Transgender Awareness & Visibility
When it comes to gender, most people think of being either male or female. When I was growing up, those were the only options I saw on most forms. Going clothes shopping as a kid, there was a girls’ section full of bright colors and a boys’ section full of earthy tones like greens and browns. Personally, I wasn’t always a fan of wearing bright pink or purple (ironically my current favorite colors as an adult). But childhood-me wouldn’t dare be caught wearing boy clothes! Why not? Well, because girls aren’t supposed to wear boy clothes, right? Or play with boys’ toys? Or watch tv shows for boys? … right? Yikes, childhood-me has learned a lot since then!
The reality is, gender is a social concept that exists on a spectrum and is so much more complex than being just male or female. Just like most things in life, there’s a lot of gray area between the black and the white. The Gender Unicorn by Trans Student Educational Resources is a great graphic to use in trying to understand this. Some people may identify more with female qualities, some may identify more with male qualities, some may identify with both (which can be referred to as genderfluid, genderqueer, bigender), some may identify with neither (can be referred to as non-binary, agender), and some may resonate with something different altogether. This can sometimes (but not always) correlate with gender expression and how people present themselves and exist in the world. When the body that you naturally exist in matches with how you identify, that’s called being “cisgender.” If these things don’t match (for example, a person who was born into a female body and identifies as non-binary, or a person who was born into a male body and identifies as a woman), that would be considered being “transgender.”
Not everybody questions their gender though. In fact, transgender people only account for about 1% of the US population according to a 2022 study by Herman, Flores, and O’Neill. Of course, this is likely an underestimate as people who may be questioning their gender may not feel comfortable stating this officially. Some people may be questioning their gender identity in childhood or adolescence. Some may be questioning it in their adulthood. At any time, this can be a scary experience to ask others to address them differently than how they’re used to. Transgender Awareness Week is about understanding what it means to be transgender and creating spaces where transgender people can exist safely and openly. It’s important for us as their allies to understand that they’re still the same person we know and love.
tl;dr:
Gender is not limited to just male or female
You can be a little bit of both, neither, or something different altogether
Even if we have never questioned our own gender identity, we should create spaces where people feel comfortable exploring and expressing themselves authentically and respect their experience
