1. TRANS 101 OUTLINE:
“I like to say I don't have a gender identity disorder. Society has a gender disorder.”
-Pauline Park, founder of NY Gender Rights Advocacy (NYAGRA)
1) Go around--- name, year, major, preferred gender pronoun
A. Why is PGP important? Because it reduces the number of times that a
trans, genderqueer, or gender fluid person will be mis-gendered. And
because no one’s preferred pronoun is knowable just by looking at them.
Gender identity and gender presentation/expression do not always like in
ironclad ways, and even when they do, mospronouning can still happen.
B. Please, cis people, take it seriously. I know you think you win radikewl
points and ally cookies for saying you “don’t care what pronouns people
use” for you, but actually what that does is demonstrates your cis
privilege. It shows that you can safely assume you will be gendered
correctly, and that you have never had your gender identity questioned (or
outright denied). So please, please, PLEASE answer this question
sincerely. (If you sincerely don’t care, or prefer alternating pronouns,
don’t let this rant deter you.)
C. Go around question = “What is the first/primary thing you think of when
you hear the word ‘transgender’/’transsexual’?”, which will lead into…
2) Trans issues: representation.
What do you think of when you hear the word transgender or transsexual?
Common media stereotypes and representations are:
A. Sensational: Help! I’m married to a transsexual!
B. Deceptive and sensational: Look, a pregnant man!!! WHOA. Just kidding,
though, he’s lying to you…He was born a woman!
C. Drag: while drag queens and kings may or may not be trans, trans people
are not queens/kings. Drag is performance.
D. Disturbed/crazy
E. They die. (Boys Don’t Cry)
This is the part where we debunk myths and put everyone on the bus and TAKE THEM
TO SCHOOL. LET’S GO.
3) Why we do trans 101?
Because trans identities are often misunderstood and underrepresented in LGBT
spaces. This misunderstanding is probably linked to the fact that trans people are
lumped into an alphabet soup that otherwise is unified by sexual orientation.
However, trans people can be straight. Hell, they don’t even have to be queer. Trans
refers to a gender or sex identity, rather than a sexual orientation. It’s also affected by
the fact that trans people are often invisible after they “complete” their transitions
(whatever that means to them), and are, as noted earlier, poorly and not very often
represented in mass media.
4) Go over glossary of terms and definitions.
2. 5) Trans etiquette.
6) Short break to screen questions (see below)
7) Panel Q&A. Questions to be written down during meeting. To be screened for
appropriateness by prezies of TransAction and GLBTU.
