Comrades and allies! It’s time that we address a critical issue that the progressive community has heretofore largely neglected: transagephobia. To make clear the harmful and dangerous impact transagephobia is having on the lives of transage people, allow me to share the lived experience of my cousin Fred.
Fred is 15 years old. He has a loving mother, and he lives in the basement of her house. She cooks, cleans, and does his laundry for him, and he mostly plays video games. Basically Fred is just your average 15-year-old. Last spring he was chilling outside the local high school when school let out and he met a beautiful, smart, and generally amazing girl named Betty. Betty is a little older, she’s 18, but that didn’t bother either of them. They had a cute teenage summer fling, then “danke schoen,” they parted on the best of terms. It was the sort of thing that a teenage boy dreams about!
Sounds great, right? Well recently, as a result of systemic cultural transagephobia, things haven’t been going well for Betty and Fred. It all started when Betty was buying her favorite pack of cigs at the local 7-11. The transagephobic cashier didn’t believe Betty was 18 and thought her ID looked fake, so he called the police. The police did some digging and determined that according to her birth certificate, Betty is only 14. Can you believe that they think someone’s age is defined by the birthdate they were assigned at birth? Under interrogation Betty broke down and told them that Fred had made the ID for her because she is a transage person and he believes in affirming allyship. If Betty says she identifies as 18-years-old, then she IS 18-years-old, no ifs, ands, or buts about it!
But the transagephobic police didn’t see it that way. They showed up at Fred’s mother’s house and demanded to see Fred. When he came out, they arrested him! In addition to making the affirming ID for Betty, they charged him with statuatory rape! They claim that he is 43, again transagephobically basing this on the birthdate he was assigned at birth! Even worse, they say he was “grooming” Betty by providing her with the affirming ID. Can you imagine something so transagephobic as to call an age-affirming ally a groomer? Even more insulting, they say they are going to try Fred as an adult, even though he is only 15, and he’s facing 20 years in prison. Is it any wonder that the transage community suffers from such high rates of self-harm and suicide?
Comrades and allies, how can we respond? Please, please, please, do everything you can to end transagephobia and the harm it is causing. State your age in your twitter bio and at the start of every meeting, never assume someone’s age by how they look or what it says on their birth certificate, and always, always, always affirm transage identities. RT and amplify this message! Together we can overturn rampant systemic transagephobia in our society!
Finally, I would like to preemptively call out any transagephobes in this "FrEe SpEeCh" safe space blogosphere echo chamber who might dare to disagree with me: I do not value nor do I respect your opinion. Transagephobes are trash. You are doing material harm to my transage homies and I cannot abide. Freedom of speech does not absolve you from the consequences of said speech. I do not agree to disagree. You are wrong. Denying that transage people exist is bread-and-butter transagephobia. Transagephobic rhetoric like yours contributes to increased levels of transage people un-aliving themselves. I do not tolerate transagephobes and I will continue speaking truth to power. Denying the existence of transage people causes them material harm and I can in no way abide. I will be as bright and strident of an anti-transagephobe as I possibly can be. If that light paralyzes a transagephobe, so be it. That's a them problem. I do not care!
You’ve been dead aged!
Fred is getting what he richly deserves - the big house. Cheers!
:-)