All but one of the items located on the partial list of phobias (located at the bottom of this post) were taken from Phobialist.com. Transphobia, however, was taken from Wikipedia. What is interesting about transphobia is that it’s not a clinical term like all the other phobias on the list, but a term that is “cast on someone by another person [primarily GLBT types] or some other group [any and every one who disagrees with anything they advocate].” In other words, transphobia is not something someone is, but what someone else says they are. It’s a straight up demonizing word…no more or less. Transphobia is in the class of phobias that are considered “buzzwords.” The transgender calling others transphobic when there is disagreement has become lame and more than tired. Because of the insistence of the transgender that everyone engage in an absolute and perfectly correct discourse, as defined by them, the GLB has come to refers to them as the Trans Mafia.
Any disagreement with the transgender, any challenge to their premise, any slip of the tongue, any misunderstanding, and any mischaracterization of their position that isn’t approved, no matter how slight and no matter how unintentional will immediately garner a scream of transphobia. I’ve said it repeatedly, only some of the GLBT, not even all, side up with the transgender in the first place. It should be apparent to the transgender that the more they rant, the more supporters they lose within even the gay rights movement.
Correctly or not, I’ve always felt the transgender get some kind of vicarious thrill out of being special, after all, it’s not in the least uncommon to read on the trans blogs that the author is “…proud to be trans.” What they can’t seem to understand is no one, including the GLB and particularly the mainstream, gives a hoot if they are special and want to be considered some other than/less than type of third sex. I’m sure many in the Trans Mafia relish the reference and revel in it, unwilling, unable, or simply incapable of understanding that the GLB in coining the term Trans Mafia did not do so out of affection.
The transgender have absolutely shouted transphobia into the ground…it is a worn out term. The transgender umbrella has captured so many sets and subsets under it that they can’t even agree among themselves who belongs there. Regardless of whose under the transgender umbrella, the Trans Mafia is not doing any of them any good. The transphobia non-sense can be summed up in this generalized comment on Joe.My.God, a noted gay blog:
“They position themselves as the only acceptable representatives for a generally worthwhile cause, and if you disagree with anything they say or do, they label you an enemy to that cause – even if you also generally support it. Do you support trans rights, but merely disagree with glitter-bombing Dan Savage? Too bad, you now suddenly oppose trans rights of any kind, always and forever. You’re an evil stupid bigot and you should be ashamed of yourself!”
Doesn’t this sound familiar? Hold a personal opinion in disagreement with a transgender something or other and, for instance, Cristan Williams will develop some juvenile and illogical argument that compares you to the KKK. (Of course, Ms. Williams is quick to add a disclaimer stating she’s not actually comparing you to the KKK when, in fact, she is actually comparing you to the KKK.) Of course, being undeniably, demonstrably, and repeatedly demonized by Ms. Williams and a few others is a perfect illustration of what the GLB now call the Trans Mafia. Until a couple of years ago, with perhaps the exception of locally, no one had ever even heard of Cristan. And then, when the Nikki Araguz case came to light, Cristan burst upon the blogosphere and entered the debate as the latest authority on all things trans, hell bent on disproving our experiences in spite of the fact that we lived them and she didn’t. Cristan Williams is not unique…just another trans women who enjoys taking every opportunity to demonize those of us who may not see eye to eye with her views. And, just like all the others, she will drop out just as magnificently as even the transgender get tired of hearing the same ole, same ole.
I don’t mean to pick on Cristan, even though I can’t think of one single time she’s ever had anything positive to say about anything I’ve ever written; in spite of her demonizing me at every turn, I’ve said several times before that she seems to have accomplished quite a few very admirable things within the Houston TG sphere. I’ve also stated there are many transgender who need the support network she is involved with…I think what she does is great. I know she reads, if not hangs on, every single word on my blog as she scours the internet looking for tidbits here and there to bolster the same general argument over and over on her blog. Lord knows she quoted me and linked to my blog enough. For Cristan, and others that came before and will no doubt replace her down the line, discussion and appreciating an opposing point of view is not part of the plan…it’s all about winning. Consensus is not an option. The tack of the transgender is our way and no other way than our way, with our terminology, our philosophy, our approach. And, if one doesn’t play by their rules, they are transphobic. The result is that the GLB now refers to them as the Trans Mafia.
Here’s more of the blatant comments from the Joe.My.God. thread that prove my points above, though except for the occasional trans defender, the general tone of all of the comments are essentially the same:
Xaria
“If someones trans, their always trans.” (This comment is from a transgender)
Xaria
“Someone who has had all the operations in the world is just as trans as someone who hasnt taken one hormone.” (From the same transgenderist as above.)
Mike in Houston
“And EVEN if he [Dan Savage] were to have a transperson on stage with him as part of a dialoge, it would inevitably be cast as the “wrong trans person” by these nut jobs… because this isn’t about dialogue or learning or even really making a thought-provoking point. It’s about overly dramatic gestures to make ineffectual people like they are actually doing something of importance.” (Obviously not everyone in Houston considers the GLBT one big happy family)
Erich
“It appears that gay people are supposed to put their own priorities aside and focus exclusively on trans issues while the trans community sits around and complains about how nobody is doing enough to help them.”
Guest
“The Transgendered Community needs to friggin’ pull it together.”
Erich
“If the transgender community has a problem with the priorities of the gay community, then they are more than welcome to hitch their wagon somewhere else.”
Diego
“This is what happens when you warp gay identity into something called “LGBT”. We never should have allowed that to happen.”
AJD
“Ugh, I’m so tired of these “radical queer” morons and their stupid rhetoric about the Evil Gay White Cisgendered Abled Oppressors.”
ABG
“I’m done, I’m completely done. The disgusting attack on Ru Paul over a fucking word and now this just a little over a week later! This is officially the nail in the coffin for me and the trans community. Deal with your own damn problems.”
Guest
“Every day I read a post by trans individuals I am “told” I can’t respond because I come from some sort of privlidge that they don’t enjoy.”
DrJWL
“I find “cis” to be an offensive word, so I’m just going to enjoy using “tranny”. I don’t care to know or be involved in tranny issues, they are not my issues. Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual issues are relevant to my life and those are the issues I support.”
Ryan
“Gay issues and priorities are not the same as trans issues and prioriies. We are allowed to focus on gay marriage if it is what is important to us. We don’t need to go by the trans agenda. The trans community needs to stop trying to hijack the gay rights movement. Yes, we are supportive of your issues, but we still have our own priorities that we want to get done. The more trans people attack gays the less likely we are to help trans issues.”
Diego
“Hey look everybody! It’s Missanthrope, a tranny who used to blog about how she 1) beat up her own mother, 2) nearly beat up her own son and 3) fantasized about breaking the nose of a lesbian friend of hers because something the lesbian said offended her. Missanthrope is a perfect example of the mental and emotional instability that afflicts trans activists and leads them to violent acts such as those directed at Dan Savage.”
“The biggest mistake gays ever made was changing the name of their movement and attaching themselves to a small group of rage-filled thugs, most of whom are not gay and many of whom hold gay people in contempt.”
Guest
“I hope the trans activists realize that they are doing more harm than good. The more they try to demonize their gay male allies, the less likely they are to receive our support. I had been a supporter of trans issues, but after repeatedly hearing activists put down all gay men in general, I have had enough.”
The GLB is clearly losing its affection for the transgender. They’ve just about alienated themselves from everyone. To say again, don’t look for their demonization of those they call separatists to stop…it won’t. And, the GLB shouldn’t look for the transgender to stop their demonization of them either…it won’t.
Agyrophobia- Fear of streets or crossing the street.
Aichmophobia- Fear of needles or pointed objects.
Ailurophobia- Fear of cats.
Albuminurophobia- Fear of kidney disease.
Alektorophobia- Fear of chickens.
Algophobia- Fear of pain.
Alliumphobia- Fear of garlic.
Allodoxaphobia- Fear of opinions.
Altophobia- Fear of heights.
Amathophobia- Fear of dust.
Amaxophobia- Fear of riding in a car.
Ambulophobia- Fear of walking.
Amnesiphobia- Fear of amnesia.
Amychophobia- Fear of scratches or being scratched.
Cherophobia- Fear of gaiety.
Chionophobia- Fear of snow.
Chiraptophobia- Fear of being touched.
Chirophobia- Fear of hands.
Chiroptophobia- Fear of bats.
Cholerophobia- Fear of anger or the fear of cholera.
Chorophobia- Fear of dancing.
Chrometophobia or Chrematophobia- Fear of money.
Chromophobia or Chromatophobia- Fear of colors.
Kleptophobia- Fear of stealing.
Koinoniphobia- Fear of rooms.
Kolpophobia- Fear of genitals, particularly female.
Kopophobia- Fear of fatigue.
Hominophobia- Fear of men.
Hoplophobia- Fear of firearms.
Hydrargyophobia- Fear of mercurial medicines.
Hydrophobia- Fear of water or of rabies.
Transphobia-Transphobia (or less commonly cissexism, transprejudice, and trans-misogyny, referring to transphobia directed toward trans women, or trans-misandry, referring to transphobia directed toward trans men) is a range of negative attitudes and feelings towards transsexualism and transsexual or transgender people, based on the expression of their internal gender identity (see Phobia – terms indicating prejudice or class discrimination). A number of terms with the suffix -phobia are used non-clinically but have gained public acceptance, though they are often considered buzzwords. Such terms are primarily understood as negative attitudes towards certain categories of people or other things, used in an analogy with the medical usage of the term. Usually these kinds of “phobias” are described as fear, dislike, disapproval, prejudice, hatred, discrimination, or hostility towards the object of the “phobia”. Often this attitude is based on prejudices and is a particular case of most xenophobia. These non-clinical phobias are typically used as labels cast on someone by another person or some other group.
18 Comments
The transgender-blog-mafia’s favorite label to call women born transsexual who don’t buy into the ‘Transgenders For Third Gender Status Club Handbook’ is “transphobic”.
This unwarranted labeling of TS people as “transphobic” is a sinister way to stigmatize and demonize dissent from people who are transsexual, therefore discrediting their legitimate views and censoring them in the process. It’s a pretty dishonest and transparent strategy to silence and dismiss the patient’s rights of people with transsexualism. 9 out of 10 times when a transgender or cross dresser or gender variant person calls a transsexual woman “transphobic”, the truth is that A) the TG name caller is actually transsexualphobic, or B) The TG name caller is just trying to co-opt transsexual people, or C) the TG name caller has no case and their only option left is to make a personal attack instead of actually addressing the issues and having a real discussion. It means that they have lost the debate and all they now know is to be a bully and call people names, such as “transphobic”.
I think Cristan really likes me.
Kidding aside, we tell the truth and they turn the truth into lies. I guess they have no choice to demonize us because a lot of their arguments fall flat. Cristan has written a few articles directed at me and I have only read one of them.
Now, about the Bil Browning article saying the glitterbomb attack was from the Trans Mafia. The original article he quoted had no mention that those were transactivists. They listed numerous reasons why the glittered him. Why did Bil blame it on the Trans Mafia? They may have just been crazy people.
Dana the trans mafia has a hit list and you are on it. But don’t worry too much because the NSA has dossiers on all members of the trans mafia and is coordinating with the HSA and FBI to ensure that a rapid response team is poised to take all necessary counter suppression measures if hostilities ensue. Bil, if you must know the truth, is a double agent being exploited as an asset by both sides. It is safe to ignore Dan Savage because he is simply a huckster trying to make a buck by fermenting public outrage.
How can trans issues be seperate from gay issues? A trans person can be gay too! Gender and sexuality are so closely linked it is good sense to make common cause.
Transphobia might not be in the dictionary but I have certainly experienced phobic behaviour based on my variant gender expression – it’s as good a name as any!
But many “trans” people are not gay or lesbian…ALL gays and lesbians are homosexual. A “trans” person can also be black or white, Cora, does that make “trans” a racial issue too? Aside from both groups experiencing a level of discrimination (not unlike many other groups world wide that experience a level of discrimination) their is no “common cause”…though I fully realize the transgender feel there is.
Forgive me but I don’t have a clue what your point is.
sa-et, I accept your point that not all trans people are gay. I would argue however that there is a stronger link between gender and sexuality than between gender and race. Transition can affect a concomitant change in sexuality.
My point about transphobia was in reference to what I understood as a disparagement of the term itself within the above article. There is such a thing as phobia towards trans people and terms enter the lexicon through usage. Although I do understand that the article is angling at local trans politics and sympathise with the outrage expressed.
I understand your position, but just don’t agree. Just as every gay or lesbian is either male or female or transgender, so is every white or black person, yet one doesn’t see the wholesale association of the races as part of the GLB just because. Your assertion is that there is some inherent reason for the transgender to gravitate towards the GLB, and my opinion is there is most assuredly not. I further might remind you that though I don’t think the majority of post op transsexuals are homosexual, it seems to have been proven over and over that in the unscientific surveys that the transgender who take part, most of whom consider themselves part of the transgender movement, are homosexual to start with…they advocate for the GLB because they are GLB. Either way, speaking only for myself, I want nothing to do with the GLBT movement.
I agree that there is a certain level of discrimination towards the transgender that can be described as transphobia; I have no problem with the word. My point was two fold, 1) transphobia is not what someone is but is what someone is said to be by others, almost always the transgender themselves, and 2) the transgender (transgender mafia) have skewed the meaning of the word so badly that it really has no weight anymore. I don’t know about you, Cora, but I’ve been around a long time and have seen and read about more run-ins and altercations between the mainstream and the “transgender” than I can shake a stick at. Invariably, no matter what the circumstances surrounding these altercations, the transgender internet pundits and trans activists are going to choose the side of the transgender and label the other party as engaging in transphobia and some form of oppression. If a transgender is killed by her boyfriend, the guy is labeled a hate mongering, transphobic scumbag by the TG community…when the issue might have simply been a crime of passion. The media reports a transgender is walking in an area known for prostitution at 3:00 AM and is killed…the TG community rips the news outlet a new butthole, raises all kinds of hell, calls the media prejudiced and transphobic, says they shouldn’t assume the girl was a whore, blah, blah, blah…instead of accepting the fact that if it looks like a duck it generally is, and realizing the poor girl chose to play with fire and lost. The GLB (who is not the ally of the transgender whether they want to believe it or not) slips up some way, they are transphobic too and are crucified. A transgender has a problem of one or the other, slipped pronoun, something doesn’t go smooth enough, whatever…you guessed it, transphobia strikes again. Everyone is just pretty sick of it…including the GLB.
I think that any transitioning adult will find that the process forces some, at least, re-evaluation of their sexual orientation. Here in the UK I have encountered wonderful support within the GLBT community. This community is at core, a place for people who are variant in their sexual or gender expression to thrive. SA-ET, are you not being just a little playful when you downplay the significant links between gender and sexuality? They’re not the same thing, but they are certainly linked.
I disagree that it forces a re-evaluation of any sort. There are certainly some who lived a facade of a life prior to transitioning, and it is possible that they may re-evaluate in some manner. However, those tend to be the later-in-life folks.
Beyond that, however, I dare opine that the transitioner who identifies as ‘straight’ post-transition has NOTHING in common with a G, an L or a B. That is not to say that the T might not be able to manuever within the community at a social level, but politically the goals are simply not the same at a level that justifies the umbrella bullshit. Of course the moment they indicate they want nothing to do with the LGBt umbrella, they then get hit with the whole ‘homophobic’ slew of crap in addition to the claims of being ‘transphobic.’ And what the hive mentality refuses to accept is that those of us who had a transsexual medical condition do NOT want to be subsumed into their ‘othering’ process nor do we want them co-opting our medical condition to try and coattail their way to political recognition.
‘chelle, I think you’re right to pick me up on this, it is too strong to say that transition ‘forces’ a personal re-evaluation of sexual orientation; I would argue that it ‘tends’ to do so though. Even if it’s just the simple example of a previously gay male assimilating her new identity as a straight female after transition. My key point was that gender and sexual orientation are in some way linked.
Perhaps the GLBT community is most useful to those in transition; those coming to terms with new gender or sexual identities.
I do agree with you wholeheartedly about transexuals facing political and personal adomishment for wishing to move beyond the GLBT movement – this sort of abuse is deplorable and antithetical to the ideals of human freedom.
I’ll preface by stating I am a lesbian, albeit one with a certain past medical condition. I am NOT a transsexual at this time and I damned sure was NEVER ‘transgendered.’ I knew I was lesbian by my early teens. I’m in my 40′s now and was cured of the medical condition more than half a life ago.
There was NOTHING I gained in life related to my medical condition as a result of a T being appended to GLB. And if someone with a transsexual medical condition is gay-identified, then well, they are ALREADY included under the G/L or B.
And it would seem you are misapplying the phobia as the buzzword was discussed here. Personally, I got real sick really quick of the tee-gee mentality telling me I was phobic because I didn’t support the lifestylers. The mere fact that I don’t agree with umbrella politics is NOT indicia of ANY sort of a ‘phobia.’ But instead we routinely see the tee-gee element resort to ad hominem attacks against anyone who won’t drink the koolaid…
As a trans-woman, I ought to feel outraged by your comments BUT – before anyone starts hating on me – I see exactly where you’re coming from. It seems that as a trans-person, I am expected – by the trans-community (whatever the hell that is) – to behave a certain way, to have a specific set of opinions and most importantly, to have a sense-of-humourectomy.
A perfect illustration of this was the recent tampon ad by a New Zealand company that featured a drag-queen (and it was very obvious that he was such, I asked around various natally gendered and straight friends) out-femming a girl in the bathroom. You know the sort of thing; Putting on a bigger pout, Accentuating longer false lashes, Sorting out bigger boobs in the bra. Until the girl pulls off the ultimate trump of getting a tampon out of her handbag.
This had the ‘community’ in uproar. ‘Transphobia in advertising’ they all shouted. Never mind that I have yet to meet a trans-woman who uses tampons or that it was JUST A JOKE people. The company had to give in and pull the ad. The guy who was the drag-queen kind of summed it up for me when he accused the trans-mafia of being dragphobic, which is a bit ironic as the T in LGBT as I have always understood it was meant to support all types of gender variance, including those who cross-dress in a professional capacity. Maybe that’s just me, though.
I so get the way that some ‘spokespeople’ are claiming to have a voice for all of us can cause alienation from other quarters, but I’m sorry; I am quite capable of speaking for myself. I have had to, as have most of the trans-people I know. We tend to acknowledge that we are not all going to be BFFs as we are in fact all different and the ONLY thing we share is that we were born with a wiring fault / deformity that made us all a bit odd in the eyes of the rest of the world.
For my part, I never understood why the T got added to LGB in the first place. Perhaps it was some political type who thought it would be a good idea to lump all ‘those damn perverts’ under one umbrella and hope that we would all destroy ourselves in some huge Aids infected orgy.
While we share some common experience of prejudice and discrimination, it is probably no more so than those who suffer from racial hatred or any other kind of -ism, so I feel that it’s time we of the T stood on our own and stopped expecting the LGB people to fight our battles for us and beating up on them when they can’t/won’t/don’t. After all. Gender identity is actually nothing like sexual identity and many things that are relevant to one fight may not be equally relevant to the other.
There is also the danger of what I see happening her in the UK: Of large companies and public bodies who do their due diligence to the minority groups and engage with various stakeholder organisations in an attempt to fulfil their diversity obligations, consulting with Stonewall as the body politic for all LGBT issues. This is even when Stonewall themselves declare that they will only speak for LG&B . The T gets left behind.
Instead of bleating at others for not fighting on our behalf and castigating them for not ‘getting’ us, we should just get on with presenting our own message (assuming anyone can ever get consensus on what that is) and stand by ourselves for ourselves.
Ok. Rant over. If you read all of that, thank you for your time.
I did read it, Sue, and thought it was an excellent comment. Thanks for dropping by.
The really ironic thing is that I, as someone who has been through corrective surgery and now views herself as a woman of transexual history, am viewed by the TG Mafia/borg/hive mind/umbrella/nutjobs as completely transphobic simply because i dared to have surgery and to admit that i no longer feel trans anything. You should see some of the cesspits they call support forums, they’re pretty much one big circle jerk of mutual affirmation and woe betide if you dare not to be like the rest of them.
I’m happy to represent the L in LGB, and to do what I can for LGB rights, but the T can go hang because they’re just so divorced from the real world.
‘chelle and anon…to clear up something that’s been bothering me.
Even to me, when I read my own writing, it seems I bag on lesbians and the GLB…in spite of what I have written and how it may look that is not my intention. It is quite difficult to critique the transgender without discussing the GLB. I am heterosexual and have seen first hand (since the late 1980s and early 1990s) how the transgender have shifted the mainstream’s understanding and perception of transsexualism from one of being an extremely rare medical condition (which is is) to essentially a GLB issue that sets transsexualism up as nothing more than gay men who have gone to the extreme of surgery. This shift in understanding and perception came with the advent of the modern GLBT movement. This shift in understanding and perception may have, and probably has, been quite beneficial to both the GLB movement and to those transgender who are either gay or lesbian. But it has done nothing but erode the legitimacy of all post operative transsexuals, particularly those of us who are heterosexual. The absolute association through the GLBT, whose very vocal out/proud TG activist/members alone far, far exceed those of us of whom the transgender refer to as separatists, has consistently convinced the public that anyone who is transgender (including post operative transsexuals) have simply engaged in a lifestyle choice.
The internet certainly has enough information to substantiate my assertion above. Consider this article on the history of GLBT social movements from Wiki entitled, appropriately, LGBT Social Movement. In this article, the very first sentence the first time that transgender is ever mentioned in the article it says…for formatting purposes I used capital letters instead of the italics used in the original article:
The early 1990s was a time when transsexualism was simply swallowed whole by the transgender movement…which is the modern GLBT.
If one goes to YouTube and looks at the old TV films of talk shows and interviews they won’t find even a slight mention of the word transgender before the early 1990s…transsexuals are called TRANSSEXUALS…transvestites are called TRANSVESTITES. The two are not mixed. If there is one thing the transgender has done a splendid job of it’s confusing transvestism and transsexualism…essentially leading the mainstream to the conclusion that they are one and the same.
I feel that gay and lesbian transsexuals should absolutely support, wholeheartedly, the GLB…if I was a lesbian I know I would. But, as I’ve said many times before, support the GLB as a gay or lesbian, not as anything transgender. I firmly believe that the association of transsexualism with anything gay or lesbian is not in the interest of any pre or post operative transsexual…regardless of whether that person is gay or lesbian or not.
The LGB embracing of “transgender” and erasure of transsexualism was NOT an accident but was carefully planned and executed by the conserva-queers who run the top line homosexual organizations. You see, back in the mid nineties HRC did a series of polls all over the country and freaked out at the results. They showed, even in the South, widespread acceptance of transsexual civil rights at around 70% when the acceptance of gay and lesbian civil rights was running around 30% and this at a time that the first national trans civil rights organizations were starting to be formed, comprised, surprise surprise, mostly of women of history. I was involved in those movements and watched the newly emerged transsexual leadership out and out bought by HRC who then took that leadership and pre-lobbied the lobbying efforts to derail them before they got off the ground. We caught them at it, we had the evidence.
When several of us at that time discovered this and evidence to prove it we tried to form a true grassroots national organization to lobby away from the HRC political machine and divorce ourselves from gay rights. We actually had support on the far right for this at that time. HRC pulled out all the stops to derail this group and finally set up their own front “trans” organization, headed by Mara Quisling to cut us out of lobbying. There was more, much more and it took me years to put most of the pieces together but the bottom line was the conserva-queers knew their gravy train would be over if a bunch of women of history with no money and little organization managed to do what their millions could not, get meaningful civil rights legislation and several of us damn near did that. Once you understand this, everything that followed for the next 15 years makes more sense including the out and out silencing of women of history who look like they might get something done and the erasure of transsexuality replaced with drag queens and transvestites in the public mind.
“The early 1990s was a time when transsexualism was simply swallowed whole by the transgender movement…which is the modern GLBT.”
I won’t argue that point at all. I actually got escorted out of an event at a university where one of the noted non-op’s (yet another concept I fail to grasp) when I called the ‘transgender’ notion a crock of shit. I was abaolutely opposed to the tee-gee co-option and the umbrella concept 20 years ago just as I am now.
My identity with the gay and lesbian community has NOTHING to do with my medical condition- I was a woman born lesbian albeit with a slight birth defect. As such, my presence, as a former transsexual, under the G/L/B banner has nothing to do with having been transsexual. It has EVERYTHING to do with my being a lesbian. I don’t want ANYTHING to do with tee-gee politics. I also strongly feel that there SHOULD be a separation of transsexuality from the rest of the tee-gee bullshit. Those with a medical condition have nothing in common with a lifestle choice.
“The early 1990s was a time when transsexualism was simply swallowed whole by the transgender movement…which is the modern GLBT.”
I won’t argue that point at all. I actually got escorted out of an event at a university where one of the noted non-op’s (yet another concept I fail to grasp) when I called the ‘transgender’ notion a crock of shit. I was abaolutely opposed to the tee-gee co-option and the umbrella concept 20 years ago just as I am now.
My identity with the gay and lesbian community has NOTHING to do with my medical condition- I was a woman born lesbian albeit with a slight birth defect. As such, my presence, as a former transsexual, under the G/L/B banner has nothing to do with having been transsexual. It has EVERYTHING to do with my being a lesbian. I don’t want ANYTHING to do with tee-gee politics. I also strongly feel that there SHOULD be a separation of transsexuality from the rest of the tee-gee bullshit. Those with a medical condition have nothing in common with a lifestle choice and we should not be labeled as ‘phobic’ for wanting that modicum of separation..