As I read in the news of events where people have been attacked verbally or physically, even murdered, because of how they are perceived, the notion of "I saw a trans person..." makes me feel quite queasy. It smacks of transphobic "we can always tell" lines when, quite obviously, they cannot.
Sadly, so far, I've seen this used universally with respect to women, trans or cis. That smacks of misogyny as well, because it is basically the policing of femininity and womanhood. It's inherently gross to me as it is assigning aspects of masculinity in a way to identify and seperate. The patriarchy does this, we should not.
Why do I feel strongly about this? Well, in the last year, a black cis woman was murdered because she was perceived to be trans. A young cis girl was verbally attacked by an older couple at a track event for 9 year olds because she was perceived to be trans. Just recently, another cis woman was attacked and beaten in New York after a man perceived her to be trans.
We need to put an end to the assumptions of what trans or cis "looks" like and that behaviour starts with us.
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