A PR move for more acceptantce?

[Maddie22]

One of the topics that seems to come up continuously here is the want for acceptance within society. Whether one wants to come out or wants to stay in the closet, the vast majority of the members on the forum are all in favor of having more acceptance for the entire Transgender community (I'm using transgender as the umbrella term that includes transsexuals, crossdressers, gender-queer, drag queens/kings, bi-gender, ect, the T in LBGTQ, ect...).

However to the general public, and even to much of the LGB part of the community, the Trans part of of LGBTQ have many negative connotations associated. For example trannies are often looked at as *******'s, prostitutes or porn stars. Crossdressers are often at times associated with the negative term transvestite. These are such an insignificant representation of the overall transgender community and an unfair assumption from the general public that all trans-people are "trannies:, "********" or transvestites, that perhaps there needs to be a general shift away from using Trans in conjunction of what other word we use to lose the negative connotations associated with Trans. Perhaps the word crossdresser should be dropped in favor of something that is more favorable and represents a clearer, and a potential for a favorable, attitude towards the Transgender community.

Thus a PR move would have to be made, maybe with such advocate groups that are in support of the LGBTQ community to start referring to people that are are more gender open or fluid, or who change gender in the new and more positive references.

Do you think that such a move could be made? Would it be a beneficial move for the "Transgender" community. What could take on a more positive connotation than "transgender" or "transsexual" or "crossdresser" ect... Perhaps pangender, or gender fluid? Gender free or genderflex? Flexdresser, metagender?

I would like to know everyone's opinion on this subject, and if you think this hypothetical PR move could be beneficial.

[Blodwen]

Meta-gender perhaps?

To be honest the only way you can create PR for someone or something is to integrate it into media as much as possible. That way you're teaching a younger generation (and hopefully pass on to their children) that you shouldn't hold prejudices against people's life styles.

[VioletJourney]

Total acceptance is boring! Lots of people these days actually find us fun and interesting, would you really want to get rid of that?

[Inna]

As times are changing, I see a great acceptance and openness in the young. My being transsexual is no big deal to friends of my son who is 17. The older folks however grew up in the society with stifled and bracketed expectations of fluidity of anything and everything in life such as transgenderism is part of.

Personally I embrace word transsexual, I am proud to wear this label and lost full prejudice against, what seemed a dreaded word not too long ago.

Also transgender is an accurate term even more so then, trans-sex-ual depicting sexuality, where transgender focuses on fluidity of gender and as I observe, is well understood by most without sexual undertone.

[Rianna Humble]

I'm sorry, I don't agree with your basic premise. I have not found negativity towards the Trans part of LGBT - in fact, I see more and more young people in the community who are happy to call themselves "LGBT" rather than even Lesbian or Gay.

I am sure that there are members of our community who are pansexual - just as there are members who are Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual or Heterosexual - but their sexuality is not the issue.

There are those in our community who identify as gender fluid, bigender or dual gender so there may also be some who see themselves as pangender, but to my way of thinking, the only term that correctly describes all of us who cross the gender boundaries is transgender.

I am not pansexual neither am I pangender nor even gender fluid. I know what my gender is - it just happens to be the opposite of my birth sex.

I do not find people reacting negatively to the fact that I am transsexual, although many I deal with are curious to understand. It may also help that I am open and encourage them to ask questions.

[Maddie22]

Blodwen To be honest the only way you can create PR for someone or something is to integrate it into media as much as possible. That way you're teaching a younger generation (and hopefully pass on to their children) that you shouldn't hold prejudices against people's life styles.

Yes you couldn't do this with out some type of media campaign, however you would need some kind of organization, like the Human Rights Campaign, to start the PR campaign and use the media to bring about change.

VioletJourney: Total acceptance is boring! Lots of people these days actually find us fun and interesting, would you really want to get rid of that?

I would hate if people didn't find us interesting and fun. When I mean acceptance I mean a focus on educating the general public that the Transgender community isn't comprised of the often misguided stereotypes such as we all dress as a fetish, we are all prostitutes or porn stars or that we are all trying to trick straight guys ect...By acceptance would also include changing discrimination laws as well. Acceptance where we would be able to worry a lot less about violence and bigotry. That would be the kind of acceptance I hope will change.

Rianna Humble: I do not find people reacting negatively to the fact that I am transsexual, although many I deal with are curious to understand. It may also help that I am open and encourage them to ask questions.

I think that is awesome that you don't get that reaction. It could very well be a regional issue, because where I am from there are a lot of negative connotations still associated with being any form of Transgender. I'm not suggesting that we change the definition what "Transgender" stands for, rather just call it a different name to lose the negative connotations.

All in all we are not totally accepted by the general population, of either the US or the world. We do not have the same rights, we are subjected to violence and scrutiny. So how do you go about changing that, and gaining rights and being able to live more freely of who we are and want to be without the reprucutions? My suggestion of a start would be a "PR" tactic of sorts and bringing out some of the negatives that are currently associated with the "Trans" that are partially slowing positive growth in acceptance.

If you think about it, many people don't know the differences between Transgender, Transsexual, and Transvestite. Many people will just say"Trannie/Tranny" which is a derogatory word. If you look at a lot of main stream media, that term is often used to describe us in a very demeaning way and using us as a butt of the joke often.

Like I said, I'm not saying change who we are, just some of the terminology. Kind of like Apple not calling their Mac's. PC's. PC stands for personal computer. Apple wanted to differentiate and not be labeled as a PC to be different and get rid of any negative connotations associated with PC.

[Rianna Humble]

Maddie, I think that your intentions are laudable, but I don't think that the way to get wider acceptance is by changing a prefix which is correct (trans which means across or crossing) for one that is inexact (pan meaning all or universal) is the way to do it.

Education is a long slow process, but the more people who become educated around us, the fewer ignorant people we will have in our entourage.

I agree that there are many people who don't see the subtleties between Transgender and Transsexual - a large number of them are active in this community, but that doesn't make the words incorrect, merely misunderstood.

I do believe that very slowly but progressively, people are gaining more understanding of Trans issues. Recently after a long day at work, a total stranger asked me "Are you a Transvestite?" to which I replied "No, I'm Transsexual". The man then offered me his hand and said that he admired me for overcoming the obstacles to live my life the way that I felt I needed to. I still don't know who he was, but it cheered me up on my journey home that night.