A reader writes: “Can a person be both a part of the community and an ally? What I mean is, is an ally always an outsider to T/LGB? Is a transgender person necessarily an activist or informer, the way an ally is? What about those who question their gender but are otherwise supportive and politically/socially active?
“The third question applies mostly to myself, but my questioning isn’t at the heart of this email. Whatever I am labeled, I want to move transgender issues forward, giving clarity to others. If I hadn’t set out to find out all the information I know now, I think I would have a very distorted view on gender. It is not difficult to imagine a trans-ignorant/transphobic world beyond myself, especially with all the things I hear in my family and at school.”
To answer your question, I think that we need to look at the differences between an ally, an advocate, and an activist. To do this, we’ll use good old Merriam-Webster:
Ally: a person or group that gives help to another person or group.
Advocate: a person who works for a cause or group.
Activism: a doctrine or practice that emphasizes direct vigorous action, especially in support of or opposition to one side of a controversial issue. (Oddly, there was no definition for activist, but based on this, an activist would be a person who does this)
So, when we look at these definitions, we can see that an ally is not a member of the group to which that person belongs. An ally is an “outsider” who gives help to that group. You could be an ally to the transgender community, or you could be a member of the transgender community, but you couldn’t be both.
Now, you could be a member of the LGBT community and be an ally of the trans community – if you were a non-trans lesbian, gay man, or bisexual person. You could be an ally of the LGB community if you were trans and straight-identified or queer-identified. But if you are trans and gay-identified, for example, you would be a member of the gay community and the trans community – not an ally of either.
As a member of a community, you are not “required” to do anything. You are a member of that community by birth or happenstance – or even by intentional joining – but that does not place a certain expectation on you. You can choose to advocate for your group and you can choose to be a private or public activist for your group, but you don’t have to. As an ally, there are certain expectations.
One is advocacy, at the very least, and the other could be activism. As an ally of a group, even if you are not outspoken and in the public eye with regard to your advocacy or your activism, you should at least work behind the scenes to correct misinformation and misconceptions when you come upon them, to help clear a path for the voices of the groups with which you are allied to be heard, and to provide whatever support you can and use whatever influence you might have to help benefit these groups (without paternalism or caretaking).
An ally is really a full-time job in the sense that you have a responsibility to the groups that you claim to be allied with. An ally can (and probably should) be an advocate and hopefully, at least at times, an activist. A member of a group cannot be an ally to that group, but can certainly choose to be an advocate and even an activist.
For those wanting to be an ally to any particular group, there are many good articles on being an ally all over the Internet. I wrote on this recently in a post called “Five Attributes of Trans Allies.” Other posts of interest to allies can be found under the Allies category (see the right sidebar) of this blog.
A couple of my favorite “ally-themed” articles on the Internet are “The Role of Allies in 2010,” which is a keynote speech by Dr. Omi Osun Joni L. Jones, and “No More ‘Allies’” by Mia McKenzie. There are tons more, so do a search for “being an ally” and you can find them.
Thanks to all the allies out there who are doing the work.
This post originally appeared on Matt Kailey's award-winning website Tranifesto.com. Republished with permission.
