As it relates to the transgender among us, people in general are not afraid of what you do (for it’s indeed primarily fear and not disgust which motivates here) - they're afraid of what you are . . . of what your existence represents.
Liminality is dangerous to an "orderly" society but not for the reasons you might think. Those who, in an act of individual agency, willingly enter the liminal space have the potential to render as entirely meaningless, mistakenly conflated constructions of gender and sexuality or more elemental concepts of embodiment that depend on pervasive and time-honored illusions of permanence and solidity which the mere existence of the liminoid completely undermines. Turner noted, with reference to Mary Douglas’ Purity and Danger, that liminal individuals are polluting, and thus dangerous, to those who have not gone through the liminal period. Yet, if society depends upon these illusions for its very raison d'être is not society’s response already more than evident?
We don't want to hear that truth . . . their truth – we find killing the messenger to be so much more reassuring . . . and convenient.
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