: Re: How to write about transgender issues while avoiding cognitive dissonance? As a writer, it is difficult to help your readers hold two dissonant ideas in their heads. This can occur when the

@Shakeerah107

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I know I'm coming to this party so long after it's been over, but hey. I'm a transgender woman, so I think I have something of an insider's information that can help.

First you need to consider what the common narrative is regarding transgender people. Now, it's logical to assume that most people accept transgender people, and that we now live in a world where it's okay to just talk about these things.

Sadly, that isn't the case everywhere, and in fact, it's still a very much debated topic (our lives, our genitals, our private business, and frankly even our sanity).

So here's the problem if you go with, "Caitlyn Jenner won the men's trophy," and assume the dissonance isn't going to happen. First, every trans person I've spoken to on the subject, prefers to be called by their proper pronouns ('she' in Caitlyn's case), even when you're talking about them pre-transition (note: not, "when he was...", I'm saying 'pre-transition'). So you can get around the hotbutton kneejerk reaction from trans people by using their name (not their deadname), and then simply adding 'before [insert proper pronoun] transitioned' somewhere in there.

Another way this can be done without being a jerk about it, is simply following what is done for many stars or actors or performers. You start by saying 'born [insert name], assigned [insert currently incorrect gender'] at birth'.

What I am getting at is "used to be a guy", "back when she was a boy", and other such wordings are hurtful, because we have enough people telling us that we still are 'a guy', and adding to that narrative is counterproductive and to our detriment.

Or you might want to be gentle with where you tread. I'll never say not to write about transgender characters and their lives, but really, it's hard to get right, because even I have the debate with other trans people about why writing trans lesbians is actually counterproductive (being a transwoman that's dated only women in her lifetime, you'd think I would like to write about that... but I guess I'm supposed to only talk about hetero trans women TT_TT You just can't win sometimes).

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