Vivian Taylor on being a trans woman (but not ‘one of the good ones’)

Have you ever read something that you loved so much, you wish you could take it out to brunch and feed it a plate of delicious waffles? . . . No? Too specific? Okay then.

Writer Vivian Taylor recently wrote a post for Autostraddle about being a trans woman and how she deals with other people’s pre-conceived notions. It’s funny, introspective and well written, and did I mention the thing about how I want to give her a plate of waffles? Just checking.

But I’m done with it. You can be trans or cis. You can be super femme, you can be ultra butch. You can be straight or queer. You can have people saying you’re a transcendent beauty who just stepped off a Renaissance canvas, you can have people saying you’re a stomach turning monster. You can be a light in the world who every person you meet loves and devotes themselves to, you can be an awkward storm cloud who drives everyone away.

I don’t care. Sun shines and rain falls on the just and unjust alike. I don’t want to know who the Real Good Ones and the Real Bad Ones are. We’re all people. We all deserve to be treated as valued members of humanity. That’s all.

If you have a few minutes, you should really go read the piece in full. But if nothing else, just remember that there’s really no such thing as a correct way to be a human being, and you don’t need to fit a certain mould to be treated with the same dignity and respect as others.

[Pic via Imgur]

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