Hi MIchelle,

Dismissal is a disappointing end to the promising story of your hiring! I don’t think the fuss is really about inadequate labels- it is about inadequate reflection within the minds of power holders. I think your ill treatment is perfectly explained by people protecting their secret sexual desires by projecting the idea of improper sexual influence onto you. Kira Wertz wrote a very insightful explanation of this: You need only be the local sexual minority. Tossing you out lets everyone feel pure again.

Transpeople are defined inescapably in terms of sex, and a lot of people are very uncomfortable with the sexual binary norms they are working so hard to maintain. I think of it this way- the sexual urge is universal, and we are taught that it is fearful. Anyone too free about it is considered a threat to the good order of society that clearly requires suppression. By way of example, a prostitute is a clearly labeled sexual category, but I’ll wager a non-apologetic cis female former hooker would get the boot in just the same way.