Transwomen Must Work Four Times As Hard To Be Considered Half As Good

Former Ottawa, ON mayor Charlotte Whitton once said 'Whatever women do they must do twice as well as men to be thought of half as good.'   For transwomen, it's triple that, and for transwomen of color it's four times as well as men to be considered half as good.

It's a concept that trans women of color are already bitterly familiar with. It isn't fair, but it's the hand we're dealt and it's what we have to overcome to be the best #girlslikeus we can be. 

I know we have some smart, talented and exceptional trans women out there who if given just half a chance, can not only excel at whatever they set their minds to do, they will thrive if given the support they need.

But we have to be given the opportunities to succeed or fail on our own merits, not you cis peeps gay and straight throwing barriers and obstacles in our path every chance you get and then chuckling to yourself when that person falls short.

But we transwomen relish a challenge.   We like it when you cis people engage in the hard bigotry of low trans expectations and presume we'll fail.  It makes it even sweeter when we spectacularly succeed and make you look foolish in the process.

But before we can get to that point of spectacular success, we have to be prepared and ready to take advantage of the opportunities when they present themselves.  It's why we need to make sure we have as much education as possible.   It's why we need to be networking, building sistahcircles, lifting each other up in transfeminine circles as we climb and reaching out to cis women friends and allies. 

It's why we need to be fighting tooth and nail to pass trans human rights legislation with airtight public accommodations language and reaching out to our trans younglings at every opportunity.

We knew it wasn't going to be easy to be girls like us.  We knew before we took our first estrogen shots we were going to have to be better than the average cis woman just to be included and accepted in the feminine ranks.  

There are some haters who will always be chomping Hater Tots fresh out the grease and make it their foaming at the mouth transphobic hate filled mission to never accept girls like us into the sorority. 

Frack 'em.   That doesn't mean we don't keep striving to be the best people we can be.  Our best revenge is to contribute our talents to the various communities we interact and intersect with and make the cis haters look bigoted and stupid for being the transphobic oppressors they are.

It's also why I and everybody else in trans femme world needs to be consistently striving to be the quality women we know we can be inside and outside.

Even if we have to work three or four times as hard to get to that point.