You know a trans person now :) >The good news, from the privileged seat that I inhabit (full acknowledgment of privilege), is that I think there is an ever increasing tolerance and even acceptance. -Am I right? I sure hope I am. I hope so too, your comments so far give me some hope. I already like this place more than reddit.
I think that the whole "knowing someone" thing is invaluable. Many of the prejudices and bigotry in the world stem from fear of the unknown. -Not justifying it, just saying. For example, I have no idea if transgender, transexual, tran etc is the sensitive way to refer to this? No idea. Does that make me ignorant? Probably. But I'm a product of my experiences. Some of the examples in the post might be caused by a lack of experience rather than malicious intent. In which case, unfortunately patience on both sides is the only solution. It's going to take time for people to get to know the transgender people in their community and realize that like all of us, they're just humans. That said, glad to meet you :-)