Some thoughts on Transgender Day of Visibility

Last week I had a first: I got on a call, and everyone introduced themselves by name, and with their pronouns. It felt strange, but guess what? Nobody was hurt, and the call continued on afterwards. Nobody on the call was transgender that I know of, but that's exactly the point. If someone had a preferred way of being addressed, wouldn't you want to know?

I recently changed my social profiles on Instagram and Twitter to use my pronouns. Why? Because we should normalize making fewer assumptions, and because it should be normal to learn and accept how other people want to be called. As far as I know, it's an easy tell that you plan to treat people with respect, regardless of their gender identity.

Yesterday was Transgender Day of Visibility, so I thought I'd share a few things I've learned lately:

1. Transgender people are people that deserve to be loved, the same as you or I.
2. It's not my place to judge someone's gender identity, the same way that I'm not going to ask anyone to strip down and show me the gender they presented as when they were born.
3. The issues around an individual transitioning are just about none of my business. There is a real interesting debate around the timing of minors transitioning and playing sports. There are reasonable limits, but in general, we should try to make it work for the health of the person who wants to transition. I understand that the person does not make this decision lightly, and I highly doubt anyone would transition from male to female to excel above their peers in high school sports.
4. I'm surely going to keep making mistakes. I want to do better. While I hope can improve, I know I'll make mistakes. Hopefully people can call me out when I'm wrong or disrespectful (hopefully unintentionally!), and I can learn and improve some more.