So let's just say, I'm disappointed right now.
Before I talk about the issue at hand, let me make a few things clear. There is a reason neither my YouTube videos nor my blog allow comments. It isn't because I'm afraid of feedback; I get feeback through a lot of other means (either through crossposts on trans-friendly websites, through trackbacks, through friends who aren't afraid to criticize, etc.) and that's because I've been bullied on the Internet both by transphobes for being trans and by trans people for not being the kind of trans person they want me to be. I have tried multiple times to allow them, but in the long run it's nothing more than a trigger for me.
This is not uncommon as far as trans people go, and in many ways I get off extremely light. People get death threats, rude questions that are actually more transphobic statements disguised as questions than actual questions, misgendered, and in many cases have had pictures of themselves and screenshots of their videos posted on blogs and other websites to be mocked, "dissected," and outed. I have seen people who are so afraid of this that they don't even go to trans-friendly websites anymore because they're afraid these people are going to find them.
How much is this talked about in the wider community? The answer is not very often. Cyber-bullying efforts are often degendered and desexualized to protect them from right-wing homo- and transphobes who only think bullying is wrong as long as it's done to somebody in their target demographic. But the dumbly obvious fact is, trans-people get bullied a lot on YouTube.
So Laci Green... she is ducking out of the YouTube limelight over threats and harassment based on the fact that she said the word "tranny" as well as several other things she has said about religion and other hot-button subjects. Now, I could talk for a long time about the type of people the hecklers probably are... there's a subset of the social justice community in which members are either totally unaware of the way they use privilege within that context, or they have labeled themselves as being so unprivileged that they give themselves permission to be as rude as they can possibly be to anybody who commits even the slightest infraction against what they believe. In a trans context they tend to be newbies or people who are stuck in a rut... can't pass, can't get hormones yet... so they're in that "radical sexy" period. Yes, I went through that period too, and it didn't occur to me that I was acting ridiculous until long after. But honestly that's all I want to say about that subject for now. "Harassing Laci Green is bad." All reasonable people believe this.
Here is where I am disappointed. It's not only with the fact that there are people doing this, but the fact that the ensuing shitstorm has basically proven a fact about cissexism: People care more when things like this happen to cis people than when they happen to trans people. Lots of trans people get harassed off of YouTube. It's not a story until it happens to a cis person, especially if it can be in some way blamed on trans people.
This isn't a cut on John Green (the guy who brought this up and is the reason it's famous right now), who I feel has tackled transgender issues pretty well in the past (one of the first videos I saw of his was ranting about how peoples' criticisms of Chris Crocker were unfairly based in his gender presentation rather than his attitude), but I have a feeling if this had been another case of a trans person harassed off of YouTube--which, again, happens fairly frequently--it just wouldn't have blown up the way it has.
And regardless of the wrongness of the actions taken against Laci, it's still cis privilege in action.
