Matt Barber simply can’t wrap his closed, conservative mind around the trans experience. Nor does the Concerned Women of America member* have much love for those of us who do:
Liberal ideology and political correctness, infused with public policy, begets social insanity.
Case in point: A recent report on a popular homosexual “news” site declares, “A transgendered student says he is the victim of discrimination at a small Massachusetts community college because he is biologically female.”
Say what? “He” is “female”? Welcome to PC-ville. Come for the oxymoron, stay for the cognitive dissonance.
As much as we loathe Barber’s perspective, we have to admit he makes us laugh.
We’d also like to note that Barber’s Renew America piece begins with a quote from anti-gay radio host Michael Savage. It’s a match made in homophobic heaven, which sounds a lot like hell to us!
Barber belongs to a women’s group, but slams people who want to be women. Just saying…
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
NG
“Barber belongs to a women’s group, but slams people who want to be women. Just saying…”
But seriously folks..
Nick
As a 39 year old very out and proud gay man (and a staunch libertarian independent politically), I have to agree with the journalist; this story is ABSURD in the Ionesco, Beckett, and Albee sense. As long as lunatics who want attention masquerade as oppressed “gay” people we will look silly and not be taken seriously. We also have to get out of this fascist mind-set that all gays agree on these matters and issues… that there is and we have an AGENDA perse. Our only agenda shoud be respect, equality, and dignity. Transvestites, transexuals, and trans-gendered people comprise are a very small minority even amongst the gay community which is itself a minority… do we really want our major battles spent on bathroom issues??? Some hysterical college student who wants to pee with boys?!* The same goes for all of our fundraising money being subverted to defend NAMBLA and other such extreme fringe groups or the consant equation of gay issues with sex issues as if we are only comprised of our penises (and vaginas)… We support Pride Agenda and Lambda Legal and God knows where the money goes… This kind of perfidy makes the vast majority of gay men and women cynical.
Our Tranie brothers and sisters deserve our love and support… but we need to be able to call a farce a farce. Defending the freak show is one thing, becoming it out of some warped marxist solidarity is another.
PS You would be quite foolish to just dismiss the Michael Savages of the world. I have listened to his show. He is a very bright man who does NOT hate gay men and women. Let’s try not to be knee-jerk and simplistic–the very thing we run around accusing everyone else of being.
hisurfer
1) You can’t say that your only agenda is “respect, equality, and dignity” & then turn around and call transsexuals part of a “freak show,” or a student “hysterical” based upon third-hand reporting.
2) What major gay organization, if you would, actually funds NAMBLA? Who even pays attention to NAMBLA besides South Park and right-wing commentators?
3) Where do you find this fascist mind-set that “all gays agree?” Spend less than two minutes in this or any gay forum & you’ll find a wide range of view-points.
4) How can you be Out and Proud and yet have stereotypes of the gay community such as would make Huckabee look enlightened? Do you actually *know* other gay people?
Nick
Wow the sensitivity training has really kicked in… The “freak show†comment was not meant as an ad hominem and was, perhaps, too strong when not understood in its context. I was not saying the Trans community is all freaks, not at all. However, the confluence of media coverage of these insignificant and often orchestrated events creates a Freak Show effect, and thusly the gay community is perceived (repeatedly) as a freak show itself. Another words, let us not allow the most unusual to define the entire group. To that point, if you do not think conservative-minded homosexuals exist in this country, and indeed the world, you are quite out of touch. Furthermore, just as right wing Christians do not represent all Christians, Hasidic Jews do not represent Jews, and radical Islamists do not represent Muslims…similarly I do not think the Trans community should be the face of the gay population nor do I think these stories merit much attention. I mean really; a 20 year old trans-girl who wants to use the men’s room??? This is newsworthy? No wonder we will never get full rights, when this is one of the battles that we have chosen.
Much to your surprise (not mine) I live in New York City (born and raised) and was marching the Greenwich Village Gay Pride Parade while you were most likely in diapers. In the 1980s and early 1990s the NYC Pride Parade was actually an ebullient celebration of Gay contribution and accomplishment; in recent years at has devolved into a sex show with every fetish and aberration featured… Fisting! Foot fetish! Shirtless dykes! And we wonder why many people hold a repugnant perception of us. Yeah, yeah, I know… the gay pride parade is supposed to be out there and wild… but these days most gay pride parades simply disgusting. So, to answer your question, I have many gay friends… but I also debate them and share my diverse points of view. I hold two advanced degrees and teach a top university so my not quite in lock-step with the gay community opinion might be one worth listening to.
And furthermore, if you do not think these incidents (such as the one mentioned in the article) are contrived, think again. I have a friend who created a whole firestorm over trying to join the army and being denied because he presented as a flamboyant, openly gay man. It was all planned. Humiliate the military –the very organization that defends your right to live as you do! Without the military, by the way, we would have been gassed by Hitler or –moving forward- our heads would be chopped off if the Islamo- Fascists have their way. This person created a media frenzy only to be provocative and so the entire event was false and exaggerated and ultimately meaningless. But our radical left wing media ate it up. This type of thinking is insane and not worthy of an intelligent “gay†mind.
My being a devout libertarian mean just that, I am worried you think I was presenting as a liberal; they are VERY different things and you must at once back to school to learn the difference. If you do not think liberals can be fascistic, well, you are very mistaken and severely misinformed. A good history lesson is needed; most of the leftist, Marxist, communist darlings of the last century were, in fact, classical fascists. And because the gay movement took many of its cues from this misrepresented part of history, we in turn find ourselves being part of fascist ideology and using double-speak rather unwittingly. That mantra being: “You must accept everything and be tolerant! But we will not accept your views or ideas because they conflict with ours!â€
Funny, you pondered what world I live in, as I am wondering the same thing. I do hope, however, we live in a world where as gay people we can exchange divergent views and beliefs without being insulting… and always, always keep our sense of humor.
Zoe Brain
Nick, you hold two advanced degrees, and teach at a top University. You’re also not a raving Moonbat.
That means you have no excuse in my book for what you’ve just said.
You’re right in one respect: Michael Savage doesn’t hate gays. Just “Freaks” like me. Here, I’ll quote what he said about a murder victim:
“it appeared the victim had been in the process of becoming a woman…”Yeah, process of becoming a woman — psychopath… should have been in a back ward in a straitjacket for years, howling on major medication.
…
“You’re never gonna make me respect the freak. I don’t want to respect the freak. The freak ought to be glad that they’re allowed to walk around without begging for something.”
One area he and Barney Frank agree on: employment protection for the Transgendered should not be in ENDA. Employment for us is a privilege, not a human right.
Before replying, may I please ask you to read something about transsexuals. TS-101.
That way you wouldn’t make such ….
intellectually challengedincorrect… statements as calling the guy in question a “20-year old trans-girl”. He’s a man, just badly Intersexed, and not real thrilled with the $120,000 cost and 30% success rate that FtoM surgery currently has. Can’t say I blame him.I’m not exactly thrilled myself at being included by such groups as the CWA as being some part of a “homosexual agenda” including Gays, Folsom Street Fair transvestites, people like yourself and NAMBLA members. But I wasn’t given a choice in the matter.
It’s had one good effect: by getting to know people in the GLB and sometimes T congolomerate, it’s pretty much cured my homophobia. Before, I was tolerant, intellectually accepting (and pro GLB rights), viscerally revolted. Now I can’t help but see Gays and Lesbians as, well, people. Head and Heart finally agree.
The thing is, we didn’t pick this battle: it picked us. Like it or not, TS people are discriminated against far worse than GLBs. When was the last time you heard of a Gay being denied a passport in any country, just because they were Gay? Yet I’ve just got my passport after 20 months of fighting for it, with court cases and legal costs, and Zero help from any GLB organisation. When was the last time a Gay was taken from a plane during a stopover and put under arrest for being Gay? This kind of thing happens all the time to us. You have no idea, and that shows.
Pardon me, I’m suffering a sense-of-humour failure. Maybe it was Barney Frank’s recent admission that he’s pre-emptively getting T’s excluded from ENDA in 2009 that did it. Something about “bathroom issues”.
You do know that under the medical Standards of Care, TS people are forced to use the bathrooms of their target gender for at least a year before they can continue treatment? That it’s something the medical establishment insists on? That this guy can’t qualify for surgery unless he overcomes this hurdle?
No? Didn’t think so. And you’re a doyen of GLBT issues, a veteran of many decades. Two advanced degrees too. And a Teacher, yet. Ignorance in others is excusable. Yours, considering how much information is out there, is not.
I bet you didn’t even know that over 50% of TS people have served in the military, or that the >a href=”http://www.tavausa.org/about.html”>Transgendered American Veterans Association even exists.
Now apology time. Sarcasm and obvious vituperation are not pursuasive. I apologise for the anger I’ve shown in my comment to you. If I was half as bright as I pretend to be, I would have moderated my tone, not just out of the respect that you deserve, but in order that you wouldn’t ignore my post as mere ranting. I’m trying to deal with the problem of rampant Gay Transphobia such as yours, and losing my cool with it doesn’t help.
Zoe Brain
And not only did I screw up the tone of my post, I screwed up the TAVA link too. *SIGH*.
I do hope, however, we live in a world where as gay people we can exchange divergent views and beliefs without being insulting… and always, always keep our sense of humor.
Good advice. Even though I’m not gay, and the fact that you can’t even imagine that GLBT includes some who aren’t shows the extent of the problem.
What can “gay” mean to someone who the docs in 1985 thought was an “undervirilised male” but who determined in 2005 (after far more extensive tests) was a “severely androgenised woman” instead? I’m not even TS, that was before I started treatment to try to correct things. Psychologically though, I fit the standard TS profile, so close enough I guess.
Try looking up 5ARD for a similar condition, only in that one apparent girls turn into men, rather than the reverse.
Under those circumstances, having a sense of humour about one’s situation is a survival skill.
hisurfer
“I do hope, however, we live in a world where as gay people we can exchange divergent views and beliefs without being insulting”
And yet, look how many insults you worked into both your posts against people who disagree with you. Walk the walk.
hephaestion
Nick couldn’t agree more with you.
Hisurfer, when ever someone expresses a more conservative on sites like this or towleroad the banshees attack and try to ridicule the person as crzay or not gay enough.
Zoe Brain
hephaestion – did you actually read some of the posts above?
I’ve been criticised plenty of times in GLB circles for being straight. Even more for being a neo-con. But never as some sort of banshee moonbat.
And in other news – a friend of mine in the Canadian Military (where they know a bit about TS) is going off to Afghanistan soon. She transitioned a few years ago now. I’m sure that the fact that such people as her could exist never crossed your mind.
MauraHennessey
Nick;
Obviously not all members of the Queer community agree on every issue. There is a PC line, though, and it does not involve transsexual issues, it involves the issues of gay men. HIV remains our only health agenda concern, destpite horrifying rates of lethal occurances of what ought to be treatable cancers amongst Lesbians because of lack of a health initiative on cervical and breast cancers. But we need to be good and follow our leadership. Employment is an issue for all of us, but the most vulnerable are transsexuals in transition, since they have no legal status whatsover. As an example a physician fired during transition was named Outstanding Mental Health Professional of 2007-08 by “Who’s Who.”
The major political damage that the LGBT movement takes from the right is not about those “freak” transsexuals, it is about the hyperbolically presented descriptions of the behaviours of gay men, particularly fisting, promiscuity, barebacking, meth use which the propagandists of the Christian Conservatve movement are forever perseverating about.
I am sorry that the transsexuals offend your sense of propriety and that for the sake of your own credibility you feel the need to distance from them. But, as a Lesbian, I have to admit that when I read the diatribes of the reactionary right, it would seem that the trannies are not nearly as much a weapon in the armamentarium of extreme conservatism as are the perceived behaviours of gay men.
Just as an FYI–in Europe this batheoom debate would seem like nonsense due to the prevalence of unisex ‘loos’
hells kitchen guy
Michael Savage is an idiot. He’s aggressively stupid – that is, he insists on shared stupidity as a precondition for any dialogue. And anyone – gay straight or otherwise – who can’t see him for the fool he is is as stupid as he is.
hells kitchen guy
And how can you be “libertarian” and so pro-military? For somone who flounts his education, you sound pretty uninformed. Oh yeah, I don’t think fetishists or a woman’s exposed breast is “disgusting.” You’d better stay away from art museums, Nick!
MauraHennessey
hell’s kitchen;
Nick is simply presenting the concerns of a gay man living a largely priviledged life who does not with to have his progress to further priviledge impeded by those less “straight acting and appearing” than he is. Nick would, were he occuping his current niche in the world but back in 1969, undoubtedly have been one of those Mattachine Society gay men who condemned the Stonewall Uprising as embarrassing.
Cohesion, by the way Nick, does not instantly equate with Marxism and I resent the appellation being glued to those of us who actually believe that ALL of us deserve the basic rights of American Citizenship. Disparaging us by painting us as extremists does not reflect as badly upon us as it does you and your attempt to undertake a self serving and Jacobin-like “purification” of the Queer rights movement..
David
Nick:
You are a real asshole. The trans story is “contrived?” How do you know? You obviously have no clue what transgender people go through on a DAILY basis. Try earning more about people different from you – you clearly would never understand a gay person if you weren’t one yourself!
drakyn
Bathroom issues totally aren’t important. I mean, it’s not like you can get kidney problems from holding, be arrested and sent to jail (and subsequently raped), get beaten/murdered for taking a piss (even in a single-stall bathroom–google it, it’s happened), get thrown out by security, be barred from that establishment, be verbally attacked, etc. all from using the bathroom.
No, bathroom’s obviously aren’t important at all.
And tran*ism has nothing to do with sexuality. There are trans* folks of every orientation; being trans* has to do with your gender identity not matching your assigned-sex–not who you like to fuck.