One of my favorite characters I built (years ago) for D&D years was magically created to be transgender by a devil playing at being a god. She looked like a woman but possessed male genitals and was mainly attracted to women, though she could be flexible. Back then, things were different socially and the character didn’t bother anyone because she was a strong moral person and it wasn’t a sexual thing. I really enjoyed the headspace and exploration for this character as she developed and came to accept her uniqueness.
Fast forward a decade, I’ve begun writing for fun and I’ve been considering going back to this character and resurrecting her. I am concerned that as a CIS male that the very idea of my writing such a character would immediately touch a nerve and set off a firestorm. So, that made me decide to come here and ask this community their thoughts on transgender characters as written by non-trangender authors.
Hello I am trans and here are my rules for writing trans characters:
If you do not follow these rules that’s when it’s transphobia and the more you do not follow these rules the more transphobia it is. Now pay up.
Joking aside, I think that if you are respectful and not ill-informed then I would be okay with it. I can’t speak for other people though. I write “not ill-informed” because a lot of people pass themselves off as being well-intentioned while reflecting some very uncomfortable and strange biases or preconceptions. There is not an inherent problem, but there are potentially many common pitfalls that one should know of and avoid.
Having grown up around Puritans and snowflakes, I’ve seen first-hand how people who are different are treated. That’s something to cover in a respectful way.