November 20th is Transgender Day of Remembrance. It exists as a day to honor and reflect on the lives and deaths of people who were murdered because they were, or were perceived to be, transgender. According to Transgender Europe, there have been 1,123 reported murders of transgender people worldwide in the past five years alone . To be murdered is to be mistreated, clearly, but transgender people face mistreatment in other, more subtle ways as well. Many people may believe that the realm of romantic and sexual attraction is a highly personal and ethereal one that stands apart from societal issues and is immune to any moral regulation. However, widespread preferences, beliefs, and behaviors are very much a societal issue and become problematic …show more content…
Not many cisgender people can say that they have met many transgender people. It’s likely that many of them are operating off of false information—misunderstandings of what it means to be transgender and inaccurate portrayals of transgender people in the media. If a person’s only exposure to black people has been through watching people argue over paternity on the Maury Povich Show, it’s hardly valid for them to say that they wouldn’t want a black person as a partner. Likewise, if a person’s only exposure to transgender people has been through watching women reveal to their fiancés that “they’re really a man” on the Jerry Springer Show, it’s hardly valid for them to say that they wouldn’t want a transgender person as a partner. They simply don’t have enough data. For clarification, prejudice does not have to be malicious or even intentional. To say that someone has a prejudiced view of a group of people is not to say that they harbor animosity towards that group, that they actively seek to cause harm to that group, or that they are even fully aware of their prejudice. To be prejudiced simply means to have attitudes, opinions, or beliefs about a certain group of people, ignoring that the group is comprised of individuals all with varying traits. To think that all Christians are friendly and unassuming is prejudiced, regardless of how positive this view may