After receiving an apology from Facebook for deleting his bare chest post-op pictures earlier this month, and an invitation from the social network to re-upload the photos for the specific purpose of raising awareness about trans issues, Dominic Scaia yeterday noticed, uh, Facebook had again deleted the same snaps.
Scaia’s chest photo was gone from the Facebook group “Stop Transphobia on Facebook – Un-ban Dominic Scaia” as well as his personal profile. Then the message arrived from Facebook saying the picture violated Facebook’s Terms of Service — which it had just got done acknowledging need updating. Says Scaia: “Are you kidding me? We just went through this whole thing, and I thought it was over. I thought this wasn’t going to happen again and obviously it’s because someone reported the photo.”
Nobody may know you’re a dog, but in the Internet, everybody will one day know Scaia is a proud trans man.
christopher di spirito
Usually the moderators at Facebook are raging homophobes.
I’ve seen pictures of a male/female couple engaged in coitus and they’re cool with this, but when a gay, male Facebook member posts a picture of his ass, the moderators delete the image and warn the member he’s in violation of the site’s rules.
Apparently, Facebook is run with a pro-heterosexual bias.
alan brickman
It has nothing to do with being gay…..
Lady Ga-Gasp
Maybe its not facebook, but a sign of native intelligence in their image server — the machine can’t even abide by how frightening that image is. I’m with the machine.
TomEM
@christopher di spirito: Agreed.
Kevin
@alan brickman: It has everything to do with him being trans.
Peter
I thought that this item was about and “issue”. NOT about a person’s appearance. Self-destructing comments.
Devon
I’m sorry but those inside out, pepperoni slice-looking nipples creep me right the fuck out.
Drew
@Devon
totally, that shits gross. Still though, shouldn’t be deleted. He’s a man, and shouldn’t be denied the right to have his bare chest up. Still though, thats so gross
Kian
It’s right after surgery, that’s why it looks puffy and gross.
John
It has nothing to do with gender. I clicked on the story without reading the headline because I thought, literally, “why does Queerty have a topless woman on the site?”
It *appears*, at first glance, to be a female because of the scars, which look like shadows. In a few months, you may not be able to tell, but it’s highly likely I would have deleted the image myself in under three seconds of looking at it.
martin
I do hope I can come to an indifferent feeling about trans people one day. Being raised to value everyone for what they do, not who they are, I’m really trying to understand this phenomena. I just can’t shake the artifice of these creations via surgery. It’s theater to me, not tragedy or comedy, but some kind of spectacle I can’t seem to enjoy or respect.
Greg Theron
Why would anyone even have these photos up? Of course they are going to be removed off Facebook! If it makes people cringe and has people pushing away their lunches, why wouldn’t they remove it? Jesus, I understand you want to show everyone your successful surgery, but you don’t see MTF vaginas on there.
BUSSY
Oh please this is b.s.
this pix is gross.. Why on earth will he put this up? I am offended.
Sweetie..until your body actually looks okay…spare us all.
EWWWWWWWWWWW
The Milkman
Those nipples look like Spaghetti-O meatballs that were run over by a dump truck. Trans folk are great, but let’s have just a little modesty when it comes to still-healing surgical sites. Or at least a warning.
Uff da.
terrwill
Sorry, pics like this and the previous bearded lady trans don’t help the trans community gain acceptance…………..
scott ny'er
here’s the thing. If that was a bloke who had a messed up chest, would facebook have taken his picture down? I’m not so sure.
Nikki
Unbelievable… because you people find it “gross” that somehow justifies Facebook’s actions? None of you have the right to tell Mr. Scaia what he can or cannot do with his own body, nor do you have the right to tell him what he’s allowed to post on his own profile.
Don’t like it? Don’t look! And shut the f*ck up in the meantime, because we’ve had it with your pro-hetero, pro-gender-normative standards of beauty. Get over it.
BUSSY
No. 18 · Nikki
Ok. So i get a surgical operation on my cooch spread my legs wide and free and paste it on Facebook…its ok???!!!
Are u high? U can do what ever u like with ur body but please help us help you and show some sensitivity.
Im sure he feels good he has removed his boobs. Wonderful for him….but SPARE US ALL at least until u heal. Its offensive to everyone. Its not about trans its about sensitivity….its gross.
Tara
I don’t give a fuck what you think. I am so sick of Queerty commenters always insulting trans bodies. You small minded assholes.
It is funny, whine and cry all you want about Gay Marriage but the reason we keep losing is on display right here.
If you think it is gross outlaw it. Just like the straights do to gays.
You don’t see the similarity? Then you are well on your way to becoming heteronormitive already, congrats assholes.
greta
Body modification is legal in America.
Heteronormative is a ridiculous term I have to say. Digging deeper into semantics and creating new ideal words to define class struggle creates nothing more than confusion.
Read Nietzhe’s The AntiChrist if only to remind yourself about how much being a radical sometimes really isn’t.
It’s really a class issue, sexuality. A power struggle and has NOTHING to do with gender. Hmm. Class issue. Kinda tired of that phrase as well. But it’ll have to do.
Basically when I see heteronormative I think big bad MALENESS, but I know it’s a trick.
This black and white world.
Let him have his pepperoni nipples, a beer, and his life however inane, vain or truthful it is.
Emil
Queerty:
Please stop pretending that these “trans” stories have anything to do with gay people. We are NOT transgendered. Gay men are men. Lesbians are women. We are not a third sex, intersexed, or desirous of changing our sex. Stop pushing the hurtful stereotype that equates gay men with wannabe women and lesbians as wannabe men.
We need to reconsider the insanity of calling ourselves “LGBT”. “LGBT” is logically unjustifiable. Because hurts the self-image of gay kids, it is wrong morally. And it is dumb politically.
greta
also, as for heteronormality, would transexuals feel the need to solidify their mental states with obvious surgeries if not because of a quiet need to fit into your heteronormal world? Is it really being queer or a cop out to the fantasies of those that would keep them down?
i dont know.
Tara
@Emil: Hey, Emil…..
I have a revelation for you. I am Trans. And a Lesbian..
I am a Lesbian Woman
Who happens to be trans.
@greta: The word is Transsexual…..two s’es….. Just a heads up.
And, being trans has nothing to do with heteronormality. Some Transpeople Seek heteronormality, they are often straight. Some trans people seek Cisnormality, that would be what you seem to be referencing. And for me, I am queer honey, proud of it.
That said, what I was getting at is the attempt by some Gay and Lesbian people to eschew transpeople from the community, cut off the T as it were. This is because we tend to be visible more often. This is a result of a desire to blend in, hence my comment.
Here is the real crux, why is it ok for people on this thread to be demeaning of someone’s status, and yet demand that others treat them with civility. It is counter productive and disgusting.
Oh, and @Emil I have news, there are a lot of gay men and lesbians who people wrongly ID as trans because they do not fit preconceived notions.
Furthermore….did you really say “Because hurts the self-image of gay kids, it is wrong morally.” REALLY? That sounds a lot like what they say about how gay marriage will effect straight kids. Get your morality out of my life.
And I was a gay kid, and a trans kid….If I had seen what you wrote there when I was a little less secure in myself you would be hurting me.
A sword cuts both ways.
greta
@ Tara
Thank you for reminding me that I’m allowed to make spelling mistakes and be reminded of them as if I had no clue.
It’s never o.k. to be disrespectful to others, but if you -mistakenly- generalize all gay people because of a few offensive comments, you’re kind of a hypocrite, honey.
A sword may cut both ways, but it isn’t cut by two types of people, just one kind, the self-righteous.
Tara
@greta: If you knew. I accept that. No questions, but often that spelling is used, sometimes intentionally.
I must put my foot down and point that I never said all gay people. As I said, I am gay. I AM GAY…….
A hypocrite is a person who says one thing and does another, correct? Have not said anyone should be excluded from the community?
As far as I am concerned, I would hope that since I said “You don’t see the similarity? Then you are well on your way to becoming heteronormitive already, congrats assholes.” That it would be clear I am speaking to people who do not see the similarity.
You call me a hypocrite for pointing out hypocrisy.
I am going to go with the idea that you and I are misunderstanding one and another.
I will say, it is not ever self righteous to call down and call out comments like “pepperoni nipples” which is patently offensive or when my existence is called immoral. Just as I would if anyone’s existence was so called.
Ben
@Emil:
Yeah. Get your fucking sexual perversion away from my perfectly normal transgender, heterosexual lifestyle. Your deviance is ruining the self esteem of delicate trans kids and their dreams of heteronormativity everywhere.
Jesus. You people disgust me. What a bunch of bitter old queens – tell you what, if you don’t want to fight for equality with trans folk at your side, you’re the ones who are going to have to leave, because transsexuals and other gender benders have been a cornerstone of this movement since long before Stonewall and its righteous drag queens first gave “gay rights” a face. You want a gays-only movement? Well, feel free to start on your own from scratch, don’t let the door hit you in the ass. We trans folk have been here since the beginning. Take that and shove it, and your precious, fragile “self image” down your throat.
I work full-time for a non-profit that advocates for the full acceptance and inclusion of people of all sexual orientations and gender identities. I’ve put my reputation and sometimes even my life on the line in the fight for equality and dignity for gay and lesbian people, and my gay, straight, lesbian, and bisexual co-workers and friends have done the same for me. If you’re too self-centered to be a part of a truly inclusive movement, then we don’t need you or your attitude. Take it somewhere else.
Jadis
Queerty, stop posting articles about transpeople. All they do is provide a target for the chimpanzees in here to fling their shit at. Do you post them just to hold us up for ridicule?
I campaigned for gay marriage in 2005 (AND WE GOT IT) for you fuckers. Did I waste my time? We get nothing but scorn, ridicule, resentment and hate in return.
The only reason your precious little eyes were burned was because YOU posted the picture HERE.
Facebook shouldn’t be censoring ANY pictures apart from kiddie porn. Your squeamishness is not my problem.
Tara
Queerty, you remain silent when this kind of commentary flares. You delete comments but I would hope that you condemn this kind of divisive crap within our own community
Emil
@Tara: It is not “our community”. Stop assuming what has never been proven. It is one community of people who are attracted to the same sex, and a second community of people defined by their gender identity. Two separate groups forced together for the sake of political correctness. There should be division. That is a sign of sanity.
Emil
@Ben: Ben, thanks for showing us how thuggish and intellectually impoverished the “trans” activist community is. Your response is to call me names and use profanity. You have an obvious interest in latching onto the gay movement. If left alone, you wouldn’t have the money or the people to push your issues. So you latch onto the gays and have them fight your battles over bathrooms and insurance coverage for surgery and a myriad of other things. You were lucky in the 1990s that few people noticed or objected. But it is never too late to get sane. I say gays need to reconsider “LGBT” and genuinely test the arguments in favor of it. So no, I don’t plan on leaving. I plan on getting you, a hijacker, out of the cockpit.
Emil
@Tara:
I am delighted that you are a lesbian who also is trans. You are certainly part of the gay community, IMO. But you are part of it because you are GAY, not because you are trans. Nor does the fact that you are gay and trans mean that every other trans person is now magically inducted into a group called “LGBT”.
Consider your argument (i.e., “T”s are part of the LGBT b/c there are gay “Ts”), if taken to its logical conclusion. There are gays in every racial, economic, religious, geographic and professional group in every country in the world. Therefore, by your logic, the existence of these gay people would make each of those groups a full part of the gay community. Thus, the gay community would consist of every person in the world.
missanthrope
“Please stop pretending that these “trans” stories have anything to do with gay people. We are NOT transgendered. Gay men are men. Lesbians are women. We are not a third sex, intersexed, or desirous of changing our sex. Stop pushing the hurtful stereotype that equates gay men with wannabe women and lesbians as wannabe men.
We need to reconsider the insanity of calling ourselves “LGBT”. “LGBT” is logically unjustifiable. Because hurts the self-image of gay kids, it is wrong morally. And it is dumb politically.”
Because cisgender gay people are the center of the world and it might hurt their prescious feelings?
Got it.
Diane
Ben, well-spoken and right on target. Emil, you’re an ass. And I agree with most of the rest of you — that pic is gross, and if it weren’t for the flap with Facebook and the dust-up in the gay media, most of us would’ve happily never known it existed. Thanks, Facebook.@Ben:
dontblamemeivotedforhillary
Oops, sorry – it was me! I hate new friends who want to sell me something through Paypal!!!!
Beelo
Sorry, at a glance it looks like a photo of a woman posing topless (that’s what I thought it was). I can totally understand where facebook were coming from. It was decent of them to put it back up. Regarding the second deletion, remember that facebook is a *HUGE* operation. Not everyone moderating the site can keep up with every single issue over every single photo that’s flagged as a concern. Cut them some slack. It’s not a transphobic agenda; simply an understandable mistake.