Cis Queers and Trans Politics

Lately a number of discussions I've had with friends has only furthered me to think about some of the issues of cis queers and trans politics. For those who haven't heard the term cis before it refers to people who generally match the gender identity that society has given then based upon their sex (for instance male and a man, female and a woman). Cis could be defined differently or more elaborately, but that is the basic point. A lot of my thoughts surrounding cis people participating in trans politics came out around the Trans Day of Remembrance in Ottawa last year. Now there were a lot of issues with TDOR even within the trans communities, but many cis queer activists came out to TDOR. Instead of simply supporting the trans community they in many ways made it a protest against the police. Even calling a friend of mine whom is trans who organized the alternate march that didn't start at the police station a hypocrite because, she was friendly towards some of the people who did start there.

In addition to this a banner drop was made off the highway by the police station, by some cis activists. The banner said "remember stonewall". I'm not sure that they realized the irony of remembering an event that was started primarily by black and latina trans women and resulted in a movement coopted by primarily gays and lesbians whom left trans people behind.

Another incident that has prompted this post was yesterday at one of the Captial Pride events a cis queer community organizer whom I usually like, used the word tranny at a podium in front of a crowd of mostly straight cis people. Now I from time to time refer to myself as a tranny and, at times am okay with very close friends of mine using it. However, it is along the same lines as the 'n' word for the black community. Why did that not provoke condemation while if someone said 'faggot' or the 'n' word it most likely would have?

The cis queer community very much needs to learn proper solidarity with the trans community. This is not to say that their aren't cis queers who are amazing supports, but the community as a whole really needs to get it's act together.