So far as I am concerned:
Trans people, in my usage, includes all people who describe themselves as transsexual, transgender, bi-gender, intergender*, gender variant, genderqueer, androgyne, and other possible terms I may have missed. I am aware that there are problems with my usage, but I have chosen to ignore them for now and in this setting. Discussions about this can be with me personally via pm, or in Conversation if multiple people would like to talk about it. (*I am aware of the problems with the term 'intergender,' as well, and have also chosen to ignore those for now.)
Transphobia: by extension from 'homophobia,' an irrational personal aversion to trans people on the part of an individual, or several individuals considered as individuals.
Cisgenderism: in my usage, the tendency of institutions, organizations, and social systems to be designed with the expectation that people needing to access them will be non-trans, and therefore to provide services less effectively for trans people. For instance, when insurance companies in the US refuse to pay for treatment for a man who requires a hysterectomy because the computer system can't handle a request from anyone with a male sex designation for treatment for 'female' organs, there is cisgenderism at work. (cis ~= the same side, in opposition to 'trans,' cisgender ~= non-trans people, cisgenderism ~= supporting non-trans people by providing them with privilege which is denied to trans people)
Social systems: organized ways in which society provides any kind of good or service for its members, including (for example) the NHS, private insurance, supermarkets, civil trials, adoption, marriage, reproductive health clinics, message boards, traffic conventions, and probably nearly everything you can think of. Access to social systems is usually equal in theory, but unequal in practice, for lots of reasons— racism, sexism, classism, heterosexism, and cisgenderism being a few.
Specifically, I'm addressing the problem that trans people have more difficulty accessing services which are available with relative ease to non-trans people. Sometimes this is because someone involved in the service-providing has negative attitudes towards trans people (such as a belief that we are all mentally ill). Sometimes it is because systems are set up to function well with regard to non-trans people, and trans people, being in the minority and having different needs, encounter unexpected obstacles. Sometimes it's a combination of these factors.
I welcome people's personal accounts of transphobia and cisgenderism in attempting to use social systems of any kind, but especially medical care of any kind. I also welcome questions from non-trans people, people who do or who might be in a position to provide services to trans people, and ideas from anyone about good strategies for equalizing access.
I'd like to make it clear that I consider access to social systems to be a privilege which is possessed in greater measure by certain groups than by others, and this inequality is a problem for a lot of people. By focusing on cisgenderism and transphobia in this thread I do not mean to imply that these issues eclipse racism and racial prejudice, for example, or any of the other limiting factors I've described above. |
