Real Trans Inclusion Doesn’t Require You To “Get It Right”.
Written by Jules Gill-Peterson, who is leading our workshop “Beyond Words: Building Real Trans Inclusion” on August 26th — register here!
I probably don’t have to sell you on the idea that we live in interesting times. You might even be tempted to call them stressful – I know I would. For trans people and our allies, there has never been so much attention and opportunity to make meaningful change in the world, including in the workplace.
Yet this increased visibility is also tied to rising rates of violence, extremism, and escalating political attack in our communities and around the world. What role should “inclusion” play in a moment where trans people have become targets for both the highest optimism and cruelest aggression? Can we really learn the ins and outs of gender diversity and trans inclusion inside this pressure cooker? Will that even support trans people’s struggles for justice?
The answer to both questions is yes. And here’s why, though you don’t hear enough people saying so: the key word in “trans inclusion” isn’t trans.
I’ve spoken to countless parents, friends, and families of trans people of all ages; to schoolteachers, administrators, professors and researchers in education; and to nurses, doctors, therapists, scientists and surgeons. The common denominator I’ve seen in non-trans people’s approach to inclusion isn’t a lack of knowledge, it’s a feeling: fear.
Maybe you’ve felt this way too. You want to make your workplace or organization a leader in best practices for racial justice or gender diversity, but you’re worried about doing something wrong. Maybe you’ll convene a trans awareness training session, but use the wrong words or make an inappropriate assumption. You want to make sure that people from minority groups are well represented in diversity initiatives, but you also don’t want them to do the extra (and often invisible) labor of educating the majority. You greet today’s wide-open new world of gender identities and inclusive language as positive developments, but you feel a little dizzy at the thought of being responsible for bringing them into your workplace.
How can you become an expert in something that is constantly evolving, especially when you yourself are not a member of the group you’re trying to center?
That fear is a good sign, so take a moment to give yourself some grace for it. That gut feeling, the one that tells you to do right by your trans colleagues, but also warns you to be careful and intentional, isn’t a bad thing.
The issue is that it can get in the way of action.
The knowledge attached to conventional trans inclusion training is staggering. We are told that we need to understand trans as a concept and lived word in order to be inclusive. We must start with pronouns, the conceptual difference between sex, gender, and sexuality, and take a history lesson in trans movements from the 1970s. No wonder people feel unsure of themselves.
But what if we have it backwards?
If we fixate on pinning down the word trans first, we’ll only ever reduce it to a partial definition and find our task impossible to complete. You can leave the imaginative and critical work of wrestling with the meaning of trans to the folks in the academic fields like transgender studies, where I can happily report there are more books being published on the subject every year. I don’t expect the lively debate and conversations to die down anytime soon. If we instead focus on inclusion, we shift the focus from “them” to ourselves, which is the focal point from which we truly have the ability to make change.
Nine times out of ten, our ethical discomfort with the possibility of doing the wrong thing is what is holding us back from making practical change. But we already have the capacity to treat others with respect, dignity, and work towards their empowerment. That is something we can aim to do for everyone, not just trans folks. When I welcome people into my classroom, or my workshop space, the first thing I want them to know is we are going to put all our feelings on the table, out in the open. And we are going to listen to what they are telling us because feelings often communicate hard truths that can’t be easily put into words and ideas. Once we find those emotional obstacles, we can address them head-on, rather than wrapping them up in glossaries and dictionary definitions.
When we acknowledge how the practice of inclusion makes us feel first, we enter a new field of possibility. Once we’ve been honest, we are ready to hear from trans people on what they need, and can take action.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: JULES GILL-PETERSON
Jules Gill-Peterson is a trans historian, writer, and cultural critic. She is currently an Associate Research Professor of History at Johns Hopkins Hospital and a General Editor of Transgender Studies Quarterly. LEARN MORE
