A short history of trans people's long fight for equality | Samy Nour Younes

Transgender activist and TED Resident Samy Nour Younes shares the remarkable, centuries-old history of the trans community, filled with courageous stories, inspiring triumphs -- and a fight for civil rights that's been raging for a long time. "Imagine how the conversation would shift if we acknowledge just how long trans people have been demanding equality," he says.

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[Brapgod]

Oh boy I’m sure that the comment section will be nothing but civil and productive.

[WreckItRhune]

I think there are so many dislikes because discussion of trans issues currently is less about the issues themselves and more about propagating a political ideology centred upon identity politics

[kaned]

I'm a trans guy. Didn't have the courage to come out until my 30s. I gasped when you mentioned the soldiers in the Civil War - I was absolutely obsessed with those soldiers and soldiers in the American Revolution, who dressed as men to fight. I wanted to be them so badly. I never made the connection about my love for them until now.

[blazinbratzy]

I love how so many people who disagree with transgender, reply to all the comments supporting trans rights. Now I don't know how a trans person feels, so I don't want to judge them just because I`m taught to disagree, the fact they have courage to undergo surgeries to be who they wanna be, tells me it isn't a choice. I`m gay, and as I was hitting puberty and stuff, I realized I was gay, but now looking at my old pics of me as a 5 or 10 year old, I literally have seen me posing girly, like gay. I`m muslim, so I wasn't taught or even knew about lgbtq+, I was born gay.

[artema.]

My school has a uniform. The girls wear skirts, the boys pants. During winter, we the girls are also allowed to wear pants. So when we started wearing skirts again a bit over a month ago we were surprised to see a girl had come out and came to school wearing a skirt. She had worn make up before before she started wearing the skirt, often wore shoes with heels and did her hair in androgynous styles. No one expected her to fully come out as a girl though. I personally thought she was just really free with her gender until then.

The first week or so I saw her being alone quite a lot and started to worry that she had lost some friends because of the transition, and people kept talking about her and spreading rumours. The boys in my class couldn't shut up about it, mocking her new looks and coming up with fake, terrible female names to replace her male one.

But right now I see she's with people again and she seems to be doing fine. My school also did a workshop around LGBTQ+ people and it was well received by everyone, even by some of my classmates who typically don't react well to those kinds of things.

In the end I think it all worked out fine. I just wanted to share this story. Thanks for reading!

[revspikejonez]

How fragile is your masculinity that this video triggered you to dislike it?

[FuzzyTrekkie]

This is why I can't stand people who say learning history isn't important.

[Chluffles]

shoutout to my awesome English teacher for including this video in our hidden history lesson 😍✨

edit: I guess that this comment has blown up again, presumably because of pride. As stated in my replies, knowledge has never hurt anyone. It’s appalling that people who presumably are American would fight so hard to prevent their kids from accessing the most nuanced, well-rounded education possible. Learning builds empathy and creates a better society over all. If you can’t cite a specific way in which this video has hurt you as a person, don’t come to my comment to complain.

edit to the edit: Also, it’s important to note that I am not trans, but every day I see the pain that my trans friend goes through for feeling like she is not good enough— I hear the stories of her getting called slurs by random adults on the street, and I know deep down that human kind has the ability to BE kind. Through learning, we find that we aren’t as different as we think. I will never stop advocating for empathy.

[kaminoworker]

Don't worry. YouTube is making sure none of the factual comments get thru.

[princessrandom]

"Oh wow, a speech about people who simply live differently than me, I should dislike!!!"

And they tell US that we get offended by everything lmao

[SupercellMMA]

sto pushing this garbage at me youtube.

[Prkour]

I can stand by with gay, but trans is where I draw the line.

[Jebeld]

I can't believe 1.3K people disliked this. Just watch the video, listen to what he says, and then decide. Good God.

[nischalayenigalla]

Equality shouldn't just be about male or female. It should be about every individual and the respect they deserve.

[fumperdink]

I’m going to homeschool my kids so they don’t come home thinking they can switch genders

[duncansmith]

I dont think this person knows that 'trans women' are males

[majorpayne]

This person is even more confused than Michelle Obama's gynecologist.

[samgold]

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[Olando]

I’m not gay or trans but let people live their lives and build single unisex bathrooms to combat the issue of bathrooms.

[jacobmarley]

This is so dumb what has the world gone to