Thread by @sandyosullivan

A while ago I met a famous person I’d been following on twitter. I genuinely loved their work. I said I followed them on Twitter & my online tweets were mostly trans & mob focused. ‘I don’t like what they do to kids’ was what came out of their mouth. The end.

#TransAwarenessWeek

The end of engagement, the end of loving their work, the end of assuming because someone seems kind that they aren’t judgemental. It was the end. The media could help to make our lives better, to help us spread the word. @abcnews and @SBSNews could do that.
#TransAwarenessWeek

I know it sounds terrible, but I hoped they’d learn. I said something, as you’d imagine, but they didn’t understand. They were committed to their misinformation. Persuading people that #TransRightsAreHumanRights is harder than it should be. Media could help. @abcnews @SBSNews

Anyone who’s had a conversation with me when I’m angry about injustice knows I’m no wilting flower. But here, I experienced the shock of being faced with a cold hard reality that we are unwelcome in someone else’s world, that our existence is wrong.#TransRightsAreHumanRights

Like many interactions we have as trans folk, there can be a fear of rejection or ridicule in engaging w/people you’ve never met or worked with. Recently I contacted someone cos they’d accidentally misgendered someone in a public setting. Their response was wonderful;magnanimous.

Sorry, just to be clear I don’t normally contact people when they misgender someone. It’s just that they had done it in a recording and I thought they might have been able to clip it or change it, which they did actually. But again, it’s good people we’re talking about here.

I don’t think there’d be an Aboriginal person doesn’t know this feeling too. Because prejudice is prejudice. People trying to find a way to negotiate your humanity before your very eyes is… a lot. So it can make you nervous & defensive, and for many of us that’s how it is.

This was the fear I had when I started to talk about being trans and affirmed in my gender. On one hand I was happier and more at ease than I’ve been in my life, but I was also really worried that I’d lose friends, the respect of others (I know) and community. Mostly I didn’t.

The irony is that my gender,even before I started to affirm or talk about it, had always been a barrier for me. It had an impact on getting jobs, for instance. I’d been told point-blank by one white boss that other Aboriginal ppl would be put off by how I dressed. It wasn’t true.

The one thing I know now at this end of my life and career is that in your personal or public life, you can’t negotiate with people who hold prejudice against you. You can’t negotiate their reaction or their respect.

#TransRightsAreHumanRights

Sorry all... England just woke up, and so unfortunately did the transphobia. Please ignore the comments... these people wouldn't know compassion if it colonised their own country.