As the world continues to move forward, many people are finding new and unique ways of expressing themselves. Whether this is through a new sexuality or using neopronouns, everyday somebody is finding out who they truly are. These new methods of expressing oneself are making the world increasingly inclusive and helping people find themselves and what makes them feel comfortable. This is a huge change in inclusion from the past few decades; the past did not even welcome homosexuals. Same-sex marriage was not even legalized until 2015. In many countries it is still considered criminal to be homosexual, and one can even be put to death for it. Now, in the United States, you can be bisexual or pansexual or asexual. And those are just the basic ones. The expansion of these terms are really helpful in creating an identity for many people, and these terms can help somebody understand themself better. Everybody should be able to express themselves the way that they want to, and those expressions should be respected.
However, can some of these terms be harmful? A new sexuality has been created, and it seems like an attempt to hurt members of the transgender community. It is called ‘super straight.’ This sexuality basically states that the person who identifies as such is only attracted to cisgender members of the opposite sex. This mainly excludes people who are transgender, but it also removes people who are agender or genderfluid. Although according to the site Urban Dictionary, super straight is “a made up sexuality where people like the opposite sex that doesn’t include transgender people.” Of course, people are welcome to their sexual preferences. Whether one prefers to date white people, black people, tall people, skinny people, or older people, that is totally okay. It is just what is found attractive, and there is nothing wrong with that. A person is allowed to like what they like. And they are also allowed to reject somebody that they do not find attractive. The difference here is putting a label on preferences.
Even as a cisgender, heterosexual, female, I can see clear as day how harmful this sexuality will be. It is completely unfair to only exclude one group of people in a sexuality. Members of the transgender community already face enough backlash and harmful remarks on a daily basis. Creating an entire sexuality that just sets them apart is making it even harder for them to feel like equal and valued members of society. As a society, amazing strides have been made to make every single person equal. In this day and age, anybody is allowed to marry anybody in the United States. Same-sex couples are now able to adopt children and start a family. Many countries are still struggling to do this, and the United States needs to act as a role model for other communities and governments. But now, in 2021, it feels as though we are taking steps backwards. People are attacking others for their sexual and gender identities, sometimes even harming them physically. There are many different attempts to tear down these communities and make the people in them feel the same fear they did in the past. There are even people who want to completely wipe the LGBT+ community off the face of the earth. And there is no need for that. The creation of new sexualities to hurt others is a poor example to set for countries that are still developing and trying to figure out how to view people who identify differently. There is absolutely no harm in letting others exist the way that they want to. Everybody is allowed to have their own feelings and preferences and identity. But once again, when one creates an entire identity around their distaste for a group of people, they are creating a new kind of problem that, as a society, we will have to address and combat. As a community, we are being forced to divide over issues that should not even exist. There should not be anybody who is not allowed to be who they feel that they are because it makes somebody else feel uncomfortable.
Transgender people already face so many challenges just to feel comfortable in their own skin. Firstly, they have to go through coming out to their families, and the fear of not being accepted that comes along with that. Many people could be kicked out of their house by their family or downright shunned and exiled from interacting with people who used to care about them. It makes it more difficult when not only someone’s family does not accept them, but random strangers pile onto that hatred every day without even knowing the person. Secondly, transgender people have to deal with taking hormones just to feel more like themselves. Their body does not match their brain, and they are forced to take medications to reconcile that. Along with taking these medicines — which may come with side effects — there is the cost of obtaining them. Not all insurances are willing to cover what is called gender-affirming care. This also includes any transition surgeries that are desired. Insurance companies are prohibited from discriminating against somebody who is transgender, but that does not always ensure that insurance will cover the care that is needed to make somebody who is transgender feel alright with themselves. Lastly, people who are transgender have to deal will expressing to everybody what their preferred pronouns and names are. Oftentimes, people will refer to transgender people by their deadname, which is the name that they were given at birth. Deadnaming and misgendering is often done out of honest forgetfulness or miscommunication, but sometimes it is done maliciously. This makes it difficult to be able to tell whether or not somebody is trying to be harmful, or if they truly just misspoke. Transgender people are forced to treat everybody like they are attacking them in order to protect themselves.
Many people who are not fans of the transgender community do not stop to think of how hard it is to be transgender already. There is especially a lot of difficulty for people who are transgender but have not quite figured it out yet. They feel like they do not fit in or do not have a place in society and on earth. There is a lot of struggle with identity for the people in this community, and extra added hate on top of that makes matters much worse. In fact, hatred towards any group of people often just adds on to the struggles that they are already facing at home or in their personal lives.
So, at this point, imagine going through all of these things. The coming out, the transition, the surgeries and medications, the deadnaming and misgendering, the uncalled for hatred. And then pile this new identity of ‘super straight’ on top of that. People who identify as super straight have no intentions other than hurting others. There is no sexuality for any other preferences. For example, “Oh, I’m a tall person sexual, it means I only like tall people.” This does not exist because it is ridiculous. It is hurtful to people who are short and are completely excluded from this group. There is no need to create an entire identity around excluding somebody else because of how they view themself.
There is a truly simple solution to this. Rather than going through the trouble of creating a new sexuality and changing your sexual identity to ‘super straight’ in order to hurt somebody’s feelings, just do not date somebody who is transgender. If somebody who you are not attracted to asks you to go on a date, just say, “No thank you.” It is unnecessary to make a sexuality around one preference. There is honestly no defense for super straight. Many people who identify themselves as ‘super straight’ argue that all sexualities are just preferences. Being straight just means you prefer the opposite sex. Being gay means you prefer the same sex. Being asexual means that you prefer no sex. These sexualities would be excluding anybody who does not fall under these restrictions. But the fact is that none of these are excluding people based on the way that they look and identify. If a transgender person says that they identify as male, then they are male. They would fall under the same category as all other men. If one is attracted to males, then their sexuality encompasses all men regardless of how they were born. Then within that sexual identity, there can be further preferences. One can prefer men who are taller than 6 foot, or men who weigh less than 250 pounds. Every person is entitled to like what they like. But, once again, there are no sexualities created around these preferences. That is hurtful to many people. If somebody said, “I like all women, except for you,” that would be very hurtful. An entire sexuality does not need to be created in order to exclude some people.
Works Cited
“A Brief History of Civil Rights in the United States: A Timeline of the Legalization of Same-Sex Marriage in the U.S.” Guides, https://guides.ll.georgetown.edu/c.php?g=592919&p=4182201.
“Super Straight.” Urban Dictionary, https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=super+straight.
“Transgender Health Care: Does Health Insurance Cover Gender-Affirming Surgery?” HealthSherpa Blog, 18 Sept. 2020, https://blog.healthsherpa.com/transgender-health-care-gender-affirming-surgery-health-insurance.