@tiredandconfused group
I'm a cisgender woman and in one of my books the protagonist is an FTM transgender man. It's not a main focus of the story, just a part of his character that's offhandedly mentioned a couple times. I've been reflecting on his portrayal and kind of been worrying that he fits into the stereotype of trans people being deceptive. It would be great if a trans person could look over this and give me their opinion.
Throughout the book, the protagonist is often lying about his identity and using fake names. The inciting incident of the first book is when he's forced to pretend to be a different man, and most other people know him as that fake identity throughout the rest of the first book and most of the second book. I know that trans people being deceptive and lying about their gender is a very common trope in media and really damaging to the trans community. For my character, I try to make it clear that although he lies about who he is, he never lies about his gender and truly is a man. Whenever he is thinking about who his real self is, that self is a man. No other character ever misgenders him or questions his gender identity because the fact that he is a man is just an unchanging part about him. Still, I'm worried that although I try to keep his portrayal from being offensive, the fact that he is a trans man who frequently lies about his identity is at its core transphobic and something that would be best to just get rid of altogether.
It would be great if you could tell me whether this is a problem and needs to be changed or if it's just something I'm overthinking, especially if you're trans. If you have any questions to clarify his portrayal in the book I'd be happy to answer them and any advice for writing a trans character in this narrative would be super helpful. Thanks for any feedback you give!
