Thread by @StopTweetingMia

LGB people who are transphobic get SO ANGRY with you for comparing homophobia to transphobia, especially talking about your own experiences and like... These are the same thing. They're the same thing. They're. The. Same. Fucking. Thing. It's the same people doing the same thing.

When I was 14 I got fag bashed constantly. I was abused by my peers and my family for "being a faggot"

They hated me because they thought I was a gay boy.

But I wasn't a boy who liked boys, I was a girl who liked girls.

What they hated was my femininity.

It's hard to strictly define the bigotry I experienced as a teenager. I wasn't out as a transgender girl. I didn't define my sexuality in any way at all. I didn't date anyone, but I only had crushes on girls. But they still beat me down and called me a faggot.

That's homophobia.

Sure, technically it was TRANSphobia because I wasn't a gay boy, I was a transgender girl. But they didn't care what label I attached to my identity. They weren't gonna beat me different if I was a faggot or if I was a dyke.

So when I talk about this, gay and lesbian terfs get really angry with me because I'm suddenly comparing THEIR ABUSE of my community with the abuse they experienced as a youth. And they couldn't do that, right? They could HATE GAY PEOPLE???

But they do. That's just it. They do.

Trans people experience homophobia.

As a trans lesbian, I've experienced a lot of it.

When they thought I was a gay boy because they didn't know what I was. When they thought I was a crossdresser because I was a boy wearing a dress. Now when they see me as a woman loving women.

Transphobia isn't "homophobia light" or "homophobia with extra steps"

It's what they call homophobia when they wanna get away with it. It's the homophobia you haven't realized is slithering it's way back into the mainstream. It's gonna rip your head off babe and you're laughing.

In the world, people don't usually notice or care that I'm trans.

But they care when they see me with another girl. And surprise surprise, when they clock me as gay they start looking for other signs and they realize I'm trans too. Weird how those are CONNECTED in their heads.

Middle aged upper-middle class British women don't know shit about queerphobia these days.

If you did, you'd know it's just as bad as it was 40 YEARS ago. It's just as bad in places like my hometown. You're complacent because your friends pretend not to care you're gay.

But you'll rile up your "formerly casually homophobic but they changed when they saw how happy you and your wife are" friends into a transphobic frenzy because you want to protect your newfound status as NORMAL

Meanwhile kids are still getting beat down and you're helping

"I'm being compared to the homophobes now how ironic"

Yeah that IS pretty ironic. You know, irony can be a great tool to lampoon the oppressive power structures in our society maybe if you thought about it for a second you might figure out why someone would use it against you.

I didn't transition for some malicious purpose, I didn't do it to gain access to some secret feminine mystique.

I transitioned because I want to grow old. I want to live a long and fulfilling life. I don't want to die early because I hid myself to make people stop hurting me.

That's the difference. That's the big secret.

I wasn't going to live past 30 as a man, but someday I'll be an 85 year old woman because I found the strength to advocate for myself and my community.

Before I transitioned, I was barely holding on. I was living for other people because I was afraid they would be sad or angry if I disappeared.

Now I have hope and ambitions for my life. I'm gonna be a filmmaker. I'm gonna make movies that are gonna change the world.

I'm gonna tell the stories I needed growing up because I can.