The term 'passing' in the transgender community means you are consistently at your gender best. You're at the point in your migration to your desired gender role that you are comfortable in your skin and relatively proficient in performing your desired gender to the point where you are moving around in the world like any cisgender individual.But as a person of African descent, passing means something different and brings a different visual to mind.
When we hear the word 'passing', we think of African descended people who had a combination of characteristics- be it light enough skin, straight hair and the physical features for example to 'pass for white'. They cut ties with the Black community and used them to avoid the crushing negativity that Black people operated under mostly for their own personal gain.
I and increasingly some of our African descended cisgender allies don't like the term 'passing' being used to describe transpeople who are basically living their lives. The problematic imagery with slavery and Jim Crow segregation was one of the factors that caused a shift to the term 'stealth'. It describes a transperson who has the looks and ability to perform gender to the point they are indistinguishable from a cisgender person and also cut all ties to the transgender community for various reasons to ensure that they aren't read as such.
'Stealth' is problematic as well. I believe it reinforces the 'we're being deceptive' meme all too prevalent in cisgender society about transpeople.
So if you see me talk about those issues on TransGriot, I'll be using the term 'blend', because that's exactly what we're doing. We're blending into society. We're making an active choice toward becoming the men and women we were destined to be despite the body we started off with.
TransGriot Note: The woman in the photo is Anita Hemmings, the first African-American graduate of Vassar College in 1897, 40 years BEFORE it began to admit qualified African-American students.
