[Image: 5 men in suits, sitting on a set of stairs. Top: “Which one is a trans man?” Bottom: “If you can’t tell, why should he?”]

artoftransliness:

One of our most popular posts. Reblogging for relevancy. 

I was going to reblog saying “this is so relevant,” but then I wondered: what if you could tell? Not that anyone truly could, but there will be people who think they can, and I believe most of those people are who this is meant for. Does the trans man in this picture pass as cis? Yes, and I’m glad for him. Many trans people don’t pass as cis. That doesn’t mean they should tell, either.

Let’s not go as far as thinking of how trans people are perceived by people whose cissexism runs rampant. Let’s take a picture of five topless guys, one of whom has a horizontal scar across his chest. Even someone who knows that the scar might be from something other than top surgery and that some trans guys don’t have scars (they took hormone blockers, they had periareolar top surgery…) might be inclined to say that that guy is the one who’s trans.

The message this text and picture give is poignant, yes, but I don’t think it’s the ideal way to approach the subject. While I know it’s not what it was meant to do, I could very well twist this (after all, our cissexist society loves to twist things) to mean “it’s alright to interrogate someone who’s trans if they don’t do enough to cover up the fact that they’re trans.” Disgusting wording, I know, but cissexism is disgusting, so it wouldn’t surprise me.