Groups - Nancy Chiu

We talked about transgender people in last week's discussion and some people feel uncomfortable about it. I know some of my friends feel uncomfortable being with transgenders or homosexuals; however, I don't think it's a big deal. After all, they are still people and their family or friends who love them will care only about who they really are under that thin layer of skin. If one day your best friend since childhood suddenly tells you that she is actually a guy, will you stop being friend with her/him? Very unlikely. Sure, you will feel weird and awkward at first, because you need time to get use to the change; but after all, she/he is still the person that you know and you love her/him as who she/he is. This fact is not going to change just because her gender changes.

Then why are we uncomfortable about transgender people? I think this is because they are "different." Humans like groups because groups help us define who we are. For example, gender is a way to categorize people: you are a boy, or a girl. But now, there are more and more people who cannot be simply put into one absolute gender group. What are we going to do with them? We eventually have to change the whole grouping by gender and develop a new one. But people are usually scared of changes and feel insecure. To me, this is one of the reasons why some people feel uncomfortable about the whole transgender thing, because they are scared that what we believe and taught for the whole time is no longer absolutely correct.