Dear cisgender people, stop talking
If I could be in a more foul mood, I would end this article with that title. But I want to make myself clear, everyone has and will be affected by the current events and the state of abortion access, and reproductive justice in the united states. But I’m not filled with hate for the United States, and I’m not going to sit and blame people who chose not to vote. And cisgender people need to start owning their participation in a transphobic society that alienates and harms trans people.
Are we all on the same page now?
I didn’t think it needed to be said, but cisgender should not presume to have an inkling of the trans experience, at all. But most especially they should not be throwing around “trans women and nonbinary people and trans men” as addendums to their bio-centric statements around abortion access.
Too many youtube videos and influencers are suddenly pretending to have a lifetime’s worth of experience and knowledge of what transgender people go through with the medical system, and are vain enough to presume they have some knowledge of what reproductive healthcare looks like for transgender people. I can assure you, if they did, the handmaid’s tale never would have reached the astronomical notoriety that it has.
Restrictions to healthcare that is ultimately suicide prevention starts with gender affirming care for people of all genders, and this includes abortion access and reproductive care. The same necessity an individual may have for hormone replacement treatment should be granted the same validity of someone who becomes pregnant and chooses to have an abortion. Both of these medical institutions hold the power to shape people’s futures and lives, and this isn’t news to trans people, but cisgender people are suddenly very invested in including trans folks on the ends of all their sentences recently.
IF you have a platform to speak about these issues and make more people aware of the intense effects these rulings are having on the transgender community, stick to the rule of identity: if it’s not you, pass the microphone. You can still engage in meaningful and thoughtful conversations about abortion access with transgender activists who have a much better understanding and *life* experience with the medical system’s transphobia.
You cannot suddenly deep dive into abortion access and reproductive justice without first acknowledging the harm that has been done to transgender women, men and nonbinary people as well as intersex individuals by a medical system that has no concept of the impact of reproductive care access to transgender people. It starts with a lack of knowledge, which builds to an internalized bias which ultimately leads to transgender people experiencing life threatening complications to their reproductive systems organs and overall health because some cisgender doctor somewhere made them feel unsafe.
This is not news! This has been the reality for decades, I myself have had such little interaction with medical providers as an openly trans person I truly wouldn’t know where to start. This does not make me an expert or excellent abortion advocate. This makes me an angry transgender person who is frustrated at the shock and outrage of cisgender people exclaiming (particularly white cisgender women) that their rights are being taken away. If you had been paying attention, they have been chipping away at those rights for centuries if not decades. This is not news, but now that it has reached so many people’s doorsteps, and entered their homes and begun to affect the white cisgender patriarchal society’s way of life, suddenly cisgender people are listening.
This may seem scathing, but I know this rage is just a drop in the current storm that is brewing for reproductive justice. Think of trans people when you share graphics depicting people with a uterus as the only ones who are worthy of having an opinion about abortion care. Think of transgender families when you cry that everyone should be sterilized via vasectomy since it is reversible. Think of intersex people when you claim transgender binary people and fail to learn the history of forced medical operations on intersex babies and children.
When you start there, and come into this discussion informed, it mediates the amount of harm that will be done by your hands and your words. Instead of doomscrolling and ingesting every toxic take, look backwards at the transgender activists who came before you, the transgender women who want to be moms, and the trans community as a whole who believe in non-traditional family design.
Let the history of my community shape your focus, so you know who to support and where to amplify those voices. If you’re not sure, stop talking, and start learning.
