Looking for Reflections

[jewels23.livejournal.com]

Hi everyone. I am writing on behalf of my campus queer organization which is trying to improve trans awareness. One of the ways we are attempting this is by having some experiences cis people can reflect on to better understand transphobia, cis sexism/centrism and, in general, what life is like for trans people. This strategy was used, previously, to get straight people to think of things like how annoying it is when people assume your straight forcing you to always explain your queer or how would you feel if you were being told your relationship was somehow less valid and less deserving of legal recognition for no reason. We are hoping to get some diverse experiences and opinions from the trans community so if you have any ideas it would be appreciated.

The current ideas we have been given include:
"Think about what it's like for trans people in the gym. They may worry about others hostilities especially when there may not be a policy allowing them access to appropriate facilities. Also think how you would feel if you were in the process of transition and told to use the opposite sex change room, would you feel safe there if your presented as and had characteristics of the opposite gender and how insulting would that be to your identity?"
"How would you feel if every time you went to the washroom you had to be worried about people complaining about you, insulting your identity and saying you did not belong?"
"Think about how you would feel about accessing health care when your trans. You may have to worry about a doctors transphobia, worst of all when accessing emergency services. The doctor may be more fixated on your trans status rather than what medical problem is being presented or they may outright refuse or delay treatment."
"How would you like to have people always ask about your genitals and medical histories (what surgeries you had, what medicine are you taking)?"
"How would you feel about applying for a dorm that is sex segregated if you were trans? What if administration only allowed you in the dorm of your sex assigned at birth? And what if you identified outside the gender binary, would you be comfortable in a highly gendered environment?"

I will also apologize now if I am being to invasive, inappropriate by asking this in your space or if I am being unfair asking for you to educate me on your trans experiences. It was only my intention to get more experiences in order to help others understand trans people better.