Here's How Trans People & Activists Are Reacting to #WrongSkin

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Rachel Dolezal, president of the Spokane, Wash. chapter of the NAACP, has come under major fire recently for supposedly hiding her true racial identity. Although she has been passing as African-American for years, Dolezal's parents recently told local Spokane press that she is, in fact, a caucasian person, and has been since birth.

While details of the controversy are still very murky, news of Dolezal's story took to social media like wildfire, with people likening her experience as a "self-identifying African-American woman" to the concept of trans people identifying with a gender different to the one that they were born with. The hashtag, #WrongSkin even started trending on Twitter, and while a lot of people are making jokes about it, here's what trans people and trans activists had to say about the possibility of "being born in the wrong skin," and how it is not at all like the trans experience.

\u201cIf you really think being trans is the same as the #RachelDolezal situation, get it together. #TransIsBeautiful\u201d
— Raquel Willis (@Raquel Willis) 1434086012

Some of yall so dead set on just being transphobic you're cool cosigning antiblackness to do it, but demand we center cishet blk.
— rell (@Awkward_Duck)

— (@)

\u201cIt's really out of line to compare this #wrongskin mess to being transgender. They are in no way, shape, or form comparable. Disrespectful.\u201d
— Baby Godzilla \ud83d\udc7f (@Baby Godzilla \ud83d\udc7f) 1434117958

\u201cFYI: #WrongSkin, not a thing. Also faking your ethnicity is in no way comparable to being transgender.\u201d
— \u26ab\ufe0f menorah barnacle (@\u26ab\ufe0f menorah barnacle) 1434111427

\u201cI thought #transracial and #WrongSkin were jokes. Ppl are actually advocating for her by equating what she did to transgender transitioning?\u201d
— Captain Save A Fro (@Captain Save A Fro) 1434126685

\u201cI like common sense & grey areas. I can grasp & support transgender people while seeing #WrongSkin as bullshit. I can chew gum & walk too.\u201d
— Christoph Paul (@Christoph Paul) 1434126566

\u201cI do not see how people can equate transgender and transrace. I thought being trans was more than just aesthetic. #WrongSkin\u201d
— Robert Landon (@Robert Landon) 1434125224

What are your thoughts on Rachel Dolezal and the whole #WrongSkin controversy? Let us know in the comments and on Twitter!

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Raffy is a Los Angeles-based writer, editor, video creator, critic, and digital director of Out Magazine. The former editor-in-chief of PRIDE, he is also a die-hard Rihanna and Sailor Moon stan who loves to write about all things pop culture, entertainment, and identities. Follow him on Instagram (@raffyermac) and Twitter (@byraffy), and subscribe to his YouTube channel.

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Here's How Trans People & Activists Are Reacting to #WrongSkin

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