Hi Jill,Really like your thoughts of the Transgender Community.It is surely a difficult task to try to understand it all.Keep up the great work you do.
Lily McBeth
Actually, what many of us bad old "transsexuals" (personally, I prefer the term Harry Benjamin Syndrome) are saying is simply that we are not, by any reasonable definition, part of the transgender community. First off, I do not believe that one can change one's gender, so the term is incorrect. Second, the term transgender was originally meant to exclude transsexuals, anthe term trangender is rapidly being co-opted by activists who hold positions I find quite objectionable (for example, the gender deconstructionists), and finally, I have nothing in common with the other groups that are lumped beneath transgender.
It is interesting that the "gender fascists" insist that we must accept the label they would force on us.
Hi Jill,
Just to prove your point, I'm a woman with a transsexual history and I believe that gender is primarily a social construct and therefore mutabl as is a person's assigned sex. Howeve I'm also one of those nasty post-SRS folks that reject "transgender" as an umbrella term. I think there are basic differences between those of us that have sought medical/legal sex reassignment and those that choose to live gendering in a way that transgresses the social expectations for their currently assigned sex.
I also find myself in complete disagreement with anyone that would defines a person based on the sex they were assigned at birth, whether it's religious fundamentalist or a member of the "transgender" collective.
In my rather long life I've only lived "transgendered" for the year plus of the HBIGDA required RLT...
For me, the thought of living "transgendered" again would be less desirable than being water-boarded.
That said, I actively lobbied my congresswoman (by phone, email, in person with her office staff, and in direct conversation) for an inclusive
ENDA. Discrimination based on how a person genders is just plain wrong!
Commenting by HaloScan
