To: Trans - Love: Cis

Benvenuto, everyone!

In this post I would like to explore another point of view. I had a chance to sit down and talk with Jade Catrett, a cisgender man and LGBT+ ally. While I have had several chances to speak with people on the trans binary and trans non-binary spectrum, but I had not yet asked the opinion of someone who identifies outside of the transgender spectrum.

As I noted before, Catrett is a cisgender male, meaning he was assigned male at birth and identifies as male. I asked him about how he addresses transgender people. He explained that he usually acknowledges them and goes about his day as he would any other person he sees on the street.

One interesting thing he touched on was how he reacts when he isn’t sure but has a hunch that someone might be transgender.

“If they confirm it for you, cool,” Catrett explained. “And then if they don’t, cool. It’s just like mild curiosity sated, and then I go about my day.”

He also explained that he used to think he needed to somehow communicate that he was a trans ally, but he has come to understand that all he needs to do to be an ally is to treat trans people like he would any other human being.

When I started to talk about voice, I found that he was actually decently educated on the subject. He was aware of some of the issues transgender individuals face concerning voice and voice dysphoria. He told me that it wasn’t something he had ever thought about before he had friends in the trans community. 

I asked him first why he believes voice training for transgender people is important. I think the best way to capture the power of his response is in his own words (unsavory language censored).

“I think it’s important because of my ignorance on it. I’m very comfortable as a man, I like to be a man, I like my beard, all that jazz. It goes to the extent, in video games, I prefer to play as a man because I exist as a man on most forms of my consciousness.

“If that were different for any reason,” he continued, “I think I would be pretty f***ed up about it. I have the good luck that all the stars aligned as far as that was concerned. So, for anyone else, whatever helps them through that. I’m a pretty big fan of doing what you want as long as it don’t hurt other people and makes them feel comfortable in their own skin.”

We concluded our meeting with the importance of education about not just voice training, but trans issues across the board. Catrett said that ignorance is the heart of hate, and I wholeheartedly agree.

Cantare!