She Made an Anti-Trans Statement in a Professional Setting. I Said No.

No, that famous person doesn’t love trans people. I corrected the record.

Tucker Lieberman

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person in multi-colored baseball cap and eyeshadow makes a dramatic face of disgust
Don’t like it by Engin Akyurt from Pixabay

A Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging professional on a networking site recently made a post that I happened to see and applaud.

As a white cis woman addressing herself to other white cis women, she exhorted feminism to include people of all races as well as trans and gender expansive people.

Simple. True. Appreciated.

Unfortunately, how long does it take a beautiful comment to turn into a bad interaction online? Less than a minute!

Trans people will likely be familiar with what comes next. I’m telling this story in the hopes of raising awareness among cis (non-trans) people about how someone might express an anti-trans opinion in a professional setting. Prejudice is often blatant nonsense, which makes it difficult to address in a literal way.

The Post Was Great. Don’t Read the Comments!

Usually good advice. But this was a networking site, where the point is not to passively consume others’ posts but to see who’s in their network and participate in constructive discussions.

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Tucker Lieberman

Cult classic. Author of the novel "Most Famous Short Film of All Time." Editor for Prism & Pen and Identity Current. tuckerlieberman.com