this issue has taken a lot out of me, professionally and personally, to write. I have embarked on a journey of deep and hard thinking and reflection to effectively capture the data disseminated in this issue. In Malaga, my research participants, combined with my formal and informal interactions with people who do not identify as trans, have given me a lot of data to analyze. The truth is that there is still a lot of transphobia in Spain. While this is not a surprise, to digest this data changes one's perspective. To hear the specific details of the acts of violence that occur very often towards trans people and the entire collective on a daily basis affects me personally even though I do this research professionally. Most of the research participants keep in contact with me through communication mediums such as Instagram, WhatsApp, phone calls and even in-person meetings/follow-up interviews. Through these interactions, I observe the dangerous impact transphobic violence has on the mental health of these individuals. This issue describes an array of these acts, including an analysis of the intentions versus the impacts of the actions of the people who commit these acts of violence. It also presents some information on the mental health status of trans people due to the aforementioned findings.

First, there are many cis people who have the best intentions, trying to be activists for the trans community. According to one trans interviewee, she has tried to talk about her challenges with her friends, but says that no one ever understands her. When the interviewee and I met, she told me that our conversation was her first ever conversation with another trans person. She was full of tears and emotion because, as she says, she has never felt understood as a trans woman before our conversation. With her friends, she has always tried to explain what is going on in her life with her feelings of dysphoria in her own body, the fetishization she faces in many of her sexual encounters, and transphobic comments she recieves from cis people regarding her future aspirations (e.g., her aspirations to have gender affirming surgeries).

Another interviewee, a cis woman who describes herself as a feminist activist, talked a lot about machismo and how she relates this concept to trans identities. Appearance - how a person appears, this interviewee says, is what determines the privilege that person has. Their gender identity is not important in this case. She continues, "If there is a person who visually looks like a man, whether or not that is their gender identity, they have the privilege of a man in society. That person has to accept that." The concept of associating a person's appearance with their gender regardless of their identity in and of itself is incredibly harmful. It entirely perpetuates the gender binary that our society has preserved for thousands of years. To say that a person's appearance alone is what determines their social position in society hurts not only this person and other people with gender-diverse identities (trans, non-binary and other non-normative identities,) but it also hurts society as a whole... it perpetuates the idea that women will always be the subject of sexist violence and that how a person appears will always dictate how that person will be perceived and treated. Yes, it is undeniable that some members of our society make decisions about how to treat someone based solely on their appearance... but this says nothing about who the person actually is. To say that anything about a person's appearance that is against how they identify is an act of transphobic violence that hurts all members of society, putting a pressure on them to always perform gender in a way that is stereotypically masculine to avoid physical and emotional violence. The same interviewee recounts an idea she says she shares with many of her friends in an activist group here in Malaga... "Men are more likely to dare to change their gender then women." First, I had to clarify who she was talking about... "When you say 'men' and 'women,' what are you saying?" She explains to me that in the first part of her statement, she is talking about "men changing their sex to women" and "women changing their sex to men." As a researcher, it is very difficult to know when it is time for me to exchange ideas with a participant instead of just asking and listening. Here, we had a conversation about the fact that it is generally considered offensive and unacceptable to refer to a trans person as someone who "was" one gender or sex (two terms that are often used interchangeably, even though they are very different) that "changed" to "the other." Every trans experience is unique, and yes there are some people who describe themselves this way, but generally, it is unacceptable to describe people in the collective as such if they have not described themselves as such. The vast majority of trans people I have spoken to formally and informally have articulated that this description does not capture their experience. One trans interviewee says, “I have always been girl. Anyone who says I've been male for any portion of my life doesn't know anything about trans lives." When asked further about her comment on the likelihood of people to 'dare to transition,' she explains that, "Biologically, people who were born as boys are more likely to dare to do anything..." Every transition is different. I have never spoken to a trans person who has said that their transition was more or less easy because of their identity versus their assigned sex at birth. I have met transfeminine, transmasculine and non-binary people who have described their transitions as 'easy' and others who have described them as 'hard.' To compare trans people's transitions to each other is also harmful in many ways. The insights revealed during this interview with this woman who is part of the 'baby boomer' generation coincide with conversations I have had with others who are part of the same generation. In addition to the erasure of non-binary people through the words of this interview (not including any mention of non-binary identities,) it is a window into how society, even people who say they 'support the movement,' viewed trans people in the 60s/70s/80s.

Similarly, there are cisgender people who cause harm, but without claiming to support trans people in any way. The ideas below relate to the TERF (Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist) movement. People in this group are transphobic, in many cases claiming that trans women endanger women's rights. Some of the ideas outlined describe things said by people who are not directly part of the 'TERF movement' (e.g. friends of trans women) while others are things said directly by members of the TERF constituency. First, one thing that multiple transfeminine participants have reported being told by cis people is that getting gender-affirming medical care such as breast augmentation, vaginoplasty (bottom surgery) and other interventions are mutilating, sexist acts and perpetuate harmful norms of beauty and performance of femininity in society. These same women almost never say these things when cisgender women make modifications to their bodies... they say that they have autonomy over their bodies (yes, they should have it, but so should trans people!) Of all the interviewees' responses to these comments, the most powerful is, "Yes, of course we have to break the patriarchy... but it's not only my responsibility! It's my responsibility to live my life, to be authentic to myself and be the best version of me that I can be." Well said.

All of these acts of hate have profoundly damaging and dangerous effects to the mental health of trans people. As heartbreaking as it is, I have heard from participants about their challenges with suicidal ideation due to these acts of hate. Hate promotes trans genocide. We must fight against hate as a society, to protect the life, liberty and happiness of ALL.

Until next week…
Mattie

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