Assume Humanity, Then Ask About Happiness
Trans people‘s say-so is evidence of our happiness. But no one should ask for evidence that trans people are people.
A week ago, I wrote about why everyone should cease to ask for certain kinds of “evidence” related to trans people. I was paraphrasing and reorganizing some ideas I’d spotted in Lydia Polgreen’s August 13 opinion in the New York Times.
My story has been read a couple hundred times. After one reader (on another platform) expressed confusion and disagreement, it occurred to me that perhaps my implicit distinction between humanity and happiness — something I’d assumed—wasn’t obvious enough. I‘d tried to keep my words simple, and I may have oversimplified.
Having reflected on how my writing might have fallen short and contributed to this misunderstanding, I’ll make my core point again here. This time I’ll express it differently.
My original goal was to present 10 takeaways from Polgreen’s essay that you can use as trans-affirmative writing tips…
