Meghan McCain’s recent appointment to the GLAAD board of directors is promising. LGBT rights are not a partisan issue, and allies are critical. Her appointment is most important, however, because she was socialized as female from birth, a point of view that is slowly being squeezed out of the GLAAD board, replaced by people who were socialized as boys from birth, including four current transgender board members. I’ve been deeply concerned about recent mission creep and board member conduct at GLAAD, the most problematic of which has recently come from two of the board’s four transgender women: writers Jennifer Finney Boylan and Christina Kahrl.
Before the appointment of Ms. McCain and three men, trans women were represented on GLAAD’s board at 11 times our actual ratio within the LGBT community. Out trans men are not represented at all. Boylan even boasts of this: “GLAAD is now largely run by trans people.” As of May, 80 percent of the GLAAD board was assigned and socialized as boys growing up. Also, bisexual people, who are a larger population than gays and lesbians combined, are vastly under-represented on the board and in GLAAD’s agenda. I believe these disproportionate representations are driving much of the recent conflict within the LGBT community on media issues, where trans people, mainly trans lesbians, are clashing with gay men, lesbians, drag queens and kings, and other gender-variant performers. And they go about it, like, well… people socialized as straight white males.
General GLAAD Board facts, as of May 2014
• Bisexual people are significantly under-represented
• Gay men are over-represented at about twice actual ratio
• 19 of 24 members (~80%) were assigned and socialized as boys
Transgender-related GLAAD Board facts
• Transgender men are not represented
• Transgender straight people (gay/lesbian pre-transition) are not represented
• 44 percent of women are gynephilic trans women, about 11 times actual ratio
• No transgender GLAAD Board members are
• drag performers
• crossdressers
• transgenderists
• genderqueer
• All current transgender GLAAD Board members
• are white, middle-aged
• were socialized and identified as straight pre-transition
• married women pre-transition
• One current trans board member believes drag “achieves nothing of value.” Statistical source: UCLA Williams Institute, 2011.
Trans representation on GLAAD’s board is a recent occurrence. I have volunteered with GLAAD for years, including presenting to their board on trans issues when there were no trans board members. That’s why I cannot believe I lived to see the day when a GLAAD board member felt privileged enough to show her true colors about my friends in the transgender community who’ve identified as drag queens or kings at some point in their lives:
Anyone that out of touch with transgender history, and the ongoing value that drag continues to bring to our community culturally, politically, and financially, has no business serving on the GLAAD board. Having Kahrl on the GLAAD board is like having someone on the Anti-Defamation League board who dislikes certain kinds of Jews.
Drag queens are still on the front lines today, as Mama Tits recently demonstrated in Seattle during their Pride Parade:
Our earliest trans political leaders weren’t wealthy white writers; they were sex workers, drag queens, crossdressers, and androgynous people who often lived on the fringes of society, spending and sometimes giving their lives to improve the lives of all trans people. Now that we are gaining greater rights and acceptance, a few comfortable elitists in the trans community suddenly want to exclude those who are not “true” transgender people.
Nowhere has this been more evident than in the recent campaign led by Boylan and Kahrl to make “tranny” a slur under any circumstance. GLAAD has long advocated, correctly I believe, for avoiding the term “tranny” in mainstream media, and its use by people outside the trans community is very likely to cause offense. But “tranny” is a complex term that has been around longer than GLAAD has. The trans community is not a monolithic group, and the term “tranny” is used in different ways by different parts of our community. It can be a self-identity, or a term of affection among friends, or a casual shorthand. It’s not always a slur, and I am somewhat amazed that two professional writers seem to insist otherwise.
In this major philosophical rift regarding slurs, those of us who disagree with Kahrl and Boylan assert that suppressing words we don’t like gives them more power to harm. Dr. Jack Halberstam, Professor of English and Director of The Center for Feminist Research at University of Southern California, wrote an excellent analysis of this rhetoric of harm, danger, and trauma expressed by Boylan and Kahrl:
When we obliterate terms like “tranny” in the quest for respectability and assimilation, we actually feed back into the very ideologies that produce the homo and trans phobia in the first place!
But the big secret at the heart of this debate is not philosophy. This “tranny” debate exemplifies how many transwomen socialized as straight boys dislike drag. They did not come up through the club scene, they were not forced to seek refuge among the LGBT community. People socialized as straight males (myself included) enjoyed respectability and privilege, and now many of these newly minted queers are trying to impose their brand of respectability politics onto a group they joined after transition. They want to exclude drag from the trans community, because they don’t like its countercultural in-your-face offensiveness. Offensiveness is a cornerstone of the LGBT rights movement, and these recent attempts to suppress anything they deem offensive simply reinforces the prevailing prejudice.
Identity politics have limits, and they often come in conflict with performance and expression. That’s why they have such a big problem with RuPaul. The “I fucking hate RuPaul” campaign led by Boylan protégé Parker Molloy gets echoed in Boylan’s open contempt:
Ego loves identity. Drag mocks identity. Ego hates drag
— RuPaul (@RuPaul) April 8, 2014
Ru, one reason trans women don’t wish to be called “t—-” is that we don’t want to be mistaken for someone like you.
— Jenny B. (@JennyBoylan) May 24, 2014
It’s astonishing to see GLAAD board members attacking RuPaul of all people as an enemy of trans people. RuPaul was fundraising for GLAAD when Boylan and Kahrl were still living as straight married men. And GLAAD staff was working hard to find a soft landing with its longtime supporters while these two were criticizing those efforts in public.
The final part of the problem is GLAAD’s conflicting mission. At the same time Boylan and Kahrl were going after RuPaul and the Drag Race producers and broadcasters who have donated huge amounts of money and talent to the organization, GLAAD gave the producers a media award for Big Freedia: Queen of Bounce. The GLAAD Media Awards have always been a strange mix of cronyism and starfucking, and as the organization has gotten larger, it has run into the same problem as other large media watchdogs biting the hand that feeds them. Groups like GLAAD, NAACP, and ADL often come in conflict with entertainers, particularly comedians, within the communities they are designed to serve. It’s a sign of our community’s political gains, but there are smarter and more diplomatic ways to deal with conflict within our community as we work to support each other.
That’s why I am happy to see Ms. McCain come on board. We should be seeking to build the widest and deepest alliance possible. We need all perspectives represented, but first we need to stop pushing people out from under the transgender umbrella in the name of respectability politics. The revolution will not be sponsored. LGBT activism has gotten so mainstream and bland and corporate that we risk losing what makes our community so great in the first place: freedom of expression.
Andrea James is a writer, director, producer and activist based in Los Angeles.
tdx3fan
The war against RuPaul is just ridiculous. There is no way GLADD can actually win it. They need to kick the transgendered person that started it off of the board while they still have any respect left. They can replace her with a ftm transgendered person.
Jake357
Trans issues aren’t my issues. Jettison them to their own devices and let us be done with the whole ordeal.
Dr. Mo
Amazing, thank you for injecting a healthy dose of sanity into this ridiculous debate.
skylerbound
Ummm the bisexual community is actually smaller than gay AND lesbian community according to the CDC, combined there’s an even bigger discrepancy. Was the CDC profile not factored in on this?
skylerbound
I would like to add the main point of this piece is spot-on and well written.
andy_d
As a middle-aged gay white male I have been and am friends with pre- and post-operative MTF (only because I have not knowingly met andy FTM) transsexuals, drag queens and kings, and bisexual persons. I am supportive of them. I hope and pray that I will continue to do so in the future.
That said, all I can say about this piece is WELL SAID and WELL DOCUMENTED!
Teeth
It’s the side effect of some success… some friendships that we used to need to survive are now in our way.
BJ McFrisky
The author states, “LGBT rights are not a partisan issue.”
Which made me laugh aloud because the author, apparently, has never read a single article on Queerty, which is constantly lauding liberals and demeaning conservatives (they all must be closet cases, natch).
On a side note, I never have and never will have anything in common with the Ts, so their “takeover” of GLAAD only makes GLAAD less relevant than ever.
QJ201
and this is the problem:
• All current transgender GLAAD Board members
• are white, middle-aged
• were socialized and identified as straight pre-transition
• married women pre-transition
FYI Gynephilic = sexually interested in females (pre and post transition)
White middle class “trans-bians: have hijacked the trans and gay movement(s)
Desert Boy
GLAAD is useless and ridiculous. Appointing Porkchop McCain to its board of directors is proof of this. Who will they hire next? Bristol Palin?
Tobi
It really is time the L&G’s uncoupled from the B&T’s and went back to basics, the CHE. We can use GLAAD as an abbreviation for “good luck and adios, darlings”. 😉
Daveliam
@Desert Boy: What sense does that comparison make? Meghan McCain has long been a supporter of LGBT rights, even when it puts her at odds with her father and his “old school” republican colleagues. She’s the face of a new, young, more socially liberal republican party. Bristol Palin is a homophobe who has made numerous homophobic comments in public. To compare them both is unfair.
With regards to this article: Spot on! I enjoy Andrea’s writing immensely and wish that this crop of overly sensitive trans-activists who have nothing good to say about gay men or genderqueer individuals would take a note from her.
Miss Understood
GLAAD has become increasingly irrelevant. I just don’t care about them at all anymore.
Meghan McCain is an idiot. What good is being “pro-gay” if you are involved in a party which is anti-gay, pro-war, and consistently works to prop up the billionaires who are robbing the working class? If you vote for republicans you are promoting a hateful agenda, a few nice sentiments do not make up for it. This is the party of Palin, Perry, Santorum, Bachmann, Cain… they are a bunch of crazy fascists. Wake up!
Cam
So in other words a HUGE amount of distraction in the article all to slip in the real reason for it.
A defense of McCain who has no qualifications and shut her mouth on our issues when her father was running for president.
As for the numbers, they are also a bit Skewed. They count all bisexuals, men and women as one group for numbers sake, and yet split the other groups based on gender.
So according to their own chart, no, bisexual men do NOT outnumber gay men, but bisexual women DO out number lesbians.
I would have bought the articles point more if they weren’t trying to play games with the stats right from the beginning.
Cam
@BJ McFrisky: said… “The author states, “LGBT rights are not a partisan issue.”
Which made me laugh aloud because the author, apparently, has never read a single article on Queerty, which is constantly lauding liberals and demeaning conservatives”
___________________________-
BJ, please point out any time that a “Conservative” who was very supportive of gay rights was attacked?
What you are REALLY saying is that when anti-gay bigots are attacked on Queerty, you consistently defend them, and oh yeah, they usually turn out to be “Conservatives”.
But please keep paining the anti-gay bigots as victims, it’s fun to watch the mental gymnastics.
ScaryRussianHeather
Many years ago, we proved RIGHT HERE that GLAAD is nothing more than a mutual admiration society for the media.
We went through their IRS 990 before Barrios got the boot for corruption, and saw that the board members were largely network TV people and sat on each other’s boards vice versa.
Our donations were spent on “award ceremonies” for ABC et al and entertainment nonsense.
So. Whatever. Won’t make a bit of difference who’s ass is in a chair.
Cam
@ScaryRussianHeather:
Heather, you and I sometimes disagree on here but you nailed it on this one. Total agreement.
DarkZephyr
@Jake357: The writer of the above piece is a Transgender woman. I have no desire to “jettison her to her own devices”. She is IMMENSELY pro-gay and IMMENSELY helpful to the ENTIRE LGBT community. Andrea James is probably one of my favorite LGBT people in the world. Your post is so annoying because it shows so much ignorance about the “Gay Rights” movement’s history and pedigree. Trans* people have been with us, fighting along side us from the start. And a voice like Andrea James’ is very important in the current climate. Use your head please.
@BJ McFrisky: “On a side note, I never have and never will have anything in common with the Ts” This statement from you is no shocker. It comes as no surprise that you want to remove anyone who has nothing in common with you. And I bet your words are actually quite true here. Transgender people who fight for rights for ALL LGBT people probably have little in common with you because you have absolutely know concern for Gay rights at all. You are more worried about bolstering homophobes.
DarkZephyr
@BJ McFrisky: DarkZephyr: And that would be “no” concern. You are just like a Conservative Republican BJ. No wonder you defend them so often. Both you and Conservative Republicans want to eject anyone who is not just like you.
ScaryRussianHeather
Oh please. McCain spoke out for marriage equality way before Obama and so what? She’s a useful idiot. She’s actually quite a damn liberal and harmless with an R next to her name for political purposes.
Meanwhile you’re so wrong about Andrea James.
She’s been a scathing critic against the newly minted trans-hactivists like Molloy et al.
She’s been speaking out like this SUPPORTING the G against the T agenda for erasure. She was invaluable during the RPDR tword drama. Repeatedly making the point that drag queens have a PLACE in the transgender spectrum and the words are not OWNED by those who have gone all the way to changing their gender.
While she uses the pop cultural lingo like “privilege” I understand her point. Getting a “softer energy” on that board she thinks is a good thing and by SOFT I mean everyone who’s not a MTF radfem trans activist.
And she’s not a statistical analyst so if she’s providing stats they certainly were provided by someone else.
Calm the eff down, she’s one of the few ALLIES that gay people have on the trans activist train along with Calpernia, Bronstein and the fabulous street brawler Madison Hinton.
ScaryRussianHeather
whoops my @reply malfunctions above was @cam
QUEERTY PROVIDE AN EDIT FUNCTION PLEASE!
Cam
@ScaryRussianHeather:
My point on McCain was that she shut her mouth and did not support us while her father was running for president.
Additionally, what are her qualifications for board membership? THAT was the issue I had with her. Basically her only claim to a qualification is she supports gay issues and her father is a well known republican.
lykeitiz
You know there’s been a hijacking in the community when RuPaul gets attacked. For me, this article cleared up a lot of things that were completely lost on me. For starters, I couldn’t understand why, in the middle of the fastest period of growth our movement has ever seen, the conversation swiftly shifted to the PC way to address the Trans community.
What??
For those of us who have been around longer than 5 minutes, this garbage would never hold water anyway. For reasons already mentioned, RuPaul is NOT the enemy. Quite the opposite.
This was a very insightful, well written article, and I can only hope it’s followed up with a companion piece on how to rid GLAAD of these undesirables. And yes, they are undesirables. Sometimes the enemy is right in front of you.
Tobi
@DarkZephyr: I think you’re confusing identification with support. For example, I support racial equality, but I don’t identify as anything other than white. I wouldn’t want or try to influence the NAACP because I’m not in their ruby slippers. Oh, and before you ask, yes I do know my own gay “history”, I started playing my part back in the 1970’s when it was the Campaign for Homosexual Equality (CHE) here in the UK. For me, the key word is “homosexual”, which applies to the L&G community, our fight isn’t the same as the B&T’s, which doesn’t mean we won’t support them or welcome their support to our cause with open arms nor that there won’t be mutual benefits from each side’s campaigns. 🙂
zaneymcbanes
A brave, effective, and concise piece. Thank you.
Dxley
The only people we should be representing are gay men, bisexual men and a bit of lesbians. Female sexuality is very weak and it’s just not as important as male sexuality. I’m actually not bothered if they’re not represented at all. Women can easily fake their sexuality just for some extra hetero male attention, and they hate men who don’t sexually appreciate them!
Now tell me, why would anyone want to have crossdressers or those drag queens represented? And what the fuck is queergender? This is getting stupid now. This community should have three groups of people viz lesbians, gays and bisexuals (LGB). Before we know it, it’s going to be LGBTQIABCXYZ. I don’t see how men/women who want to be the opposite sex have to do with the gay community!
Cam
@Dxley:
Funny because in your other posting you said a bunch of rac-ist crap, and now with this one again trying to divide the community.
Again, you right wing trolls are SO obvious.
DarkZephyr
@Tobi: I appreciate your polite tone, but I am not confusing “identification with support”. Thanks for the interesting information about UK based gay rights advocacy, but when I say that they have been with us from the start, I am talking about the events of Stonewall, which took place in the USA, so maybe that is why you don’t care very much about it even though you really should. It may be US history, but it started a chain reaction that is global in nature and is still ongoing. Even a UK based “Homosexual” advocacy group is named after it, after all and its said to be the largest gay equality organization in all of Europe. Trans* people have been a part of the LGBT community since Stonewall. I am not going to start advocating their expulsion from the LGBT family and I will never support it. You say that our fight is not the same, but that is not 100% true. We tend to be discriminated against and castigated or spat on by the same people. Trans* people are quite frequently affected by bans against Same sex marriage as well, even the heterosexual ones. And the people who are violent against gay people tend to be even MORE violent against Trans* people. I grant you that some of the struggles of the LGB and the T do not always overlap but others do. Guess what? That is OK. As you seem to agree, we should still care about each other’s struggles anyway.
What I really don’t get is how you can say that the Bisexuals’ struggles aren’t the same as ours. How are they not? When a bisexual person has entered into a same sex relationship, or their attraction to their own gender is made known to the same bigots that hate gays and lesbians, their struggles become absolutely identical to ours. They can’t always legally marry the person they love, they can be ejected from housing, fired from jobs, treated with the same scorn, bullied by the same people. Some of the LGBT youth that was bullied to suicide in the USA was Bisexual youth. Please explain how their struggles are not the same as ours. Thanks.
Gothrykke
My one complaint about Meghan is that she might be a bit ‘too nice’. The kind that doesn’t like to hear things considered in bad taste. She is a good match politically and a good ally.
I don’t believe GLAAD can be saved, though. They’ve spent too much time up their own butts and corruption has spread to the core.
Very well thought out and eloquently written article.
Tobi
@DarkZephyr: I’m sorry, but I just don’t see it. “We tend to be discriminated against and castigated or spat on by the same people.” Yup, the same could be applied on racial grounds. PIE (UK) and NAMBLA (USA) joined the party, back in the 1970’s. I never wanted them, and actively campaigned to kick them out, yet they claimed our struggle was equally theirs. In the case of bisexuals, what rights are they seeking that are not covered by homosexual equality, except the right not to be labelled gay?! As for Stonewall in the UK, it’s a recent invention, c. 1990, preceded by many other fine organisations, such as The Homosexual Law Reform Society in 1958. I guess we may have to agree to disagree on this one. 😉
Merv
Thank you so much for this piece. This one sentence said it all: “RuPaul was fundraising for GLAAD when Boylan and Kahrl were still living as straight married men.” Boylan should have been removed from the board for her tweet at RuPaul.
Desert Boy
@Daveliam: My parents are HUGE supporters of LGBT rights and opposed Prop 8 from day one. Does this make them qualified to sit on a non-profit board? I think not.
Nowuvedoneit
Gotta love Queerty and it’s staff, they sure do know that RuPaul and tr@nny gets their commenters fired up.
Daveliam
@Desert Boy: My issue with your comment wasn’t about questioning McCain’s credentials for being on the Board. It was with lumping her in with Bristol Palin because they both happen to be the daughters of bigoted conservatives. I don’t know enough about McCain’s professional experience to pass judgment on her credentials (though I suspect that she’s probably underqualified for the position). I do, however, know that she’s not conservative nor a homophobe, so I feel it’s unfair to lump her with the Palin brood.
itsjustmejon
The #1 requirement for any non-profit board (gay, straight or otherwise) is the ability to raise funds. I’d say McCain probably learned a few fundraising tips from her father. Also, I;m not aware of any LGBT non-profit board that reflects the diversity of the larger community, so not really fair to single out glaad for that. Because most boards have fundraising requirements for board members, the board tend to be wealthy (which, sadly, often means white and male). Aren’t there a few straight people on the glaad board too?
jar
@QJ201: Those are the most compelling facts in the article.
fofomazuzu
Wow, this article is horribly composed (have you never written an article before?) and the contents of it are just as bad. My first warning signs were the constant references of transwomen as ‘socialized straight men’ if that isn’t some TERF crap right there then I don’t know what is.
Queerty and it’s community needs to stop this horrible anti-trans parade they’ve been having because you’re doing nothing productive, and are actually hurting people.
Nowuvedoneit
@fofomazuzu: before you go calling someone a rude made up name you should do some research http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrea_James. Less reactionary comments please .
DarkZephyr
@Tobi: I am afraid I cannot respect your comparison of Trans* people with the likes of NAMBLA and PIE. It reminds me of when homophobes compare gays to murderers and practitioners of bestiality. That was extremely unworthy of you Tobi. You need to be able to differentiate between claims and reality. Perverted groups like NAMBLA and PIE may SAY that their struggles are our struggles, but they are NOT. You and I both know that. It is NOT a lie to say that Trans* people are affected by many of the same discriminatory laws that gay people are affected by. We can certainly agree to disagree, but the T is part of LGBT regardless.
As for this: “In the case of bisexuals, what rights are they seeking that are not covered by homosexual equality, except the right not to be labelled gay?!”
Please keep in mind that you originally said that our fight is *NOT* the same as their fight. Now you are saying it is the very same fight (which was my point to begin with, you are actually now agreeing with me). Your true beef now seems to be that they don’t call themselves gay. Well, that doesn’t bother me any. They aren’t homosexual. They are bisexual.
DarkZephyr
@fofomazuzu: The article was written by a trans* woman. And your bawling about “My first warning signs were the constant references of transwomen as ‘socialized straight men’” is misplaced (and I suspect on purpose). She didn’t say that “transwomen are socialized straight men”. You know she didn’t say that. She said that lesbian transwomen *were* socialized AS straight men before they transitioned. It was something *done to them*. Please try to be more rational and clear headed from now on when you respond to articles.
inbama
While the trans hijacking of the LGBT brand is certainly a problem, turning the keys to the kingdom over to bisexuals on the basis of fractions of percentage points is equally ridiculous.
It just may be time for us LGs to dump these “inclusive” organizations and strike out on our own before we all get “assigned” insane.
Tobi
@DarkZephyr: In many States of the USA, I believe it’s child abuse if you sleep with a 16 year old? Yet, here in the UK that’s fine. In Spain, just an hours flight away from me, the age of consent is 14. I’ve lived through homosexuality in the UK being a criminal offence, decriminalised but with an age of consent at 21, drop to 18 and now 16, so I’ve often felt that “morality” is merely a date on a calendar and a pin on a map. In regard to PIE, you’re probably unaware that in the 70’s they received official backing from Liberty, then called the National Council of Civil Liberties (NCCL) and they also received UK Government funding. It was extremely hard back then for the likes of myself and others to argue against their inclusion in the Campaign for Homosexual Equality, but we did, even though many felt that they should be included as just another example of an oppressed sexual minority. I also wasn’t equating trans* with pederasty but arguing that just because it’s raining doesn’t mean we all have to share one umbrella. In regard to bisexuals, if they aren’t fighting for anything that falls outside the homosexual arena then why aren’t they happy to support our rights and leave it at that? If they are, then like the trans* community, why not form their own community? I’m obviously a product of many years and experiences, but I don’t believe homosexual equality has to have every ragtag-and-bobtail tacked on the end. 😉
cformusic
can’t we all just get along..none of us have enough leverage to be in-fighting like this
michael mellor
Gay men created identity politics…and now it’s going to destroy them.
DianneP
At the simplest level, WOW. I am so glad that I live in podunk Idaho where queer people support each other! We understand that the general public lumps us all into one big bag of marginalization, so we all stand together to rise above that oppression. If we all tried to divide up into our own private little unique snowflakes of self identification we would be hosed. Must be nice to be able to have a “them” that you can toss aside so you can maintain purity!!!
fofomazuzu
@Nowuvedoneit: I know who she is and I didn’t call her any made up names. I was commenting on how this article was clumsily made and has no structure to it, as if someone had never wrote an article before.
@DarkZephyr: She says that exact thing several times in the article, why are you being so deliberately ignorant?
vive
Meghan McCain is still a Republican, a party that, even ignoring social issues, still stands against everything we as GLBT minorities have fought for all our lives (equality, economic justice, health care access, the rights of GLBT of color, immigration justice, etc.). GLAAD is dead to me now.
DuchessOfMilton
@Daveliam: Agreed. Comparing Miss McCain to Bristol Palin is idiotic.
DuchessOfMilton
@michael mellor: “Gay men created identity politics.” Spoken like someone with an understanding of social history about as deep as a layer of lip balm. Go do some party crunches and meet your bffs for some crantinis.
indi.anna
Waves goodbye to the old republic of Rupel.
Dont let the door hit you on the way out…
BJ McFrisky
@Cam said something like, “Blah, blah, smiferon morplotsker blah blah labirand plewton blah blah topolatty inkspaster blah blah blech.”
And something about having multiple pictures of Aaron Schock adorning his walls.
DuchessOfMilton
@indi.anna: Are you going somewhere? Because, actually, no one else is.
itsgigi
Yes, church. That needed to be said. Andrea James maybe isn’t the best person to be saying it, but it’s true. For the past little while, the most privileged sliver of the trans community has had all the political power. When people say things like “trans lesbian” and “socialized as a straight white male, married a woman” it’s not meant to be an insult, just pointing out that you’re coming from a different place from other trans people, and that you should maybe take a step back and let them have a voice. It would be bad enough if they were just alienating our allies, but now it’s other trans too.
Jacob23
This overly long post is premised on the notion that LGBT exists. It doesn’t. There is no such thing as LGBT. It is as contrived as the unicorn. LGB is distinct from T. LGBs are defined by sexual orientation; Ts are not. LGBs and Ts might share certain common interests on certain issues at certain times. That is the basis for a political alliance. It does not create a common identity.
The only reason LGBT was concocted is so that trans activists could claim partial ownership over LGB organizations, organizations which they had no role in forming or funding and to which they contributed nothing. If Ts were just allies, LGBs could decide for themselves whether and to what extent we wish to expend money, time and labor on trans issues. But by inventing LGBT and making Ts co-owners of GLAAD and every other LGB group, LGBs can never say “no thanks” or “we’ll help, but only to such and such degree.” At the same time, Ts have kept their own T-only groups and are never required convert them into “LGBT” groups.
LGBT was and is a means to colonize LGBs and to strip them of both their identity and their assets. GLAAD is a perfect example. Once a powerful, grassroots LGB group which fought anti-gay attacks and defamatory representations in the media, it now spends most of its time sending out press releases about Janet Mock and Laverne Cox, neither of whom is gay. It no longer does anything useful on anti-gay defamation, as can be seen from its slumber during this week’s anti-gay commentary regarding Michael Sam and the revelations about the offensive story arc planned for Two and a Half Men.
The best response LGBs can make is to demand that LGB organizations be LGB organizations. We have nothing to apologize for. And we shouldn’t fund or support groups which further the fiction of LGBT.
millhouse
I’m not convinced the data used to breakdown LGBT % of the US population accurately reflects the actual numbers. Census data, or directly asking sexual orientation/identity could strongly underestimate the real population size, as there is a spectrum to sexual orientation and recognizing that alters those numbers:
http://www.psmag.com/culture/gay-population-lgbt-homosexual-sex-kinsey-68670/
That aside, any group that has the issue that the PC police have with RuPaul I would never consider myself a part of.
DickieJohnson
@Jacob23: Very, very well said! The T’s have nothing to do with sexual orientation, and certainly should not outnumber the L&G members on the GLAAD Board, or even be there. I’m all for eliminating them from the LG movement; their agenda doesn’t coincide with ours.
DarlieB
The LGBT is not about orientation or gender, it is about equality.
DarlieB
@DarlieB: @DarlieB:
I’m very confused. When gays supported MLK were they black ? Was it because you all had the same African heritage or a history of slavery ? Was it because you lived in the same community or were in the same economic bracket ?Anyone who tries to make this about being the same people is a bigot. Here is the “Trans Agenda”. Equality. Done, over!
inbama
@inbama:
Actually, the gay movement took off in the 70s after it moved away from identifcation with other leftist causes and ideology, and the “Gay Activists Alliance” split off from the “Gay Liberation Front.” (See here – http://www.glbtq.com/social-sciences/gay_activists_alliance.html)
I deeply resent the accusation that people who refuse to surrender their dignity and intelligence to transfeminists are against trans equality.
There is no reason whatsoever for any sane person to call themselves “cisgender.”
There is no sane reason to look at a boy and tell people “actually, that’s a girl.”
There is no sane reason for intelligent people to say they were “assigned gender at birth” when NO SUCH THING EVER HAPPENED TO ANYONE!
Transfeminists are insisting everyone make idiots of themselves in order not to be called “transphobic.”
Transfeminism is a lunatic movement that makes everyone sound like members of some crazy cult.
Sorry, if being for your rights isn’t enough, but if you want to talk like an imbecile, that’s your business and yours alone.
I’m not doing it.
Chris
When an organization shifts its focus from those things that affect so many LGBTs — such as suicide among our youngest folk, the homophobia in sports and/or international laws that would be used to kill LGBT folk around the world — over to policing our own words, that organization loses lots of its credibility with me. There are many bigger battles to fight than whether or not Ru Paul, who has done so much for pride among LGBT folk, needs to update her language. Let’s not lose out focus.
I do think that in all the above verbiage on how members of the GLAAD board were socialized or where they might come from is an important political point that should not be missed: the Board seems way out of line in terms of “looking like” the larger GLBT community. And THAT is something the organization needs to take more seriously than it has. To put things in perspective: Which is, politically, the worse “sin,” (a) using words or (b) failing to represent?
michael mellor
I agree that a lot of these trans folk are gynephilic. Gynephilia is a fetish that men have for the female form. They love the female body so much, they want to become it.
For men who are married to women, this transition to a female appearance is a form of “lesbianization” of their relationship.
Note how when a man transitions to a female appearance, he often adopts the extreme stereotype such as long hair and lots of make-up. They are adopting the look of the lipstick lesbian.
BitterOldQueen
@DarlieB: Nonsense. LGBs are DEFINED by sexual orientation, and the discrimination against LGBs is BASED on biblical, political, and cultural disapproval of their sexual orientation. Ts (very real) issues are not primarily sexual orientation but based on perceptions of gender. The LGB movement has never been about universal equality, or it wouldn’t be called “LGB”, it would be called “Universal Equality.” NAACP is about discrimination against people of color; LaRaza is about discrimination against hispanics; NOW is about discrimination against women. It’s called “identity politics”, hon, and the Ts just need to get their own.
BitterOldQueen
@Jacob23: Absolutely.
Cam
@BJ McFrisky: said…. “@Cam said something like, “Blah, blah, smiferon morplotsker blah blah labirand plewton blah blah topolatty inkspaster blah blah blech.”
And something about having multiple pictures of Aaron Schock adorning his walls.”
________________________________________
This was your response to my very simple question. You claimed that Conservatives were victims and I asked you to point out one single time on Queerty where a “Conservative” who was very supportive of gay rights was attacked.
Apparently being asked to back up your statements infuriates you so much that you were unable to do anything but post an odd rambling attempt at insulting the person who dared ask the question.
Oh, and what I also noticed……you were unable answer my question and find one single example to back up your statement.
The fact that you tried to avoid that topic shows that you know your statement was B.S. and instead of admitting that you tried to deflect the topic by insulting me. If you KNOW you are lying in your posts, why do you bother? And if you KNOW that the people you defend are anti-gay that definitely says something about the massive amounts of baggage you must carry.
LLLisa
Jesus Christ. This comment section proves that trans people need more representation in the greater community, not less. Nothing but bigotry and bullshit stereotypes here. I agree that the board needs more diversity, but this is presented in a way to give cis people open license to attack trans people however they want. There’s this seething underbelly of hatred, and it’s disgusting. Get your priorities straight, people.
Cam
@LLLisa:
Please notice that when gay marriage was legalized in NYC, instead of waiting one day, Trans activists launched in print an attack on the gay community based on marriage being legalized.
RuPaul who has had several transgendered folks on the show was attacked and a Trans Activist not only said she F-ing Hated RuPaul but wished violence on him.
So lets not pretend that none of those things have happened, Deal?
LLLisa
Sure, and let’s not pretend the overwhelming violence and oppression against trans people, particularly trans poc, didn’t happen, too, OK? Trans women are murdered all the time and no one gives a shit about it except us, the ones in danger. No one gives a shit about acknowledging trans people’s basic human rights, but by all means, let’s throw a fucking parade. We have been shoved to the back of the bus, kicked off the bus entirely, and now a few of us are finally getting the chance to actually do something for our community AND PEOPLE LOSE THEIR SHIT.
LLLisa
SHIT = LOST
Cam
@LLLisa:
Ok, so now lets dissect what you just did.
Your ORIGINAL comment talked about how the LGB people on this site were not saying nice things about Transfolk. And you painted Transpeople as the complete victims. I then pointed out to you several times when Trans people had attacked Lesbians, Gays, and Bisexuals.
Did you deal with that? No, you have now attempted to alter the topic and pretend this is about something completely different, i.e. society as a whole and it’s treatment of Trans people.
If you can’t defend your original point, just save everybody time and admit it. But your behavior indicates why a sane discussion on this topic can’t seem to happen, you are FAR more interested in screaming victim-hood than dealing with the issues in a straightforward manner.
LLLisa
Yeah, when you are the most victimized minority in America, it’s really fucked up to paint yourself as a victim. Thanks for being the bidet person and calling for civility: http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Tone_argument
Note:trans people started the lgbt rights movement, and we’ve been kicked about and shoved aside ever since. How dare we voice our anger about it. Furthermore, a few instances of expressed anger do not comprise systematic hatred and oppression. The treatment of trans folks by the larger community kinda does. The kind of narrow-minded thinking that seems to be your counterpoint is pure derailment. It’s bullshit.
Nowuvedoneit
@LLLisa:Most victimized, hardly . Every group had their struggles to deal with and surmount. The fringe trans activists have made it their priority to shame and over run conversations with accusations of transphobia. It’s that fringe that has gotten people tired and they are the loudest group.
You know yes the one to throw the first high heel shoe was a transwoman but right behind her were fed up drag queens and gays. You seek to misinform people and make it seem like it was just transgender people that started the gay rights movement. It’s been a group effort and yes their are more gays than transgender people nothing can be done about that.
morgan riggs
The use of the word tr@nny, can and has taken on negative feelings within the M2F community. Just like the n word was once so accepted as common and usual usage it was used in media. And then one day, the NAACP said, “No More!”, and within a short period of time it became socially unacceptable to say. While drag performers feel a kinship with this word, the times have changed and for many transsexuals this word is now felt to be derogatory. If a group of people are feeling marginalize by a word, who are we to say they are wrong?
Many feel that the drag queens are muddling the understanding of what being a transsexual woman is, especially within the straight world. They are not a man in a dress, they are women stuck in men’s bodies. Drag queens are performers, at the end of their show, they go back to looking like men, no feelings of being trapped within the wrong body. Yes, there are drag queens who have gone on to transition, but they are truly a minority.
I once attended a trans conference that included drag queens. I’ve never been so disrespected in my life. At this point in my life I was still presenting as female, I was a baby tran-sman before I felt comfortable with the outward expression of male. So, there I was, overwhelmed with my first experience in a trans space, when several drag queens stopped in front of me, gave me the up and down eye, hurrumped and walked away. The sad thing is this happened to me several times, and to many of the trans-ladies as well. They were bullies to everyone there, and it was quite sad actually. The majority of the trans-ladies attending were still living their lives as men, unable or unready to live full time as women, and most of them weren’t good at passing, of wearing makeup or choosing clothing. But guess what? All they wanted is to live for those 3 days as women! They didnt care if they passed, they wanted to look in the mirror and see their true selves reflected, and several of the drag queens made this an uncomfortable experience for many of them.
Nowuvedoneit
@morgan riggs: Drag queens also have it rough , you think it’s easy to walk out of their houses in drag? They faced the same ridicule that you face but they toughened up, maybe their attitudes were snarky but you need not to pay them no mind. Life is never fair and if some side eye shade was enough to ruin your experience then don’t know what to tell you.
LLLisa
@Nowuvedoneit: next thing you know, people will be calling us “uppity”. Please read the thing I quoted just now, right above you, because you are trying to pull the same crap.
@morgan riggs: this needs to be said. Drag queens and cross dressers in the trans community can, at times, be totally shitty to the rest of us. Some of them are good people, but many times I feel like their “hobby” or fetish is outright harmful to real trans women who are struggling for acceptance.
Nowuvedoneit
@LLLisa:Why is it an attack if someone has a differing viewpoint? You made a comment I responded if you take offense to people disagreeing with you life’s going to be hard. If you think drag queens misrepresent your community then that’s on you not them. They are doing their thing which has been around longer than the word transgender. You can “feel” what you want about the drag community but it’s your feelings not fact.
jayj150
@morgan riggs: I read all of your long entry hoping to find a clear, specific example of how Drag Queens had personally harmed you or other transpeople and all the evidence you provided was their mere existence. Yes, the simple presence of drag queens at an event constitutes, by your own words, ‘the biggest disrepct in your life’. How exactly, you’ve never explained, it’s just the fact they exist. Countless people in our country have been racially profiled, denied basic rights for their sexual orientation, national origin, ethniticity, looks, etc.; but what you personally find most offenssive and dangerous of all is the simple existence of Drag Queens. Apparently at one point they even ‘stood in front of you and looked at you’. How dare they?!.
It is not the Drag Queens’s responsability to make you feel validated. If you are so insecure in your own identity that the mere presence of a drag performer will make you feel disrespected, then you have way more serious issues than Rupaul.
It is also impossible not to see the evident homophobia behind the outrage of people like you and that raging bigot Boylan. When you or Boylan say the biggest insult to transwomen is that straight people might confuse them with gay men like Rupaul, and when you state it in such a hateful way as Boylan puts it, that reeks of homophobia. Homophobia and conformism. Transpeople despise Drag Queens because they represent everything they stand against: Drag Queens are the ultimate heroes of gender-non-conformism. They mock gender roles and stereotypes, and are wildy funny, faboulous, confident and HAPPY while doing it. They prove the world you can be all you want to be, have all kinds of interests, do all kinds of things, put all the make up in the world and still be the same boy they’ve always been, without having to change a dang thing about theselves. No hormones, no therapy, no surgery required, and none of them could care less what people think of them. You can call Ru a he or a she, and it wouldn’t matter because he is SECURE in his identity and it’s not dependant on others.
Transpeople’s priority, on the other hand, is how others perceive them. Don’t come to my conference because people might confuse us with your kind. Don’t use this or that word because people might think we’re like you. Don’t ever use this or that pronoun because that’s a hate crime. I’ll cut my breasts, inject me with crazy hormones for as long as I live and be hypermasculine so I can pass. You hate the fact there are people out there who are corageous enough to live the life they want, and wear the clothes they want to wear, and do the things they want to do, without letting the sex the were born with be an obstacle. You hate them because they had the balls you’ll never have.
Cam
@LLLisa:
And again, you couldn’t deal with the actual post, because in your worldview, no Transperson has ever made a mistake ever ever ever ever. And if they had it didn’t matter because in that case you will spew out a bunch of babble about the gay rights movement being started by Transfolks or victimization.
Here is a thought.
1.Shut up,
2. take a breath,
3. read what was actually written and if you do not feel you are able to respond to it in a logical matter then go back to number #1.
LLLisa
@Cam:
>no Transperson has ever made a mistake ever ever ever ever.
Well, OK, I can’t really argue when you use the exact thing I said verbatim against me. First you derail, then you strawman. Care to say something relevant, or just keep attacking my tone? You decide.
@Nowuvedoneit: I never said you attacked me? Also, is really easy to tell someone to toughen up when you don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about. “It doesn’t affect me, so it’s not that big a deal” – get over yourself.
Both of you:
You’re still making tone arguments. Go back and read it again, you’re still not getting it.
Cam
@LLLisa:
Again, you are a liar. I pointed out quite clearly that the Trans community has attacked the gay community over issues like marriage, RuPaul etc… and rather than actually discussing that, you freaked out, refused to deal with it, attacked, screamed about Transpeople being the most victimized group ever, and basically did everything possible not to actually deal with the post.
Your basic opinion is ….
If somebody disagrees with you there are only two options for you.
1. You tell them they don’t understand
2. you say they are bigots.
Take a look at yourself, if you live in a world where there is no such thing as a person who can reasonably disagreed with you, then the problem is you. You are irrational.
Now, if you cannot deal with my original post, please spare us from another one of your attempts to deflect. You and Parker Molloy can sit together and talk about how you hate all gays, lesians, and bi’s and how you are both the biggest victims in the world.
Dee Omally
Once again we have a trans female advocating for trans slurs. Don’t believe me? Look at the title. We don’t need to make the T word a slur; it has been for a long time when used in public, just as used here.
Cam
@Dee Omally:
Actually she said that she supports GLAAD assertion that the word should not be used in media. Apparently you missed that part.
Dee Omally
@Dee Omally: Added: the author lost all credibility when she stepped outside the trans community and supported a non-trans but drag male performer in not her phobic advocacy. Hollywood and those who reach for this make-believe cloud-in-the-sky non-reality have fame, but so do many notorious criminals. For the record, a gay male decided to use trans slurs on TV. We said “not so fast”, because no LGBT slur, including the F word should be used in any TV show, period. End of discussion. RuPaul was so way out of line that he had to be forced…yes forced to mend his ways. He got very, very angry and went on the offensive, along with many drag cult followers. Spin this any way you want, but history has recorded what I haves just said.
Dee Omally
@Cam: I know what she said and I know that she also keeps using this very word in media. Don’t believe me, re-read this article posted in the latest medium: the internet media.
Dee Omally
@Dee Omally: Errata: *1st sentence: strikethrough “not”. *last sentence: strikethrough “s” in “haves.
Dee Omally
This story is completely a Trojan Horse story: it purports to hold a mature objective discussion about disparate GLAAD representation. It’s real purpose is to revive the T slur word debate all over again not only by using it in Internet media, but by once more defending a man who defends as a personal right to himself use the T slur word in media. If RuPaul had advocated for using the gay F word in media, and chosen to defend the indefensible, he would have been just as wrong for doing so.
Let’s stop pretending that this is a right-to-free-private-speech issue, word policing, or trying to get anyone to shut up. This is pure fiction emanating from “relatives” in the gay and drag niche, in which A. J.still has deep roots. All speech in media requires “policing”…..whether the 7 deadly verbal sins in radio or otherwise. Public media has been policed since its inception almost.
The long and short of it is this: does a group in society, whether represented by race, sexuality or gender, have the right to hold others accountable for public advocacy of trans slurs in media? The answer is self-revealing.
Nowuvedoneit
@Dee Omally: Yet you seek to disparage her and her opinion. To you I say it is your opinion and just that. Do not take your feelings as fact, no one is responsible for how you chose to acknowledge the world. Let’s as you said stop pretending, your group of trans fringe activists are bad news. You bully others and label them transphobic. It’s losing it’s effect and soon you’ll just be seen as crying wolf.
Nowuvedoneit
@Dee Omally: You are found a no prisoners take charge attack on many people who have supported trans rights in the past. You want others to chose your group at the cost of free speech and their own kind. I’m not sorry but I chose to stand with my drag brothers and sisters over you because they are more reasonable than you. Might chose not to listen to close minded self righteous ideologues.
Dee Omally
@Nowuvedoneit: go @Nowuvedoneit: Clearly, you have no interest in objective discussion, per your own comments, so I will risk dignifying your analysis by this:
Clearly, you have a horse in the A. J. fiasco, and fiasco it is. Unable to actually discuss the facts, you go on the attack, just as so does A.J. with her “a slur here is not a slur there” work of fiction, and fiction it is. If you wish to actually discuss the facts of this A.J. work of art, truly one that is of the trans phobic genre, without personal disparagement (ironically), then like that pie-in-the-sky world-of-make-believe land called Hollywood says, it is time for another attempt at mature discussion: “Take Two”.
Jeton Ademaj
@Dee Omally: there is much i disagree with in your commentary, but this:
“All speech in media requires “policing”…..whether the 7 deadly verbal sins in radio or otherwise. Public media has been policed since its inception almost.”
…that let’s me know we have nothing in common, and i will show you and your allies no quarter. media is now the public square, almost all attempts at policing speech itself are anathema. the answer to bad speech is better speech, not censorship…censors require defeat without apology.
you and your allies are very selfish to tie such a heavy anchor around the neck of the Trans Rights movement…in America, you will sink and drown it the longer you are tied to it.
Jeton Ademaj — male, neither Cis nor Trans.
Dee Omally
@Nowuvedoneit: Slurring others over public media is not a right or privilege: public offense against others based on sex, race, culture, or gender is never a free speech right. Stop listening to the RuPaul Goon-in-Chief and the lies he spreads…speech in media has been regulated and policed, as I have already said. No wonder the rest of your commentary exceeds the ability to actually make any credible sense, just as A.J.’s trans phobic work of fiction above…..trans treachery anyone?
Nowuvedoneit
@Dee Omally:Dee, you chose to fling insults around as those you say slander the trans community. Only one showing less tact and class on these comment threads is the regular trolls on here, yet they are more witty. Goodbye Felcia!
Dee Omally
@Jeton Ademaj: No need to show us any quarter when you have already shown us your hind quarter. Perhaps like the work of fiction above, so too is the FCC a fictional agency. Everything in life is policed, everything and as it should be. As a male, sir, you have absolutely zero qualification to possess credible commentary here, and in fact your very own words prove this to be true. Media has been censored since, well, forever, and that discussion ended long ago. There is no trans rights movement, but there is a trans human-rights movement. Pretending to believe that public media has not been policed completely removes any possible credibility; such has been the case for about a century now. Don’t bother in replying; any further emotionally-laden yet factually-starved commentary will not dignify a further response. I operate in the big leagues of commentary, not in minor league drivel intent on setting up bait for argument.
Dee Omally
@Nowuvedoneit: Goodbye! Nice chatting, and don’t forget to take off the female uniform when the event is over ok?
Dee Omally
Ladies and gentlemen, this discussion is hereby concluded. The jury returned long ago with its verdict. The gay F and trans S & T words are bonafide slurs. Say what you want among yourselves for you will anyway, and so will we all. Go ahead and make yourselves look like public fools (just as the author of this “trans-slurs-are not-slurs”) public embarrassment. We all can engage in the publicly futile sport of spinning fact as non-fact, but doing so will never ever change the fact that a slur is a slur is a slur. To argue to the contrary begs for an explanation. Arguments without facts does never a successful argument make. The question today is this: Why does A.J. continue to defend the indefensible? Well, with one foot in drag culture and the other in la la make-believe land called Hollywood, geez we need no spare one microsecond wondering why. For those who seek to add to what I write with false assumptions, your evasion of the facts boldly presented by A.J. herself (see story above), will not warrant a reply. If drag = a sex/gender transition then drag = trans. If not, need more be said? There is room for everyone in this world, but I will NEVER accept room for public slurring of trans-not-drag persons, anymore than you should accept gay or lesbian slurring either.
LLLisa
@Cam: Do you get paid by the strawman? Cuz you’re sure making a lot of them.
Merv
I’m gay, and I don’t object to all uses of the word “f*ggot” in the media. That would be absurd. Context is everything. My understanding is that many drag queens embrace the word “tr*nny”, and have for a long time. If they want to use it to refer to themselves, that’s their right. If people want to use it to use the word in certain contexts in reference to transgender individuals, that is also their right, although they might have to deal with some backlash. People who say that certain words should never be used under any circumstances are absolutist idiots, and not worth listening to.
PS: Asterisks used only to avoid filters.
Jeton Ademaj
@Dee Omally: well i’ll reply as i please, and continuously work to erode the tyrannical conventions that you defend. thankfully, language police are less popular than ever. your presumed authority is rejected in regards to this argument, as well as the others you allude to. manufacture straw-man constructs or any other logical fallacies as you please, but you represent a political cult increasingly disposed to reveal itself…that pleases me.
continue, your declamations are to my advantage in the struggle against your ilk.
Jeton Ademaj
one surmises that Dee Omally and Co. would like the FCC to regulate “tr@*nny” as a “slur”. what others government and market “policing” do they seek?
Jeton Ademaj
lol one more note: there are no shortage of Trans activists using the terms “Trans Rights” and “Transgender Rights”, but this is the first time i’ve read someone declaim “There is no trans rights movement, but there is a trans human-rights movement.”
perhaps dee omally is unfamiliar with the so-called transhumanist movement, which is a very different thing than the transgender rights movement.
i expect some amusing conflict over public confusion about the “trans human rights movement” and the “transhuman rights movement”…because linguistic tyrants are only reliable at producing onerous absurdity.
Dee Omally
@Merv: Great comment Merv! Now this is what I’m talking about! He has openly expressed opposition and disagreement and I say great! All of us have a chair around this table, but when fingers start getting wagged, faces become skewed,and false assumptions become addendums…time for a “take two”.
I wish to reply and add to what Merv has contributed in this way:
Slur words are slur words even if we fail to see the overall malevolent message. This isn’t about any one person’s feelings at all; it is about the overall usage of a given word in public, specifically public media that is subject to regulation. Today the gay F and trans S & T words speak for themselves, and hardly in a benevolent discussion. Drag culture has a long and storied history and despite the trans “umbrella” stretched beyond limits, and despite a shared history between “transvestite” and “transgender”, history has led us in two parallel, but very different directions. Currently, there exists a separate transgender-not-drag culture; failure to acknowledge this reality dooms any related discussion to almost immediate irrelevance. It truly does.
Perhaps some really believe that a zipper can be installed over mouths but I am not one of them. All speech over public media (Internet lagging behind but destined to change eventually), however is subject to regulation. I say again and again: public media is accountable and subject to policing, often referred to as regulation. Almost everything can be discussed, until public offense begins. LGBT slurs are publicly offensive when used in public media. Discussion about this was over long ago. The discussion now is about overturning this such that trans females who identify as transitioned males or females must, as RuPaul demands, essentially “bend over and take it like a b*tch”. No. No. No. NO. No. again, we will not bend over and we are females, not b*tches.” What part of this last sentence are we still failing to comprehend my lads?
Nowuvedoneit
@Jeton Ademaj: Activists like Dee, are only interested in their own group and agenda. They can not fathom other individuals who maybe trans,like female to male, drag queens(transvestites), or gender queer. They want to own the rights to trans abs no one else can be part of the club if they don’t chose them to be.
jayj150
As a gay man, it offends me when people think we and transsexuals are the same thing; that because of transpeople they think men are ‘women trapped in a woman’s body’, but there are always going to be ignorant people, I don’t wish transpeople woudln’t exist, I don’t let people confusing transsexuals and drag queens bother me, I don’t think I’m less of a man because of that. Why can’t transpeople offer the same security in their identities and gay and lesbian folks, why do they think it’s everybody’s resposabilty to validate their identity.
Dee Omally
@Jeton Ademaj: I completely rest my case. Trans rights = human rights, because as humans we are no less entitled to be free of public slurring than the next person. Yes, you may reply as you please, now stand at ease please. Why am I so animated here? Well, you stated it so very well: demanding that [name the group] not be subject to public group defamation, more specifically trans slurs, is indeed such a “tyrannical” and foreign concept. Still, a slur is a slur is a slur, “tyrannical” concept or not, FCC-prohibited or no. I have a homework assignment: review all that I have written and if you can submit proof (in 100 words or less) that the trans S & T words have ceased to become public slurs, I will dignify your commentary with a Dee reply. Since you will be unable to, I direct you to the ————————>>>EXIT>>>>
jayj150
@Dee Omally: Sh3male is not a slur; it refers to a porn genre created by and for transsexuals and their admirers. I know many transwomen who love to be called sh3male, they find it empowering. You don’t get to speak for those people, who, by they way could pass way more easily as a woman than you ever will Mr. Omally.
Dee Omally
@jayj150: This is a perfect example of this:
“I am not able to debate you, but I can make fun of your nose” sentiment. Need I say more about what part of the fact that I am not a porn star are you still not understanding? Having lost the argument, like an elementary school bully, they resort to….well read it for yourself!
Dee Omally
@jayj150: no validation by others necessary, when self-validation will suffice. By the way sir, anything to add to the topic at hand: a work of fiction by a “trans slurs are ok” trans female? Didn’t think so.
Jeton Ademaj
@Dee Omally: uhm, sorry dee but the whole “i will NOW stop responding”…”no, NOW i will stop responding”…”ok, now THIS is my final reply” slapstick is already exhausted by a million intellectual hacks preceding your own intellectual hackery.
your entire concept of language policing is an artifact of 20th Century corporatism and the distortion of American Constitutional jurisprudence that resulted from it. too bad your agenda comes along at a time when that corporatism is in growing disfavor.
you wrote:
“All speech over public media (Internet lagging behind but destined to change eventually), however is subject to regulation. I say again and again: public media is accountable and subject to policing”
…and this is clear proof that you are coming to attack Free Speech itself. “eventually” you want to regulate speech on the Internet, aka the Public Square of 21st Century life.
you will never know victory in this benighted endeavor you describe…but somehow i’m sure you will never concede defeat. that’s cool, you’ll still be defeated…like every other hubristic political cult. 🙂
Dee Omally
Why pray tell me is this dividing line always present. Here to my left are gay males, gay male female impersonators, and trans females with a female-impersonating history? What is it with this sport of female mimicry that fails to understand that this is 2014, not 1980?
Here to my right are trans(itioned) females, not males engaged in public mocking and parody of those with a female gender, but those who have transitioned their sex. We say “STOP!” with the trans slurs. They say “why should we stop slurring you? After all WE are not offended!”
*striking gavel* I hereby sentence all those in favor of trans slurs in public media to 30 days in the RuPaul School of Female Mimicry, followed by 180 days in community service with a local transgender support group.
Jacob23
@DarlieB:
You wrote:
“I’m very confused. When gays supported MLK were they black ? Was it because you all had the same African heritage or a history of slavery ? Was it because you lived in the same community or were in the same economic bracket?”
Maybe I can clear up some confusion. Gays as a group did not support MLK because they were, as a group, Black or because gays, as a group, had a history of enslavement. They supported MLK because it was the right thing to do.
More to the point, by supporting the civil rights of African-Americans, gays did not conjoin with African-Americans to form “one people” or “one community.” Nobody had the audacity to suggest to African-Americans that they rename themselves AALGBs and start referring to themselves as “AALGB people. No one was so crazy and selfish to demand that the NAACP convert itself into a gay rights group and appoint gays as half its board members. And no one had the gall to demand that MLK actively oppose the Civil Rights Act unless it included sexual orientation, the needs of Black workers be damned.
But that is how trans activists have decided to deal with LGBs, with the collusion of certain unelected gay leaders of certain groups, who went along with this scheme for professional and ideological reasons. It was a bad move. Everyone knows that it is a sham, and it only becomes more clear every time one of these controversies erupts. “LGBT” has soured relations b/t the 2 groups. We should be friends generally, and allies on discrete issues. By forcing the 2 groups together into a fake, singular “people” and forcing on them a false identity, resentment and hostility have festered. The best way to improve LGB and T relations would be to retire “LGBT.”
E T
@LLLisa: As far as I’m concerned you’re welcome here, and trans voices are welcome in the LGBT community (I for one wish for more letters, not less). However, I’m concerned that you want our priorities to be straight. I will not straighten my priorities! Thanks. 🙂
@Dee Omally: Thanks for your contributions. It’s nice to see people bust up some of the conservativism on this site. I disagree on your saying that Andrea James is advocating in favor of a trans slur. She used it in her headline in quotes because that word is causing GLAAD trouble, and she stated that she agrees the word shouldn’t be used. Not saying I fully agree with everything the article says, like why is nobody questioning gay men’s dominance? I just think it’s important to pay respects to moderate progressive voices, they do a lot of behind the scenes work, and the quiet work is needed, too, even if they take softer positions.
Nowuvedoneit
@Dee Omally: Oh Dee, I thought I dismissed you but I can see you’re as dogged as ever. You can’t exclude groups from using any part of the English language just because you think you can . I wish to god biologically born women would ask you stop using women affixed to trans, oh wait but they do and your spiteful hateful group labeled them TERFS. You as a group and activists don’t deserve to be listened to at all. You’ve got nothing but a self serving ego under the guise of equality.
Alton
GLAAD is becoming as useless as the HRC. Gaining our rights at the cost of losing our identities was never the goal. For every gay or trans couple that wants a white picket fence and 2.4 suburban kids, there’s 3 queer folk who want to dress outrageously, hop on a stage, and speak however they damn well please. We have one nothing if we allow our own history and cultural to be subsumed into boring heterosexual normal.
inbama
@Jacob23:
MLK?
King stood for equality.
If King thought they way Transfeminists do, instead of demanding equal treatment for the races and demanding an end to the “White Only” signs on water fountains and restaurants, King would have argued that black people were actually white and should be treated accordingly.
Furthermore, regardless of whether anyone’s skin was white, black or yellow or whether their ancestors were European slave holders, West African slaves or Japanese warlords, he’d say a person’s race would be whatever they said it was and not the race “they were assigned at birth.”
If Janet Mock had had enough surgeries and procedures to look like Lucy Liu and was asked by Piers Morgan if she “used to be black,” she would insist she “never was a black child,” and thousands of Transasians would post that Morgan was “race-phobic.”
Sound ridiculous?
Well, that is the difference between a movement for equality and a group that has come up with crazy shit and demands that everyone else swallow it.
Dee Omally
@Nowuvedoneit:
Sure, this is why repeatedly I forget to emphasize that LGBT slurs (not just trans) have no dignified place in public media (the very venue of this so-called “free speech” FCC regulated debate). Nice try at shifting the conversation from the trans T slur word (sorry quotes are not * which should have been used) but diversion works against the one doing the diverting. Again, what part of “there are two clubs and only one is trans” are you forgetting?
This comment is Exhibit A for the drag = trans fiction. All umbrellas can get stretched too far and no drag female impersonation is far, far different than undergoing a quality-of-life sex/gender change. Of course the next point will be that I am saying trans = superior, although distinction and superiority are two different things.
Dee Omally
@E T: A.J. made her position very, very clear. This issue has no gray area. Either you advocate for trans slurs (as she clearly does) being acceptable in public use, or not. Having a life-long connection to the drag entertainment world, despite her ultimate destination (trans), she had a choice to make: stand up and speak up against the trans S & T words or stand up and speak up in defending the indefensible. She chose the latter. In doing so, she gave more weight to the RuPaul world of female mimicry that truly mocks all females with a “hey we gay males can do better” posture. A.J. and C.Adams have essentially publicly betrayed the trans community.
This article is but more of the same: treachery by any other name remains treachery. Both A.J. and C.Adams have made their public stance very, very clear. They will never ever possess objective credibility to be true representatives of today’s transgender movement. Their trans credibility score? 0. Their drag credibility score? 100.
Dee Omally
@Nowuvedoneit: Any comment that begins with the *looking down and wagging finger* phrase “I thought I dismissed you…” will not qualify for a Dee reply. The “biologically born woman” myth was laid to rest 65 years ago. Don’t believe me…read about Christine Jorgensen. I share the TERF emphasize on safety. I can never share the “some = all” fallacy: that because some men are violent therefore all men are violent. Nice try at diverting the subject though…but laying bait as a useful ploy of debate expired long, long ago. Anything you can add without personal attacks my dear?
Dee Omally
@inbama: Not as ridiculous as spreading a lie that sex and gender, unlike race, cannot be changed. Where have you been for the last 65 years? I know probably not here, but never is there an excuse for not being informed on a given topic, not with the Internet today. This “If I say I’m a pet poodle you will have to accept that” argument has also been retired long ago. Comparisons must be relative to have credence. Unlike inter-species comparisons, unless I have been tragically misinformed, to be human is to be male or female, anomalies excepted.
Arguing in completely uninformed and credibility-starved fashion aside, what part of 14th Amendment equality are you failing to understand? What part of equal rights for all, including trans persons, are you still missing?
Dee Omally
@Dee Omally: Errata: 1st sentence: strikethrough “unlike race”. Replace with “like race”.
inbama
@Dee Omally:
I totally agree that sex can be changed, and I totally support trans rights.
That said, I will not allow YOUR group to dictate language and force your ideology on gays and lesbians.
Trans deafness and arrogance is the root of the increasing hostility of gay men to the trans community, and if you keep this up, believe me, you ain’t seen nothing yet.
Dee Omally
@morgan riggs: You are precisely correct, and explains why I chose to stop attending trans “support groups”. We can argue as much as we want but if others choose not to hear, as exemplified here, it is to no avail. Drag male performers make no bones about living in two worlds at once, just as their female mocker-in-chief, RuPaul chooses to do so as well. Already this is vastly different than a trans experience, regardless of passing. I am not surprised to hear that the trans S & T words are never offensive to drag male performers. How could they be offensive if they are merely males that put on a female uniform? Hooray I say! Great….drag it out…it’s fun, legal and entertainment. I understand their perspective but yet far too many choose not to understand ours. Oh, they know exactly what we are saying, but they could care less. Whatever by whomever, gay F and trans S & T slur words have no place in public media. Everyone read this 1,000 times until it is committed to memory.
GeriHew
@inbama: You said: “There is no sane reason for intelligent people to say they were “assigned gender at birth” when NO SUCH THING EVER HAPPENED TO ANYONE!”
And you are wrong.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPY28QW4T4E
Dee Omally
@inbama: Implied threat aside, as if the trans community isn’t already victimized by high rates of violence, allow me to refer you to CA PC section #422 for reference. Read it and commit it to memory before you write as you have. I am a group of one, but I do speak for many. Perhaps yours laser-focus on trans so-called “forced ideology”…while failing to detail how trans equality must occur at the expense of gay and lesbian persons, is not allowing you to read my comments objectively.
ALL persons, more specific to this topic LGBT trans persons, are entitled to be free of public slurs….emphasis on public, because private speech is just that. Public speech over the airwaves is NOT private speech, completely contradicting the big fat drag lie that RuPaul has been spreading since March 2014. Gay on trans hostility is a sentiment I have been aware of for 5 years now—you speak of nothing new. In fact presently, most of us in the trans community have been aware (since Mar 2014), that just as long suspected and as reflected by your very own implied threat, many or most of the gay and lesbian populace has never been a friend, but a foe to trans issues. Trans exclusion by Gay Inc. is nothing new, and neither is male hostility. Ironically you exhibit the very male hostility and propensity to violence that lesbian TERFS often write about.
You add no new information, except to confirm what we already know, and are fully prepared for: gay male hostility toward trans females, powered by testosterone. Over and over and over I emphasize that BOTH gay and trans slurs have NO place over public airwaves and yet, in typical male aggressive and dominant fashion you dare describe this as “dictating language” and “forced ideology”. A word to the unwise: using the word “hostility” and “you ain’t seen nothing yet” in the same sentence leaves it up to the recipient to decide if he or she feels….well threatened. I would without haste clarify more specifically what message you have delivered by the phrase “you ain’t seen nothing yet”. It is hardly a safe comment to make, especially publicly. But then again what would I know ;)?
inbama
@Dee Omally: That you would take the words of an old gay man talking about language and twist it into a threat of violence shows what so many of us have come to realize – trans issues aside, many transbloggers are either thoroughly dishonest individuals or mentally unhinged.
Your behavior is unfortunately typical of what gay men have been experiencing online – first you demand that we surrender our dignity and education and ape your distorted use of the English language, and if your smug bullying fails, then you weep and cry about the violence done to you or threaten suicide.
It is called passive-aggressive behavior and it is a personality disorder.
You need a shrink.
inbama
@GeriHew:
A medical doctor determines a baby’s sex by the most obvious features.
They DO NOT assign gender.
Stop talking like an idiot.
MartinNYID
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: Most of your previous supporters HAVE LEFT THE BUILDING.
Enjoy your party of one. Law enforcement used these same types of issues to derail ActUP. Well done. While Rome burns, you’ve hijacked the fight for the bottom.
Tell yourselves whatever little PC tales you want, we no longer give a shit. GLAAD is D.O.A. and now a politically useless mockery. Bye Bye.
MartinNYID
PS. IDEA: How about a lawsuit to block GLAAD’s funding based on discrimination and misuse for ulterior purposes. I’m sure there’s a sleazy enough law firm out there to dig up something tangible. Wanna fight? Let’s fight.
MartinNYID
ALTON: It’s all abotu this little elite group of misfit lobbyists who drum up non-issues to keep the money rolling into their pockets. The plebs out in the ghettos NEVER see any benefit. Whether its the Marriage thing, the $1000 a month HIV pills (that may not work) or this T r a n n y horse sh** – the people these so-called “institutions” were set up to help and protect are still dying of AIDS, starving, being abused, live as addicts and receiving little education.
Cut the funding until they CUT THE BS.
lusitania
look, i admit i know fuck all, i am just a white van driver with minimal education. living in the east of London.
but i look around at people getting offended and people telling other people what is offensive and what is not. and it just confuses me.
lets not forget that slurs don’t just exist for LGBT people. they exist for everyone. tell people , short people, fat, thin, gay straight, drag trans even the the so called “white man”.
the truth to me has always been that anyone can be offended by anything if they choose to be. but just because ur offended does not automatically put u in the right.
a word is just that…A word. it has no power, the power comes from the meaning people attach to it.
slurs don’t bother me unless its meant to be offensive.
for example i react very differently when i walk through the doors of my mates house and her mum greats me with “hello faggot” as opposed to someone shouting out “u fucking faggot ” to me on the street.
its harmless banter in the former case and i dearly hope that continues and she never feels she has to stop calling me that.
the world is not a logical place. 1 word can mean many things and still be used in a different way after that.
and no im not trans, and i guess that makes me different to the people in the trans communality but just because were not the same, don’t mean were not family.
we need to help each other. and laugh with each other and take the piss out of each other in love. and be there for one another.
not all this turning on each other over silly words.
as i said before i don’t know shit about shit. but when people take someone like rupaul, who has a long history of fighting for drag, gay, lesbian AND trans rights. and declares that they are now excluded and now “a bad person” because of 1 word not spoken in harm. it confuses me.
i just cant work out how loosing an ally to ur cause is a good thing? how can loosing a friend ever be a good thing?
Jeton Ademaj
i’m pleased to know that the 20 Century artifact of language policing is doomed, even as some unhinged and dangerous “activists” try to hop on the bandwagon.
how ironic that some (like dee) demand self-education thru the internet, when they also hint ominously that they intend to cultivate government censorship of the internet!
as they make greater and greater public enemies of themselves, i’m saddened to know their madness will eventually reflect badly on the struggles of the young and disadvantaged transgender community.
anyone with a heart should be careful to distinguish this small but extremely loud and extremely obnoxious group of trans hacktivists (ably represented by dee and others) from the broader community of transgender folks…many of whom are rigorously embarrassed by the likes of “dee” but do not want to in-fight among themselves.
imagine if the racial equality struggles of the 1960’s had occurred with broad access to the internet…Martin Luther King AND Malcolm X would both have been drowned out by far more wacky and extreme voices. i think this sums up the recent trans debates fairly well.
Cam
@LLLisa: said… :@Cam: Do you get paid by the strawman? Cuz you’re sure making a lot of them.”
_________________
And once again, you have flat out admitted that you cannot respond to the simple posting. First you tried to call anybody who disagreed with you a bigot, then you tried to deflect the argument with a rambling screed on what a victim you are and how you started the gay rights movement, and lastly just continually tried to attack.
Once again, you cannot respond to a simple statement. Thank you for proving that your view apparently has no merit in your own opinion.
Nowuvedoneit
@Jeton Ademaj: While I am using the internet, I do believe that it has led to many people believing their opinions are fact. They gather in like minded chat groups, their opinions are accepted, any dissent is never heard about, them when they venture out to other groups or sites, they complain bitterly. They cry some kind of phobic aggressor is trying to silence them and that they are in fact right , if everyone would only conform to their worldview, life would be great.
nemesis9
I personally don’t think being “trans” is in the same category as being gay or lesbian. Being gay or lesbian or bisexual is about whom you’re attracted to. Being “trans” is a whole other more complicated matter that I think gets simplistically lumped in with LGB issues and is far afield from anything I relate to as a gay man.
Dee Omally
“That you would take the words of an old gay man talking about language and twist it into a threat of violence shows what so many of us have come to realize – trans issues aside, many transbloggers are either thoroughly dishonest individuals or mentally unhinged.
Your behavior is unfortunately typical of what gay men have been experiencing online – first you demand that we surrender our dignity and education and ape your distorted use of the English language, and if your smug bullying fails, then you weep and cry about the violence done to you or threaten suicide.
It is called passive-aggressive behavior and it is a personality disorder.
You need a shrink.”
**********SO SAYS “INBAMA”**********who rather than discuss the topic chooses to in typical male “powered by the stench of testosterone” fashion, chooses to deviate and well read it for yourself. Nowhere is there any reference to the topic at all nor is there any attempt at basic human civility. This is precisely what I am talking about—-some gay males, perhaps most, who having no gender or sexual commonality with trans females, knows just how to treat a lady online. Oh wait…to them we will always be gay males in drag….just as I have been saying. It’s the typical lay the bait, appeal to strong emotion, wait for a trans response, and bring the boom down over trans heads; these “powered by the stench of testosterone brute-forced” worshipers of masculinity desire no conversation, no compromise, and in so many words say this “fuck you t**nnies. Bitches toughen up and bend over so we can insert this enema slur”.
Yep…broken,scratched record. Cut n’ paste nonsense. No sir, I don’t need a shrink, but your comment above did communicate a threat, at least should we trans females choose to take it that way, nothing else need be added. We are the resolute, the strong, the intelligent, transgender not-drag or drag-historied males and females that now know what you yourself has said it better than anyone: (read my last sentence, above paragraph”. The era of trans bashing by others is now coming to a close. A.J. and C.A, trans pioneers are now a fading star. They have chosen the wrong side. Perhaps they now wear “elite” name tags, but there is nothing elite about this piece of rubbish that says “Your slur is not my slur”. In the end this is about respect.
Many gay men live in safe havens across America, forgetting that many gay men around the world face the worst possible punitive measures for merely being gay. Like zebras in a jungle void of lions, having to longer worry about being prey, they, in typical Animal Farm fashion become prey themselves and target transfemales. Don’t believe me, read the quoted commentary above. With hostility like this who needs these allies?
GeriHew
@inbama: Please watch the video. It is mainly about intersex people who are born with ambiguous genitalia who feel they were assigned the wrong gender at birth. Your previous comment made it clear that this is something about which you are entirely ignorant.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intersex
Dee Omally
THE USURPATION OF FAME: TRANS TREACHERY WITH A DRAG HISTORY
The first clue that the author, A.J. is hiding behind academic-speak while wielding a proverbial spear, as she targets another’s back quickly asserts itself with this problematic phrase: “…socialized as female from birth”—let’s not pretend that this is not euphemistic for “real women”, or stated otherwise “women born women”. In rapid succession the literary spear is quickly launched as we read “…socialized as boys growing up”, and “…people socialized as straight white males, and “”…were socialized and identified as straight pre-transition.” In a world where most children mature into adulthood and discard parental and environmental “socialization”, this begs the question: A.J. what is the big concern with “socialization”? Did you not yourself discard such male socialization? Of course we know that had she said “women born women”, the uproar would be incessant. ENTER: “socialization” as euphemism.
The author then thrusts the spear and places blame not on the parties who in march 2014 unsuccessfully attempted to mainstream the two very worst trans slurs in existence today—the She**** and Tra**** words. The horrific reality that these two words, despite benevolent usage in tiny private circles, are uttered to revoke and de-legitimize sex/gender complete transitions is completely beside her points, as she dons the lanyard from which dangles a “drag ally” placard. She knows it not, but her journey to irrelevance has begun as she will awake one day to find that history has moved on, without her. Rather than place blame on the “public-use of trans slurs are just fine with us” perpetrators who jump under the trans “umbrella” by day, and under the “gay” umbrella by night, she blames us, who dared to stand up, not unlike the LGB of old, and say “NOT IN MY WATCH YOU DON”T!” It is not RuPaul who “clashed” as he despicably tried to promote the horrific public-slurring trans S & T words, but we who “clashed” by daring to stand up to him! ENTER: betrayal & deception.
She continues to write, lumping in drag (cross-dressers who remain gay males) with transgender (persons who do NOT remain birth sexed but undergo a complete sex/gender change). She pretends not to know that distinction is not synonymous with superiority. Those opposed to trans equality remain opposed due to this very drag = trans myth because who could ever blame them for not wanting males in the female restrooms? It is about the sex, not the gender expresson. It is about a medical doctor’s confirmation of a sex change, an ID sex update…24/7 social recognition at work…full assimilation into society, passing ability notwithstanding! The distinction between cross-dressing (drag) and sex/gender transition is one that is as crucial as a distinction between male and female, regardless of birth sex! How dare A.J. pretend that this is a moot point!
She continues to pretend that we want drag “excluded” from the trans community when it already is excluded, hence the very reason for disparate labeling! Duh x 1,000! Gay males are already represented in the LGBT under the G! Duh again!! Drag is never a subset of the trans/sex change community and never has been, no matter who tossed it in for gay measure! The early history of transgender was referred to as “transvestite” but only because trans history had not yet evolved to make the distinction (not superiority) between cross-dressing (an act) and sex-changing (a medical/legal reality)! How dare A.J. pretend not to know this!
Ru, one reason trans women don’t wish to be called “t—-” is that we don’t want to be mistaken for someone like you.
History has proven Parker Malloy, Cristan Williams, Jennifer Boylan and Christina Kahrl absolutely spot-on correct. How so? Simple. RuPaul’s continued intransigence supported by his male drag cult followers who to this day, in psychopathic fashion, truly believe victimizing speech, particularly to a very fragile and extremely under-represented group, has a constructive role to play in public media. The group in which I am included, more specifically Latina trans(itioned) transfemales, and trans women of color, is so often lethally targeted that a perennial TDOR memorial event is held. How dare A.James pretend that all of this is fiction, that communicating trans slurs to an audience who to this day believe that drag = trans, and worst of all, in her destined-for-the-shredder story above, one “tr*nny” wasn’t enough—-it had to be uttered seven times. Oh of course the quotes made the word disappear….and appear innocuous—NOT! We already live in a policed-world, precisely the reason America has remained insulated from 3rd world “normalcy” of violence. To even attempt to argue that LGB/Trans slurs don’t rise to the level of requiring “policing” over public media is at minimum naive, at maximum delusional.
Transgender, transvestite, gay, lesbian, penis, vagina, even cisgender are labels, but not labels with a history of hate. A.James gets an A for attempt, but an F- for credibility and effect. BTW, drag has value…$ value…just as Hollywood has $ value…entertainment value. In relation to transgender equality, drag has absolutely zero value, in fact it’s value can only be destructive because selling the drag = trans fiction will only convince religious, straight, gay and lesbian bigots that trans equality is a non sequitur. This is a fight for what is right…and in 2014 it is now a fight laden with might, make no mistake. Yes, RuPaul, and the non-trans drag or former drag advocates of trans slurs uttered via public airwaves have themselves stood up and declared themselves as enemies of the transgender community. This written Sad Sack rubbish story is Exhibit A.
inbama
@Dee Omally:
” We are the resolute, the strong, the intelligent…”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04854XqcfCY
inbama
@GeriHew:
Yes, that is an almost appropriate use of the phrase, but the misguided physician performed a surgery that “assigned” a “sex” and not a “gender.”
Gender can be understood as a social construct, a chosen identity, an identity resulting from brain variation possibly due to exposure to opposite sex hormones in the womb – which makes it a rich concept that is sociological, psychological neurological, and even endocrinological. Whatever, it is not something that can “assigned” by a surgeon or Ob-gyn at birth.
That’s sex.
Don’t transsexuals have surgery to make their sex conform to their genders?
Again, it is sex that a doctor determines at birth, and it is the sex that can be changed through surgery.
GeriHew
@inbama: The doctor in this case decided that Patrick should be brought up as a girl and used subterfuge to remove his testicle against his parent’s wishes. That is an attempt to assign a female gender to a baby born with part male and female genitalia.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cr96b9v1YB8
DanaLane
Andrea James seems to love to bite the hands that feed her. Who does she think buys her products?
Dee Omally
@DanaLane:
I have never bought A.J.’s products, which I now consider corrupted, and write this down….ready? I never will buy her “products”. No person, drag-historied or not, will ever but ever garner my support for feeding a mindset that kills. Make no mistake about it my precious LGB/Trans “relatives”, continuing to “other” “freak-ize”, “hybrid-ize”, “dual-gender” “dual-sex”—–anything but forwarding the very real medical and legal affirmation (for 65+ years now) that sex in fact can and has been change and turn a boy into girl or girl into boy (regardless of degree of “passing”, is feeding a mindset that has killed and will continue to kill my lovely and precious trans sisters, especially those on the black side of God’s color spectrum. Those of us on the brown side of God’s color spectrum don’t fare much better. This is why I write to fight, and to fight the only right fight—a fight that is finding us on the RSH (right side of history). The more fervent the opposition to measures that enhance childhood and adult trans safety, the more fervent my advocacy. Take that to the bank and ca$h it in.
Dee Omally
@GeriHew: Thank you, thank you, thank you for contributing accurate and civil audiovisual commentary. I truly forgive “Inbama”….for ignorance, to me is often a valid excuse, although much less now due to information (although it must be vetted) at our fingertips. Not sure how “Inbama’s” Queen video has relevance, but perhaps its just more in a string of irrelevant attacks at cowardly family-jewel level.
inbama
@GeriHew:
That is a terrible thing. The child was born Intersex and a doctor ignorantly and cruelly performed sexual assignment surgery and against the parents’ wishes.
Again, whatever the doctor’s motives, it’s sex that surgery can change, not gender.
In spite of his being castrated, the child’s parents are raising him as a boy and have named him Patrick. In the view of Intersex activists, THAT is the act of “assigning a gender” – socialization. That understanding is consistent with understanding gender as a social construct.
(see http://www.isna.org/faq/gender_assignment)
So why do you insist on claiming doctors “assign gender” when your own examples show the opposite?
Dee Omally
@GeriHew: You know “Gerihew”…an infant is unable to understand basic equations and so too are many adults at the “infant” level when it comes to comprehending the very real difference between sex and gender. It is either (1) so immensely difficult that some will never come to understand or (2) an intentional pre-conclusion probably based on malice with ulterior motives. It really is one of the two.
How difficult could it possibly be to understand that sex is “what happens” to a newborn (genitalia) and gender is “what is” despite genitalia? How difficult can it possibly be to comprehend that sex, gender, sexuality, and gender expression are all (4) distinct attributes? How hard could it be to accept that a male-by sex-genitalia can love either a female or a male, express himself as male or female (cross-dressing), possess either a male or female persona (gender identified), and BOTH express himself as female + undergo medical treatment to effect a sex + gender re-alignment (transgender) and leave his assigned sex behind? How difficult can it be to know that this is nothing new? That man has been doing this since 4ever, and that in the US the “first” sex change began in 1950 with Christine Jorgensen? How hard can it be to know that for 64 years+, supported by medical experts and the justice system, many who grew up with a female persona have discarded their sex assignment and dared to defy all odds, all phobias, family, friends, the patriarchy and do something about it?
How difficult is it really to understand that the trans children of today, who have been blessed with parents who have access to credible resources (Internet portals), are proving to the world that trans children have always been here? That had our generation been so fortunate, we too would have been those very trans children and would have transitioned BEFORE the ravages of a puberty foreign to our identity?
How difficult is it to understand the in the video above, the doctor, faced with an infant with dueling genitalia, got “into the infant’s head” and “just knew” that the infant “possessed a female gender”, only to be proven wrong as the child (not the parents) revealed a masculine gender identity?
************FOR EXAMPLE***********FOR EXAMPLE***********FOR EXAMPLE************
“INBAMA SAID” So why do you insist on claiming doctors “assign gender” when your own examples show the opposite? Please, please, please tell me this anonymous (female I believe now) person is really not this stupid (literal def.). Before the doctor mutilated (unauthorized per the parent to perform surgery) and castrated (testical removal so no future sperm production hence no children) this poor infant, he FIRST made a GENDER assignment which proved to be the wrong assignment: FEMALE. Go back and read my opening paragraph, then for those at the infant level of comprehending sex & gender, please ———>EXIT
Dee Omally
@Dee Omally: replied to Gerihew but intended for mass consumption..simply affirming what valuable input “Gerihew” has submitted to set the record straight.
ScaryRussianHeather
@Cam:
No, you’re right. I DID say “useful idiot”. LOL.
I just wanted to stick up for Andrea even if she is more accepting of McCain than she deserves.