Guest Blog: Being Trans is Weird by Vince Glover

Being trans is weird.

Especially right now, in a culture with raised awareness about the transgender identity, it feels like everybody has an opinion about me - but nobody really knows me. Conversations about trans people are almost exclusively political: Is this right? Should we be exposing kids to this? Are they faking it? Do we really have to take people who identify as attack helicopters seriously?

The truth is that being trans is just… being trans. I was assigned to be a girl at birth, and I’ve been an assumed girl my whole life. But I’m a guy, and I’ve always been a guy. There’s nothing else to it, really - my actual gender doesn’t match up with the gender I was assigned. That doesn’t make me overly political or offensive or someone seeking attention. It means I’m a guy. It really is that simple. But why is trans such a controversial thing to be?

Well, there’s a ridiculous amount of reasons why people don’t like trans people – I could go on for hours about it. What I really want to focus on right now is the online presence of trans people. Thanks to the internet, we’re a lot more visible now. People are more aware of us, our struggles, and our existence. Awareness and representation is good, but it’s a double edged sword. The more people who begin to identify with the transgender label, the more people assume.

When I came out to my sister, she had a lot of questions. One that sticks out to me the most, though, is: “Why do people identify as attack helicopters or kitchen cabinets?”. You’ve probably heard the jokes. Maybe you even believe them - you’ve seen people online identifying as an inanimate object, and you think that’s how all trans people act. I wouldn’t blame you for it, because this kind of thing is everywhere. Before I began to discover my own identity, I believed it too! It’s hard not too when it’s all you see, right?

The truth about these jokes is that they’re just that: jokes. It’s the easiest way to spread misinformation about trans people and turn us into a joke. It’s low hanging fruit, man (Wait… Did I just assume your gender?!). No trans person actually, genuinely identifies as an attack helicopter. Those Tumblr blogs you see, about how being a plant is their gender? They’re trolls. They’re easy to spot when you’re in the trans community yourself, ‘cause we know what being trans means. People who aren’t trans, though, don’t know the difference. So, the more people make these jokes, the more people believe them to be true and the less seriously they take the trans community.

I would like to note, though, that I was happy to answer all of them. Most trans-identifying people will be! Educating people about what it means and feels like to be trans is the best way to normalise it. But it sucks that I had to sit there and tell my sister that my community isn’t a massive joke, and it sucks that I have to continue explaining that to everyone I’m out to, as well! It gets exhausting, and it shouldn’t be on me to point out what is and isn’t a joke.

I’m not asking anyone to stop having fun. I’m not even asking for people to stop making attack helicopter jokes, as much as I’d rather not hear them. I am asking for you to think critically about what you see online. If you see someone genuinely identifying as a car (and their pronouns are car/cars/carself, and how dare you misgender them, cis scum!) they’re… not genuine. Take it from a trans person: No trans person actually acts like that. Don’t let trolls form your view of the trans community.

Trans people are people who don’t identify with the gender they were assigned at birth, and that’s the only trait every trans person has in common. We’re a diverse community, full of different opinions and voices and identities. No two of us are the same, and that’s awesome! The assumptions online about the trans community are dangerous - they misinform those who struggle with being trans, they make it harder for trans people to come out, and they create an incorrect perception of the community.

 Thanks for reading!

Vince x