PITT Parents #transphobia #pratt pittparents.com
A Scene from “Planet Unhinged”
(This isn’t a real play, it’s one scene that I formulated in my mind to try to wrap my head around the absurdity of what is going on in our world. I’m sure you could think of other scenes.)
Mom, So-and-So is coming over tomorrow. Just so you know, she is trans-disabled. I told her she’d be safe here.”
“What do you mean? Is she actually disabled? What’s ‘trans-disabled’?”
“MOM! Don’t be so ignorant! She’s having her leg removed next month. She’s always known she was only supposed to have one leg but right now she still has both.”
“Good lord! Is her leg okay? Is she sick? Does she have cancer or something?”
“Yes, it’s fine. Geez. She just doesn’t identify as a person with two legs. Appendages exist on a spectrum, you know. Not everyone has two legs.” (Daughter rolls eyes sarcastically.)
“So, what do we have to do?”
“Well, she’ll need to park in the handicapped spot in front of our building. And right now she does have both legs, but she uses a wheelchair, like I said she’s having the left one removed next month, so we’ll need to arrange the furniture so she can get around the living room in her chair. You just need to kind of act like she only has one leg.”
“Can she walk?”
Daughter gasps.
“How can you even ask me that? I mean, how can you be so exclusionary and hateful?”
“I’m just trying to figure this out. Are her parents okay with this?”
“Well, I guess initially they were really upset but then she had a suicide attempt because she was so upset that nobody would affirm her trans-disabled identity, and the doctors finally talked some sense into them while she was in the hospital. She needs to be able to speak her truth, and if her parents can’t accept that she’ll just need to live somewhere else so she can get her surgery.”
“What if she changes her mind in a few years, and thinks she made a mistake by cutting her leg off?”
“MOM! Seriously! It’s called a ‘delimbination,’ not ‘cutting her leg off.’ That’s so offensive! And she’s not going to regret it. Besides, if she does, she can always get a prosthetic leg. It’s pretty much the same thing.”