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Transmissions: People behaving badly

By Gwendolyn Ann Smith

Michelle Dumaresq is a bicycling champion hailing for Canada. She is also a transsexual.
In the pursuit of her spot, she has faced touch criticisms from those who have felt that she should not be participating against other woman, claiming that she must obviously have an advantage over her contemporaries. A lot of her struggles were chronicled in a short documentary titled "100% Woman."
Recently, Dumaresq won her third National title during a downhill race in British Columbia.
On the winner's podium, the second-place finisher, Danika Schroeter, wore a hastily prepared T-shirt bearing the slogan "100 Per Cent Pure Woman – Champ 2006," an obvious reference to Dumaresq's transgender status, as well as to the documentary's title. After Schroeter took to the podium, her supporters took the opportunity to catcall Dumaresq.
Schroeter was suspended for her actions, and may now miss the world cycling championships.
I'm appalled by Schroeter's actions – but I am not at all surprised by them. In many ways, it seems par for the course in the life of a transgender person. You see, if you ask any transgender person what sort of bad behavior they've faced, you'll likely hear a long litany of ill will and poor treatment.
For some reason, people seem to feel that we are somehow open to, perhaps even deserving of, such actions. The idea seems to be that we should expect that some people will not be able nor willing to accept us, so we need to accommodate their discomfort. That it is, somehow, up to us to excuse the actions of others.
I think that asking that of us is, itself, an inappropriate action.
There are, in my loose estimation, a couple different types of things that I've faced as a transgender person. Like Dumaresq, there seems to be no dearth of people who want to make an issue of one's history. It may not always be as visible as a T-shirt on a winner's stand, but it is just as bothersome.
It's like when someone asks for my former name, or – as if anyone outside of my bedroom or a doctor's office needs this information – my surgical status. Neither is information that should affect dealings with me, here, today.
The latter in particular is particularly annoying. You see, I would consider it the height of rudeness to ask random strangers particulars about their sexual organs. Yet "have you had surgery" is about as common a question to a transperson as asking the sex of the baby is to a new parent.
Similar to all this is a seeming need on the part of some to make a public revelation about a newly discovered transgender person. While it is bad enough when some merely stare, or perhaps whisper a few choice words to a nearby friend, many take it a step further. Having faced a commuter on the train home once who shouted "that's a man" for all on the train to hear, I had to wonder if she was just as observant as to the specifics of the other riders. She did not.
I know that someone out there reading this is thinking that I'm expecting people to simply be "politically correct," and will dismiss this out of hand. Yes, perhaps I do expect people to be a bit more cautious with their language and actions around me – but since when was it simply "PC" to be respectful of another human being?
You see, that is what it comes down to. We're all in this together, and we're all – to the best of my knowledge – human. We all deserve common decency, and the Golden Rule remains a damned fine idea no matter how you phrase it.
That's really all I would ask for. Just treat me like a human being. Act upon me as you might prefer. That should not be too much to ask for.

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Topics: Opinions
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