Last night, I came across a piece on ENDAblog that referenced a lesbian oriented online magazine (GO Magazine) article called 100 Women We Love 2008.  The article on ENDAblog was critical of the GO piece because there was only one “trans” person on the list.  I followed links and came across a piece at Pam’s House Blend predictably titled 100 Transpeople We Love 2008.  It seems that if the lesbians won’t include more “trans” people on their list, the “trans” people will form their own list. 

Nah nah nah nah naaaaah nah…

At the time I read the article at PHB, the contributors only had a dozen or so names for their own list.  As with most of the things I read in blogs, it’s not the essays but the comments that are the most telling.  As the article solicits the readers to come up with “trans” people whom they admire (love), once again, Monica Helms steps up to the plate, all emphasis mine: 

I won’t provide any names to a list where we are required to love that person.  By-the-way, I strongly object placing Wendy Carlos on any list.  She refused to acknowledge she’s trans in any way, shape or form, and gets real pissy if she send her an E-mail thanking her for being a pioneer.  If she cannot accept herself, then why should we?

And, to this, Katrina Rose joins right in:

Wendy Carlos at least at one point (read: up til the Playboy interview) didn’t seem to have an issue with being ID’d as TS; clearly she does now.   That sort of objection would be proper, however, for someone like Amanda Lear.

Now, there are all kinds of things wrong with the above, aside from Ms. Helms’ taking the word “love” literally.  First, why should a lesbian group put someone on a list called 100 Women We Love 2008 who identifies not as a woman but as a transwoman ?  Lesbians are women, not transwomen who identify first as trans and then as women.   Transwomen want it both ways.  They want to be identified as women, but they can’t make the jump from being a transsexual to being simply a woman.  Natal females don’t want their numbers diluted by post op transsexuals who walk around with a trans patch sewn to their sleeve any more than post op transsexuals who have made the jump to simply being female do. 

Lo and behold any post-op transsexual who has made this jump.  Monica Helms says, from her PHB comment: 

If she (Wendy Carlos) cannot accept herself, then why should we? 

What Ms. Helms is implying is that a post-op transsexual who just wants to go on with her life, bury her past as deeply as she can, and not identify first as a transsexual and then as a female is somehow maladjusted and can’t accept herself. 

Katrina Rose agrees with Ms. Helms and says, emphasis mine: 

That sort of objection would be proper (i.e., if a post op doesn’t identify first and foremost as trans, the she can’t accept herself and is somehow in some sort of implied denial because of it), however, for someone like Amanda Lear. 

I have given the links, but for a quick explanation, Wendy Carlos is a world famous musician known for renditions of classical music using electronic synthesizers, most notably, the Moog.  She underwent GRS in 1967.  After a 1979 interview in Playboy magazine sensationalized that aspect of her life, Ms. Carlos has since made it more than clear that she doesn’t want and will not discuss her past life and most definitely doesn’t identify as a “trans” female, simply as a woman. 

Amanda Lear is a French celebrity (singer, actress, etc.) who is widely thought to be a post operative TS.   For the sake of discussion, even If we assume she is, indeed, a post operative TS, her continued insistence over the decades that this is simply rumor makes it clear that she doesn’t identify as “trans” anything.

Ignoring the fact that it is quite clear neither of these two ladies could care less about making the top 100Transpeople We Love 2008 list – as both have obviously left the trans portion of their life way behind after their surgery (as most of us do) and simply assumed their innate post op gender (as most of us do) – the take that Monica Helms and Katrina Rose present is just pathetic.  To insinuate that a post op must present in society with SEX CHANGE tattooed across their forehead or they can’t accept themselves is ridiculous.  It says way more about their hang-ups than it does about Ms. Carlos’ and Ms. Lear’s.  That position says way more about the way Monica and Katrina define their identity than how Wendy and Amanda choose not to define theirs. 

Those who never make the jump from transfemale to female are forever destined to be less than.

In the words of Wendy Carlos from a page on her website called On Prurient Matters:

If you had recovered from cancer thirty years ago, would you enjoy being defined as “that person who was dying of cancer”? Could “cancer-victim” ever be your essential identity? Okay, then how about: “former cancer-victim?” Would you remind an orphan that there was a time when they were unwanted and unloved? Would you keep photos of auto crash victims around to show them that despite months of plastic surgery their faces and bodies had once been severely chopped up?