Trans

Ri ts
are
Human
Ri ts

On the 20th November each year,

around the world, people gather in
the cold winter evenings to mourn
something far greater than the loss of
the long days of summer.

They gather to mourn the many,

many people who are murdered or
are forced to take their own life
simply because they are transgender.

Last year I did little more than push

the thought of a Christmas being
misgendered out of my mind but it
was an incredibly poignant day nonethe-less and it is with this in mind
that Im writing this guide to being
supportive and inclusive to your trans
friends, colleagues, siblings and
family.

You might be wondering what the

point is of writing this kind of guide,
in this kind of zine but youd be
surprised by the number of trans
exclusionary activists (or as I like to
call them uninformed cockwombles) I
encounter, even from within the LGB
community.

So, its with that in mind that Im

writing this, in the hope that radical
spaces (and further afield) can
become safer for trans individuals. It
may read like a list of absolute
instructions but this is only because
Ive spent far too long pandering to
the needs of cis people to care about
being subtle.

1
Be kind and supportive
to your transgender
siblings, friends,
children, family
members, neighbours,
colleagues and anyone
else who opens up to
you about being Trans.

What does this entail?

Oftentimes the most sincere form of
support is physical, real-world
support and if this is possible then
offers of you can call me whenever!
or how about we meet up sometime?
may fall a little flat and a person
whos probably undergoing an
intense moment in their lives may
not feel that they are welcome to
reach out to you in their time of need.

Yes, even if you give them the go

ahead to reach out, they may (for
whatever reason), feel uncomfortable
about reaching out and may even see
such an offer as an act of distancing
oneself from friendship.
I have often considered people
acquaintances (and as a result have
not reached out) when they would
consider me to be a friend. If you cant
be physically close to someone then
striking up friendly conversation
online can help but I will once again
reiterate that offers such as Im here
if you need me may go untouched.

Thats not to say that for some people

this isnt helpful, just that from my
experience people tend to shy away
from such offers.

I know that life can be hard and that

everyone has their problems to deal
with so I know it can be hard but
attempting to be as supportive as you
possible can (be it physically or not)
can be very important to a persons
mental health.

It is also important to remember to be

sympathetic to a person's individual
needs, and tailor your support
accordingly; theres no point offering
to go out for coffee if its just going to
lead to anxiety and/or stress. If in
doubt, just ask!

2
Allow people who are
transgender to present
as their preferred
gender and use the
pronouns that they
prefer (if you're not
sure, then please ask).

Its a relatively new idea that sex and

gender are separate entities and you
might not completely understand why
someone might be transgender but
even so, it takes minimal effort to get
used to a new pronoun and name
change.
It is particularly important to
remember that not everyone will be
comfortable presenting right away
and that no matter someones
presentation/expression, you should
respect their pronouns and name.

Imagine you were born female and

your whole life people kept referring
as a guy. Imagine then the horror and
pain when upon saying Im not a
man, Im a woman. people decided
that it was too difficult to respect
your name and pronouns. Itd be
pretty awful right?
Well thats how it is for trans people.
We have to get over this negative
stereotype that trans people arent
real women/men (thats not even
mentioning non-binary people) and
that their pain is something you can

disregard because youre only just

heard about it.

Trans women are just women who

happen to have been born without a
typically female body and Trans men,
are just men who happen to have been
born without a typically male body, and
once we realise this its easy to see that
trans people dont become anything
and that theyve always been
women/men/non-binary.

Once we realise this, we can begin to

understand how damaging it is, to be
misgendered.

A while back someone sent me an

article on Body Dysmorphic Disorder
(BDD) (in relation to ADHD, which I
have), and I found it very interesting
looking at the differences between
BDD and Gender Dysphoria (GD).

Usually with BDD, there is a distorted

perception of something about the
body that might be helped by
counselling/therapy, and/or
medications. This is in contrast to GD
where it is usually the case that social,
and sometimes physical, transition as
well as being perceived as their
preferred gender identity can help
massively.
The difference comes from the fact
that people with BDD have been
known to undergo surgery/body
modification to change their perceived
flaws and that this has resulted in
other perceived flaws developing

and/or old flaws still being a problem.

This is compared with GD which has
been shown to be alleviated by
gender transition and/or gender
reassignment.

It is a common story within the Trans

community that once people find a
way to relate to their gender and
present this to the outside world a
certain sense of calm ensues.

3
Listen to the voices of
transgender people across the
world and stand in solidarity
with our trans siblings by
taking criticisms of the cistem not as personal attacks
but rather as calls for our cissiblings to check their
privilege and start to
dismantle the systems of
power that pervade our
society.

You may not notice the benefits of

being cisgendered and your life might
be pretty rubbish but you do benefit
from the cis-tematic, and institutional
privilege that comes from it.

Take some time to listen to stories,

read news articles, actively question
your own existence; it is through
these acts that we will begin to break
down the hierarchies of cis vs trans,
binary vs non-binary, and although
you may not want to say it normal
vs abnormal.

4
If you ever think about
saying the phrase But
*insert name of trans
person here* said...
then STOP. Please.

Stop right there and think about it for

a moment. I could quote plenty of
people who thought Hitler was great
but it would be inappropriate to go
flinging them about a debate on the
holocaust.
Now theres a very strong probability
that the person youre quoting isnt
anywhere near as bad as Hitler but
when it comes to issues of
intersectional activism it isnt
productive to jump into a debate,
quoting one person amongst a sea of
other people saying the complete
opposite.

If someone is telling you an absolute

then by all means challenge it, but
dont think that Trans people are all
one and the same either. We are all
wildly different people just like every
cis person out there and so and so
said it was ok to say... doesnt give
you the power to use words that
some transgender people consider
slur-words.

Also if youre using the above phrase

youre probably using your privilege
as a cis-person to speak over the top
of Trans people and we get silenced
enough without cis-fuckwombles
trying to tell us what we can say, feel,
think, and do.

5
The actions of Trans
people only seem
R
dical
because society makes
them so.

Once we stop making every Trans

person's actions a radical decision
Trans people will be able to live their
lives in peace. Of course, lots of Trans
people do like to do radical things but
going to the toilet in public is hardly
one of those moments.

If you are transgender or gender nonconforming, remember that the most

radical way to be supportive and
inclusive within the Trans community
is to be intersectional.
Its a term that might have been
watered down but many activists
and/or people within the LGB(T)
community could do with
remembering that trans people of
colour have less privilege than white
trans people or that being disabled

and trans comes with so many

healthcare issues, or that transmisogyny is harmful to anyone who
presents as feminine, or that at the
end of it all, we are all wildly
different, we are all complex, we all
face so many difficulties and that we
all need to stand together.

Do not stop dancing to your own

drum, but remember that some
people do not have drums to beat on.

Do not stop dancing your own dance,

but remember that some people
cannot dance.

Do not stop chanting your own song,

but remember that people speak
different languages.

Do not stop taking up space!

Do not stop existing!
Do not stop changing the status
quo!
Do not stop!
DO!
NOT!
STOP!

I hope that this rambling, jumble of words makes some kind of sense
and that you connect with it, even if you dont agree with all of it.
Not matter your reaction though, please copy, share and distribute
this.
Please get involved in the debate with friends, colleagues, with us at
rootsgrowtrees@hotmail.com or over in our community on Imzy
Please reference this in your own writings and please take back the
media for yourselves.

Roots Grow Trees WILL NEVER promote; sexism, racism, misogyny,

ableism, transphobia, homophobia, whorephobia, body-shaming,
classism, transmisogyny, cissexism, capitalism, or slut-shaming,

but WILL promote; cis-phobia, body positivity, the drinking of cishet-white-male-tears, cute animals, anarchy, music, love, protest,
poetry, and critical thinking.
Peace and Anger

The Roots Grow Trees Team!