The Huffington Post published an article written by a trans author urging straight men who may have a penchant for trans women to step up to the plate, be a man, and to publicly date their trans paramours.
In the article, titled “Trans Women Deserve To Be Loved Proudly. Straight Guys, I’m Looking At You,” the author rhetorically and irksomely asks, “What will it take for trans-attracted guys to overcome their unfounded shame and thirst for discretion?”
The author begins the article by recounting a story about publicly meeting a so-called “straight” man for the first time after the man surreptitiously tried to keep their relationship–and d’alliances–covert.
The author builds her case by insinuating that many self-avowed straight men harbor sexual proclivities towards trans women–on the basis of their being women.
In the article, the author recalls:
I’ve been dating and hooking up as an out-and-proud trans girl for the last seven years. I meet guys the regular way, out in the world, but I’ve met most of my casual liaisons and sexcapades online. OkCupid, Plenty Of Fish, Badoo, Blendr, Tinder, Whipler, Bumble. Let’s pretend it ends there.
What I’ve learned along the way is that there are countless trans-attracted men who quietly and confidentially admire and lust after trans women. I’m talking about regular dudes who self-identify as straight and “only ever” date and hook up with cisgender women. (Mostly.) You probably never hear about it, because they can’t and won’t talk about it.
Going against the supposed wish for discretion, the author attacks “internalized stigma, transphobia and homophobia” as reasons for why straight men don’t publicize their relationships with trans women.
She goes onto say, “It’s the misconception that liking a trans girl is somehow “gay,” which in turn is somehow wrong or shameful. False and false. Trans women are women, but social conditioning prevents many men from seeing that.”
After sharing her romantic experiences with straight men and her current boyfriend of three years, the author closes with the following remark, after condemning fragile masculinity early in the piece: “And to all the straight guys who shamelessly, proudly and publicly date and love us, I admire you for being man enough to love a trans girl.”
There has been a recent spike in the number of individuals calling for straight men to date trans women.
A meme from the Trans Rights Campaign said, “98% of straight men are unwilling to date trans women because of hatred,” which drew criticism from all sides, went viral early last year.
Another trend which has been directed at men, in general, has been to depict any refusal to date trans people as transphobia–not a preference.
