Respectability politics in the trans community
Is it ever alright to ask a radical trans person to tone down their rhetoric for the sake of the wider community? This is such a loaded question because it makes two basic assumptions: one, the trans community as a whole is assumed to want to live quiet lives that are not radical. And two, radical trans folk are truly outliers who do more harm than good to the trans cause. History shows that both radical action and quiet determination are required to advance trans rights, yet it is often only the radical action that garners headlines and calls to tone things down.
Radical action by gender diverse folk is as old as gender politics have been a thing. Babylonia, ancient Greece, Shakespearian England, Ancien regime France and many other cultures all had their gender radicals who were variously tolerated or punished. The advent of the popular press turned these gender radicals into stories to sell penny rags, making gender non-conformity the red meat that it has become in our current times. What complicates current gender radicals is that feminism, Marxism, black rights and other radical ideas fighting against hegemonic normativity are as welcome homes to gender radicals as the trans rights movement is. Indeed, while trans rights is the current zeitgeist historically the others have led the march to gender parity and equity.
Calls for respectability within the trans community hark back to the white picket fence queer movement that won many of the rights queer folk enjoy, yet at the same time left many marginalised queer folk out in the cold. The same could be argued for the way trans rights have progressed, especially in the UK and US, for the rights that have been won have been enjoyed by educated, middle class often white trans folk seeking an approximation of what cis folk enjoy. Calls for respectability come from those who enjoy the current set of rights and are afraid of backsliding from those.
Yet, there is also the issue that some radical trans folk do set across the line of decency into declarations and acts that harm the cause. Calling out trans people who are encouraging violence should not be something the trans community feels squeamish at. No amount of death threats, rape threats, doxing, and harassment will progress trans rights in the direction we desire. It is not tone policing or respectability politics to ask those radicals to cease their rhetoric. You may say that the other side is calling for the death and harm of trans folk, which they clearly are, but returning like for like only provides ammunition for those ready to come down hard on the trans community. Activism and communal protection is more than hurling abuse at the other side.
This is not a call for restraint, or saying that we should meekly accept our lot. Trans issues are as complex and knotty as those who are trans. Poor trans folk have many pressing needs wealthy trans people simply do not realise. Allyship is more than just a share experience, it is a matter of empathy and sitting in a (virtual) room together to understand where we all situate ourselves. Of course there will be people who are angry, frustrated, and bitter at the state of the world. When things are the state they are, we have every right to rage, yet that rage needs to be focused and tempered lest it burn down the very thing we hope to build for ourselves.
Even infinite patience has its limits, and no community can be asked to remain patient while its rights are being stripped piece by piece. This is not 1933 with a wholesale law abnegating all our rights. This an incremental dismemberment of rights that at the same time takes inherent rights away that were never previously lost. It is hard to say sit still and take it, much less say do not hurl abuse and death threats at those who invoke our own. Yet, there is always a better way forward. What that looks like depends on your communities, your country, your family, your peers, your online spaces. There is no one answer to this. I can give you my usual response of building allies and building bridges, but that will not get you medication, understanding, or empathy from those who already hate.
People ask what answers do you have in the face of hostility, and my honest answer is just be yourself. That is not enough for many, for being yourselves is what causes much of the hate in the first place. I cannot ask you to tone down your hurt, your pain, your resentment to the world around you. It is not my place to assuage your anger. This is the paradox at the heart of all online trans communities, how to balance out people line me who have comfortable lives lived without any transphobia or hostility with those who face it on a daily basis. I can list of a whole host of things I enjoy, yet those are hollow to the folk who lack even access to basic healthcare and have been forced from the family home.
This is why respectability politics is so knotty. It is all a matter of perspective, a matter of who gets to say what to who in what space and what manner. I genuinely believe that bridge building and allyship do get results and will get results, but that does not help a person get hormones or surgery any quicker, or put food on someone’s plate, or stop transphobic beatings from happening. It is the luxury of having the ability to think medium to long term that gives me the space to do those things, and when you are under the cosh in survival mode long term looks very far away indeed.
All causes need their radicals and their moderates, there is space for both to co-exist in the same community. Each plays their part in getting to those long-term goals, helping shape a better future for all. This is why I write, why I research, why I actively engage in trans issues to help shape the best outcomes possible for everyone. It is also why I am conscious that every time I critique certain things, such as violence and abuse, I check myself to ensure I am not undermining what is required to get trans rights over the line. Messy, complicated, paradoxical, and always worth engaging with, but not always possible to 100% align with everything everyone says. Such is the nature of things.
