4 Common Mistakes Made About Caitlyn Jenner and Transgender People
German Lopez – Vox
Should you refer to Caitlyn Jenner as “he” or “she”? Did Jenner “become” a woman? … Jenner’s public journey has given many Americans an opportunity to learn about trans issues for the first time — and that should include, hopefully, fixing some of the mistakes in terminology that people often make when addressing trans people …
1) Don’t use a pronoun someone doesn’t want you to use …
2) Don’t say trans people “became” the gender they identify with …
The umbrella term for people who identify with a gender different from the one assigned to them at birth is “transgender” or “trans.” The word “transgendered” is offensive to trans people and unnecessarily confusing.
Like many other public figures, President Barack Obama praised Jenner on his Twitter feed:
It takes courage to share your story. https://t.co/Q7wWjV9Rxx
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) June 1, 2015Why Are We Really Interested in Caitlyn Jenner?
Peggy Drexler – CNN
What Jenner has done — both on a personal and a public level — is no small feat … But let’s also be honest: Are we praising her for her courage to be her? Are we praising her bravery as a human — or as a celebrity? Or are we, well, sensationalizing? …
It is, however, an acknowledgment of a transition that is likely only marginally representative of those experienced by most in the transgender community. It’s also a transition that has centered very heavily on her looks, making her story of transition nearly impossible to separate from its physical manifestation …
Jenner’s coming out is a victory for many, including herself, and we should be proud of the woman she is. But perhaps we should be less proud of the fact that we had to hear such an important story from someone who was famous before we heard it at all.
A journalist looks at Vanity Fair’s Twitter site with the Tweet about Caitlyn Jenner, the transgender Olympic champion formerly known as Bruce, who is the cover story in the latest edition of the magazine. (AFP)
Science Holds the Key to Transgender Equality
Nicolas R. Eaton, Kristina Olson, and Aiden Key – The Advocate
No one knows what percentage of the population is transgender, but it is likely less than 1 percent. Even still, transgender issues have risen to a place of prominence in public discourse of late …
While this media exposure holds promise to raise awareness, reduce stigma, and increase visibility of transgender individuals, there has been a dearth of scientific research on this community …
To address this question, we recruited a group of 5- to 12-year-old children who identified as a gender other than their assigned sex, and who live their lives congruent with their gender identity …
What we found was striking. Our transgender participants’ responses looked indistinguishable from those of cisgender children — but congruently with their gender identity, not assigned sex. This means that, across multiple tasks, trans boys (assigned female sex and identifying as boys) responded the same as cisgender boys (assigned male sex and identifying as boys); trans girls responded the same as cisgender girls.