By pushing back against the narrative of passing, trans people are challenging cisnormative standards of beauty and respectability.

But the disappointing thing is that there has been very little, if any at all, discussion about how gender non-conforming people fit into this discussion.

For many gender non-conforming people, passing never was the goal. We move ourselves away from the gender binary on purpose.

But does that make us less deserving of resources from cis people and of community from trans people?

When cis and trans people place value on passing as the quintessential and only goal, they forget the impact that it has on gender non-conforming people. They imply that the very basis of gender non-conforming identities — the non-conformity part of “gender non-conforming” — is broken.