The thing about privilege and oppression, or well, a thing is that people who are privileged can still experience some of the same things that people who are oppressed can experience (along a particular axis). As a white trans woman, I've experienced profiling (as in being stopped and interrogated about whether or not I was a sex worker because I happened to be in a neighborhood that sex workers frequented), although I was able to convince the officer to let me go, and not arrest me, or extort free sex or what-have-you, whereas I hear about trans women of color who are arrested from just about anywhere at any time in New York City and Washington DC - so, I have an idea of what it's like to be profiled, but I don't know what it's like to be systematically profiled and harassed by the police, or get a criminal record because I walked down the street.
And I think, while it's important to acknowledge the ways that cis gay men and cis lesbian women have their genders disrespected, it's important to acknowledge that what they experience is not what trans people experience. That like my being trans occasionally mitigates my white privilege, their being gay or lesbian occasionally mitigates their cis privilege.
For an example, butch lesbians are often challenged in restrooms, and occasionally asked to leave by people who believe they're men, but I've never heard of a butch lesbian being asked to use a unisex bathroom that's farther away than the women's restroom, or being asked to use a bathroom in a different building or establishment. As in, I know one trans woman who was not allowed to use the women's restroom at her place of work, but had to clock out, travel to another restroom about 10 minutes away, use that one, return, and clock back in. A bathroom trip would cost her one-third of an hour of her pay.
And I think, when it comes down to it, when trans people are subjected to scrutiny in ways that cis gay men, lesbian women, bisexual and pansexual people, are not, and at the same time, trans people are frequently conflated with gay men and lesbian women (another friend of mine once said that once people realized she was trans, that they decided she was a really gay man, and that even when faced with a lesbian trans woman, they still see her as a really gay man), that it's important to mark the fact that cis people of any orientation are not subjected to quite the same social censure and problems as trans people.
And yes, I absolutely do not want to deny that cis gay men and cis lesbian women are also victims of hate crimes - Matthew Shepard, for example, has practically become iconic for hate crimes. It's interesting, at the same time, that when trans women of color are murdered, they get different coverage - that Angie Zapata was presented in the news as sympathetic was more the exception than the rule. Trans people who are victims of hate crimes are systematically misgendered, their birth names are revealed, their medical history is splashed across the news, and occasionally, cis LGB organizations try to claim that the hate crimes against trans people are actually against cis LGB people (see how the gay media tried to present Calpernia Addams as a gay man and a drag queen after her boyfriend was murdered, and how many times Brandon Teena has been described as a lesbian).
Part 1
And I think, while it's important to acknowledge the ways that cis gay men and cis lesbian women have their genders disrespected, it's important to acknowledge that what they experience is not what trans people experience. That like my being trans occasionally mitigates my white privilege, their being gay or lesbian occasionally mitigates their cis privilege.
For an example, butch lesbians are often challenged in restrooms, and occasionally asked to leave by people who believe they're men, but I've never heard of a butch lesbian being asked to use a unisex bathroom that's farther away than the women's restroom, or being asked to use a bathroom in a different building or establishment. As in, I know one trans woman who was not allowed to use the women's restroom at her place of work, but had to clock out, travel to another restroom about 10 minutes away, use that one, return, and clock back in. A bathroom trip would cost her one-third of an hour of her pay.
And I think, when it comes down to it, when trans people are subjected to scrutiny in ways that cis gay men, lesbian women, bisexual and pansexual people, are not, and at the same time, trans people are frequently conflated with gay men and lesbian women (another friend of mine once said that once people realized she was trans, that they decided she was a really gay man, and that even when faced with a lesbian trans woman, they still see her as a really gay man), that it's important to mark the fact that cis people of any orientation are not subjected to quite the same social censure and problems as trans people.
And yes, I absolutely do not want to deny that cis gay men and cis lesbian women are also victims of hate crimes - Matthew Shepard, for example, has practically become iconic for hate crimes. It's interesting, at the same time, that when trans women of color are murdered, they get different coverage - that Angie Zapata was presented in the news as sympathetic was more the exception than the rule. Trans people who are victims of hate crimes are systematically misgendered, their birth names are revealed, their medical history is splashed across the news, and occasionally, cis LGB organizations try to claim that the hate crimes against trans people are actually against cis LGB people (see how the gay media tried to present Calpernia Addams as a gay man and a drag queen after her boyfriend was murdered, and how many times Brandon Teena has been described as a lesbian).