You have no power over me. …in a perfect world, at least.

I am really nervous about going back to college because of how transphobic the cisCenter, which is generally considered to be an expect on trans issues by cis people because they have a “T” in their official title, is. I think it’s a sign of how widespread the myths that “trans people are just super gay and/or gay people trying to get acceptance” and “you’re either gay, straight, or lying (so you can’t be bi, poly, pan, or ace)” are that people think that just because you call yourself “LGBT”, you’re automatically knowledgeable about to only the LG but ALSO the B and T. Come on, it’s the same thing, the last two letters just want to horn in on straight privilege! That or it’s just bright eyed idealism that otherwise privileged gays and lesbians are above prejudice and ignorance.

Bitter rant aside, it’s probably going to kick me in the ass because it means that cis people are a better authority on my life than I am. I can’t just say “X is offensive to trans people”, they have to check with the cis people at the “LGBTQ” center to make sure it really is. You know that us gender confused trannies can’t be trusted to know what’s going on in our lives, we don’t even know what our gender actually is!

Now, they don’t have any direct power over me… Not really, I hope. But they do things to “educate” people about trans issues (despite the fact that they have yet to pass trans 101 themselves. Talk about the temporarily blindfolded leading the temporarily blindfolded…*), and cis people will go to those and think they know what they’re talking about and that will effect me. What cis people think is and isn’t acceptable to do or say or think about trans people effects me, and if they have “experts” telling them they’re allowed to do and say and think those things, they have even more reason to ignore me when I say otherwise. I don’t know if this would happen, but I really am concerned that if I face serious discrimination and go to the school with it, the school will go to them and if they say “Eh, it’s not really…” and then I won’t be able to get help.

I’m also worried that the people I consider friends will decide that the center is infallible because it’s helped them. There are a lot of people on campus who worship the ground that the leader of the cisCenter walks on, and I can’t really tell which ones are like that. Anyone involved with the center makes me nervous now, and it really isn’t fair to them or me that I can’t give them a fair chance because of that.

*The blind can lead the blind, and the sighted, pretty damn well. Put a blindfold on a sighted person and ask them to lead other blindfolded people and it’ll fall apart. I’m hoping this is a less ablist version of that phrase.