From one closet to another: Passing privilege in the trans community

"Passing: If someone is regarded, at a glance, to be a cisgender man or cisgender woman. Cisgender refers to someone whose gender identity matches the sex they were ‘assigned’ at birth. This might include physical gender cues and/or behaviour which is historically or culturally associated with a particular gender."

Visibly trans people - most commonly women - are accused of bringing abuse on themselves by failing to adhere to strict, outdated and often white supremacist standards of appearance. Meanwhile, the consequences for passing trans people whose trans identities are subsequently revealed are brutal and, occasionally, deadly.

It is the responsibility of the trans individual to suffer these indignities with polite grace and subservience. By allowing cisgender people to believe we are one of them, it is understood we have stolen an expression of humanity that was never intended for us.

After this years-long torture, the prospect of being able to blend in with a cisgender crowd can provide a temporary, blissful relief. This rare opportunity is understandably seized upon by trans people desperate for an easier life. And it is easier. In many ways, it is easier. But it is a limited existence, as the system of oppression against trans and gender nonconforming people remains firmly in place.

Even if every trans person was able to seamlessly blend into the background , such blind obedience can only achieve so much. It is a conditional, coercive transaction. Submit and be left alone. Submit - or else.

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