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An argument for trans rights
No-one has rights on an island of one as they do not seek to oppress themselves, thus you only need rights when you exist within a society of two or more. This also means that rights are neither innate or absolute, a negotiated process which is never fully complete. They are a narrative of hospitality where there will always be a better translation, and the power dynamics between the rights requestor and the rights dignifier is perpetually in motion. Trans rights are a societal narrative of hospitality based on the willingness of the majority to dignify the rights of the trans minority. As such, the narrative of hospitality fostered between trans people and the rest of society is dependent on the grace and good will of society to ensure that trans rights are not debased and demeaned.
This leads to the observation of what does “trans rights” actually entail. Trans in this context encompasses a broad church of identities that are not cisnormative, ranging from cross dressing to non-binary to transgender to medicalised transsexuals who have had gender reassignment surgery. These semantics are nuanced and contested spaces, which is why “trans” is a wholly positional understanding of self and society, not a dictated term from on high. Trans rights is therefore an overlapping, sometimes contested, conception that those who are not cisnormative has the right to lead dignified lives in a pluralistic…
