Interview with transgender people: We do not want to die fighting to survive, but to live safely and securely.

In June 2020, J.K. Rowling responded with a 3,600-word article to her "biological gender" and "gender identity" battle over whether transgender women should be treated as women, and then questioned whether identity, when it replaced physiology, would harm the space of biological women. (Extended reading:J.K. Rowling's gender war: We should all ask, "Who the hell is a woman?" . . .

There was an uproar in the online community, with stars such as Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint jumping out in support of transgender women's gender identity.

And let's pull the scene back to Taiwan, where transgender people's gender identity and gender space issues are debated, as if it were a flash in the pan, and reported by the media in all sorts of strange ways, and ultimately it's not going to work.

The interview went to the transgender 2018 case of sexual harassment at Chang'e University, when she held a press conference to denounce Chang'e University's forced use of male dorms and verbal sexual harassment in order to fight for the rights of transgender women. Three years after the incident, sitting in front of me, Xiao Wei, is currently in a state of recess, on-the-job, her legal battle with Chang'e University continues, and she never thought that the first obstacle she faced after the cabinet would be so high.

I started by asking from her life experience: How do I, as a transgender woman, face a moment when I am not treated as a woman? What does she think of the "transgender women shouldn't go to the women's toilet"?

Transgender people want not to live, but to live safely and reassuringly.

Long before she went to college in high school, xiaoxuan knew she was transgender for many years, so when gender identity had affected her life, she quickly called for medical procedures, Hermon treatment, and then encountered Changyu University forcing her to live in a boys' dormitory.

Since Chang'e University adjourned, she has also been to the technology company to recruit, resume to the vice president that pass, the other side asked the whole company's female staff to vote, to decide whether XiaoXuan can use the women's toilet, must pass the full number to let her use the women's toilet. Now she is full of anger and grievance: "I said don't ask, if you want to force out, even if the full consent, I do not want to come." 」

She said she came home crying badly that day. She had expectations of society, but it was always all kinds of hurts that paid off. Do you want to talk about your experience of being discriminated against? Her smile with a lot of helplessness, alas, too much, numerous.

"Did you know that all the gym chains in Taiwan would refuse to allow transgender people to join?" She immediately dropped an example, and I had time to react, and she said quietly, "The reason for the rejection is that transgender people entering the men's and women's locker rooms scares others, saying it's about maintaining the safety and perception of other men and women." 」

There are men and women in the gender space, but there are no transgender positions. I asked, how would you want transgender people to be treated if you could speak up to the community?

Even if the question was small, she responded, "I think it's not just transgender, in a word, it's about making everyone safe and secure, not living." He went on to explain, "Survival is to live to keep a mouthful of food, regardless of any state." But every gender should have the right to live in peace and security. 」

For example, if we all argue that transgender people can use a gender-limited space, if we take trans women as an example, to allow trans women into the female space, some people say it will hurt other women: "I think the idea is due to the wrong person." Transgender women are vulnerable to sexual violence, and today's violence is about toxic masculinity, not people with different organs. To keep every gender safe and secure, she argues, it's time for transgender people to move into the space they identify with.

Photo by Shane on Unsplash (Pictured)

But how easy is it to communicate about getting transgender into the gender space of identity? Not to mention the issues of transgender people's right to work and to exist. Xiao said that any appeal is difficult to hear unless everyone is willing to understand and share the same reason.

Asking the same question, she thought it over and said slowly, "Transgender and gay people are fundamentally different." Like each of us, there will be people we like, so we can understand how we like one person, but not everyone wants to be another gender, so it's hard for us to go with the ideal to be another gender. 」

So transgender people want to communicate their demands, and look further a step forward, the problem to be solved is, how to make society equal? And it's not just about misconsing transgender people's gender identity as a dress code, it's about connecting with the self, with society.

"Why don't you ask for help?" Blind spots that society cannot see.

At the beginning of this year, Xiao Wei considered participating in the marathon, want to register for the women's team, asked the organizers, said that the registration group needs to see the gender column of the ID card. She had a bottom in her mind, but she was still angry: "To be honest, I have dual citizenship, I am a woman in the gender section of my American passport, and it is absolutely necessary to apply for a passport." But I'm angry that not everyone, like me, has the privilege of acquiring citizenship. 」

So when sports events are grouped according to the gender bar of the ID card, the tricky thing happens: transgender women who receive Hermon treatment must run men's events with women's strength, while transgender men can run women's events with men's bodies, limiting the rights of not only transgender people, but also women's rights.

Why didn't the business see the problem? Why don't businesses pay attention to the situation of transgender people? Xiao Xiao points out two reasons: first, the lack of transgender subjects in decision-making;

"When the system is not transgender, it will certainly miss out on the rights and interests of a party, like why do you say that there should be a woman in the round-table discussion?" Because when decision makers are boys, it's hard to expect someone to speak for women. In the government's gender study, transgender people who identify as women are classified as men, she said, and when the study tries to distinguish by physical sex, the transgender person's pattern disappears, "and if you want to use research as a decision, there will naturally be no transgender policy." There are no transgender people in the official data, how can we expect this society and business to think about transgender people?

While the current government deals with domestic violence, victims often have access to resources from women's resettlement shelters, which do not include transgender women and men, and according to the Reed Foundation, non-physiological women are more likely to be housed in special hotels and lack complete support services.

The rights and interests of transgender people are not guaranteed in government and business, and are more difficult to place in society. When it comes to issues such as gender-based violence, most transgender people choose to be more interested than to turn to the outside world for help. According to the Partnership Alliance survey, 75.3 percent of transgender students and 70 percent of transgender workers who encounter unkind treatment at stages such as studying for a job choose not to deal with it.

"We know that asking for help often comes with a more painful response. 」

Without the help of government organizations, the world would have disappeared quietly.

Knowing its difficulties, I still hold a 30s of hope, ask XiaoXuan, there is no solution, or we can start to do?

She shook her head with a wringer: "I can't think of any way." Transgender people's path to survival is like an unsaltable cycle: "Transgender people want to hide their identity if they want to be not discriminated against; if they want to hide their identity, they have to change their identity cards; they want to change their identity cards, they have surgery; they want surgery, they have to spend money; they want to make money; they want to make money, they have to work; they want to work, they want to be not discriminated against; they want to change their identity cards," she naturally spits out. Did she find the problem, she asked?

I nodded, and the transgender people were running in a cycle, with no end in point. If governments and organizations can't help, it's hard for transgender people to escape this cycle of survival on their own.

"If you can't survive, you can't escape the world, but no one will know, because statistically, there are no transgender people at all." Xiao Wei was silent for half a moment, and walked slowly. Then he laughed again, saying he was embarrassed and didn't want to take the answer so hard.

I said it's okay, thank you she's willing to say it. The conversation may seem hopeless, but there's still a lot of hope for her, and he's looking forward to the opportunity to say something for transgender people. She said it was a first step for people to listen to the experiences of transgender people and share their experiences.

The power of the story is like this, not only let the speaker re-construct self-identification, self-healing, for the listener, more to remember, share these experiences, do not let a person's life and death, quiet, can not afford waves.