Point of View

    "A man can't be a woman, and a woman can't be a man."

    True... but, a man might be a trans woman, and a woman might be a trans man.

    My point of view probably won't be popular with many of my trans siblings, and it sure as hell won't be popular with cis gender folks who are anti-trans.  That's okay!  One of the good things I learned from my father is to not be overly concerned with what others think and/or feel about me.  That will limit, greatly perhaps, the amount of support I'll receive from the trans community, but that's fine.  It also leaves me free to say what I think.  When a person concerns themselves first with the opinions of others, they put those others in control of their life.  Right now, the trans community is having to fight all around the world for our freedom to be ourselves.  That fight is meaningless if we're going to try and control one another.

    I have both seen and heard statements from many of my trans sisters saying that they're the same as our cis gender counterparts.  Sorry, girls, but that's not right.  Perhaps you're equating sameness with equality, but that's not right, either.  We're not the same in that, sadly, we weren't fortunate enough to have been born in bodies that align with our sense of self... our gender.  We have to seek medical and surgical intervention in order for our bodies to look like theirs.  There are differences!  But, that doesn't mean we're any less equal to them than they are to men.  Over time, yes, we come to look like them.  Over time, we also lose our male muscle mass.  So, yes, we do come to look like them, and feel like them.  But, we're not quite the same as them.  That's alright, though, because we're not just women... we're trans women.  That makes us a whole different breed... and that's actually a good thing!

    If we want society at large to accept us, we need to shift the dialogue.  Instead of arguing about sameness, we need to counter the claims that we're mentally ill and violent.  Now, you need to be able to confront people and argue on behalf of your community without sounding like a lunatic.  Otherwise, you just reinforce their belief that we're all lunatics... not just you.  (Always think about your community before yourself.)

    In order to counter their argument that we're mentally ill, you shouldn't argue from a personal point of view.  Remember, they already think you're mentally ill, so anything you say from a personal standpoint is already a moot point in their minds.  You need to be able to give them information from professionals.  I've posted links to such information in a previous post.  If you haven't read that post, or familiarized yourself with the information contained in the linked webpages, you really should.  Once you have that information in your intellectual arsenal, you'll be well enough informed to build an apt argument to counter the anti-trans crowd.  After you've enlightened your opponents with information from the pros, then tell your own story.  In this manner, you inform them that being transgender is a condition recognized by professionals as natural and legitimate, and that the problems we face come in the forms of ignorance and hate from people like themselves.  This will make some of them more sympathetic to you.  We won't be able to turn them all, but if we use the right plans of action, we may be able to turn enough of them to give us a chance at acceptance.

    As for claims of transgender violence; according to an entry on Wikipedia, transgender people, especially trans women, are more likely to be victims of violent crimes than perpetrators of them, and that Georgia State University professor, Mia Bloom noted that the group with a disproportionate number of shootings attached to it is White heterosexual men.  Other information included says, "Numbers vary across study and methodology, depending on factors such as how such crimes are defined, but studies do not show a disproportionate rate of violence among transgender people. According to an analysis by the Poynter Institute, transgender people represent 0.1–1.5% of shooters in the US, and make up 0.5–1.6% of the population. Experts on gun violence agree that transgender people do not represent a disproportionate threat, with human security professor Laura Dugan calling the threat of transgender shooters "just not a concern"

    What this means, point blank, is that the leaders in the MAGA movement are building an anti-trans following by dishonest means.  In other words, THEY'RE LIARS!  But, then, the LGBTQ+ community and our allies already knew that.