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Why there’s still an argument about NYT coverage of trans people
The New York Times is digging in its heels on institutional transphobia. The NYT open letter has been signed by ‘over 1,200 New York Times contributors and over 34,000 media workers, Times readers, and subscribers.’
A trans person is trans everywhere we go
We belong to the world. If he agrees with the ACLU statement that trans people belong everywhere, why is he arguing with it? What are ‘those heights’ that trans people cannot hit?
On trans kids, ask people who know
Try looking where the answers are. How does the New York Times know what it thinks it knows? Is it influenced by its peers? Is it what it says it is? Is it ever going to change?
I am not taking complaints about my face
Why the term ‘womanface’ is wrong. How is having a womanface or a manface different from having a face? What must I stop doing? I am trans and I woke up with my face. This is my manface?
The freedom to be left alone
We should have the choice, but we don’t always have it. In the past, when prompted to think about whether I’m ‘out’ or ‘queer,’ I’ve thought about the transgressive sense and about the meaning of visibility.
The system always leaves someone out
It doesn’t mean the person is strange. Any time we make a system of classification, someone won’t fit. This exclusion might say more about our need to classify people than about them.
Baldness isn’t just physical
It’s also performative. Labels describe how we live. Even when they describe reality, they’re about perceptions and performances. How we live interprets who we are.
When labels don’t feel right
She had two moms, and she didn’t like the word ‘straight’. If we have a stake in a shared outcome, we might avoid declaring how we’re different and separate from others, especially to imply our superiority.
People have been mad about ‘cisgender’ since at least 2007
If someone wants a world where no one is marked as cis, they must simultaneously fight for a world where no one is marked as trans.