Ari: "To Naomi Kritzer: Do Trans People Exist In The Future"

What is something that's present in your life or the lives of your friends, but never (or rarely) reflected in fiction, that you wish you saw in fiction more often?

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Do Trans People Exist In The Future?

Other people have made this argument better than I can, but I’d really appreciate more LGBT (and specifically transgender) representation in science fiction and fantasy stories. The thing about the gay and trans community is that we tend to find one another in a crowd. Over the course of the last few years, all of my childhood friends have come out as LGBT. And nearly everyone I’ve befriended in more recent years has turned out to be gay as well. Almost no one I regularly talk to is straight and cisgender. At the same time, most speculative fiction characters are exclusively heterosexual. At best, there will be one white, middle-aged gay man in there somewhere. He’s Christian, ashamed of who he is, and will at some point have a rather emotionally charged coming-out arc during which a straight, white Christian character will give a rousing speech involving what’s on the inside being the most important. Don’t get me wrong—those types of story arcs meant a lot to me when I was younger and can be very interesting if done in a unique way. But they aren’t representative of what I and my friends are actually like. Trans representation is even harder to find, especially because they’re almost exclusively realistic fiction stories about transitioning (again, important but not really relevant to my life). So going off of that, here are the 5 things I’d really like to see in speculative fiction concerning trans characters:

-          Trans identities as a character trait, not a plot point. Much like being Jewish or mixed race, being trans isn’t something that’s very often relevant in my day to day life. Over the course of the years it’s had a profound impact on who I am and how I see the world, but it doesn’t govern my every waking moment. I’d love to see trans characters who discover alien worlds or learn magic, as opposed to having their entire lives revolve around being trans.

-          I want to know how trans characters would interact with magic or advanced technology. Would we be using it to make physical changes to our bodies easier, or would future trans people be too proud of their identities to do something like that? Would our “true names” be reflective of our biology or of our gender? If it’s a magic system where spells are reflective of the person, could someone be outed by their magic? How would people deal with the shortages of hormones and other transition-related supplies in a post-apocalyptic setting? I said previously that stories with trans characters shouldn’t always revolve around that identity. That’s true, but I’d also love to see what trans characters would be like in speculative fiction settings.

-          Stop being afraid to offend trans people. Frankly, I’d love to see trans characters who make morally grey choices, or who make jokes about being trans. Trans characters, just like any other character, shouldn’t be perfect. It makes for boring, repetitive characters and an alienated reader.

-          A wider variety of archetypes. One of the most common narratives you’ll hear about trans people is that we’re “born in the wrong body”. Some trans people do genuinely feel that way, but even more feel the need to parrot out that same story out of concern that their identities wouldn’t be taken seriously otherwise. Most trans people are uncomfortable with our bodies to some extent, but a substantial portion of that is because of how people treat us on the basis of traits like wide hips or a deep voice. It goes away substantially if the people in our lives treat us as the gender we know we are and it’s more like having gynecomastia or an embarrassing scar than having the wrong body.

By the way, if you ever do write a transgender character in a science fiction/fantasy story, I want to read it. Cat Pictures Please was a really funny take on AI and the Internet Age and I’m looking forward to that YA novel.

-Ari