Every year in November, we celebrate Trans Awareness Week -in 2025, from the 13th to the 19th- and on the 20th we observe the Trans Day of Remembrance. To be honest, I couldn’t think of a more important moment to create positive awareness than when we’re being slandered by politicians.
The trans population is so small that many people never have the chance to closely meet a trans person in their lives, so they only know whatever is fed to them through mass media -often negative, misinformed content. It’s usually when someone they care about comes out as trans that people are forced to understand what gender diversity is all about, hopefully from responsible sources. It’s easy to believe misinformation because it’s presented in ways that sound plausible to the untrained ear.
Haters know what they’re doing and even coin terms like “gender ideology” or “social contagion” that stick and spread, repeated as if they were facts. Making people understand gender correctly is like swimming against the current, because they must first unlearn everything they’ve been taught before they can learn the truth.
I’ve never avoided speaking about the state of things with trans families -not to alarm them, but to inform them about the challenges they might face. The political situation in the U.S., with all the anti-trans actions, needs to be addressed: first to stay safe, and then to understand what our role could be in fighting bigotry.
Awareness stands at the crossroads of both worlds: right now it’s dangerous to call for attention, but at the same time -and ironically- it’s the very thing that can change reality.
It’s the decision of many Gender Warriors who have understood that living in hiding when things get difficult will not allow them -or our entire community- to live happy lives. Freedom to be who you are ranks very high in everyone’s value scale, and things are so dire now that it’s becoming easier to realize that we either fight, or our trans lives will not be feasible at all.
Yes, it’s indeed scary, but not impossible. Awareness is what allows us to dismantle prejudice with facts. Showing that we’re not evil people who go against nature, or those to blame for the economy or other absurdities politicians have accused us of, can only be achieved through the visible presence of positive trans people.
In most cases, that’s all it takes: meeting a trans person they can actually like and concluding, “Hey, I didn’t know you were trans! There’s nothing wrong with you.” Well, that’s the point -there was never anything wrong just because we’re trans.
But unlike just a few months ago, I now see a lot of hope. I’m writing these lines a day after the victory of many politicians who were attacked for being trans allies, where millions of dollars were spent on anti-trans publicity -and it was ineffective! While some politicians still think it’s risky to side with us or even mention our community, others have realized that doing so is not political suicide, but quite the opposite.
Perhaps the truth is surfacing -that it was all a scam, a formula, a trick to gain votes. People are now seeing that fascists are destroying the economy, not trans people. It’s becoming impossible to hide how they lie, how cruel they are, and, honestly, how full of sh*t they are.
Some of the greatest changes in human history have been painful and costly, but they have taken us where we needed to be. I can see a world in the near future in which being anti-trans will be remembered as a symbol of how low we can fall -and how dangerous it is to target a minority. The lessons of WWII are still valid, and I want to believe that we’ll know better this time around than to allow fascism to cause the destruction it did only 85 years ago.
I’ve always said that we trans people are ahead of our time, and when society finally learns to embrace gender diversity, that will be the sign that humanity has grown up -that we’ve stopped being a teenage species.
Then, we can start thinking about travelling to the stars.
Every year in November, we celebrate Trans Awareness Week -in 2025, from the 13th to the 19th- and on the 20th we observe the Trans Day of Remembrance. To be honest, I couldn’t think of a more important moment to create positive awareness than when we’re being slandered by politicians.
The trans population is so small that many people never have the chance to closely meet a trans person in their lives, so they only know whatever is fed to them through mass media -often negative, misinformed content. It’s usually when someone they care about comes out as trans that people are forced to understand what gender diversity is all about, hopefully from responsible sources. It’s easy to believe misinformation because it’s presented in ways that sound plausible to the untrained ear.
Haters know what they’re doing and even coin terms like “gender ideology” or “social contagion” that stick and spread, repeated as if they were facts. Making people understand gender correctly is like swimming against the current, because they must first unlearn everything they’ve been taught before they can learn the truth.
I’ve never avoided speaking about the state of things with trans families -not to alarm them, but to inform them about the challenges they might face. The political situation in the U.S., with all the anti-trans actions, needs to be addressed: first to stay safe, and then to understand what our role could be in fighting bigotry.
Awareness stands at the crossroads of both worlds: right now it’s dangerous to call for attention, but at the same time -and ironically- it’s the very thing that can change reality.
It’s the decision of many Gender Warriors who have understood that living in hiding when things get difficult will not allow them -or our entire community- to live happy lives. Freedom to be who you are ranks very high in everyone’s value scale, and things are so dire now that it’s becoming easier to realize that we either fight, or our trans lives will not be feasible at all.
Yes, it’s indeed scary, but not impossible. Awareness is what allows us to dismantle prejudice with facts. Showing that we’re not evil people who go against nature, or those to blame for the economy or other absurdities politicians have accused us of, can only be achieved through the visible presence of positive trans people.
In most cases, that’s all it takes: meeting a trans person they can actually like and concluding, “Hey, I didn’t know you were trans! There’s nothing wrong with you.” Well, that’s the point -there was never anything wrong just because we’re trans.
But unlike just a few months ago, I now see a lot of hope. I’m writing these lines a day after the victory of many politicians who were attacked for being trans allies, where millions of dollars were spent on anti-trans publicity -and it was ineffective! While some politicians still think it’s risky to side with us or even mention our community, others have realized that doing so is not political suicide, but quite the opposite.
Perhaps the truth is surfacing -that it was all a scam, a formula, a trick to gain votes. People are now seeing that fascists are destroying the economy, not trans people. It’s becoming impossible to hide how they lie, how cruel they are, and, honestly, how full of sh*t they are.
Some of the greatest changes in human history have been painful and costly, but they have taken us where we needed to be. I can see a world in the near future in which being anti-trans will be remembered as a symbol of how low we can fall -and how dangerous it is to target a minority. The lessons of WWII are still valid, and I want to believe that we’ll know better this time around than to allow fascism to cause the destruction it did only 85 years ago.
I’ve always said that we trans people are ahead of our time, and when society finally learns to embrace gender diversity, that will be the sign that humanity has grown up -that we’ve stopped being a teenage species.
Then, we can start thinking about travelling to the stars.
