I Repeat: We Live Trans Lives, Not A 'Lifestyle'

"I get tired of hearing that being transgender is a 'lifestyle'. Too many times in the GLBT community we help buttress that conservaspin in our own writings, conversations, and media interviews as a shorthand code for talking about being GLBT."-TransGriot,  July 30, 2008 
One thing that grates on my ears like nails on a chalkboard is hearing some trans person use the conservaword 'lifestyle' to describe our trans lives. 

I've been saying this point for over a decade now and looks like once again I need to 'ejumacate' some peeps in my own community why saying 'lifestyle' is problematic as hell.

What drove me to write this post is Amiyah Scott's recent May 25 Twitter comment.

I’m a black trans woman and it really fucks me up that the community I stand for 1st puts me last. Majority of the hate I see comes from my own people. I’m BLACK before anything else and even if you don’t understand my lifestyle, you should respect me for that if nothing else.

6:59 PM - 25 May 2019

While I applaud much of what Scott said in her comment and have much love for her , what ruined that tweet for me was that 'lifestyle' word in there.

I repeat to Amiyah and 'errbody' else in Black Trans World.   We do NOT live a trans 'lifestyle'.  We live trans lives.

'Lifestyle' is the shady slur word that our evilgelical oppressors spit at us when they gleefully roll back our human rights .  It implies that being trans is a choice, which i certainly the hell isn't.

The only choices in being trans happen when we come out to the world and live life as the fabulous trans people that God created us to be. 

And yeah, I'm unapologetic about being Black, trans and being my fab shining like a diamond self. 

So stop doing the evilgelicals work for them and do your part to expunge the word 'lifestyle' from your vocabulary when we are discussing our fabulous trans lives. 

We don't live a trans 'lifestyle'.  We live trans lives.