Gender Equality: Transgender Lives ~ All Humans Are The Same 🏳️‍🌈🌈

A trans person is an individual with a gender identity or gender expression that differs from their sex assigned at birth. Although gender is someone’s internal, personal sense of being a man or woman, trans people are of the opinion that the gender they were assigned at birth and their own internal gender identity do not match. Sadly, trans people are often segregated and subjected to certain inhumane or degrading treatment.

 Regardless of our time and era where people are expected to know better and gender equality has been at the forefront of most conversations and people are now more enlightened on the issue which is due to the fact that feminists worldwide constantly pushed for the notion and pressed on the issue until they finally had a voice. In the same vein, trans people would eventually be accommodated by all if people like us who are enlightened actually take the step and put effort in making a difference and changing the existing narrative.

However, before addressing the issue of a better treatment for trans people, I would like to properly familiarize ourselves with the entire term and get us acquainted with all the facts associated with it. I would begin by stating some researched facts. There are about 750,000 people in the United States who identify as transgenders and about 580,000 people in the UK who identify as transgenders.
1) 48% of trans people would rather not use a public toilet due to the fear of discrimination or harassment (Huffington Post 2016)
2) 51% of trans people hid their identity at their places of work due to fear of discrimination (Huffington Post 2016)
3) 34% of transgender people have been bullied at some point in their various schools. (StoneWall 2018)
4) 62% of trans people avoid certain streets an alleys because they fear being lynched (Stone Wall 2018)
5) 25% of transgender were discriminated against and denied apartments while they were looking for one (Stonewall 2018)
6) 40% of trans people are yet to undergo medical intervention which is a part of their transition process because they fear condemnation from their families (stonewall 2018)
7) 88% of trans people have gone through depression at som point in life. (Trans Mental Health and emotional well being study UK 2012)

There are so many societal beliefs and ideologies associated with trans people worldwide and for a third world developing country like Nigeria, it is a bit heightened and as such seen or termed as an anomaly. Below are some of the myths and misconceptions associated with being a trans person;
1) Trans people live crazy lives : This is probably the most common misconception about trans  people. On the contrary, not all trans people live “crazy lives”. Just like any other group of people, there are trans people who are conservatives and private, while there are the outgoing and fun loving ones.
2) Trans people are confused: Just because a person is different doesn’t mean they don’t  know exactly who they are or what they stand for. Trans people have a gender and will always stand by it. It isn’t confusion, it is who they are!
3) Trans people Are mentally unstable: Although it’s true that trans people tend to often suffer from mental illness but it’s not entirely because of their gender identity but rather it’s usually due to all the trauma they went through in their journey of self discovery which can be managed or get corrected with time and with love.
4) Transgender People Are Gay: Gender identity and sexual orientation are completely different things. One is what gender we see ourselves as while the other is what gender and sex we are physically and romantically attracted to.
5) Trans people Do drugs and have STDs: Similar to the misconception about trans people living crazy lifestyles, people also tend to believe trans people are hooked on drugs and harbor sexually transmitted diseases like HIV, herpes, clamydia etc.

Furthermore, in a bid to curtail the harsh treatments received by trans people, there is a number of things we can do to alleviate the situation which includes: 

1) Supporting the already existing LGBT organizations in the country financially and in other ways possible; Organizations such as The Bisi Alimi Foundation tun by Bisi Alimi himself who is at the forefront of LGBT rights not just in  Africa but in the international space as well. There’s also the TransValid foundation run by Miss SaHHara who is also Of a Nigerian origin but relocated out of the country after she transitioned. Then there is the TIER Foundation which stands for The Initiative For Equal Rights. These bodies and more a passionate about transgender issues and could use our support in one way or another.

2) Penetrating Religios bodies: Asides the idea of holding seminars in churches and mosques. As we already know that Nigerians hold their religious leaders to high esteem and would in most cases do as instructed by those religious leaders. It’s advisable to communicate with those religious leaders, get them to understand that God is love and Islam is peace hence spewing hate towards another human is wrong and unfair. If we can get these religious leaders to add this to their messages from time to time, it will in no time sink in and they’ll begin to drop the hateful nature towards trans people and start acting differently. 

3) The Media: People feed off what they can see and hear. Be in intentional or subconscious, seeing LGBT relatable articles, posts and programmes would not only make them less homophobic but more susceptible to being unbothered by it. Cross dressers and trans people could be invited to TV shows and featured in movies and music videos then as for social media, influencers should be made to tweet threads and make posts relatable to trans people thus creating a safe haven for them on our social media space. 

Conclusively, Rome wasn’t built in a day and I’m well aware of the fact that they’ll be an initial backlash or pushback to this course, I implore is to not waver or relent on the aim of achieving the end result which is a safe space for all because we are all humans and trans people also deserve a good treatment as well. Below are pictures of notable trans people in the society; in the lovely green dress is Bobrisky from Nigeria who was born a man (Idris Okuneye) but now identifies as female and has repeatedly said he prefers the feminine pronouns, then there is American singer Alexander James Adams who was born a Lady by the name of Heather Alexander and Caitlyn Jenner who lived as a man for 66years before completely transitioning to a woman in April 2015. Then there’s a chat showing the full acronym and various meanings of all the words in the LGBT term.