I interview Eun-Bi Kang, who is running for LGBTTQ* representative in the upcoming UMSU election. Word of the day today is “trap”, though in discussion of it I also break down the word “passing”. Trigger warning for discussion of defamatory language and negative stereotypes of trans people; you may have some trouble listening to how the concept of transwomen as a “trap” is used and how negative and devaluing conceptions of trans women contribute to it. The real trap is how people online want us to believe this awful slur is a harmess joke, when it corresponds to a very real threat of violence faced by trans women due to cis people (often men) believing that if they cannot tell someone is trans there was an intentional effort to “trick” them involved.
TRANS WOMEN OWE YOU NOTHING. YOU ARE NOT ENTITLED TO KNOW THIR IDENTITIY UNLESS THEY CHOOSE TO TELL YOU.
Topic takeways: It is not the fault of trans women that you may not know they are trans, due to your own 1) limited and stereotyped ideas of what trans people look like and 2) cis-centric ideas that everyone is cis, particularly pretty ladies you are attracted to.
Trans women do not intentionally “entrap: the cis-hetero men who show interest in them, but they are often subjected to violence when these men discover they are trans/hold the trans woman accountable for the way society shames men for their attraction to trans women.
Trans women ARE WOMEN, they do not “pass” as women and so they are not “tricking” you by “passing” as something they are not. If you think all the women you see are cisgender then it is YOUR problem for being dumb. If you think a woman is trying to “pass” as cisgender (which often just means she may not want you to know she is trans/make an issue of her trans identity/harass her for being trans/pass as cis for other reasons of her own or simply to get the respect to which she is entitled) look up how trans women are treated, and tell me if you still can’t think of some good, even life-or-death reasons why it is not your business whether a woman is cis or trans and why a trans woman may not want strangers to know she is trans.
Also discussed: Queer Eye reboot, and trans Oscars nominees/winners