How many traps does it take to change a lightbulb. [NSFW]

**The impact of Transphobia in the electrician community and how it is related to their incredibly high suicide rate.**


Transphobia is ethimologically the term of having an irrational fear of transgender people, but is widly used to caracterise all discrimination of transgender people. To understand it, we need to first understand who are trans people.


**First part : Who are transgender people.**


To understand that transgender have the same right and be treated as equals, it is first important to understand who they are and not just limit oneself to the clichés that are propaged by our popular culture : Transgender actually cover many situation related to one's gender identity or gender expression. While people self-identify as transgender, the transgender identity umbrella includes sometimes-overlapping categories.


Transsexual people identify as a member of the sex opposite to that assigned at birth, and desire to live and be accepted as such
Transsexual people may undergo gender transition, the process of aligning one's gender expression or presentation with their internal gender identity. People who have transitioned may or may not necessarily identify as transgender or transsexual any longer, but simply as a man or a woman. Those who continue identifying as transsexual men or women may not want to ignore their pre-transition life, and may continue strong ties with other trans people and raising social consciousness.
The process of transition may involve some kind of medical gender reassignment therapy and often (but not always) includes hormone replacement therapy or sex reassignment surgery. References to "pre-operative", "post-operative" and "non-operative" transsexual people indicate whether they have had, or are planning to have sex reassignment surgery, although some trans people reject these terms as objectifying trans people based on their surgical status and not their mental gender identity.


*Transvestite or cross-dresser*


A transvestite is a person who cross-dresses, or dresses in clothes of the opposite sex The term "transvestite" is used as a synonym for the term "cross-dresser", although "cross-dresser" is generally considered the preferred term. The term 'cross-dresser' is not exactly defined in the relevant literature. Michael A. Gilbert, professor at the Department of Philosophy, York University, Toronto, offers this definition: "[A cross-dresser] is a person who has an apparent gender identification with one sex, and who has and certainly has been birth-designated as belonging to [that] sex, but who wears the clothing of the opposite sex because it is that of the opposite sex." This definition excludes people "who wear opposite sex clothing for other reasons," such as "those female impersonators who look upon dressing as solely connected to their livelihood, actors undertaking roles, individual males and females enjoying a masquerade, and so on. These individuals are cross dressing but are not cross dressers." Cross-dressers may not identify with, or want to be the opposite gender, nor adopt the behaviors or practices of the opposite gender, and generally do not want to change their bodies medically. The majority of cross-dressers identify as heterosexual People who cross-dress in public can have a desire to pass as the opposite gender, so as not to be detected as a cross-dresser, or may be indifferent.
The term "transvestite" and the associated outdated term "transvestism" are conceptually different from the term "transvestic fetishism", as "transvestic fetishist" describes those who intermittently use clothing of the opposite gender for fetishistic purposes. In medical terms, transvestic fetishism is differentiated from cross-dressing by use of the separate codes


*Genderqueer*


Genderqueer is a recent attempt to signify gender experiences that do not fit into binary concepts, and refers to a combination of gender identities and sexual orientations. One example could be a person whose gender presentation is sometimes perceived as male, sometimes female, but whose gender identity is female, gender expression is butch, and sexual orientation is lesbian. It suggests nonconformity or mixing of gender stereotypes, conjoining both gender and sexuality,[55] and challenges existing constructions and identities.[56] In the binary sex/gender system, genderqueerness is unintelligible and abjected.


*Androgyne*


An androgyne is a person who cannot be classified into the typical gender roles of their society; androgyny is independent of orientation. Androgynes may identify as beyond gender, between genders, moving across genders, entirely genderless, or any or all of these, exhibiting a variety of male, female, and other characteristics. Androgyne identities include pangender, ambigender, non-gendered, agender, gender fluid or intergender. Androgyny can be either physical or psychological and is independent of birth sex. Occasionally, non-androgynous people adapt their physical appearance to look androgynous. This outward androgyny has been used in fashion, and the milder forms of it (women wearing men's pants or men wearing two earrings, for example) are not seen as transgender behavior.
The term androgyne is also sometimes used as a medical synonym for an intersex individual.


*Bigender*


A bigender (sometimes rendered as bi-gender, dual gender, or bi+gender) individual is one who moves between masculine and feminine gender roles. Such individuals fluidly move between two distinct personalities depending on context: whereas androgynous people retain the same gender-typed behaviour across situations, bigendered people consciously or unconsciously change their gender-role behaviour from primarily masculine to primarily feminine or vice versa.
Drag kings and queens
Drag is a term applied to clothing and make-up worn on special occasions for performing or entertaining, unlike those who are transgender or who cross-dress for other reasons. Drag performance includes overall presentation and behavior in addition to clothing and makeup. Drag can be theatrical, comedic, or grotesque. Drag queens have been considered caricatures of women by second-wave feminism. Drag artists have a long tradition in LGBT culture. Generally the terms drag queen covers men doing female drag, drag king covers women doing male drag, and faux queen covers women doing female drag. Nevertheless, there are drag artists of all genders and sexualities who perform for various reasons. Some drag performers, transvestites, and people in the gay community, have embraced the pornographically-derived term tranny to describe drag queens or people who engage in transvestism or cross-dressing, however this term is widely considered offensive if applied to transsexual people.


**Second part : Why the hate.**


The mechanisms of Transphobia are still debated :

The transfeminist theorist and author Julia Serano argues in her book Whipping Girl that transphobia is rooted in sexism. She locates the origins of both transphobia and homophobia in what she calls "oppositional sexism", the belief that male and female are "rigid, mutually exclusive categories, each possessing a unique and nonoverlapping set of attributes, aptitudes, abilities, and desires". Serano contrasts oppositional sexism with "traditional sexism", the belief that males and masculinity are superior to females and femininity. Furthermore, she writes that transphobia is fueled by insecurities people have about gender and gender norms.



The transgender author and critic Jody Norton believes that transphobia is an extension of homophobia and misogyny. She argues that transgender people, like gays and lesbians, are hated and feared for challenging and undermining gender norms and the gender binary. Norton writes that the "male-to-female transgender incites transphobia through her implicit challenge to the binary division of gender upon which male cultural and political hegemony depends"


For my part, i think it is the same phenomen that all form of discrimination and that people just fear and hate what they resent as not being identical to what they were accustomed to. But whatever is the phenomen, the consequences are what really matter.


**The result : Discrimination**

Discrimination, including physical or sexual violence against trans people due to transphobia or homophobia, is a common occurrence for trans people. Every 3 days a murder of a trans person is reported, and many murders are believed to go unreported. Hate crimes against trans people are common even recently, and "in some instances, inaction by police or other government officials leads to the untimely deaths of transgender victims.

One of the most famous incidents was the December 1993 rape and murder of Brandon Teena, a young trans man who was raped and murdered by two male friends after they found out that he had been assigned female at birth. The events became internationally known when told in the feature film Boys Don't Cry, which earned Hilary Swank an Academy Award for best actress.

The fact is that people with unclear gender identity ressent exclusion and discrimination which can affect their well being and social condition, which is why i am writting this essay (or more precisely, pasting it from wikipedia), which you should understand by now is the actual joke related to the late planetside ban affair in which the banned had to write an essay to be unbanned, and you actually didnt have to read all this to catch.