A transgender person is a kind of person who exists. That’s it.
The world is full of different kinds of people having different kinds of experiences. And some of those people are transgender, and they’re real. They exist. We know this because we can observe them in reality. We can see them, we can talk to them, we can listen to them. We can learn from them. Just like everyone else.
The republican party and their white christian evangelical nationalists don’t accept that. They don’t understand that experience. They don’t comprehend it. Their brain looks at different people and doesn’t get how a person can be that way. How can a person have that experience? It doesn’t make sense to them.
You don’t need to understand the lived experience of another person. But you can offer that person respect and kindness. And to believe that person is worthy of dignity and basic human rights.
Seven Feet Tall People
You might not be 7 feet tall. And you might not have any idea what it’s like to live inside the body of a 7-foot-tall person. But you understand that people who are 7 feet tall exist. That is an experience that someone else, who is not you, is having. That is the kind of person who exists.
However, because you don’t understand someone else’s experience, doesn’t mean that those people are somehow less deserving of kindness, respect, dignity, and basic human rights.
People With Disabilities
There are people living with different kinds of disabilities that you don’t share, and that you do not completely understand.
For example, some people do not have the ability to walk. But you understand that your legs help you walk. That’s how legs work. That’s what legs mean to you.
So when someone says, “Hey, I have legs, but I don’t walk, that’s how my legs work.” Republican politicians and their white christian evangelical nationalists say, “I don’t believe you. That’s not what I know about legs. That’s not how legs work. You aren’t real. You’re making that up. That’s fantasy stuff.”
I hope you can hear how absurd that is. However, that’s what republican politicians and their white christian evangelical nationalists think.
You do not need to understand the experience of a person who cannot walk to believe them when they tell you they cannot walk.
You don’t need to understand the experience of another person completely, to believe that they are deserving of respect, kindness, dignity, and basic human rights. It really is that simple.